Original Text & Translation原文与译文
山海經·大荒東經 · Shan Hai Jing · Classic of the Great Wilds: East · Wikisource
東海中有流波山，入海七千里。其上有獸，狀如牛，蒼身而無角，一足，出入水則必風雨，其光如日月，其聲如雷，其名曰夔。黃帝得之，以其皮為鼓，橛以雷獸之骨，聲聞五百里，以威天下。
In the Eastern Sea is Mount Liubo, seven thousand li out into the sea. On it lives a beast shaped like an ox, with a grey-blue body, no horns and a single leg. Whenever it goes into or out of the water there is wind and rain. It shines like the sun and moon and its voice is like thunder. Its name is Kui. The Yellow Emperor captured it and made a drum from its hide, beating it with the bone of the Thunder Beast. Its sound carried five hundred li and overawed all under heaven.
莊子·秋水 · Zhuangzi · Autumn Floods · Wikisource
夔憐蚿，蚿憐蛇，蛇憐風，風憐目，目憐心。夔謂蚿曰：「吾以一足趻踔而行，予无如矣。今子之使萬足，獨奈何？」
The Kui envies the millipede, the millipede envies the snake, the snake envies the wind, the wind envies the eye, and the eye envies the mind. The Kui said to the millipede: "I hop along on one leg, and nothing is simpler. Now you manage ten thousand legs — how on earth do you do it?"
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韓非子·外儲說左下 · Han Feizi, Outer Collected Sayings (Lower Left) · Wikisource
魯哀公問於孔子曰：「吾聞古者有䕫一足，其果信有一足乎？」孔子對曰：「不也，䕫非一足也。䕫者忿戾惡心，人多不說喜也。雖然，其所以得免於人害者，以其信也。人皆曰：『獨此一，足矣。』䕫非一足也，一而足也。」
Duke Ai of Lu asked Confucius: “I have heard that in ancient times there was a Kui with one foot. Did it really have only one foot?” Confucius replied: “No, Kui did not have one foot. Kui was hot-tempered and ill-natured, and many people disliked him. Even so, he escaped harm because he was trustworthy. Everyone said: ‘This one quality alone is enough.’ Kui did not have one foot; one was enough.”
呂氏春秋·察傳 · Lüshi Chunqiu, Examining What Is Heard · Wikisource
魯哀公問於孔子曰：「樂正夔一足，信乎？」孔子曰：「昔者舜欲以樂傳教於天下，乃令重黎舉夔於草莽之中而進之，舜以為樂正。夔於是正六律，和五聲，以通八風，而天下大服。重黎又欲益求人，舜曰：『夫樂，天地之精也，得失之節也，故唯聖人為能和。樂之本也。夔能和之，以平天下。若夔者一而足矣。』故曰夔一足，非一足也。」
Duke Ai of Lu asked Confucius: “Is it true that Kui the music master had one foot?” Confucius said: “Long ago Shun wished to teach the world through music, so he had Chongli find Kui among the common people and bring him forward, and Shun made him music master. Kui then set the six pitch-pipes in order and harmonised the five notes so as to open the eight winds, and the whole world submitted. Chongli wanted to look for more men, but Shun said: ‘Music is the essence of heaven and earth, the measure of gain and loss, so only a sage can harmonise it. Kui can harmonise it and so bring peace to the world. One like Kui is enough.’ So ‘Kui one foot’ means not one foot but ‘one is enough’.”
尚書·舜典 · Book of Documents, Canon of Shun · Wikisource
帝曰：「夔！命汝典樂，教冑子，直而溫，寬而栗，剛而無虐，簡而無傲。詩言志，歌永言，聲依永，律和聲。八音克諧，無相奪倫，神人以和。」夔曰：「於！予擊石拊石，百獸率舞。」
The Emperor said: “Kui! I appoint you to direct music and teach the young nobles: to be upright yet gentle, generous yet strict, firm without cruelty, simple without arrogance. Poetry expresses intent, song prolongs the words, notes follow the prolonging, and the pitch-pipes harmonise the notes. When the eight kinds of instrument are in concord and none disturbs another, spirits and men are brought into harmony.” Kui said: “Oh! I strike the stone, I tap the stone, and the hundred beasts dance together.”
Comparing the Books典籍对比
Both books agree on the defining trait: a single leg. The Shanhaijing makes Kui a storm beast and war-drum; Zhuangzi uses it as the opening figure of a parable on natural spontaneity.
