The zhenren passage: the True Man of old slept without dreaming, woke without cares, ate without savoring, and breathed from the heels while ordinary men breathe from the throat. Unmoved by rank, unimpressed by death, he 'used his mind like a mirror,' responding without storing.
The internet's version: the zhenren as the original stoic sigma, untouched by opinion, above the drama. The icon is always pictured serene; the text's True Man is mostly pictured odd, crooked, and laughing at funerals.
The mirror line is the key: perfect responsiveness with zero retention. No grudge, no brand, no self-narrative accruing interest. The True Man is nobody not by erasure but by refusing to accumulate, which may be the only version of the teaching that survives contact with a feed.
Is this a portrait of freedom, or of someone already gone?