“Things have what makes them so; things have what makes them acceptable.” The line comes from the “Discussion on Making All Things Equal” in the Zhuangzi. Here, ran concerns what makes something count as so, while ke concerns what makes it acceptable or admissible. The surrounding passage moves from “acceptable because it is accepted, unacceptable because it is not” to the stronger claim that nothing lacks some standpoint from which it is so or acceptable. Its purpose is to loosen attachment to one supposedly final division of right and wrong.
This does not mean that every claim is equally good, or that facts may be rewritten at will. It asks us, before judging, to identify the measure, position and context that make the judgement possible. Seeing those conditions is not abandoning judgement. It is refusing to mistake one’s own angle for the only shape a thing can have.
https://ctext.org/zhuangzi/adjustment-of-controversies/ens
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