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The Inner Chapters : Chuang-Tzu, Graham, A. C. - Amazon
The Inner Chapters: The Inner Chapters Paperback – 15 March 2001
by Chuang-Tzu (Author), A. C. Graham (Translator)
4.4 out of 5 stars 38 ratings
The Inner Chapters are the oldest pieces of the larger collection of writings by several fourth, third, and second century B.C. authors that constitute the classic of Taoism, the Chuang-Tzu (or Zhuangzi). It is this core of ancient writings that is ascribed to Chuang-Tzu himself.
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4.4 out of 5 stars 38 ratings
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D. NICHOLLS
5.0 out of 5 stars THINKER & POET @ ONEReviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 7 December 2011
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" ... How is one to do equal justice to Chuang-tzu as a philosopher and as a poet? Most versions show a bias towards one side or the other. A primarily literary translator (such as Giles or Watson) will probably have some liking for the Taoist view of life but also a Taoist distaste for the analysis of concepts, without which he cannot select and manipulate his English equivalents effectively. More intellectual translators (such as Legge, or the great historian of Chinese philosophy Fung Yu-lan, who published a version of the Inner chapters) are inclined to neglect the literary aspect as though it were mere decoration of the ideas. But a Taoist is a thinker who despises thoughts, yet values, and finds the imagery and rhythm to convey, any spontaneously emerging process of thinking which he senses is orienting him in the direction of the Way. My own private final test of whether translation is really working is whether it catches any of the extraordinary rhythmic energy of Chuang-tzu's writing, not merely for the lift of the heart which it gives but because to lose it falsifies the pace and shifts and stresses of his thinking.
In the Chinese original the thinker and the poet are one." Page 33
"Cook Ting was carving an ox for Lord Wen-hui. As his hand slapped, shoulder lunged, foot stamped, knee crooked, with a hiss! with a thud! the brandished blade as it sliced never missed the rhythm, now in time with the Mulberry Forest dance, now with an orchestra playing the Ching-shou." Page 63
" ... With his outrageous opinions, reckless words, extravagant formulations, he was sometimes too free but was not partisan, he did not show things from one particular point of view. .. He thought that `spillover' saying lets the stream find its own channels, that `weighty' saying is the most genuine, that saying `from a lodging-place' widens the range. Alone with the quintessential-and-daemonic in heaven and earth he went to and fro, but was not arrogant towards the myriad things. He did not make demands with a `That's it, that's not', and so he got along with conventional people.
Although his writings are extraordinary there is no harm in their oddities. Although his formulations are irregular, their enigmas deserve consideration. What is solid in them we cannot do without. Above, he roamed with the maker of things; below, he made friends with those for whom life and death are externals and there is neither end nor beginning. As for the Root, he opened it up in all its comprehensiveness, ran riot in the vastness of its depths; as for the Ancestor, it may be said that by being in tune he withdrew all the way back to it. However, when one assents to transformation and is released from things, the body has not exhausted its pattern, having come it will not be shaken off. Abstruse! Obscure! A man who did not succeed in getting it all." Page 283
New to Chuang tzu? Read Graham for the exhilaration he brings. Long familiar with Chuang tzu? Read Graham to refresh your vital energy.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Five StarsReviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 17 March 2016
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Eccellent and unusual translation of one of the most eminent scholars of Zhuang Zi's work.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars DandyReviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on 14 August 2019
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Great book
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chris
5.0 out of 5 stars Five StarsReviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 20 April 2015
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good book on chinese wisdom
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Sokoloff Michel
5.0 out of 5 stars The best far awayReviewed in France 🇫🇷 on 14 May 2013
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The best about the translation, must be read and ponder about all along. To be accompany by Billeter "Introductionn a Tchouang-Tseu" and others.
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Chuang Tsu: Inner Chapters
Zhuangzi
,
Gia-Fu Feng
(Translator)
,
Jane English
(Translator)
4.32
817 ratings57 reviews
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Chuang Tsu: Inner Chapters is a companion volume to Gia-fu Feng and Jane English’s translation of Tao Te Ching, which has enjoyed great success since its publication in 1972. Very little is known about Chuang Tsu, and that little is inextricably woven into legend. It is said that he was a contemporary of Mencius, an official in the Lacquer Garden of Meng in Honan Province around the 4th century b.c. Chuang Tsu was to Lao Tsu as Saint Paul was to Jesus and Plato to Socrates.While the other philosophers were busying themselves with the practical matters of government and rules of conduct, Chuang Tsu transcended the whang cheng, the illusory dust of the world—thus anticipating Zen Buddhism’s emphasis on a state of emptiness or ego transcendence. With humor, imagery, and fantasy, he captures the depth of Chinese thinking. The seven “Inner Chapters” presented in this translation are accepted by scholars as being definitely the work of Chuang Tsu. Another twenty-six chapters are of questionable origin; they are interpretations of his teaching and may have been added by later commentators. This is an updated version of the translation of Chuang Tsu: Inner Chapters that was originally published in 1974. Like the original Chinese, this version uses gender-neutral language wherever possible. This edition includes many new photographs by Jane English and an introduction by Tai Ji master Chungliang Al Huang, who has been highly successful in bringing to the West the wisdom of the East.
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Religion
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China
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184 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 351
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Zhuangzi
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庄子 or 莊子 Zhūangzi (c. 369 BC - c. 286 BC).
Zhuangzi, or “Master Zhuang” (also known in the Wade-Giles romanization as Chuang-tzu) was, after Laozi, one of the earliest thinkers to contribute to the philosophy that has come to be known as Daojia, or school of the Way. According to traditional dating, he was an almost exact contemporary of the Confucian thinker Mencius, but there appears to have been little to no communication between them. He is ranked among the greatest of literary and philosophical giants that China has produced. His style is complex—mythical, poetic, narrative, humorous, indirect, and polysemic.
withdrawn
263 reviews · 259 followers
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May 16, 2016
My first reading of Chuang Tzu. I shall shortly go on to other translations but I enjoyed this one. As is the case with many other readers, I enjoyed the humour and found that much of the philosophy flowed easily from the anecdotes. I still have many questions, however. In particular, being somewhat familiar with 'Dao De Jing', I found the many references to "Heaven and Earth" in Chuang-Tzu confusing. Heaven seemed to have assumed the role of the Dao in much of the text. I am really unclear as to the relationship of the two concepts here in a way that I am not in 'DDJ'.
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I was most impressed by Graham's introductory notes which give a good sense of where Chuang-Tzu is coming from. Simultaneously, I read Graham's section on Chuang-Tzu in his 'Disputers of the Tao' for added understanding.
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Over all, I appreciated the textual notes which added yet greater clarity to the text. I would have appreciated more information on translation however. The 'List of Characters' at the back would be helpful if the characters appeared in the text, but they don't. It would also have been helpful if he had cited translation issues in the text.
dao
philosophy-asia
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Paul
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January 12, 2008
The only truly funny philosopher. Whenever I feel bad about my life, I pick up this book and am chuckling within minutes. He puts everything so clearly, with such vivid examples, that you can't help but feel foolish for thinking the world is anything other than wonderfully indifferent to your life, and that's the best way it could be.
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Aleah
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September 20, 2011
"Long ago, a certain Chuang Tzu dreamt he was a butterfly -- a butterfly fluttering here and there on a whim, happy and carefree, knowing nothing of Chuang Tzu. Then all of a sudden he woke to find that he was, beyond all doubt, Chuang Tzu. Who knows if it was Chuang Tzu dreaming a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming Chuang Tzu?" -- Chapter 2, Chuang Tzu: The Inner Chapters
Chuang Tzu: The Inner Chapters is a collection of parables believed to have been written by the Taoist teacher Chuang Tzu during the 4th century BCE. This work, along with the Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu, is considered to be the framework over which the philosophy of Taoism developed.
Parables tend to be enigmatic at the best of times and this collection, written not only centuries but millennia ago, is no exception. This isn't a work to be read once and then put aside. These stories will send you off down a path you didn't intend to follow and then bring you back where you started, with the story itself. I found reading this overview of Chuang Tzu from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, in conjunction with the text, to be very helpful.
This was my first time reading Chuang Tzu: The Inner Chapters and I still haven't tried the Outer Chapters or the Mixed Chapters. I'm sure I'll be coming back to these stories again, and probably coming away with something different each time.
taoism
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Edward Rathke
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June 4, 2018
Though I've read the Tao Te Ching many times, this is my first time reading Chuang Tsu, or Zhuangzi, depending on how you anglicize it. At first I wasn't so sure about this book, but it grew on me immensely as I read.
I think I prefer the Tao Te Ching, but I'll be returning to this many times. Probably also trying some other translations. I picked this one up because it was at my library.
poetry
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Rodrigo
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April 19, 2023
«Un pequeño saber no puede equipararse a uno grande
Ni una corta vida a una larga existencia. ¿Cómo se sabe que esto es así?
El hongo que sólo vive una mañana
desconoce el ciclo de la luna.
La cigarra de verano nada sabe
de primaveras ni de otoños.»
budismo-y-adyacentes
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Bob Nichols
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June 10, 2018
Chuang Tsu is a primary articulator of early Taoist philosophy. This is my first exposure to his writings. Initially, and for now, I am drawn more to Lao Tsu’s aphoristic style, insights and emphasis.
Some of this writing I like a lot. The interconnectedness of things, the power relationships between them and the balance point in those relationships, are conveyed in passages such as this: “When there is no more separation between ‘this’ and ‘that,’ it is called the still-point of Tao. At the still-point in the center of the circle one can see the infinite in all things.” The ebb and flow of energy comes through with this: “When there is separation, there is coming together. When there is coming together, there is dissolution.” Merging into the background, and going with the flow rather than standing out, is a prudent survival strategy, as conveyed by this: “I have been trying for a long time to be useless,” and this: “When I say he has no desire,” Chuang Tsu says, “I mean that he does not disturb his inner well-being with likes and dislikes. He accepts things as they are and does not try to improve upon them.” Chuang Tsu writes of the true man: “Carefree he went. Carefree he came. That was all.” That man accepts “what he was given with delight, and when it was gone, he gave it no more thought. This is called not using the mind against Tao and not using man to help heaven.”
As the introduction suggests (these writings are an anticipation of Zen Buddhism and a “laying of the foundation for a state of emptiness or ego transcendence”), the “Inner Chapters” also seem to transition into something other than what is seen in Tao Te Ching. For example, speaking of a Tao sage who, having transcended “the physical world,” and “all material existence,” and, having seen the One, he began to transcend the distinction of past and present…to enter the land where there is no life or death, where killing does not take away life and giving birth does not add to it.” In another passage, Yen Hui, a Taoist seeker, says: “‘I am not attached to the body and I give up any idea of knowing. By freeing myself from the body and mind, I become one with the infinite. This is what I mean by sitting and forgetting.”’ Right or wrong, in this first reading I sensed a tension in the “Inner Chapters” between a Tao as an impersonal energy stream that one learns to adjust to and work with in a cosmos where there is nothing beyond death, and a Tao as an eternal reality that one can merge with and, thereby, and in that way, live forever.
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Sean Wilson
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February 7, 2017
A profound and entertaining book, The Inner Chapters is seven chapters of stories, fables and musings attributed to the Chinese philosopher Chuang Tzu, or Zhuangzi. The following 'Outer Chapters/Mixed Chapters' were written by others in order to expand on the Taoist philosophy of Chuang Tzu, which are beneficial but are missing the charm of Chuang Tzu's prose.
philosophy
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religion
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Gabriel
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May 11, 2020
Escribir tantas palabras lindas para terminar proclamando: lo mejor es estar callado y no pensar en nada. Aceptar negación y afirmación. Abrazar la totalidad. Etcétera.
asianwhore
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Jay
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May 6, 2009
First of all, Chaung-tzu/Zhuangzi lived around the time of king solomon. So it's pretty unfuckingbelievable that he was so clever.
Second- you can basically reduce his thought to- stop thinking. IN FACT- it almost seems like he committed a sin against mankind by writing down what he thought- seeing as how he even states that to know how to say the Way pretty much means you have no fucking idea what it is.
But, if philosophy is the study of wisdom I suppose those that pursue the study have to take it in the bo-bo.
In terms of practical application to your life- uh. Daoism as Zhuangzi sees it would clearly relieve you of all anxiety, plus you'd be like... on to "it".
Of course, that seems kind of paradoxical.. how can there be "a" way. a "the" way. How can you ever leave the way.
So Zhuangzi gets all Catholic about it and talks about the kind of knowing and acting that a person who is so long practiced at something they no longer think about it but simply do and do it perfectly. Ok... how do we get there oh wise one? and to this, dude who may never have existed and even if he did all we have is some really messed up writings that are older than the bible.. well he doesn't tell you. Not really.
In the end, Zhuangzi is like a jump into a cold pool from the sauna of your life. I think it's less important what he's trying to say, if he's trying to say anything, and more important what it makes you think about.
but that's true of just about everything by my philosophy...
why are you reading a review of a book anyway?
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Clay Kallam
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August 27, 2016
This is a vibrant translation of an overlooked -- and important -- work of Chinese philosophy. Chuang Tzu (or Chuangzi) is best known in the West for his question about an afternoon nap: Am I a man dreaming of being a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming of being a man? But there is much more to Chuang Tsu, and this brief work (barely 100 small pages) was so compelling as soon as I finished, I read it again. David Hinton's translation is excellent, the contents profound and "The Inner Chapters" is as powerful and enlightening as the "Dao de Jing" and as important as the "Analects."
There are elements of Taoism and references to Confucius but Chuang Tzu is his own man, and anyone with a serious interest in Eastern philosophy needs to add this to the to-read shelf.
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