Zhuangzi (book)

Zhuangzi
Zhuangzi
	"Zhuangzi" in seal script (top), Traditional (middle), and Simplified (bottom) Chinese characters
Traditional Chinese	莊子
Simplified Chinese	庄子
Literal meaning	"[The Writings of] Master Zhuang"
showTranscriptions
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Zhuangzi
	The Butterfly Dream, by Chinese painter Lu Zhi (c. 1550)
Author	(trad.) Zhuang Zhou
Original title	莊子
Country	China
Language	Classical Chinese
Genre	Philosophy
Publication date	c. 3rd century BC

The Zhuangzi^[a] (Chinese: 莊子, historically romanized Chuang Tzŭ) is an ancient Chinese text from the late Warring States period (476–221 BC) which contains stories and anecdotes that exemplify the carefree nature of the ideal Taoist sage. Named for its traditional author, "Master Zhuang" (Zhuangzi), the Zhuangzi is one of the two foundational texts of Taoism, along with the Tao Te Ching.

The Zhuangzi consists of a large collection of anecdotes, allegories, parables, and fables, which are often humorous or irreverent. Its main themes are of spontaneity in action and of freedom from the human world and its conventions. The fables and anecdotes in the text attempt to illustrate the falseness of human distinctions between good and bad, large and small, life and death, and human and nature.

While other ancient Chinese philosophers focused on moral and personal duty,

Zhuangzi promoted carefree wandering and becoming one with "the Way" (Dào 道) by following nature.

Though primarily known as a philosophical work, the Zhuangzi is regarded as one of the greatest literary works in Chinese history, and has been called "the most important pre-Qin text for the study of Chinese literature". A masterpiece of both philosophical and literary skill, it has significantly influenced major Chinese writers and poets for more than 2000 years from the Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 220) to the present.

History[edit]

Authorship and textual history[edit]

The Zhuangzi is named for and attributed to a man named Zhuang Zhou, who is customarily called "Zhuangzi" ("Master Zhuang", from Mandarin Chinese Zhuāngzǐ 莊子). Nothing is concretely known of Zhuangzi's life. He is usually said to have been born around 369 BC at a place called Meng (蒙) in the state of Song (near present-day Shangqiu, Henan Province), and to have died around 301, 295, or 286 BC.^[1] He is thought to have spent time in the southern state of Chu, as well as in Linzi, the capital of the state of Qi.^[2] Sima Qian's 1st century BC Records of the Grand Historian, the first of China's 24 dynastic histories, has a biography of Zhuangzi, but most of it seems to have simply been drawn from anecdotes in the Zhuangzi itself.^[3] The American scholar Burton Watson concluded: "Whoever Zhuang Zhou was, the writings attributed to him bear the stamp of a brilliant and original mind."^[4]

The first seven chapters of the Zhuangzi, which are known as the "inner chapters" (nèi piān 內篇), were historically considered the actual work of Zhuangzi, and most modern scholars agree with this view.^[5] The remaining 26 chapters are known as the "outer chapters" (wài piān 外篇) and "miscellaneous chapters" (zá piān 雜篇). Whether these chapters were written by Zhuangzi has long been debated.^[6] Chinese scholars recognized as early as the Song dynasty (960–1279) that some parts of the book could not have been written by Zhuangzi himself.^[5] Today, it is generally accepted that the middle and later Zhuangzi chapters are the result of a process of "accretion and redaction" by other authors "responding to the scintillating brilliance" of the inner chapters.^[7] Despite the uncertainty over the later chapters' authorship, scholars accept all of the Zhuangzi's 33 surviving chapters as compositions dating from the 4th to 2nd centuries BC.^[8]

Details of the Zhuangzi's textual history prior to the Han dynasty (206 BC – AD 220) are largely unknown. Traces of its influence in late Warring States period philosophical texts such as the Guanzi, Han Feizi, Huainanzi, and Lüshi Chunqiu suggest that Zhuangzi's intellectual lineage was already fairly influential in the states of Qi and Chu in the 3rd century BC.^[9] In Records of the Grand Historian, Sima Qian refers to a 100,000-word Zhuangzi work and references several chapters that are still in the text.^[10] The Book of Han, finished in AD 111, lists a Zhuangzi in 52 chapters, which many scholars believe to be the original form of the work.^[11] Several different versions of the Zhuangzi survived into the Tang dynasty (618–907), but a shorter and more popular 33-chapter form of the book prepared by the philosopher and writer Guo Xiang around AD 300 is the source of all surviving editions.^[11]

In 742, an imperial proclamation from Emperor Xuanzong of Tang canonized the Zhuangzi as one of the Chinese classics and awarded it the honorific title True Scripture of Southern Florescence (Nánhuá zhēnjīng 南華真經).^[2] Nevertheless, most Chinese scholars did not consider the Zhuangzi to be a true "classic" (jing 經) due to its non-Confucian nature.^[12]

Manuscripts[edit]

A Tang dynasty manuscript of the "Tian Yun" volume of Zhuangzi (replica published in 1932 in Tokyo)

Portions of the Zhuangzi have been discovered among bamboo slip texts from Warring States period and Han dynasty tombs, particularly at the Shuanggudui and Zhangjiashan Han bamboo texts sites.^[6] One of the slips from the Guodian bamboo texts, which date to around 300 BC, contains what appears to be a short fragment from the "Ransacking Coffers" ("Qū qiè" 胠篋) chapter.^[6]

Many Zhuangzi fragments dating from the early Tang dynasty were discovered among the Dunhuang manuscripts in the early 20th century by the expeditions of Hungarian-British explorer Aurel Stein and French Sinologist Paul Pelliot.^[13] They collectively form about twelve chapters of Guo Xiang's version of the Zhuangzi, and are preserved mostly at the British Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France.^[14]

Among the Japanese national treasures preserved in the Kōzan-ji temple in Kyoto is a Zhuangzi manuscript from the Muromachi period (1338–1573).^[14] The manuscript has seven complete chapters from the "outer" and "miscellaneous" chapters, and is believed to be a close copy of an annotated edition written in the 7th century by the Chinese Daoist master Cheng Xuanying.^[14]

Content[edit]

The Zhuangzi consists of a large collection of anecdotes, allegories, "goblet words", parables, and fables which are often humorous or irreverent in nature.^[15] Most Zhuangzi stories are fairly short and simple, such as "Lickety" and "Split" drilling seven holes in "Wonton" (chapter 7) or Zhuangzi being discovered sitting and drumming on a basin after his wife dies (chapter 18), although a few are longer and more complex, like the story of Master Lie and the magus (chapter 14) and the account of the Yellow Emperor's music (chapter 14).^[15] Unlike the other stories and allegories in other pre-Qin texts, the Zhuangzi is unique in that the allegories form the bulk of the text, rather than occasional features, and are always witty, emotional, and are not limited to reality.^[15]

Unlike other ancient Chinese works, whose allegories were usually based on historical legends and proverbs, most Zhuangzi stories seem to have been invented by Zhuangzi himself. Some are completely whimsical, such as the strange description of evolution from "misty spray" through a series of substances and insects to horses and humans (chapter 18), while a few other passages seem to be "sheer playful nonsense" which read like Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky".^[16] The Zhuangzi is full of quirky and fantastic characters, such as "Mad Stammerer", "Fancypants Scholar", "Sir Plow", and a man who fancies that his left arm will turn into a rooster, his right arm will turn into a crossbow, and his buttocks will become cartwheels.^[17]

A master of language, Zhuangzi sometimes engages in logic and reasoning, but then turns it upside down or carries the arguments to absurdity to demonstrate the limitations of human knowledge and the rational world.^[17] Sinologist Victor Mair compares Zhuangzi's reasoning, such as his argument with his philosopher friend Huizi (Master Hui) about the joy of fish (chapter 17), to the Socratic dialogue tradition, and terms Huizi's paradoxes near the end of the book "strikingly like those of Zeno of Elea".^[17]

Notable passages[edit]

Zhuangzi Dreaming of a Butterfly, by 18th century Japanese painter Ike no Taiga

Zhuangzi Dreaming of a Butterfly, by Japanese painter Shibata Zeshin (1888)

1] "The Butterfly Dream"[edit]

The most famous of all Zhuangzi stories—"Zhuang Zhou Dreams of Being a Butterfly"—appears at the end of the second chapter, "On the Equality of Things".

     昔者莊周夢為胡蝶，栩栩然胡蝶也，自喻適志與。不知周也。
     Once, Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering about, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't know that he was Zhuang Zhou.

     俄然覺，則蘧蘧然周也。不知周之夢為胡蝶與，胡蝶之夢為周與。周與胡蝶，則必有分矣。此之謂物化。
     Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuang Zhou. But he didn't know if he was Zhuang Zhou who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming that he was Zhuang Zhou. Between Zhuang Zhou and the butterfly there must be some distinction! This is called the Transformation of Things.
— Zhuangzi, chapter 2 (Watson translation)^[18]

The image of Zhuangzi wondering if he was a man who dreamed of being a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming of being a man became so well-known that whole dramas have been written on its theme.^[19] In the passage, Zhuangzi "[plays] with the theme of transformation",^[19] illustrating that "the distinction between waking and dreaming is another false dichotomy. If [one] distinguishes them, how can [one] tell if [one] is now dreaming or awake?"^[20]

2] "The Death of Wonton"[edit]

Another well known Zhuangzi story—"The Death of Wonton"—illustrates the dangers Zhuangzi saw in going against the innate nature of things.^[21]

南海之帝為儵，北海之帝為忽，中央之帝為渾沌。儵與忽時相與遇於渾沌之地，渾沌待之甚善。儵與忽謀報渾沌之德，曰：人皆有七竅，以視聽食息，此獨無有，嘗試鑿之。日鑿一竅，七日而渾沌死。
The emperor of the Southern Seas was Lickety, the emperor of the Northern Sea was Split, and the emperor of the Centre was Wonton. Lickety and Split often met each other in the land of Wonton, and Wonton treated them very well. Wanting to repay Wonton's kindness, Lickety and Split said, "All people have seven holes for seeing, hearing, eating, and breathing. Wonton alone lacks them. Let's try boring some holes for him." So every day they bored one hole [in him], and on the seventh day Wonton died.
— Zhuangzi, chapter 7 (Mair translation)^[22]

Zhuangzi believed that the greatest of all human happiness could be achieved through a higher understanding of the nature of things, and that in order to develop oneself fully one needed to express one's innate ability.^[19] In this anecdote, Zhuangzi humorously and absurdly uses "Wonton"—a name for the Chinese conception of primordial chaos that later lent its name to wonton soup—to demonstrate what he believed were the disastrous consequences of going against things' innate natures.^{[original research?]}

3] "The Debate on the Joy of Fish"[edit]

The story of "The Debate on the Joy of Fish" is a well-known anecdote that has been compared to the Socratic dialogue tradition of ancient Greece.^[17]

     莊子與惠子遊於濠梁之上。莊子曰：儵魚出遊從容，是魚樂也。
     Zhuangzi and Huizi were enjoying themselves on the bridge over the Hao River. Zhuangzi said, "The minnows are darting about free and easy! This is how fish are happy."

     惠子曰：子非魚，安知魚之樂。莊子曰：子非我，安知我不知魚之樂。
     Huizi replied, "You are not a fish. How do you know that the fish are happy?" Zhuangzi said, "You are not I. How do you know that I do not know that the fish are happy?"

     惠子曰：我非子，固不知子矣；子固非魚也，子之不知魚之樂全矣。
     Huizi said, "I am not you, to be sure, so of course I don't know about you. But you obviously are not a fish; so the case is complete that you do not know that the fish are happy."

     莊子曰：請循其本。子曰汝安知魚樂云者，既已知吾知之而問我，我知之濠上也。
     Zhuangzi said, "Let's go back to the beginning of this. You said, How do you know that the fish are happy; but in asking me this, you already knew that I know it. I know it right here above the Hao."
— Zhuangzi, chapter 17 (Watson translation)^[23]

The exact point made by Zhuangzi in this debate is not entirely clear.^[24] The story seems to make the point that "knowing" a thing is simply a state of mind, and that it is not possible to determine if that "knowing" has any objective validity.^[25] This story has been cited as an example of Zhuangzi's linguistic mastery, as he subtly uses reason to make an anti-rationalist point.^[25]

4] "Drumming On a Tub and Singing"[edit]

Another well-known Zhuangzi story—"Drumming On a Tub and Singing"—describes how Zhuangzi did not view death as something to be feared.

     莊子妻死，惠子弔之，莊子則方箕踞鼓盆而歌。惠子曰：與人居長子，老身死，不哭亦足矣，又鼓盆而歌，不亦甚乎。
     Zhuangzi's wife died. When Huizi went to convey his condolences, he found Zhuangzi sitting with his legs sprawled out, pounding on a tub and singing. "You lived with her, she brought up your children and grew old," said Huizi. "It should be enough simply not to weep at her death. But pounding on a tub and singing—this is going too far, isn't it?"

     莊子曰：不然。是其始死也，我獨何能無概然。察其始而本無生，非徒無生也，而本無形，非徒無形也，而本無氣。雜乎芒芴之間，變而有氣，氣變而有形，形變而有生，今又變而之死，是相與為春秋冬夏四時行也。
     Zhuangzi said, "You're wrong. When she first died, do you think I didn't grieve like anyone else? But I looked back to her beginning and the time before she was born. Not only the time before she was born, but the time before she had a body. Not only the time before she had a body, but the time before she had a spirit. In the midst of the jumble of wonder and mystery a change took place and she had a spirit. Another change and she had a body. Another change and she was born. Now there's been another change and she's dead. It's just like the progression of the four seasons, spring, summer, fall, winter."

     人且偃然寢於巨室，而我噭噭然隨而哭之，自以為不通乎命，故止也。
     "Now she's going to lie down peacefully in a vast room. If I were to follow after her bawling and sobbing, it would show that I don't understand anything about fate. So I stopped."
— Zhuangzi, chapter 18 (Watson translation)^[26]

Zhuangzi seems to have viewed death as a natural process or transformation, where one gives up one form of existence and assumes another.^[27] In the second chapter, he makes the point that, for all humans know, death may in fact be better than life: "How do I know that loving life is not a delusion? How do I know that in hating death I am not like a man who, having left home in his youth, has forgotten the way back?"^[28] His writings teach that "the wise man or woman accepts death with equanimity and thereby achieves absolute happiness."^[27]

5] Zhuangzi's death[edit]

The story of Zhuangzi's death, contained in chapter 32 of the text, exemplifies the colorful lore that grew up around Zhuangzi in the decades after his death, as well as the elaboration of the core philosophical ideas contained in the "inner chapters" that appears in the "outer" and "miscellaneous chapters".^[8]

     莊子將死，弟子欲厚葬之。莊子曰：吾以天地為棺槨，以日月為連璧，星辰為珠璣，萬物為齎送。吾葬具豈不備邪。何以加此。
     When Master Zhuang was about to die, his disciples wanted to give him a lavish funeral. Master Zhuang said: "I take heaven and earth as my inner and outer coffins, the sun and moon as my pair of jade disks, the stars and constellations as my pearls and beads, the ten thousand things as my funerary gifts. With my burial complete, how is there anything left unprepared? What shall be added to it?"

     弟子曰：吾恐烏鳶之食夫子也。莊子曰：在上為烏鳶食，在下為螻蟻食，奪彼與此，何其偏也。
     The disciples said: "We are afraid that the crows and kites will eat you, Master!" Master Zhuang said: "Above ground I'd be eaten by crows and kites, below ground I'd be eaten by mole crickets and ants. You rob the one and give to the other—how skewed would that be?"
— Zhuangzi, chapter 32 (Kern translation)^[8]

List of chapters[edit]

Chapter	Title^[29]	Chinese Title

"Inner chapters" (Nèi piān 內篇)—chapters 1–7

"Outer chapters" (Wài piān 外篇)—chapters 8–22

"Miscellaneous chapters" (Zá piān 雜篇)—chapters 23–33

Themes[edit]

Zhuangzi as an old man

The stories and anecdotes of the Zhuangzi embody a unique set of principles and attitudes, including

living one's life with natural spontaneity,
uniting one's inner self with the cosmic "Way" (Dao),
keeping oneself distant from politics and social obligations,
accepting death as a natural transformation,
showing appreciation and praise for things others view as useless or aimless, and
stridently rejecting social values and conventional reasoning.^[8]

These principles form the core ideas of philosophical Daoism.^[8]

The other major philosophical schools of ancient China—such as Confucianism, Legalism, and Mohism—were all

concerned with concrete social, political, or ethical reforms designed to reform people and society and thereby
alleviate the problems and suffering of the world.^[4]

Zhuangzi believed that

the key to true happiness was to free oneself from the world and its standards through the Daoist principle of "inaction" (wúwéi 無為)—
action that is not based on any purposeful striving or motives for gain—and was
fundamentally opposed to systems that impose order on individuals.^[30]^[31]

The Zhuangzi interprets the universe as a thing that changes spontaneously without a conscious God or will driving it, and
argues that humans can achieve ultimate happiness by living equally spontaneously.^[32]

It argues that because of humans' advanced cognitive abilities, they have a tendency to create artificial distinctions—such as good versus bad, large versus small, usefulness versus uselessness, and social systems like Confucianism—that remove themselves from the natural spontaneity of the universe.^[33]

To illustrate the mindlessness and spontaneity he felt should characterize human action, Zhuangzi most often uses the analogy of craftsmen or artisans.^[30]

As Burton Watson described, "the skilled woodcarver, the skilled butcher, the skilled swimmer

does not ponder or ratiocinate on the course of action he should take;
his skill has become so much a part of him that
he merely acts instinctively and spontaneously and, without knowing why, achieves success."^[30]

The term "wandering" (yóu 遊) is used throughout the stories of the Zhuangzi to describe

how an enlightened person "wanders through all of creation, enjoying its delights without ever becoming attached to any one part of it."^[30]

The Zhuangzi vigorously opposes formal government, which Zhuangzi seems to have felt was problematic at its foundation "because of the opposition between man and nature."^[34]

The text tries to show that "as soon as government intervenes in natural affairs, it destroys all possibility of genuine happiness."^[35]

It is unclear if Zhuangzi's positions amounted to a form of anarchism, as the political references in the Zhuangzi are more concerned with what government should not do, rather than what kind of government should exist.^[34]

Western scholars have long noticed that the Zhuangzi is often strongly anti-rationalist. Whereas reason and logic became the hallmark of Ancient Greek philosophy and then the entire Western philosophical tradition, Chinese philosophers preferred to rely on moral persuasion and intuition.^[36] The Zhuangzi played a significant role in the traditional Chinese skepticism toward rationalism, as Zhuangzi frequently turns logical arguments upside-down to satirize and discredit them. Zhuangzi did not entirely abandon language and reason, but "only wished to point out that overdependence on them could limit the flexibility of thought."^[36]

Influence[edit]

The Zhuangzi is the most influential purely literary Chinese work dating from before China's imperial unification in 221 BC.^[37] Its literary quality, imagination and creativity, and linguistic prowess were unprecedented in the period of its creation.^[37] Virtually every major Chinese writer or poet in history, from Sima Xiangru and Sima Qian during the Han dynasty, Ruan Ji and Tao Yuanming during the Six Dynasties, Li Bai during the Tang dynasty, to Su Shi and Lu You in the Song dynasty were "deeply imbued with the ideas and artistry of the Zhuangzi."^[38]

Early times[edit]

Traces of the Zhuangzi's influence in late Warring States period philosophical texts such as the Guanzi, Han Feizi, Huainanzi, and Lüshi Chunqiu suggest that Zhuangzi's intellectual lineage was already fairly influential in the states of Qi and Chu in the 3rd century BC.^[9] During the Qin and Han dynasties—with their state-sponsored Legalist and Confucian ideologies, respectively—the Zhuangzi does not seem to have been highly regarded.^[9] One exception is Han dynasty scholar Jia Yi's 170 BC work "Fu on the Owl" (Fúniǎo fù 鵩鳥賦), the earliest definitively known fu rhapsody, which does not reference the Zhuangzi by name but cites it for one-sixth of the poem.^[39]

After the collapse of the Han dynasty in AD 207 and the subsequent chaos of the Three Kingdoms period, both the Zhuangzi and Zhuang Zhou began to rise in popularity and acclaim.^[9] The 3rd century AD poets Ruan Ji and Xi Kang, both members of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, were ardent Zhuangzi admirers,^[40] and one of Ruan's essays, entitled "Discourse on Summing Up the Zhuangzi" (Dá Zhuāng lùn 達莊論), is still extant.^[15] This period saw Confucianism temporarily surpassed by a revival of Daoism and old divination texts, such as the Classic of Changes (I Ching 易經), and many early medieval Chinese poets, artists, and calligraphers were deeply influenced by the Zhuangzi.^[40]

Daoism and Buddhism[edit]

The Zhuangzi has been called "the most important of all the Daoist writings",^[41] and its "inner chapters" embody the core ideas of philosophical Daoism.^[8] In the 4th century AD, the Zhuangzi became a major source of imagery and terminology for a new form of Daoism known as the "Highest Clarity" (Shangqing 上清) school that was popular among the aristocracy of the Jin dynasty (266–420). Highest Clarity Daoism borrowed notable Zhuangzi terms, such as "perfected man" (zhēn rén 真人), "Great Clarity" (Tài Qīng 太清), and "fasting the mind" (xīn zhāi 心齋), and although they are used somewhat differently than in the Zhuangzi itself, they still show the important role the Zhuangzi played at the time.^[40]

The Zhuangzi was very influential in the adaptation of Buddhism to Chinese culture after Buddhism was first brought to China from India in the 1st century AD.^[40] Zhi Dun, China's first aristocratic Buddhist monk, wrote a prominent commentary to the Zhuangzi in the mid-4th century.^[40] The Zhuangzi also played a significant role in the formation of Chan ("Zen") Buddhism, which grew out of "a fusion of Buddhist ideology and ancient Daoist thought."^[40]

Among the traits Chan/Zen Buddhism borrowed from the Zhuangzi are a distrust of language and logic, an insistence that "the Dao" can be found in everything, even dung and urine, and a fondness for dialogues based on riddles or paradigm-challenging statements known as gōng'àn (公案; Japanese kōan).^[40]

Medieval and early modern[edit]

The Zhuangzi retained prominence throughout Chinese history as the preeminent example of core Daoist philosophical ideals. The 17th century scholar Gu Yanwu lamented his government's flippant use of the Zhuangzi on the imperial examination essays as representative

In the great Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber (Hong lou meng 紅樓夢), the main protagonist, Jia Baoyu, often turns to the Zhuangzi for comfort amidst his despair over conflicting love interests and relationships.^[43] The story of Zhuangzi drumming on a tub and singing after the death of his wife inspired an entire tradition of folk music called "funeral drumming" (sàng-gǔ 喪鼓) in central China's Hubei and Hunan Provinces that survived into the 18th and 19th centuries.^[44]

Modern[edit]

Outside of China and the traditional "Sinosphere", the Zhuangzi lags far behind the Tao Te Ching in general popularity, and is rarely known by non-scholars.^[35] A number of prominent scholars have attempted to bring the Zhuangzi to wider attention among Western readers. In 1939, the British translator and Sinologist Arthur Waley described the Zhuangzi as "one of the most entertaining as well as one of the profoundest books in the world."^[45] In the introduction to his 1994 translation of the Zhuangzi, the American Sinologist Victor H. Mair wrote: "I feel a sense of injustice that the Dao De Jing is so well known to my fellow citizens while the Zhuangzi is so thoroughly ignored, because I firmly believe that the latter is in every respect a superior work."^[36]

Selected translations[edit]

Herbert Giles (1889), Chuang Tzŭ: Mystic, Moralist and Social Reformer, London: Bernard Quaritch; 2nd edition, revised (1926), Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh; reprinted (1961), London: George Allen and Unwin.
James Legge (1891), The Texts of Taoism, in Sacred Books of the East, vols. XXXIX, XL, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Fung Yu-lan (1933), Chuang Tzu, a New Selected Translation with an Exposition on the Philosophy of Kuo Hsiang, Shanghai: Shang wu.
Burton Watson (1964), Chuang tzu: Basic Writings, New York: Columbia University Press; 2nd edition (1996); 3rd edition (2003) converted to pinyin.
(in Japanese) Mitsuji Fukunaga 福永光次 (1966), Sōshi 荘子 [Zhuangzi], 3 vols., Tokyo: Asahi.
Burton Watson (1968), The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, New York: Columbia University Press.
(in French) Liou Kia-hway 劉家槐 (1969), L'œuvre complète de Tchouang-tseu [The Complete Works of Zhuangzi], Paris: Gallimard.
(in Japanese) Kiyoshi Akatsuka 赤塚志 (1977), Sōshi 荘子 [Zhuangzi], in Zenshaku kanbun taikei 全釈漢文大系 [Fully Interpreted Chinese Literature Series], vols. 16-17, Tokyo: Shūeisha.
A. C. Graham (1981), Chuang-tzu, The Seven Inner Chapters and Other Writings from the Book Chuang-tzu, London: George Allen and Unwin. Translation notes published separately in 1982 as Chuang-tzu: Textual Notes to a Partial Translation, London: School of Oriental and African Studies.
Victor H. Mair (1994), Wandering on the Way: Early Taoist Tales and Parables of Chuang Tzu, New York: Bantam Books; republished (1997), Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Philip J. Ivanhoe, Bryan W. Van Norden (eds.) (2001) Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy (Second Edition), Chapter 5, translated by Paul Kjellberg, Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.
Brook Ziporyn (2009), Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings with Selections from Traditional Commentaries, Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.
Brook Ziporyn (2020), Zhuangzi: The Complete Writings, Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.
Richard John Lynn (2022), Zhuangzi: A New Translation of the Daoist Classic as Interpreted by Guo Xiang, New York: Columbia University Press.

References[edit]

Notes[edit]

^ Mandarin: [ʈʂwáŋ.tsɹ̩̀]

Citations[edit]

^ Mair (1998), p. 21; Mair (1994), p. xxxi; Knechtges (2014), p. 2314; Wilkinson (2015), p. 697.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Mair (1994), p. xxxi.
^ Mair (1994), pp. xxxi–xxxiii.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Watson (2003), p. 3.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Roth (1993), p. 56.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b ^c Knechtges (2014), p. 2315.
^ Mair (1998), p. 21.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Kern (2010), p. 74.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b ^c ^d Mair (2000), p. 33.
^ Roth (1993), p. 57.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Roth (1993), p. 58.
^ Goldin (2001), p. 87.
^ Roth (1993), pp. 61–62.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b ^c Roth (1993), p. 62.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b ^c ^d Mair (1998), p. 23.
^ Mair (1998), pp. 23–24.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b ^c ^d Mair (1998), p. 24.
^ Watson (2003), p. 44.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b ^c Mair (1994), p. xl.
^ Graham (1981), pp. 21–22.
^ Mair (1994), p. xxxix.
^ Mair (1994), p. 71.
^ Watson (1968), pp. 188-89, quoted in Nivison (1999), p. 783
^ Nivison (1999), p. 783.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Nivison (1999), p. 784.
^ Watson (2003 [1964]), p. 115.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Mair (1994), p. xxxiv.
^ Watson (1968), cited in Nivison (1999), p. 789.
^ Translations from Mair 1998, pp. 21–22
^ Jump up to:^a ^b ^c ^d Watson (2003), p. 6.
^ Kern (2010), p. 75.
^ Puett (2001), pp. 76–77.
^ Puett (2001), p. 77.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Mair (1994), p. xli.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Mair (1994), p. xlii.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b ^c Mair (1994), p. xliii.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Mair (2000), p. 30.
^ Mair (1998), pp. 22–23.
^ Mair (1998), p. 22.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Mair (2000), p. 34.
^ Idema & Haft (1997), p. 90.
^ Li (2010), pp. 158–59.
^ Shang (2010), p. 290.
^ Idema (2010), p. 403.
^ Quoted in Graham (1981), p. 3.

Works cited[edit]

Goldin, Paul R. (2001). "The Thirteen Classics". In Mair, Victor H. (ed.). The Columbia History of Chinese Literature. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 86-96. ISBN 0-231-10984-9.
Graham, A. C. (1981). Chuang-tzu, The Seven Inner Chapters and Other Writings From the Book Chuang-tzu. London: George Allen and Unwin. ISBN 0-04-299013-0.
Idema, Wilt; Haft, Lloyd (1997). A Guide to Chinese Literature. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan. ISBN 0-89264-123-1.
Idema, Wilt (2010). "Prosimetric and Verse Narrative". In Chang, Kang-i Sun (ed.). The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, Volume II: From 1375. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 343–412. ISBN 978-0-521-85559-4.
Kern, Martin (2010). "Early Chinese Literature, Beginnings through Western Han". In Owen, Stephen (ed.). The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, Volume I: To 1375. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–115. ISBN 978-0-521-85558-7.
Knechtges, David R. (2014). "Zhuangzi 莊子". In Knechtges, David R.; Chang, Taiping (eds.). Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: A Reference Guide, Part Four. Leiden: Brill. pp. 2314–23. ISBN 978-90-04-27217-0.
Li, Wai-yee (2010). "Early Qing to 1723". In Chang, Kang-i Sun (ed.). The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, Volume II: From 1375. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 152–244. ISBN 978-0-521-85559-4.
Mair, Victor H. (1994). Wandering on the Way: Early Taoist Tales and Parables of Chuang Tzu. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 0-553-37406-0. (Google Books)
Mair, Victor H. (1998). "Chuang-tzu". In Nienhauser, William (ed.). The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, Volume 2. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 20–26. ISBN 0-253-33456-X. (Google Books)
Mair, Victor H. (2000). "The Zhuangzi and its Impact". In Kohn, Livia (ed.). Daoism Handbook. Leiden: Brill. pp. 30–52. ISBN 978-90-04-11208-7.
Nivison, David Shepherd (1999). "The Classical Philosophical Writings". In Loewe, Michael; Shaughnessy, Edward (eds.). The Cambridge History of Ancient China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 745-812. ISBN 0-521-47030-7.
Puett, Michael (2001). "Philosophy and Literature in Early China". In Mair, Victor H. (ed.). The Columbia History of Chinese Literature. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 70–85. ISBN 0-231-10984-9.
Roth, H. D. (1993). "Chuang tzu 莊子". In Loewe, Michael (ed.). Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide. Berkeley: Society for the Study of Early China; Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley. pp. 56–66. ISBN 1-55729-043-1.
Shang, Wei (2010). "The Literati Era and Its Demise (1723–1840)". In Chang, Kang-i Sun (ed.). The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, Volume II: From 1375. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 245–342. ISBN 978-0-521-85559-4.
Watson, Burton; Graham, A. C. (1999). "The Way of Laozi and Zhuangzi — Transformation and Transcendence in the Zhuangzi". In de Bary, Wm. Theodore; Bloom, Irene (eds.). Sources of Chinese Tradition, Vol. 1: From Earliest Times to 1600 (2nd ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 95–111. ISBN 978-0-231-10939-0.
Watson, Burton (2003). Zhuangzi: Basic Writings (3rd ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0231129599 .
Wilkinson, Endymion (2015). Chinese History: A New Manual (4th ed.). Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center. ISBN 978-0-674-08846-7.

Relevant reading[edit]

Berkson, M. (1996) Language: The guest of reality – Zhuangzi and Derrida on language, reality, and skillfulness. In P. Kjellberg, & P. J. Ivanhoe (Eds.), Essays on skepticism, relativism, and ethics in the Zhuangzi (pp. 97–126). Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
Berkson, M. (2011) Death in the Zhuangzi: Mind, nature, and the art of forgetting. In A. Olberding, & P. J. Ivanhoe (Eds.), Mortality in traditional Chinese thought (pp. 191–224). Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
Chai, D. (2016). On pillowing one’s skull: Zhuangzi and Heidegger on death, Frontiers of Philosophy in China, 11(3), 483–500.
Connolly, T. (2011) Perspectivism as a way of knowing in the Zhuangzi . Dao, 10(4), 487–505.
Coutinho, S. (2015) Conceptual analyses of the Zhuangzi. In X. Liu (Ed.), Dao companion to Daoist philosophy (pp. 159–191). Dordrecht: Springer.
Fictive questions in the Zhuangzi
Graziani, R. (2020) Fiction and philosophy in the Zhuangzi: An introduction to early Chinese Taoist thought. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing
Ivanhoe, P. J. (1993) Zhuangzi on skepticism, skill, and the ineffable Dao. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 61(4), 639–654
Kohn, L. (2016) Zhuangzi: Text and context. Raleigh, NC: Lulu Press, Inc.
Kwek, Dorothy HB. "Critique of imperial reason: Lessons from the Zhuangzi." Dao 18 (2019): 411-433.
Liu, X. (2015) Textual issues in the Zhuangzi. In X. Liu (Ed.), Dao companion to Daoist philosophy (pp. 129–157). Dordrecht: Springer.
Lo, Y. K. (2022) The Authorship of the Zhuangzi. In K. Chong (Ed.), Dao companion to the philosophy of the Zhuangzi (43–97). Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
Mingjian Xiang. 2023. A cognitive rhetorical study. John Benjamins.
Møllgaard, E. (2007) An introduction to Daoist thought: Action, language, and ethics in Zhuangzi. New York: Routledge
Xiang, Mingjian, and Esther Pascual. "Debate with Zhuangzi: Expository questions as fictive interaction blends in an old Chinese text." Pragmatics: Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) 26, no. 1 (2016): 137-162.

External links[edit]

Works related to Chuang Tzŭ (Giles) at Wikisource
Zhuangzi Bilingual Chinese-English version (James Legge translation)
Selection from The Zhuangzi, translated by Patricia Ebrey
The Complete Works Of Chuang Tzu, translated by Burton Watson, archived from the original on 1 January 2004
Zhuangzi: The Inner Chapters, translated by Robert Eno

[1] Mandarin: [ʈʂwáŋ.tsɹ̩̀]

[2] Mair (1998), p. 21; Mair (1994), p. xxxi; Knechtges (2014), p. 2314; Wilkinson (2015), p. 697.

[FOOTNOTEMair1994xxxi-3] Jump up to:^a ^b Mair (1994), p. xxxi.

[FOOTNOTEMair1994xxxi–xxxiii-4] Mair (1994), pp. xxxi–xxxiii.

[FOOTNOTEWatson20033-5] Jump up to:^a ^b Watson (2003), p. 3.

[FOOTNOTERoth199356-6] Jump up to:^a ^b Roth (1993), p. 56.

[FOOTNOTEKnechtges20142315-7] Jump up to:^a ^b ^c Knechtges (2014), p. 2315.

[FOOTNOTEMair199821-8] Mair (1998), p. 21.

[FOOTNOTEKern201074-9] Jump up to:^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Kern (2010), p. 74.

[FOOTNOTEMair200033-10] Jump up to:^a ^b ^c ^d Mair (2000), p. 33.

[FOOTNOTERoth199357-11] Roth (1993), p. 57.

[FOOTNOTERoth199358-12] Jump up to:^a ^b Roth (1993), p. 58.

[FOOTNOTEGoldin200187-13] Goldin (2001), p. 87.

[FOOTNOTERoth199361–62-14] Roth (1993), pp. 61–62.

[FOOTNOTERoth199362-15] Jump up to:^a ^b ^c Roth (1993), p. 62.

[FOOTNOTEMair199823-16] Jump up to:^a ^b ^c ^d Mair (1998), p. 23.

[FOOTNOTEMair199823–24-17] Mair (1998), pp. 23–24.

[FOOTNOTEMair199824-18] Jump up to:^a ^b ^c ^d Mair (1998), p. 24.

[FOOTNOTEWatson200344-19] Watson (2003), p. 44.

[FOOTNOTEMair1994xl-20] Jump up to:^a ^b ^c Mair (1994), p. xl.

[FOOTNOTEGraham198121–22-21] Graham (1981), pp. 21–22.

[FOOTNOTEMair1994xxxix-22] Mair (1994), p. xxxix.

[FOOTNOTEMair199471-23] Mair (1994), p. 71.

[24] Watson (1968), pp. 188-89, quoted in Nivison (1999), p. 783

[FOOTNOTENivison1999783-25] Nivison (1999), p. 783.

[FOOTNOTENivison1999784-26] Jump up to:^a ^b Nivison (1999), p. 784.

[27] Watson (2003 [1964]), p. 115.

[FOOTNOTEMair1994xxxiv-28] Jump up to:^a ^b Mair (1994), p. xxxiv.

[29] Watson (1968), cited in Nivison (1999), p. 789.

[30] Translations from Mair 1998, pp. 21–22

[FOOTNOTEWatson20036-31] Jump up to:^a ^b ^c ^d Watson (2003), p. 6.

[FOOTNOTEKern201075-32] Kern (2010), p. 75.

[FOOTNOTEPuett200176–77-33] Puett (2001), pp. 76–77.

[FOOTNOTEPuett200177-34] Puett (2001), p. 77.

[FOOTNOTEMair1994xli-35] Jump up to:^a ^b Mair (1994), p. xli.

[FOOTNOTEMair1994xlii-36] Jump up to:^a ^b Mair (1994), p. xlii.

[FOOTNOTEMair1994xliii-37] Jump up to:^a ^b ^c Mair (1994), p. xliii.

[FOOTNOTEMair200030-38] Jump up to:^a ^b Mair (2000), p. 30.

[FOOTNOTEMair199822–23-39] Mair (1998), pp. 22–23.

[FOOTNOTEMair199822-40] Mair (1998), p. 22.

[FOOTNOTEMair200034-41] Jump up to:^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Mair (2000), p. 34.

[FOOTNOTEIdemaHaft199790-42] Idema & Haft (1997), p. 90.

[FOOTNOTELi2010158–59-43] Li (2010), pp. 158–59.

[FOOTNOTEShang2010290-44] Shang (2010), p. 290.

[FOOTNOTEIdema2010403-45] Idema (2010), p. 403.

[46] Quoted in Graham (1981), p. 3.

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