A01749 - Chuang-tzu (Zhuang Zhou), Third Century BCT Daoist Philosopher

 

Chuang-tzu (Zhuang Zhou) - A00023

"Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free.  Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing.  This is the ultimate."

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Zhuang Zhou (born c. 369 bcT, Meng [now Shangqiu, Henan province], China—died 286 bcT) was the most significant of China’s early interpreters of Daoism, and his eponymous work, the Zhuangzi, is considered to be one of the definitive texts of Daoism. That work is thought to be more comprehensive than the Daodejing, which is attributed to Laozi, the first philosopher of Daoism. Zhuang Zhou’s teachings also exerted a great influence on the development of Chinese Buddhism and had considerable effect on Chinese landscape painting and poetry.

Life

Zhuang Zhou lived during the Warring States period, a time of intense political fragmentation and philosophical flourishing in China. In spite of his importance, details of Zhuang Zhou’s life, apart from the many anecdotes about him in the Zhuangzi itself, are unknown. The “Grand Historian” of the Han dynasty, Sima Qian (died c. 87 bce), incorporated in his biographical sketch of Zhuang Zhou only the most meager information. According to that text, Zhuang Zhou was a native of the state of Meng and held a minor official position at Qiyuan in his home state. He lived during the reign of Prince Wei of Chu (died 327 bce) and was therefore a contemporary of Mencius, an eminent Confucian scholar known as China’s “Second Sage.” According to Sima Qian, Zhuang Zhou’s teachings were drawn primarily from the sayings of Laozi, but his perspective was much broader. He used his literary and philosophical skills to refute the Confucians and Mohists (followers of Mozi, who advocated “concern for everyone”).

Zhuang Zhou’s philosophical legacy is encapsulated in the Zhuangzi, also known as Nanhua zhenjing (“The Pure Classic of Nanhua”). About the turn of the 4th century cC Guo Xiang, the first and perhaps the best commentator on the Zhuangzi, established the work as a primary source for Daoist thought. It is composed of 33 chapters, and evidence suggests that there may have been as many as 53 chapters in copies of the book circulated in the 4th century. It is generally agreed that the first seven chapters, the “inner books,” are for the most part from the hand of Zhuang Zhou himself, whereas the “outer books” (chapters 8–22) and the miscellany (chapters 23–33) are largely the product of his later followers. A vivid description of Zhuang Zhou’s character comes from the anecdotes about him in the book’s later chapters.

Character

Zhuang Zhou appears in these passages as an unpredictable and eccentric sage who seems careless about personal comforts or public esteem. His clothing is shoddy and patched, and his shoes have to be tied to his feet with string in order to keep them from falling apart. Nevertheless, he does not consider himself to be miserable, only poor. When his good friend Hui Shi comes to console him upon the death of his wife, he finds the sage sitting on a mat, singing and beating on a basin. Hui Shi reprimands him, pointing out that such behavior is improper at the death of someone who has lived and grown old with him and has borne him children. Zhuang Zhou replies,

When she died, how could I help being affected? But as I think the matter over, I realize that originally she had no life; and not only no life, she had no form; not only no form, she had no life force (qi). In the limbo of existence and nonexistence, there was transformation, and the life force emerged. The life force was transformed to be form, form was transformed to become life, and now birth has transformed to become death. This is like the rotation of the four seasons, spring, summer, fall, and winter. Now she lies asleep in the great house (the cosmos). For me to go about weeping and wailing would be to show my ignorance of destiny. Therefore, I desist.

When Zhuang Zhou himself was at the point of death, his disciples began to talk about an elaborate burial for him. Zhuang Zhou immediately stopped the discussion by declaring that he did not need the paraphernalia of a great funeral, that nature would be his inner and outer coffin, the sun and the moon his jade rings, and the stars and the planets his jewelry. All creation would make offerings and escort him. He needed no more. Somewhat taken aback, his disciples declared that they were afraid that the crows and the buzzards might eat him. To this the master replied,

Above the ground it’s the crows and the kites who will eat me; below the ground it’s the worms and the ants. What prejudice is this, that you wish to take from the one to give to the other?

Zhuang Zhou’s eccentricities stem directly from his understanding of the processional nature of human experience. Insight for Zhuang Zhou comes with the realization that everything in life is both dynamic and continuous—what he calls dao.

Philosophy

Zhuang Zhou taught that what can be known or said of the Dao is not the Dao. The Dao has neither initial beginning nor final end nor limitations or demarcations. Life is the ongoing transformation of the Dao, in which there is no better or worse, no good or evil. Things should be allowed to follow their own course, and people should not value one situation over another. A truly virtuous individual is free from the bondage of circumstance, personal attachments, tradition, and the need to reform the world. Zhuang Zhou declined an offer to be prime minister of the state of Chu because he did not want the entanglements of a court career.

The complete relativity of his perspective is forcefully expressed in one of the better-known passages of the Zhuangzi:

Once I, Zhuang Zhou, dreamed that I was a butterfly and was happy as a butterfly. I was conscious that I was quite pleased with myself, but I did not know that I was Zhou. Suddenly I awoke, and there I was, visibly Zhou. I do not know whether it was Zhou dreaming that he was a butterfly or the butterfly dreaming that it was Zhou. Between Zhou and the butterfly there must be some distinction. This is called the transformation of things.

The relativity of all experience is in constant tension in the Zhuangzi with the unity of all things. When asked where the Dao was, Zhuang Zhou replied that it was everywhere. When pushed to be more specific, he declared that it was in ants and, still lower, in weeds and potsherds; furthermore, it was also in excrement and urine. This forceful statement of the omnipresence of the Dao had its parallels in later Chinese Buddhism, in which a similar figure of speech was used to describe the ever-present Buddha (Buddhist scholars, especially those of the Chan [Zen] school, also drew heavily on Zhuang Zhou’s works). Zhuang Zhou was par excellence the philosopher of the unattached individual who is at one with the Dao.

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Zhuang Zhou (/dʒuˈɑːŋ ˈdʒoʊ/),^[1] commonly known as Zhuangzi (/ˈdʒwɑːŋˈdzʌ/;^[2] Chinese: 莊子; literally "Master Zhuang"; also rendered in the Wade–Giles romanization as Chuang Tzu),^[a] was an influential Chinese philosopher who lived around the 4th century BCE during the Warring States period, a period of great development in Chinese philosophy, the Hundred Schools of Thought. He is credited with writing—in part or in whole—a work known by his name, the Zhuangzi, which is one of two foundational texts of Taoism, alongside the Tao Te Ching.

Life

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See also: Zhuangzi (book) § History

The only account of the life of Zhuangzi is a brief sketch in chapter 63 of Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian,^[3] and most of the information it contains seems to have simply been drawn from anecdotes in the Zhuangzi itself.^[4] In Sima's biography, he is described as a minor official from the town of Meng (in modern Anhui) in the state of Song, living in the time of King Hui of Liang and King Xuan of Qi (late fourth century BC).^[5] Sima Qian writes that Zhuangzi was especially influenced by Laozi, and that he turned down a job offer from King Wei of Chu, because he valued his personal freedom.^[6]

His existence has been questioned by Russell Kirkland, who asserts that "there is no reliable historical data at all" for Zhuang Zhou, and that most of the available information on the Zhuangzi comes from its third-century commentator, Guo Xiang.^[7]

Writings

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Main article: Zhuangzi (book)

Zhuangzi is traditionally credited as the author of at least part of the work bearing his name, the Zhuangzi.^[8] This work, in its current shape consisting of 33 chapters, is traditionally divided into three parts: the first, known as the "Inner Chapters", consists of the first seven chapters; the second, known as the "Outer Chapters", consist of the next 15 chapters; the last, known as the "Mixed Chapters", consist of the remaining 11 chapters. The meaning of these three names is disputed: according to Guo Xiang, the "Inner Chapters" were written by Zhuangzi, the "Outer Chapters" written by his disciples, and the "Mixed Chapters" by other hands; the other interpretation is that the names refer to the origin of the titles of the chapters—the "Inner Chapters" take their titles from phrases inside the chapter, the "Outer Chapters" from the opening words of the chapters, and the "Mixed Chapters" from a mixture of these two sources.^[9]

Further study of the text does not provide a clear choice between these alternatives. On the one side, as Martin Palmer points out in the introduction to his translation, two of the three chapters Sima Qian cited in his biography of Zhuangzi, come from the "Outer Chapters" and the third from the "Mixed Chapters". "Neither of these are allowed as authentic Chuang Tzu chapters by certain purists, yet they breathe the very spirit of Chuang Tzu just as much as, for example, the famous 'butterfly passage' of chapter 2."^[10]

On the other hand, chapter 33 has been often considered as intrusive, being a survey of the major movements during the "Hundred Schools of Thought" with an emphasis on the philosophy of Hui Shi. Further, A.C. Graham and other critics have subjected the text to a stylistic analysis and identified four strains of thought in the book: a) the ideas of Zhuangzi or his disciples; b) a "primitivist" strain of thinking similar to Laozi in chapters 8-10 and the first half of chapter 11; c) a strain very strongly represented in chapters 28-31 which is attributed to the philosophy of Yang Zhu; and d) a fourth strain which may be related to the philosophical school of Huang-Lao.^[11] In this spirit, Martin Palmer wrote that "trying to read Chuang Tzu sequentially is a mistake. The text is a collection, not a developing argument."^[12]

Zhuangzi was renowned for his brilliant wordplay and use a original form of gōng'àn (Chinese: 公案) or parables to convey messages. His critiques of Confucian society and historical figures are humorous and at times ironic.

See also

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• Dream argument
• Goblet word
• Liezi
• Tao Te Ching

Notes

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1. ^ Other romanizations include Zhuang Tze, Chuang Tsu, Chuang-tzu, Chouang-Dsi, Chuang Tse, and Chuangtze.

Citations

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1. ^ "Zhou". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
2. ^ "Chuang-tzu". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
3. ^ "Daoism Series 23: 荘子 Zhuang Zi". Purple Cloud. 2020-08-30. Retrieved 2020-11-24.
4. ^ Mair (1994), p. xxxi-xxxiii.
5. ^ Ziporyn (2009), p. vii.
6. ^ Horne (1917), pp. 397–398.
7. ^ Kirkland (2004), pp. 33–34.
8. ^ Klein (2010), pp. 306–309.
9. ^ Roth (1993), pp. 56–57.
10. ^ Palmer (1996), p. xix.
11. ^ Schwartz (1985), p. 216.
12. ^ Palmer (1996), p. x.

References

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• Ames, Roger T. (1991), 'The Mencian Concept of Ren Xing: Does it Mean Human Nature?' in Chinese Texts and Philosophical Contexts, ed. Henry Rosemont, Jr. LaSalle, Ill.: Open Court Press.
• Ames, Roger T. (1998) ed. Wandering at Ease in the Zhuangzi. Albany: State University of New York Press.
• Bruya, Brian (translator). (2019). Zhuangzi: The Way of Nature. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691179742.
• Chan, Wing-Tsit (1963). A Source Book In Chinese Philosophy. USA: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-01964-9.
• Chang, Chung-yuan (1963). Creativity and Taoism: A Study of Chinese Philosophy, Art, and Poetry. New York: Julian Press.
• Graham A.C, Chuang-Tzû, the seven inner chapters, Allen & Unwin, London, 1981
  • Chuang-tzu: The Inner Chapters and other Writings from the Book of Chuang-tzu (London: Unwin Paperbacks, 1986)
• Creel, Herrlee G. (1982). What is Taoism? : and other studies in Chinese cultural history. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-12047-3.
• Hansen, Chad (2003). "The Relatively Happy Fish," Asian Philosophy 13:145-164.
• Herbjørnsrud, Dag (2018). "A Sea for Fish on Dry Land," the blog of the Journal of History of Ideas.
• Horne, Charles F., ed. (1917). The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East, Volume XII: Medieval China. New York: Parke.
• Kirkland, Russell (2004). Taoism: The Enduring Tradition. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-26321-4.
• Klein, Esther (2010). "Were there "Inner Chapters" in the Warring States? A New Examination of Evidence about the Zhuangzi". T'oung Pao. 96 (4/5). Leiden: Brill: 299–369. doi:10.1163/156853210X546509. JSTOR 41354706.
• 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)
• Merton, Thomas. (1969). The Way of Chuang Tzu. New York: New Directions.
• Palmer, Martin (1996). The Book of Chuang Tzu. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-019488-3.
• 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.
• Schwartz, Benjamin J. (1985). The World of Thought in Ancient China. Cambridge: Belknap Press. ISBN 978-0-674-96191-3.
• Shen, Tsing-song Vincent (2015). "Evolutionism through Chinese Eyes: Yan Fu, Ma Junwu and their Translations of Darwinian Evolutionism". ASIANetwork Exchange. 22 (1): 49–60. doi:10.16995/ane.135. ISSN 1943-9946. OCLC 8091685198.
• Waltham, Clae (editor). (1971). Chuang Tzu: Genius of the Absurd. New York: Ace Books.
• Watson, Burton (1962). Early Chinese Literature. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231086714.
  • The complete work of Chuang Tzu, Columbia University Press, 1968
• Watts, Alan with Huan, Al Chung-liang (1975). Tao: The Watercourse Way. New York: Pantheon Books. ISBN 0-394-73311-8.
• Ziporyn, Brook (2009). Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings with Selections from Traditional Commentaries Hackett Classics Series. Hackett Publishing. ISBN 978-1-60384-435-2.