Zhuang Zhou

The only account of the life of Zhuangzi is a brief sketch in chapter 63 of Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian,[5] and most of the information it contains seems to have simply been drawn from anecdotes in the Zhuangzi itself.[6] 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).[7] Sima Qian writes that Chuang-Tze was especially influenced by Lao-Tze, and that he turned down a job offer from King Wei of Chu, because he valued his personal freedom.[8]

The validity of his existence has been questioned by Russell Kirkland, who asserts that "there is no reliable historical data at all" for Chuang Chou/Zhuangzi, and that "the Chuang-tzu known to us today" is better attributed to its "commentator", the third-century writer Kuo Hsiang.[9]

Zhuangzi is traditionally credited as the author of at least part of the work bearing his name, the Zhuangzi. 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.[10]

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."[11]

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 Chu; and d) a fourth strain which may be related to the philosophical school of Huang-Lao.[12] 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."[13]

Zhuangzi was renowned for his brilliant wordplay and use of parables to convey messages. His critiques of Confucian society and historical figures are humorous and at times ironic.

Zhuangzi has influenced thinking far beyond East Asia. The German philosopher Martin Buber translated his texts in 1910. In 1930, Martin Heidegger asked for Buber's translation of Zhuangzi after his Bremen speech "On the Essence of Truth".[14] In order to explain his own philosophy, Heidegger read from chapter 17, where Zhuangzi says to the thinker Hui Shih:

"Do you see how the fish are coming to the surface and swimming around as they please? That's what fish really enjoy."

"You're not a fish," replied Hui Tzu, "so how can you say you know what fish really enjoy?"

Zhuangzi said: "You are not me, so how can you know I don't know what fish enjoy." 

The historian of ideas Dag Herbjørnsrud concludes: "It may therefore be difficult to say where the philosophies of Lao Tzu and Zhuangzi end and where the most influential German thinking of the twentieth century starts [...]"[15]

The 20th century Chinese philosopher and essayist Hu Shih considered Zhuangzi a Chinese forerunner of evolution. In the chapter "Supreme Happiness", Zhuangzi described the transmutation of species.[16]

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

• 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.
• 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.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Ziporyn, Brook (2009). Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings with Selections from Traditional Commentaries Hackett Classics Series. Hackett Publishing. ISBN 978-1-60384-435-2.

Chinese Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Zhuangzi

Wikiquote has quotations related to Zhuangzi.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Zhuangzi.

• Zhuangzi Bilingual Chinese-English version (James Legge's translation) - Chinese Text Project
• The Zhuangzi "Being Boundless", Complete translation of Zhuangzi by Nina Correa
• Chuang Tzu at Taoism.net, Chuang Tzu's Stories and Teachings - translations by Derek Lin
• Zhuangzi, The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Zhuangzi, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Selection from The Zhuangzi, translated by Patricia Ebrey
• Chuang-tzu at Taopage.org
• Zhuang Zi, chapter 1
• Zhuang Zi, chapter 2
• James Legge Complete Translation In English The Legge translation of the complete Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi) updated
• Works by Zhuang Zhou at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)