= Zhuang_Zhou =

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= Zhuang_Zhou =
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Introduction
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Zhuang Zhou (), commonly known as Zhuangzi (; ; literally "Master
Zhuang"; also rendered in the Wade-Giles romanization as Chuang Tzu),
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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The only account of the life of Zhuangzi is a brief sketch in chapter
63 of Sima Qian's 'Records of the Grand Historian', and most of the
information it contains seems to have simply been drawn from anecdotes
in the 'Zhuangzi' itself. 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). 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.

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.

Writings
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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.

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." This passage
encapsulates Zhuangzi’s radical questioning of reality and identity.
As noted in La Pléiade’s edition of “Taoist Philosophies Volume I”,
it’s placement at the end of the chapter is noteworthy, given that the
tension between dream and reality is introduced earlier (e.g.,
sections 49-50) and revisited elsewhere in the text (e.g., Chapter 6,
21). The passage emphasises the Zhuangzian solipsistic dilemma:
existence is confined to the present moment of self-awareness, yet the
self is paradoxically a flux of identities--perceived as fragmented by
others but synthesized into a cohesive, multiform, and multitemporal
whole.

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.
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."

Zhuangzi was renowned for his brilliant wordplay and use an 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'

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. .
*
*
* 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)
*
* Hansen, Chad (2003). "The Relatively Happy Fish," 'Asian Philosophy'
13:145-164.
*Herbjørnsrud, Dag (2018).
"[https://jhiblog.org/2017/02/15/global-history-of-ideas-a-sea-for-fish-on-dry-land/
A Sea for Fish on Dry Land]," the blog of the Journal of History of
Ideas.
*
*
*
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=dpFnYhV_ghIC (Google Books)]
* Merton, Thomas. (1969). 'The Way of Chuang Tzu'. New York: New
Directions.
*
*
*
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* Waltham, Clae (editor). (1971). 'Chuang Tzu: Genius of the Absurd'.
New York: Ace Books.
*
**'The complete work of Chuang Tzu', Columbia University Press, 1968
*
*

External links
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* [http://ctext.org/zhuangzi Zhuangzi] Bilingual Chinese-English
version (James Legge's translation) - Chinese Text Project
*
[https://web.archive.org/web/20070107080906/http://www.daoisopen.com/ZhuangziTranslation.html
The Zhuangzi "Being Boundless"], Complete translation of Zhuangzi by
Nina Correa
* [https://taoism.net/tao/chuang-tzu/ Chuang Tzu at Taoism.net],
Chuang Tzu's Stories and Teachings - translations by Derek Lin
* [http://www.iep.utm.edu/z/zhuangzi.htm Zhuangzi], The Internet
Encyclopedia of Philosophy
* [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/zhuangzi/ Zhuangzi], Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy
*
[https://web.archive.org/web/20060219221611/http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/texts/chuangtz.html
Selection from 'The Zhuangzi'], translated by Patricia Ebrey
* [http://www.taopage.org/chuangtzu.html Chuang-tzu at Taopage.org]
* [http://www.wfu.edu/~moran/zhexuejialu/Zhuang_Zi_chap_1.html
'Zhuang Zi', chapter 1]
* [http://www.wfu.edu/~moran/zhexuejialu/Zhuang_Zi_2.html 'Zhuang
Zi', chapter 2]
* [http://oaks.nvg.org/chuang.html James Legge Complete Translation In
English] The Legge translation of the complete Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi)
updated
*

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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhuang_Zhou