Chuang Tzu

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The Chinese philosopher Chuang Tzu (ca. 369-ca. 286 B.C.), also known as Chuang Chou, was the most brilliant of the early Taoists and the greatest prose writer of his time.

Not much is known of the life of Chuang Tzu. The Shih Chi (Historical Records, written about 100 B.C.) tells us that he was a contemporary of King Hui of Liang (370-319) and King Hsüan of Ch'i (319-301). Thus Chuang Tzu seems to have been a contemporary of Mencius (372-289), but neither was mentioned by the other in his extant writings. The Shih Chi also says that Chuang Tzu was born in Meng on the border of Shantung and Honan and that he held a petty official post for a time in Ch'iyüan. However, he seems to have lived most of his life as a recluse, "to be intoxicated in the wonder and the power of Nature."

Legend has it that Chuang Tzu declined the honor of being prime minister to King Wei of Ch'u (339-329), saying that he much preferred to be a live tortoise wagging its tail in the mud than a dead one venerated in a golden casket in a king's ancestral shrine. (The story is apocryphal, but it is highly illustrative of the mentality of the Taoist mystic, who cared more for personal freedom than for high office.)

Chuang Tzu's greatness lay in his bringing early Taoism to its full completion. While he was true to the Taoist doctrine of wu-wei (refraining from action contrary to Nature), he extended the Taoist system and carried out metaphysical speculations never heard of by the early Taoists. The philosophy of Chuang Tzu, as characterized by its emphasis on the unity and spontaneity of the Tao, its assertion of personal freedom, and its doctrine of relativity of things, is essentially a plea for the "return to Nature" and free development of man's inherent nature. It is in fact a kind of romantic philosophy that favors anarchistic individualism and condemns Confucian virtues and institutions - a philosophy, in short, that idealizes the state of natural simplicity marked by no will, no consciousness, no knowledge.

All these ideas are well illustrated in the book bearing Chuang Tzu's name. The Chuang Tzu as it stands today contains 33 chapters, in 3 sections: 7 "inner chapters," 15 "outer chapters," and 11 "miscellaneous chapters." It was probably compiled by Kuo Hsiang (died A.D. 312), the great commentator of the Chuang Tzu. As in the case of the Lao Tzu (also known as the Tao Te Ching), there has been much controversy over the authorship of the Chuang Tzu. The first section is generally regarded as the work of the man called Chuang Tzu. Some of the best chapters of the Chuang Tzu representing the naturalistic aspects of Taoism are not included in the first section, and no definite answer has so far been given as to who else would have written them. In view of the frequent repetitions, many interpolations, and differences of styles in the various parts of the work, most scholars agree that the Chuang Tzuis a compilation of Taoist writings from various hands. However this may be, the Chuang Tzu, which consists of beautiful allegories and lively anecdotes, has rarely been surpassed for beauty of style and felicity of expression.

Further Reading

English versions of the Chuang Tzu were edited by Herbert A. Giles (1889; repr. 1961) and Fung Yu-lan (1963). Extracts may be found in Arthur Waley, Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China (1939; repr. 1956), and in the Modern Library's Wisdom of China and India and Wisdom of Laotse. For discussions of Chuang Tzu see Fung Yu-lan, History of Chinese Philosophy, vol. 1 (1952), and Herrlee G. Creel, Chinese Thought from Confucius to Mao Tse-tung (1953).

Chuang-tzu or Chuang-tze (both: jwäng-dzŭ), c.369-c.286 B.C., Chinese Taoist writer. Little is known about his life. He was a native of the state of Meng, on the border of present-day Shandong and Henan provinces, and is said to have lived as a hermit. The collection of essays attributed to him, called the Chuang-tzu, is distinguished by its brilliant and original style, with abundant use of satire, paradox, and seemingly nonsensical stories. Chuang-tzu emphasizes the relativity of all ideas and conventions that are the basis of judgments and distinctions; he puts forward as the solution to the problems of the human condition freedom in identification with the universal Tao, or principle of Nature. He is less political in his orientation than the earlier Taoist Lao Tzu. He is also called Chuang Chou.

Bibliography

See his complete works, tr. by B. Watson (1968).

Quotes:

"Rewards and punishment is the lowest form of education."

"Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness."

"I know the joy of fishes in the river through my own joy, as I go walking along the same river."

"If water derives lucidity from stillness, how much more the faculties of the mind! The mind of the sage, being in repose, becomes the mirror of the universe, the speculum of all creation."

"We cling to our own point of view, as though everything depended on it. Yet our opinions have no permanence; like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away."

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

See more famous quotes by Chuang Tzu

The classical Chinese philosophy of Taoism is a way of looking at the world in terms of a unified whole. The separate actions of the parts reflect and correspond to the larger actions of the whole. This union is depicted in the concept of the yin and the yang, the opposed yet inseparable "poles" of everything that is-male and female, positive and negative, up and down.

The dynamic link between opposites, in which yin is continually changing into yang and vice versa, is an appropriate perspective for understanding an oft-repeated story of Chuang-tzu, an ancient Taoist philosopher. It is said that Chuang-tzu once dreamed that he was a butterfly. Upon awakening, he asked himself if he was a man dreaming that he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming that he was a man.

This story has frequently been cited in the context of discussions of the reality of the world as we experience it, as well as in discussions of the felt reality of dreams. With respect to the latter line of thought, it has often been observed that while we are dreaming we rarely question the reality of our dreams, accepting the most absurd situations as fact, until we awaken. And it is usually only from the perspective of waking consciousness that we can judge our dreams to have been bizarre or ridiculous.

As important as this point is, it nevertheless ignores the importance of Taoism as a perspective for understanding Chuang-tzu's statement. While this ancient sage undoubtedly was remarking on the seeming reality of dreams, he was also picturing his waking self as a man and his sleeping self as a butterfly to a dynamic yang-yin relationship. As the seasons cyclically alternate from hot to cold and back again, as night alternates with day, and so on, so do we alternate back and forth between sleeping and waking. This being so, a Taoist might say, Why should we call one real and the other an illusion? Both seem to be necessary to human life, so why depreciate dreams (yin) at the expense of so-called waking consciousness (yang) This seems to be the deeper import of Chuang-tzu's story.

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