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The Sounds of Nature- Zhuangzi (Chuang-tzu)
http://www.sina.com.cn 2002/10/14 15:30  中国周刊

  Life of Zhuangzi

  Zhuangzi was a Daoist philosopher of the pre-Qin era, prior to 221 BC. According to the Records of the Historian, his family name was Zhou and he styled himself Zixiu. He was a native of Meng in the State of Song. He lived in poverty all his life and never acted for his own fame or interest. He was the author of the book Zhuangzi, in which he advocated the same essential philosophy as Laozi, in addition to some specific viewpoints of his own. The Zhuangzi had a deep influence on later Chinese philosophy and literature.

  According to Daoist scriptures, Zhuangzi was a disciple of Changseng Gongzi and cultivated Dao as a recluse on Mt. Baodu. He was said to have eaten the magic Cinnabar and ascended to Heaven in broad daylight,swhereshe was offered the position of Head Librarian of Ancient Books in the Realm of the Supreme Ultimate. During the reign of Xuanzong of the Tang dynasty, he was given the title of Perfect Man of Nanhua, and the Zhuangzi was renamed the Perfect Book of Nanhua. In the Song dynasty, the Emperor Zengzong honoured him as the Perfect Sovereign of Subtle Sublimity and Original Pervasion. The Annotated Zhuangzi, by Cheng Xuanying of the Tang dynasty, is representative of Daoist interpretative scholarship on the Zhuangzi.

  Major Thoughts of Zhuangzi:

  * Our experience of the world is relative to our perspective.

  * The world of our experience is constantly transforming.

  * Therefore we must be wary of our tendency to adopt fixed or dogmatic judgments, evaluations, and standards based on a narrow viewpoint, since this leads to conflict and frustration.

  * Optimal experience involves freeing ourselves from slavish commitment to convention. This enables us to see clearly (ming) and act spontaneously and unobtrusively (wuwei)

  * The ideal person is one who is perfectly well-adjusted in this way.

  * The "genuine person" precedes "genuine knowledge."

  * Language functions to convey meaning, and the meaning of language is relative to context.

  * Philosophical disputation, though sometimes stimulating, is a somewhat futile enterprise because "right" and "wrong" cannot be determined through argument.

  * Death is a natural part of life, one of its infinite transformations.

  The above opinion can be found in The Zhuangzi.

  The Zhuangzi (True classic of the Southern Flower Country)

  The Zhaungzi( True Classic of the Southern Flower Country) is one of the most important works to records the words and thoughts of Zhuangzi, and is also the oldest and at the same time the most literary book of Taoism, full of anecdotes, parables and metaphors and with a wonderful lyrical drive that makes it a classical of world literature. The book has exerted an extremely powerful influence on subsequent forms of Chinese philosophical thought. This is particularly true of Chan Buddhism and later Daoist thought.

  The many pictures try to explain to the reader what is not possible to explain, the Zhuangzi is a book for someone who does not need books. As a book is full of contradictions (dead or life is irrelevant, but dead is deliverance; accentuating at mental calmness and at the same time recommending it harshly), the Zhuangzi clearly shows the uselessness of trying to fix truth and reality. The only solution to make oneself free from the world problems would be to dematerialize oneself, to dissolve the linkages of the subject to the world. Skepticism and nihilism are the tendencies that result from the impossible freeing from the self, an experiment that is possible by shamanist practices. Some of the Taoist teachings are very similar to Buddhism, and during its first centuries in China, Buddhism was seen as a kind of Taoism, especially the claim of both philosophies/religions to offer a way by which the individual is able to free oneself from fear and anger and thereby achieving mental calmness and harmony.

  The most important old commentary is that of Guo Xiang.

  The Butterfly and Zhuangzi

  One of the most famous stories to be found in the Zhuangzi is the one found at the end of chapter 2: "Once Chuang Chou dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't know he was Chuang Chou. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Chuang Chou. But he didn't know if he was Chuang Chou who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Chuang Chou. Between Chuang Chou and a butterfly there must be some distinction! This is called the Transformation of Things." (Basic Writings, p.45).

  It is signficant that the important image in this story is the butterfly. This image sums up much of Zhuangzi's thought. The butterfly is a symbol of transformation; it follows the breeze yet arrives at the flower; Its actions are spontaneous and free. Thus it doesn't wear itself out fighting the forces of nature.

  Zhuangzi uses several different phrases to refer to a person who embodies the Dao in this kind of natural and effortless fashion. These terms include "genuine person" (zhenren), "etherial" or "spiritual" person (shenren), and "fully realized person" (zhirren). Perhaps such a person resembles a butterfly in certain ways. He or she has become balanced and centered and is thus able to experience the pitch and roll of oppositions (taiji, t'ai chi) without being thrown off-balance by them. The sage can thus fit in the world, at the center, in the socket of the hinge, at the fulcrum of all dichotomies. He or she blends in with the surroundings, and becomes effectively frictionless, transparent and unobtrusive.

  Death as one more natural transformation

  Zhuangzi conceives of the world as constantly changing. The adaptive qualities of the perfectly well-adjusted person enables him or her to remain balanced in the midst of this maelstrom of change and transformation. In Chapter 18, a story is told regarding the death of Zhuangzi's wife: "Chuang Tzu's wife died. When Hui Tzu went to convey his condolences, he found Chuang Tzu 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 Hui Tzu. '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?'

  "Chuang Tzu 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.

  "'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.'" (Basic Writings, p.113)

  Many conclusions can be reached on the basis of this story, but it seems that death is regarded as a natural part of the ebb and flow of transformations which constitute the movement of Dao. To grieve over death, or to fear one's own death, for that matter, is to arbitrarily evaluate what is inevitable. Of course, this reading is somewhat ironic given the fact that much of the subsequent Daoist tradition comes to seek longevity and immortality, and bases some of their basic models on the Zhuangzi.

  In some sense, we are reminded of Plato, who argues that people inappropriately fear death without knowing what it is. Similarly in chapter 2 of the Zhuangzi, Zhangzi says: "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,shavingsleft home in his youth, has forgotten the way back?

  "'Lady Li was the daughter of the border guard of Ai. When she was first taken captive and brought to the state of Chin, she wept until her tears drenched the collar of her robe. But later, when she went to live in the palace of the ruler, shared his couch with him, and ate the delicious meats of his table, she wondered why she had ever wept. How do I know that the dead do not.




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