It is an unfortunate case that often that which is termed Eastern Philosophy is largely ignored, or underrated by its Western counterpart. Why this should be the case is probably explainable with references to postmodern cultural theory, imperialistic and colonial attitudes, and the relationship between Western Philosophy and its productive cousin Western Science.

Without entering into a deconstruction of western attitudes and the general donning of sackcloth and ashes I thought it would be a nice idea to explore some Eastern Philosophy, particular those texts which hold remarkable parallels with certain “classics” of our western paradigm.

In this series of posts I am going to have a look at some of the ideas found in the “Zhuangzi.”

The Book

The Zhuangzi, which translates as Master Zhuang (after its attributed author) is considered the second foundational text of the Daoist philosophical and religous traditions. Second only to the teachings of Lao Tzu. It is roughly dated between 350 – 250 BC.

The first seven chapters of the text, called the “inner chapters” are directly attributed to Zhuang Zhou (the Master) who according to legend lived in Honan approximately 370-286 BC. The remaining chapters are sometimes attributed as fragments from the author of the inner chapters, and sometimes attributed to other authors who are considered to be representatives of the Yangzhu tradition.

The book is composed of stories, allegories, essays and fragments of probably mythological material. It refers to dozens of chinese folk stories (some of which are lost today) comments on them, reworks them and elicits different meanings from them.

It influenced a large amount of subsequent Chinese philosophical thought, particular Chan (Zen) Buddhism and late Daoism.

Zhuang Zhou

Practically nothing is known of the author, other than that which is given in the text, which owing to its literary and philosophical intent not to mention the different stages in its authorship makes its historicity less than valuable. The Chinese historian Sima Qian (who lived several hundred years later) provided an account of his rough dates of birth and death, and the information that he came from the district of Meng in the province of Honan. He was a minor official, who resigned his position in order to return to private life, and it is claimed was offered the role of Prime Minister to King Wei of Chu (339-329BC), a job he declined.

The Text

The Zhuangzi was largely subordinate to the Laozi until the end of the Han Dynasty (c. 200 AD) when a radical breakdown of political and social values resulted in a resurgent interest in Zhuangzi’s rejection of conventional values.

The present form of the text is largely the result of its most influential editor and commentator Guixiang (300 AD), who is likely to have integrated material from other sources, divided it into its present chapter configuation and assigned titles to the chapters. Some scholars consider the influence so strong that it is difficult to distinguish between Zhuangzi and Guixiang.

It spoofs and satirizes other more reputable and established philosophical traditions of its time (such as Confucianism and the Mohists). Zhuangzi’s basic attitute to philosophical disputation is that it is pointless and hairsplitting at best, solves no problems conclusively and leads merely to more conflict and disagreement!

Zhuangzi’s philosophical approach can be described as perspectival, i.e. the truth value of any claim is related to context or perspective, and must always be carefully qualified to have any validity at all.

Common Ancestors

As I will explore in later posts much of the Zhuangzi has themes and ideas found in contemporary western philosophy. Much modern scholarship lends itself to comparitive studies between Zhuangzi and Nietzsche who share a similar aphoristic style, not to mention a predisiposition to being quoted out of context (I’ll try to avoid this), and a strong subjectivism. Zhuangzi and Wittgenstein whose attitudes towards philosophy and language are closely mirrored. And Zhuangzi and Descartes who both present similar ideas about radical scepticism.

Major Ideas

  • 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 judgements, 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 is 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 meaning is relative to context.
  • Philosophical disputation though sometimes stimulating is a futile enterprise as “right” and “wrong” cannot be determined through argument.
  • Death is a natural part of life, one of its infinite transformations.

Over a few posts I will explore some interesting themes such as relativism, anarchism, and scepticism.

(Background information thanks to Alan Fox and his article on Zhuangzi in “Great Thinkers of the Eastern World”, edited by Ian McGreal and published by Harper Collins 1995)