ABSTRACT
The interpretation of Zhuangzi as a relativist has a long and prestigious heritage. It can be traced back to the commentary of Guo Xiang, through the philosophy of the LiezU and still further to the ideas of what Liu Xiaogan calls the Shu Zhuang PaU the school of Zhuangzi’s followers. Its most distinctive manifestation is in chapter 17, Qiu ShuU ‘Autumn Floods,’ in which the magnificent Yellow River flows down to the northern ocean and for the first time realizes that he can take himself to be the vastest of things only so long as he remains ignorant of what lies beyond his ken. Guo Xiang’s commentary on the Zhuangzi can be thought of in large part as a development of this line of thinking through the ideas of individuality, particularity of nature, and radical equality. As we have seen in the last chapter, these ideas can be summarized in the concept of equality of all individual things, and by extension of all viewpoints. All things are what they are; they follow their own spontaneous ‘thusness.’ Each thing is individual; each individual is self contained, and is self-preserving; each requires a freedom to develop its own inner tendencies, and so must be accepted on its own terms. It can be seen how this radical individualism rapidly develops into a radical relativism. No judgments can be made over other things, because the other things over which one makes critical judgments have their own particular ‘natures,’ and thus their own particular standards by which they judge themselves to be acceptable. Moreover, according to Guo Xiang, it is wrong to try to change what something spontaneously is. Things, if left to work themselves out on their own accord, will work out in the way that is most appropriate for them. Everything is acceptable so long as it is left to its own devices. Thus, things and creatures wu & are
equalized, qi #, insofar as none can be judged better or worse just for being what it is.
