ABSTRACT

Zhuangzi 莊 子 (personal name Zhou 周) was a thinker and man of letters who lived in the State of Song (present-day Henan Province) in the Warring States period (475–221 BCE). He served for a time as a minor government official, but he became tired of politics, turned down the offer of a court appointment by King Wei of Chu 楚 威 王 (r. 339–329 BCE), and abjured officialdom. He was a contemporary of the Ruist thinker Mengzi 孟 子 (entry 16), but he followed the teaching of the Taoist thinker Laozi 老 子 (entry 1) and believed in “the Way of Nature”. He held that the Way of Nature is inherent in all things and manifested in all things. He believed in not making a distinction between the self and the world so as not to alienate the self from nature. For him, life and death were equal states of being. He aspired to a spiritual state in which “heaven and earth exist in harmony with me, and I am at one with all things”, a state in which all things, all changes are accepted with equanimity and freedom of spirit. His writings are characterized by an imagination rich in range, in scope, and in humour. It is an imagination so free it is almost wild, so extraordinary it is almost fantastic. The famous Zhuangzi 莊 子, 32 written by him and his followers, is one of the classics in the Taoist canon.