Chuang Tzu (Master Chuang)Daoist
Studies and Practices
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Chuang Tzu (Master Chuang)Daoist
Studies and Practices
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Zhuangzi, Chuang Tsu, Master Chuang, Chuang Tse, Chuangtzu
Bibliography, Links, Resources
"The currently extant text known as the Zhuangzi is
the result of the editing and arrangement of the Jin dynasty thinker and
commentator Guo Xiang (Kuo Hsiang, d. 312 CE). He reduced what was then a work
in fifty-two chapters to the current edition of thirty-three chapters, excising
material that he considered to be spurious. His commentary on the text provides
an interpretation that has been highly influential over the subsequent
centuries. Guo Xiang divided the thirty-three chapters into three
collections, known as the Inner Chapters (Neipian), the Outer Chapters
(Waipian), and the Miscellaneous Chapters (Zapian). The Inner
Chapters are the first seven chapters and are considered to be the work of
Zhuangzi himself. The Outer Chapters are chapters 8 to 22, and the Miscellaneous
Chapters are chapters 23 to 33. The Outer and Miscellaneous Chapters can be
further subdivided."
-
Zhuangzi, The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Chuang
Tzu: The Inner Chapters. Translated by David Hinton.
Counterpoint, 1998. 144 pages. ISBN: 1887178791.
Chuang Tsu (Zhuang Zi) Translated by Burton Watson.
Chuang Tzu.
Translated by James Legge, 1891.
Chuang Tsu (Zhuang Zi) Translated by Lin Yutang.
Chuang Tzu.
Translated by Tao Study Group and Derek Lin.
The Chuang-tzu or Zhuang-zi, The World Wide Web Virtual Library
Chuang Tzu, Zhuangzi, Zhuang Zhou, Master Chuang, Master Zhuang,
Chuang Chou, Tchuang Tzu, (circa 369-286 BCE) pronounced jwawng dz
or Jwahng dzuh (Mair). He lived to by 83 years of age.
Chuang-Tzu or
Zhuang-Zi: Information Page
Chuang Tsu (Zhuangzi):
Bibliography, Links, Resources, Quotations, Notes.
Chuang
Tsu: Inner Chapters. Translation by Gia-fu Feng. Amber Lotus,
2000. 164 pages. Includes black and white photographs, and text in
Chinese and English. ISBN: 1569372829. VSCL.
Daoism, Daoists: Bibliography, Links,
Quotations, Notes
Taoism, Taoists: Bibliography, Links, Quotations, Notes
VSCL = Valley Spirit Center Library, Red Bluff, California
Wandering
on the Way: Early Taoist Tales and Parables of Chuang Tzu.
Translated with
an introduction and commentary by Victor H. Mair. New York, Bantam Books,
1994.
Glossary, bibliography, 402 pages. ISBN: 0553374060.
VSCL.
The Way
of Chuang Tzu. Translation and commentary by Thomas Merton. New
Directions, Second Edition, 2010. 160 pages. ISBN: 0811218511.
Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings with Selections from Traditional Commentaries.
Translations by Brook Ziporyn. Hackett Pub. Co., 2009. 238 pages.
ISBN: 0872209113. VSCL.
Zhuangzi, The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. A commentary on the
first 6 Chapters.
Zhuangzi. Translated by Hyun Hochsmann and Yang Guorong. New York,
Pearson Longman,
2007. Index, bibliography, glossary, notes, 342 pages. Longman
Library of Primary Sources in Philosophy. ISBN:
0321273567. VSCL.
Chuang Tsu, Zhuang Zi, Zhuangzi, Chuang Tse
Quotations from Zhuangzi
"Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious."
"Yan Hui saw Confucius again and said, "I have made progress."
"What do you mean?" asked Confucius.
"I sit and forget everything."
Confucius was alarmed and asked, "What do you mean by sitting down and
forgetting everything?"
Yan Hui replied, "I leave behind my body, perception and knowledge.
Detached from both material form and mind.
I become one with that which penetrates all things. This I call sitting
and forgetting everything."
Confucius said, "If you are one with that which penetrates all things you will
be free from partiality. If you are
transformed thus you have become evanescent. You are truly a worthy man.
I ask to follow your steps."
- Zhuangzi, Book 6, Translated by Hyun Hochsmann and Yang Guorong, 2007,
p. 123.
"Rewards and punishments are the lowest form of education."
"The quintessence of the utmost Way is Dark, dark, secret, secret: the apex of the utmost Way is mystery, mystery, silence, silence. Look at nothing, listen to nothing."
"Once Zhuangzi 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 Zhuangzi. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and
unmistakable Zhuangzi. But he didn't know if he was Zhuangzi who had dreamt he
was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuangzi. Between Zhuangzi and a
butterfly there must be some distinction! This is called the
Transformation of Things."
- Zhuangzi, Chapter 2, Translated by Burton Watson
"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."
"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."
"Once upon a time, I, Chuang Tzu, dreamt I was
a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to
all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of following my
fancies as a
butterfly, and was unconscious of my individuality as a man. Suddenly, I
awaked, and
there I lay, myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man
dreaming I was a
butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man. Between a
man and a
butterfly there is necessarily a barrier. The transition is called
Metempsychosis."
- Zhuangzi, Chapter 2, Translated by Herbert A. Giles
"All existing things are really one. We regard those that are beautiful and rare as valuable, and those that are ugly as foul and rotten The foul and rotten may come to be transformed into what is rare and valuable, and the rare and valuable into what is foul and rotten."
"Flow with whatever is happening and let your mind be free. Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate."
"The wise man looks into space and does not regard the small as too little, nor the great as too big, for he knows that, there is no limit to dimensions."
"A frog in a well cannot conceive of the ocean."
"Those who realize their folly are not true fools."
"Life comes from the earth and life returns to the earth."
"In the primeval mass there is no shape, spreading and
scattering, leaving no trail behind, in the darkness of its depths there is no
sound. It moves without direction, resides in Mystery."
"Forget the years, forget distinctions. Leap into the boundless and make it your home!"
"I know the joy of fishes in the river through my own joy, as I go walking along the same river."
"There is order in chaos, and certainty in doubt. The wise are guided by this order and certainty."
"When Zhuangzi was about to die, his
disciples wanted to bury him in a well-appointed tomb. Zhuangzi said, ''I have
the sky and the earth for inner and outer coffins the sun and the moon for jade
disks the stars for pearls and the ten thousand things for farewell gifts. Isn't
the paraphernalia for my burial adequate without adding anything?" ''We
are afraid the crows and kites will eat you master," a disciple said.
"Above ground, I will be eaten by crows and kites; below
ground by ants. You are robbing from the one to give to the other. Why play
favorites'''
"I know the joy of fishes in the river through my own joy, as I go walking along the same river."
"Those who seek to satisfy the mind of man by hampering it with ceremonies and music and affecting charity and devotion have lost their original nature."
"Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness."
"A way is made by walking it. A thing is so by calling it."
"In ultimate sameness you have no self; and without self from where would you get to have anything."
"Easy is right. Begin right and you are easy. Continue easy and you are right. The right way to go easy is to forget the right way and forget that the going is easy."
"Those who value what is on the outside are clumsy on the inside."
"Root of Heaven roamed on the south side of
Mount Vast. When he came to the bank of Clear Stream he met Nameless Man and
asked him. "Please tell me how to manage the world."
"Go away you dunce." Nameless Man said. "Such questions are
no fun I was Just about to join the Creator of Things. If I get bored with that,
I'll climb on the bird Merges with the Sky and soar beyond the six directions.
I'll visit Nothing Whatever town and stay in Boundless country. Why do you bring
up managing the world to disturb my thoughts?"
Still Root of Heaven repeated his question and Nameless Man
responded "Let your rnind wander among the insipid, blend your energies with the
featureless, spontaneously accord with things, and you will have no room for
selfishness. Then the world will be in order.""
"Men honor what lies within the sphere of their knowledge, but do not realize how dependent they are on what lies beyond it."
"To stop leaving tracks is easy. Not to walk upon the ground is hard."
"You can’t talk to hole-in-the-corner scholars about the Way, because they are constricted by their doctrines."
"As for goods and possession, the great man does not compete for them."
"How do I know that enjoying life is not a delusion? How do I know that in hating death we are not like people who got lost in early childhood and do not know the way home? Lady Li was the child of a border guard in Ai. When first captured by the state of Jin, she wept so much her clothes were soaked. But after she entered the palace, shared the king's bed, and dined on the finest meats, she regretted her tears. How do I know that the dead do not regret their previous longing for life? One who dreams of drinking wine may in the morning weep; one who dreams weeping may in the morning go out to hunt. During our dreams we do not know we are dreaming. We may even dream of interpreting a dream. Only on waking do we know it was a dream. Only after the great awakening will we realize that this is the great dream. And yet fools think they are awake, presuming to know that they are rulers or herdsmen. How dense!You and Confucius are both dreaming, and I who say you are a dream am also a dream. Such is my tale. It will probably be called preposterous, but after ten thousand generations there may be a great sage who will be able to explain it, a trivial interval equivalent to the passage from morning to night."
"You will always find an answer in the sound of water."
Information about Zhuangzi and Taoism
"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."
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Zhuangzi: A Brief Biography
May 30, 2010
First posted on the Internet on February 5, 2010
