Chuang Tzu , Zhuangzi, Master Chuang, Taoist Wisdom, Daoism: Bibliography, Links, Resources, Quotations, Notes, Comments, Quotes

Chuang Tsu: Inner Chapters. Translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English. New York, Vinatage Books, Random House, 1974. Amber Lotus, 2000. 161 pages. Includes black and white photographs, and text in Chinese and English. ISBN: 0394719905. VSCL.

Chuang Tzu, Zhuangzi, Zhuang Zhou, Master Chuang, Master Zhuang, Chuang Chou, Chuang Tse, Chuang Tsu, Tchuang Tzu, etc.. Pronounced jwawng dz or Jwahng dzuh per Victor Mair. Master Chuang lived from 369-286 BCE, and died at the age of 83 years of age.

Chuang-Tzu: The Inner Chapters Translated with commentary by A. C. Graham. Indianapolis, Hackett Pub. Co., 1981, 2001 edition. Index, extensive footnotes, 293 pages. ISBN: 0872205819. VSCL.

Dao De Jing (Tao Te Ching) by Lao Tzu (Laozi): Selected translations by Chapters, Index of Translators, Themes

Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching (Dao De Jing) by Lao Tzu (Laozi): Selected translations by Chapters, Index of Translators, Themes. Prepared by Mike Garofalo.

Tao Te Ching (Dao De Jing) by Lao Tzu (Laozi): Selected translations by Chapters, Index of Translators, Themes

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.

Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu, Zhuang Zhou, Master Chuang) 369—286 BCE

"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.

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

    "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."

"You can’t talk to hole-in-the-corner scholars about the Way, because they are constricted by their doctrines."

"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."

"Where there is no opposition between this view and that view, there is the pivot of the dao. As soon as this pivot is found, we stand in the centre where we can respond without an end to changing views. So I say that there is nothing which can surpass the light of the mind." [Z 2]

Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu, Zhuang Zhou, Master Chuang) 369—286 BCE

"Chuang Tzu (369 - 268 B.C.) was a leading thinker representing the Taoist strain in Chinese thought. Using parable and anecdote, allegory and paradox, he set forth the early ideas of what was to become the Taoist school. Central in these is the belief that only by understanding Tao (the Way of Nature) and dwelling in unity can man achieve true happiness and be truly free, in both life and death. Witty and imaginative, enriched by brilliant imagery, making sportive use of both mythological and historical personages (including even Confucius), the book, which bears Chuang Tzu’s name, has for centuries been savored by Chinese readers. Chuang Tzu espoused a holistic philosophy of life, encouraging disengagement from the artificialities of socialization, and cultivation of our natural“ancestral”potencies and skills, in order to live a simple and natural, but full and flourishing life. He was critical of our ordinary categorizations and evaluations, noting the multiplicity of different modes of understanding between different creatures, cultures, and philosophical schools, and the lack of an independent means of making a comparative evaluation. He advocated a mode of understanding that is not committed to a fixed system, but is fluid and flexible, and that maintains a provisional, pragmatic attitude towards the applicability of these categories and evaluations."
- Taoism: Laozi and Zhuangzi

"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."
- Zhuangzi: A Brief Biography

"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 Tsu: Inner Chapters. Translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English

Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings with Selections from Traditional Commentaries Translation and commentary by Brook Ziporyn

The Inner Chapters of Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi) Translated by A. C. Graham

Wandering on the Way: Early Taoist Tales and Parables of Chuang Tzu. Translation and commentary Victor H. Mair

Further Teachings of Lao-Tzu: Understanding the Mysteries (Wen Tzu) By Thomas Cleary

Ripening Peaches: Taoist Studies and Practices By Mike Garofalo

The Lunar Tao: Meditations in Harmony with the Seasons By Deng Ming-Dao

Awakening to the Tao By Lui I-Ming (1780) and translated by Thomas Cleary