Chuang-Tzu

Chuang-tzu or Chuang-tze (both: jwäng-dzŭ), c.369–c.286 B.C., Chinese Taoist writer. Little is known about his life. He was a native of the state of Meng, on the border of present-day Shandong and Henan provinces, and is said to have lived as a hermit. The collection of essays attributed to him, called the Chuang-tzu, is distinguished by its brilliant and original style, with abundant use of satire, paradox, and seemingly nonsensical stories. Chuang-tzu emphasizes the relativity of all ideas and conventions that are the basis of judgments and distinctions; he puts forward as the solution to the problems of the human condition freedom in identification with the universal Tao, or principle of Nature. He is less political in his orientation than the earlier Taoist Lao Tzu. He is also called Chuang Chou.

Bibliography

See his complete works, tr. by B. Watson (1968).

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Zhuangzi

 or Chuang-tzu

(born c. 369, Meng, China—died 286 BCE) Most significant early Chinese interpreter of Daoism and the purported author of the Daoist classic that bears his name. A minor official and a contemporary of Mencius, he drew on the sayings of Laozi but took a broader perspective. He taught that enlightenment comes from the realization that everything is one, the dao, but that the dao has no limitations or demarcations and whatever can be known or said of the dao is not the dao. He held that things should be allowed to follow their own course and that no situation should be valued over any other.

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Chuang-Tzu 

Born circa 369 B.C.; died circa 286 B.C. Author of the ancient Chinese classic Taoist treatise Chuang-tzu (c. 300 B.C.).

Very little is known about the life of Chuang-tzu. It has been established that he deliberately refused to occupy any civil service posts. His treatise, written in the form of parables, short stories, and dialogues, harshly criticizes Confucianism and the teachings of Mo Tzu and preaches fusion with the tao, a certain inexpressible totality of universal life. Chuang-tzu contrasts nature, in which the tao is embodied, with human beings and the world created by them—government, culture, and morality, all of which are based on force.

WORKS

“Chuang-tzu chi shih.” In Chu-tzu chi-ch’eng. (Collection of Works of Ancient Thinkers), vol. 3. Peking, 1957.
In Russian translation:
Ateisty, materialisty, dialektiki Drevnego Kitaia. Introductory article, translation, and commentary by L. D. Pozdneeva. Moscow, 1967.