Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi (about 369 BC - about 286 BC), named Zhou, was born in the Warring States period of Song Dynasty. He was a thinker, philosopher, litterateur, founder of Zhuangzi school and representative of Taoism school in the middle period of Warring States period.

Chuang Tzu was not appointed by the king of Chu Wei because he advocated freedom. He only served as a local official in the state of song. He was known as a "proud official in the state of song" and was praised as a model of local officials. He first put forward the thought of "Sage Inside and king outside", which has a far-reaching influence on Confucianism. He had a thorough understanding of Yi theory and pointed out that "Yi is based on Dao Yin and Yang", and his "three sounds" thought was consistent with the Dao of three talents in Yi Jing. His literary imagination is rich and peculiar, his language is easy to use, flexible and changeable, and he can make the subtle and unspeakable philosophy fascinating. He is known as "the philosophy of literature, the literature of philosophy". His works are included in Zhuangzi, and his representative works are xiaoyaoyou, Qiwulun, shengshengzhu, etc.

It is said that Zhuangzi lived in Nanhua mountain and was buried in it. Therefore, at the beginning of Tianbao reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty, he was granted the title of Nanhua immortal. Zhuangzi is regarded as Nanhua Sutra.

(the general picture of Zhuangzi is taken from the Ming Dynasty's engraved version of Sancai tuhui.)

Life of the characters

Born in Song Dynasty

In the seventh year of King lie of Zhou Dynasty (about 369 BC), Zhuangzi was born in Mengyi of Song Dynasty.

Zhuangzi was born in the seventh year of King lie of Zhou Dynasty (369 BC). This is mainly from two aspects. First of all, the records of the historian recorded that Chuang Tzu, King Hui of Liang Dynasty and King Xuan of Qi Dynasty, and also recorded that King Wei of Chu sent envoys to hire Chuang Tzu with thick coins. The first year of King Wei of Chu (339 BC), that is, the 32nd year of King Hui of Liang Dynasty and the 3rd year of King Xuan of Qi Dynasty, and the 11th year of King Wei's death (329 BC), and "if Zhou Neng sent him to Chu pin, he must have been thirty or forty years old", then Zhuangzi should have been born no later than 369 BC to 359 BC. Secondly, "Zhuangzi" is called posthumous title in Wei Wen Hou and Wu Hou, and in Huiwang "at the beginning, it is also called Wang", so Zhuangzi's birth year should be "in the age of Wei Wen Hou and Wu Hou, at the latest in the early year of Huiwang", that is, the seventh year of zhoulie king.

In historical records, Sima Qian introduced Zhuangzi's life with concise one or two hundred words, but did not mention Zhuangzi's words. Zhuangzi Zi Xiu was put forward by the people of Tang Dynasty.

Learning from Confucianism and Taoism

In the seventh year of King Xian of Zhou Dynasty (362 BC), Zhuangzhou learned Confucianism from Qiu.

In the 20th year of King Xian of Zhou Dynasty (349 BC), he married Zhong Li.

In the 21st year of King Xian of Zhou Dynasty (348 BC), Zhuang Bian, the eldest son, was born.

Lacquered garden petty official

In the 22nd year of King Xian of Zhou Dynasty (347 BC), he served as an official of lacquer garden and was exempted from military service.

In the 27th year of King Xian of Zhou Dynasty (342 BC), he went to Shangqiu to pay the tax of Mengyi lacquer and met the paoding.

In 339 BC, the second son Zhuang Xian was born.

In 338 BC, he resigned as an official of lacquer garden.

Study hard

In the 32nd year of King Xian of Zhou Dynasty (337 BC), Jingyuan was fully managed.

In 335 BC, Dai Ying went to Mengyi to visit Zhuangzhou.

In the 36th year of King Xian of Zhou Dynasty (333 BC), Qu Yijiu died in Korea. Zhuang Quan missed his old friend and died of serious illness. His mother, Wei Shi, also died of grief. Zhuangzi escorted his parents' coffin back to the state of Chu.

In 332 BC, King Xian of Zhou met King Wei of Chu. After that, he left Yingdu and returned to Mengyi.

In the 38th year of King Xian of Zhou Dynasty (331 BC), the Prime Minister of Chu was not accepted.

In the 39th year of King Xianwang of Zhou Dynasty (330 BC), Lin Qi, the son of Lin Tao, was 11 years old. He studied Taoism in Zhuangzhou.

In the 44th year of King Xian of Zhou Dynasty (325 BC), Zisang and the four sons of Dongmen came to visit Zhuangzhou.

In the 45th year of King Xian of Zhou Dynasty (324 BC), he took Lin Qi to Daliang to meet his 57 year old son huazi. Huishi is worried that Chuang Tzu will come to seek his position and send someone to search Chuang Tzu.

In the 46th year of King Xian of Zhou Dynasty (323 BC), he met King Hui of Wei, who gave up attacking Qi.

In the 47th year of King Xianwang of Zhou Dynasty (322 BC), he and Huishi, who had lost their aspect, swam on haoshui and debated "fish Bridge Music".

In 312 B.C., Zhuangzi's wife passed away, Zhuangzi sang in a drum and Huishi mourned.

In a society in which the princes were fighting for supremacy, Chuang Tzu did not want to go along with the rulers, so he wrote books in seclusion and devoted himself to the study of Taoism. Later, he became one of the representatives of Taoism in the pre Qin period.

Zhuangzi died between 298 BC and 286 BC.

Main impact

Philosophy

Zhuangzi inherited and developed Laozi's idea of "Tao follows nature" in philosophy, which made Daoism a school. He himself became an important representative of Daoism and was called "the ancestor of Daoism" together with Laozi. Chuang Tzu's learning is mainly attributed to Lao Tzu's words, so his books are more than 100000 words, most of which are fables, such as "Fisherman", "stealing paw", "box" and so on, which are used to identify Lao Tzu's ideas. He leads "valuing life" and "for me" to "being able to achieve life" and "forgetting myself", which is attributed to the natural unity of "Tao" and "I". Zhuangzi, Zhouyi and Laozi are called "three mysteries", which have high research value in philosophy.

The concept of heaven

"Tao" is the core of Zhuangzi's transcendental philosophy, "Xinzhai" and "sitting and forgetting" are the ideal means to achieve transcendence, "carefree travel" is the best realm of life freedom, "all things are one" is the inevitable world outlook to pursue life freedom.

"Tao" is the basic concept of Zhuangzi's philosophy and the most basic category of pursuing life freedom. Zhuangzi basically inherited Laozi's thought of "Tao". Laozi's Tao emphasizes the objective meaning, and Zhuangzi's Tao rises from the subject to a kind of cosmic spirit. Zhuangzi combined Tao with human closely, making Tao the highest realm of life. The "Tao" he focused on was centered on human beings. He looked at "Tao" from the perspective of human life, human spiritual space and human spiritual atmosphere. He had a further understanding of Lao Tzu's Tao, Qi and the relationship between being and nothingness. In his opinion, Tao is the origin of all things in the world and the law of all things movement in the universe. "Tao" is invisible and has no birth and death in time and space. "Tao" is characterized by absoluteness, creativity, permanence, universality and inaction. There is no condition for the existence of Tao. "Wuwei" describes the seclusion and silence of Tao, and "intangible" describes the transcendence of Tao. Although Tao is quiet and quiet, it can achieve faithfulness in function, so it has absoluteness; the props are creative, "gods, ghosts and gods, born naturally", are prior to ghosts and gods in taste and time rank, which is the final source of all things, and also the origin of all existence; Tao "has existed since ancient times", "was born naturally but not for a long time, grew up in ancient times but not for old ”It is infinite in time and space, so it has immortality; "Tao" spreads all over the Six Harmonies and four directions, "it is not high before Tai Chi, but not deep under the six poles", and it has universality; "Tao" also has the nature of inaction, that is, Tao does nothing, and all things are self turning, "those who kill do not die, those who live do not live", and all things often rise and disappear due to special circumstances, and Tao operates all things and comes from itself The body will never disappear. Chuang Tzu's "Tao" expresses his worldview and worldview, which is the ideological basis of his pursuit of freedom of life. To achieve absolute freedom of life, we must deeply understand the basic category of "Tao".

Zhuangzi's "Tao" is the way of heaven, which imitates the "Tao" of nature, not man-made. In Zhuangzi's philosophy, "heaven" and "human" are two opposite concepts. "Heaven" represents nature, while "human" refers to everything that is "man-made" and deviates from nature. The combination of the two words "artificial" is a "false" word. Zhuangzi advocated obedience to the way of heaven, abandoning the "artificial" and the "false" impurities in human nature. The "Virtue" advocated by Zhuangzi is to obey the "way of heaven" and connect with heaven and earth. In Chuang Tzu's view, real life is natural, so there is no need to teach or prescribe anything, but to get rid of what, forget what, and forget about intention, tact and separation. In this case, there is no need for political propaganda, ritual and music education, and benevolence and righteousness persuasion. Chuang Tzu thinks that all these propaganda, edification and persuasion are "false" in human nature, so he should abandon them.

In Zhuangzi's view, the highest realm of life is the realm of Tao. How to expand the inner life of adults is the concern of Zhuangzi. People are covered by the living environment, and are limited by knowledge and sight, forming a locked mind. What Chuang Tzu cares about is not the satisfaction of the physical self, the realization of the family self, or the completion of the social self, but the embodiment of my ideal in the universe. "Heaven and earth coexist with me, and all things are one with me" is the embodiment of the universe. The embodiment of the universe I depends on the exhibition of transcendental spirit. The significance of transcendence lies in sublation and promotion, sublation of secular values, and promotion to a higher and broader spiritual field.

Free thinking

Chuang Tzu thinks that only by transcending the real world with an understanding spirit can we obtain unlimited freedom and peace of mind. Zhuangzi believes that real freedom is "no waiting", it does not depend on any conditions. No waiting is realized through "Xin Zhai" and "sit and forget". "Xinzhai", Chuang Tzu explained: "if a will, no listening to the ear and listening to the heart, no listening to the heart and listening to the Qi! Hearing ends in the ear, heart ends in the sign. Qi is also, empty and treat things. The only way is to gather the emptiness. If you are empty, you will live in your heart "Emptiness" is nothingness, which refers to the state of mind in which there is no attachment or action. As a method, "Xinzhai" is a process of "emptiness" and "Quietness", that is to say, a process of going to do something. Its gist is "one ambition" and "only Tao gathers emptiness". "One ambition" means one mind, and God is not moved by other things. At the same time, this process is a process of "only Tao but also emptiness". The nature of Tao is void

Chinese PinYin : Zhuang Zi