Zhuangzi

ca. 369-286 BCE · Chinese (state of Song, Warring States period) · Daoist Philosophy, Skepticism, Philosophy of Language, Aesthetics, Political Withdrawal

I'd rather enjoy myself wallowing in the filth than let myself be controlled by some head of state.

During the Warring States period — a century of political catastrophe — Zhuang Zhou held a minor post in the lacquer-tree park of his home state of Song and spent the rest of his life refusing anything more important. When King Wei of Chu offered him the prime ministership, he told the messengers to think of the ox on its way to the altar: he would rather wallow in filth than be controlled by a head of state. His companion and foil was the logician Hui Shi, and when Hui Shi died Zhuangzi mourned he had no one left to talk to.

Topics Zhuangzi addresses

• dao 道 (the Course / the Way)
• wuwei 無為 (non-doing)
• ziran 自然 (self-so / spontaneity)
• qiwulun 齊物論 (equalizing assessments of things)
• hua 化 (transformation)
• the butterfly dream
• xin zhai 心齋 (fasting of the mind)
• zuowang 坐忘 (sitting and forgetting)
• you 遊 (wandering / drift / play)
• de 德 (virtuosity / inborn power)
• the pivot of the Course
• zhenren 真人 (genuine person)
• qi 氣 (vital energy)
• tian 天 (Heaven / the natural)
• the useless tree
• the fish-happiness debate on the Hao River
• the wife's death and singing-on-the-basin
• the goblet-words / spillover-saying (zhi yan)
• the Heavenly Equalizer
• the giant Peng bird and the small birds
• skill mysticism and Cook Ding
• hundun 渾沌 (Chaotic Blob)
• the cool tortoise in the mud
• the wheelwright Pian and unteachable skill

Converse with Zhuangzi on Simposeum. Every reply is grounded in Zhuangzi's own writing and cites the page it came from. The corpus is public-domain text.