Zhuangzi chapter 1 - Some questions

Chapter 1 - Free and easy wandering

The following questions are based on the translation of Zhuangzi by Burton Watson.

What is the meaning of the story of Peng flying south?

• In particular, the following:

• Northern darkness and southern darkness,

• Transformation of the fish Kun to the bird Peng,

• "When the sea begins to move...",

• Lake of Heaven.

• The cicada and the little dove,

• The analogy of the need to have deep water to raise up a big boat,

• The need to prepare more food for long trip,

• Little understanding and big understanding,

• Short lived and long lived,

• The pitiful attempt of people trying to ape Peng-tsu.

• The story of Peng is repeated three times in Chapter 1.  The first time, the author is telling the story to the readers directly.  The second time, the story is recorded in the book "Universal Harmony".  The third time, the story is discussed among the questions of Tang to Chi.  What might be the reasons for the story to be repeated three times?

• What do you think of the statement "the Perfect Man has no self; the Holy Man has no merit; the Sage has no fame."?

• What might be the meaning of the following:

• The story of Yao wanting to cede the empire to Hsu Yu,

• The story of the Holy man living on faraway Ku-she Mountain,

• The story of the man of Sung who sold ceremonial hats,

• The discussion between Hui Tzu and Chuang Tsu about usefulness of things?

Zhuangzi - hippie or counsellor

 

The book Zhuangzi is an ancient Chinese text from the late Warring States period (476–221 BC) which contains stories that exemplify the carefree nature of the ideal Daoist sage. The book is named for its traditional author, Zhuangzi, which means Master Zhuang (2).

The Zhuangzi consists of a large collection of stories, which are often humorous or irreverent. Its main themes are of spontaneity in action and of freedom from conventions. The stories in the text attempt to illustrate the falseness of human distinctions between good and bad, large and small, life and death, and human and nature. 

Though primarily known as a philosophical work, the Zhuangzi is regarded as one of the greatest literary works in all of Chinese history.  A masterpiece of both philosophical and literary skill, it has significantly influenced writers for more than 2000 years from the Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 220) to the present. 

In the introduction to his Zhuangzi translation, the American scholar Burton Watson concluded: "Whoever Zhuang Zhou was, the writings attributed to him bear the stamp of a brilliant and original mind."  In the Preface of Watson's book, the following poem was quoted.

讀莊子 - 白居易

去國辭家謫異方，中心自怪少憂傷。

為尋莊子知歸處，認得無何是本鄉。

Read Zhuangzi - by the famous Chinese poet Bai Juyi

Leaving homeland, parted from kin, banished to a strange place,

I wonder my heart feels so little anguish and pain.

Consulting Zhuangzi, I find where I belong,

Surely my home is there in Not-Even-Anything land. 

The above video is a wonderful reading of the first seven chapters (the inner chapters) of the Zuangzi translated by the American scholar Burton Watson.  

Additional Resources

• The book "Chuang Tsu (2), Basic Writings" translated by Burton Watson, can be borrowed from the Internet Archive - https://archive.org/details/basicwritings00zhua
• The following video on Youtube - The Way of Chuang Tzu by Thomas Merton - is also quite interesting listening: https://youtu.be/noYXmItAvKA
• The Chinese text and translation can be found on the following site: https://ctext.org/zhuangzi

Note:

1. The above introduction was based on information from Wikipedia.
2. The following words are different ways of describing the same person or thing.  The differences are due to the use of different Chinese phonetic systems. 

• Zhuangzi / Zhuang Zhou / Chuang Tsu
• Dao / Tao
• Daoist / Taoist
• Daodejing / Tao Te Ching
• Bai Juyi / Po Chu i

End of term picnic / lunch meeting

 

The last class of term 1 will be on 6th April.   We plan to have a  BYO lunch meeting that day.  Depending on the weather, we will have the meeting either outdoor in the BBQ area or in the Dining Area in the Hub.  See you all there.