Guo Xiang's Commentary on the Zhuangzi庄子注（郭象）

Also known as

Commentary on the Nanhua zhenjing, Guo Xiang's commentary

Author / transmission

Guo Xiang

Period

Western Jin · Written by Guo Xiang (c. 252–312); older accounts hold that he partly drew on Xiang Xiu's commentary.

Canon division

Dongshen Section, Yujue Category

Collected in

Daoist Canon of the Zhengtong Era, Dongshen Section, Yujue Category (published together with Cheng Xuanying's Subcommentary on the Zhuangzi)

Category

Daoist Philosophy

Fascicles

Ten scrolls, thirty-three chapters

Synopsis

Guo Xiang's Commentary on the Zhuangzi is the earliest complete extant commentary on the Zhuangzi, and also a summa of Wei–Jin Dark Learning (xuanxue). Guo Xiang condensed the Han-dynasty fifty-two-chapter version into thirty-three chapters, establishing the form of the text as it survives today. His commentary does not adhere rigidly to the letter of the text but expounds its underlying meaning, proposing "solitary transformation within the realm of dark obscurity": all things generate and transform themselves, depending on nothing, with no creator behind them; each thing is self-sufficient within its own "allotted nature," so that "the great roc and the small bird, each suited to its own nature," can both attain free and easy wandering; and "the teaching of names is itself naturalness," the sage "wandering beyond while broadening what lies within," so that though the body stands at court the mind is no different from being in the mountains and forests. This interpretation reconciled Daoist naturalness with the Confucian teaching of names, profoundly shaped later understanding of the Zhuangzi, and also provided resources for Daoist Chongxuan (Twofold Mystery) learning and the sinicization of Buddhist Prajna thought. The Shishuo xinyu records that his commentary drew heavily on Xiang Xiu's, a question still debated among scholars today.

Key Ideas

• Solitary transformation, self-generation, dependence on nothing
• Each nature is self-sufficient; being suited to one's own nature is free and easy wandering
• The teaching of names is itself naturalness
• Traces and that which leaves the traces

Structure

Commentary following the original text in thirty-three chapters.

Editions

• Daoist Canon of the Zhengtong Era edition
• Photo-reprint of a Song edition in the Xu Guyi Congshu series
• Included in Guo Qingfan's Collected Explanations of the Zhuangzi

Translations

• Partial selections translated by Brook Ziporyn
• Richard John Lynn, Zhuangzi: A New Translation of the Sayings of Master Zhuang as Interpreted by Guo Xiang (2022)

Full Text & Online Resources

• Wikipedia: Guo Xiang
• CTEXT: Zhuangzi

Related scriptures

Related figures