Zhuangzi庄子

Also known as

Nanhua zhenjing, Nanhua jing (Nanhua Scripture)

Author / transmission

Zhuangzi

Period

Warring States · The Inner Chapters are generally believed to derive from Zhuang Zhou himself (c. 369 – c. 286 BCE); the Outer and Miscellaneous Chapters were composed by his later followers, compiled from the end of the Warring States period through the early Han; the received text of thirty-three chapters was fixed by Guo Xiang in the Western Jin.

Canon division

Dongshen Section, Original Texts (Benwen) category

Collected in

Zhengtong Daozang, Dongshen Section, Benwen category (Nanhua zhenjing); commentaries are in the Yujue category of the Dongshen Section.

Category

Daoist Philosophy

Fascicles

Thirty-three chapters (seven Inner, fifteen Outer, eleven Miscellaneous), in ten scrolls

Synopsis

The Zhuangzi, together with the Daodejing, is one of the two great classics of Daoist philosophy. Its author, Zhuang Zhou, was a native of Meng in the state of Song and once served as an officer of the lacquer garden. The work is composed of fables, weighted sayings, and spillover words, its style boundless and unrestrained, representing the pinnacle of pre-Qin prose. Its core ideas are the leveling-of-things view that 'the Dao pervades and unifies all,' the spiritual freedom of 'free and easy wandering,' the outlook on life and death of 'according with the times and accepting what follows,' and the cultivational disciplines of 'fasting of the mind' and 'sitting in oblivion' — all advocating transcendence of the distinctions between right and wrong, noble and base, life and death, so as to commune with the spirit of Heaven and Earth. The Han-dynasty Bibliographic Treatise of the History of the Han records fifty-two chapters; Guo Xiang edited it down to thirty-three chapters and wrote a commentary, which became the standard text; the Tang scholar Cheng Xuanying wrote a subcommentary, and in the first year of the Tianbao era (742) Emperor Xuanzong of Tang conferred on Zhuangzi the title Perfected Nanhua, so that the book is also called the Nanhua zhenjing. Wei–Jin Xuanxue, Sui–Tang Chongxuan learning, Chan Buddhism, and Song–Ming Neo-Confucianism were all deeply influenced by it; Daoist cultivational concepts such as 'fasting of the mind,' 'sitting in oblivion,' and 'guarding the One' largely derive from this text.

Key Ideas

• Free and easy wandering: spiritual freedom that depends on nothing
• Discourse on the leveling of things: the myriad things are one, right and wrong run in parallel
• The essentials for nurturing life: following the central meridian as one's constant
• Fasting of the mind, sitting in oblivion, and 'the brightness of dawn' beholding the solitary
• According with the times and accepting what follows; letting joy and sorrow find no entry
• The usefulness of uselessness; between being of use and being of no use

Structure

Seven Inner Chapters (Free and Easy Wandering, Discourse on the Leveling of Things, The Essentials for Nurturing Life, In the World of Men, The Sign of Virtue Complete, The Great and Venerable Teacher, Fit for Emperors and Kings); fifteen Outer Chapters; eleven Miscellaneous Chapters, the final chapter, 'The World,' being an outline history of pre-Qin scholarship.

Editions

• Guo Xiang's commentary edition (Zhengtong Daozang; Song facsimile in the Xu Guyi Congshu [Sequel to the Collectanea of Ancient Rarities])
• Cheng Xuanying's subcommentary edition (the Daozang)
• Lu Deming, Jingdian shiwen: Zhuangzi yinyi
• Guo Qingfan, Zhuangzi jishi
• Wang Xianqian, Zhuangzi jijie
• Wang Shumin, Zhuangzi jiaoquan

Commentaries

• Guo Xiang, Commentary on the Zhuangzi
• Cheng Xuanying, Nanhua zhenjing zhushu (Subcommentary on the Zhuangzi)
• Chu Boxiu, Nanhua zhenjing yihai zuanwei
• Lin Xiyi, Zhuangzi juanzhai koyi
• Jiao Hong, Zhuangzi yi
• Wang Fuzhi, Zhuangzi jie
• Guo Qingfan, Zhuangzi jishi
• Chen Guying, Zhuangzi jinzhu jinyi

Translations

• James Legge (1891)
• Burton Watson (1968)
• A. C. Graham, Chuang-tzu: The Inner Chapters (1981)
• Victor Mair (1994)
• Brook Ziporyn (2009/2020)

Full Text & Online Resources

• CTEXT: Zhuangzi
• Wikisource: Zhuangzi
• Wikipedia: Zhuangzi (book)

Related scriptures

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