Chuang-tzu

Chuang-tzu or Chuang-tze , c.369-c.286 BC, Chinese Taoist writer. Little is known about his life. He was a native of the state of Meng, on the border of present-day Shandong and Henan provinces, and is said to have lived as a hermit. The collection of essays attributed to him, called the Chuang-tzu, is distinguished by its brilliant and original style, with abundant use of satire, paradox, and seemingly nonsensical stories. Chuang-tzu emphasizes the relativity of all ideas and conventions that are the basis of judgments and distinctions; he puts forward as the solution to the problems of the human condition freedom in identification with the universal Tao, or principle of Nature. He is less political in his orientation than the earlier Taoist Lao Tzu . He is also called Chuang Chou.

Bibliography: See his complete works, tr. by B. Watson (1968).

Chuang-tzu, also Chuang chou (tzu means ‘master’, c.370–286 BCE). Considered by Taoists to be (with Lao-tzu) one of the founders of philosophical Taoism.

He is traditionally the author of the work bearing his name, Chuang-tzu (or Nan-hua chenching). Of its thirty-three chapters, 1–7 (the ‘inner books’) are perhaps his own, the fifteen ‘outer’ and eleven ‘mixed’ chapters are thought to be by his pupils. As with Lao-tzu, the Tao and its te are open to realization by all people. It requires well-directed and unattached action (wu-wei) and meditative concentration on the constantly changing nature of the world, which, when realized and discarded, leaves only the Tao.

Wisdom consists in recognizing distinction and perceiving the relation:

Chuang Chou dreamed that he was a butterfly, fluttering about, not knowing that it was Chuang Chou. He woke with a start, and was Chuang Chou again. But he did not know whether he was Chuang Chou who had dreamed that he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming that he was Chuang Chou. Between Chuang Chou and the butterfly there must be some distinction: this is what is called, ‘the transformation of things’.