Zhuangzi
- Language:
- English
- Translation:
- Herbert A. Giles
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Attributed (authorship debated)
- Condition of the text:
- Some scanning errors (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand) · 1 illegible passage, excluded from answers
- Extent:
- ~110,000 words · 545 passages
- Herbert A. Giles — translator, introduction, running commentary
- Aubrey Moore — Note on the Philosophy of Chuang Tzŭ
Cite this work
- APAZhuang Zhou. (1889). Chuang Tzŭ: Mystic, Moralist, and Social Reformer [Zhuangzi] (Herbert A. Giles, Trans.). Bernard Quaritch, London. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/zhuangzi/chuang-tzu-mystic-moralist-and-social-reformer
- MLAZhuang Zhou. Chuang Tzŭ: Mystic, Moralist, and Social Reformer [Zhuangzi]. Translated by Herbert A. Giles. Bernard Quaritch, London, 1889. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/zhuangzi/chuang-tzu-mystic-moralist-and-social-reformer.
- ChicagoZhuang Zhou. Chuang Tzŭ: Mystic, Moralist, and Social Reformer [Zhuangzi]. Translated by Herbert A. Giles. Bernard Quaritch, London, 1889. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/zhuangzi/chuang-tzu-mystic-moralist-and-social-reformer.
Reference to the reproduced edition. SigPhi is the digital reproduction, not the publisher. Year, publisher and translator are included when recorded; “n.d.” means the year is unknown. Responsibility for an introduction or note depends on the passage cited.
What it is about
The 'Zhuangzi', the second great text of Taoism after the 'Daodejing', and the funniest of the ancient books of philosophy.
Context and history
Written probably in the fourth century BC, and probably not all by one hand: the first seven chapters, called the 'inner' ones, are those tradition ascribes to Zhuang Zhou. The book does not argue, it tells stories: the cook who carves an ox without ever sharpening his knife because he follows the gaps; the butterfly who dreams he is a man; the useless tree that lives long for that very reason. The underlying thesis is that the distinctions by which we cut up the world — useful and useless, great and small, life and death — are ours and not the things', and that wisdom lies in moving among them without getting caught. Giles's translation, of 1889, is old and gives it a Victorian vocabulary that is not there; it reads well and should be cited with that reservation.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
He is noticed by the historian Ssŭ-ma Ch'ien, who flourished at the close of the second century B.C., as follows:--Chuang Tzŭ was a native of Mêng.[2] His personal name was Chou. He held a petty official post at Ch'i-yüan in Mêng.[3] He lived contemporaneously with Prince Hui of the Liang State and Prince Hsüan of the Ch'i State. His erudition was most varied; but his chief doctrines are based upon the sayings of Lao Tzŭ.[4] Consequently, his writings, which extend to over 100,000 words, are mostly allegorical.[5] [2] In the modern province of An-hui. [3] Hence he is often spoken of in the book language as "Ch'i-yüan." [4] Pronounce _Lowdza_. The _low_ as in _allow_. See p. vii. [5] Of an imaginative character, in keeping with the visionary teachings of his master. He wrote _The Old Fisherman_, _Robber Chê_, and _Opening Trunks_, with a view to asperse the Confucian school and to glorify the mysteries of Lao Tzŭ.[6] _Wei Lei Hsü_, _Kêng Saṅg Tzŭ_, and the like, are probably unsubstantial figments of his imagination.[7] Nevertheless, his literary and dialectic skill was such that the best scholars of the age proved unable to refute his destructive criticism of the Confucian and Mihist schools.[8] [6] See chs. xxxi, xxix, and x, respectively. [7] The second of these personages is doubtless identical, though the name is differently written, with the Kêng Sang Ch'u of ch. xxiii. The …