sentential items (actions, events, beliefs) particularly as conclusions of belief plus desire mental arguments. Instead, it focuses on the interplay of However, whenever I come to a complicated place, I size up the difficulties, tell myself to watch out and be careful, keep my eyes on what I’m doing, work very slowly, and move the knife with the greatest subtlety, until—flop! the whole thing comes apart like a clod of earth crumbling to the ground. I stand there holding the knife and look all around me, completely satisfied and reluctant to move on, and then I wipe off the knife and put it away.”

Zhuangzi | Goodreads The Book of Chuang Tzu by Zhuangzi | Goodreads

Little understanding cannot come up to great understanding; the short-lived cannot come up to the long-lived. What follows from Zhuangzi’s skepticism and relativism? We should take Zhuangzi to be reflectively aware that any advice he offers comes from one perspective – his ming approach to discourse. Any advice will be tenuous and hedged. First, Zhuangzi “mildly” recommends the kind of perspective flexibility we noted above. He “recommends” it in the sense one can “recommend” that one be young. To be young-at-heart-mind is to be open to new ways of thinking and conceptualizing. The more committed you get to a scheme, as we saw, the “older” you become intellectually, until you are “dead” from learning. Great understanding is broad and unhurried; little understanding is cramped and busy. Great words are clear and limpid little words are shrill and quarrelsome.As for me, I’ve been trying a long time to be of no use, and though I almost died, I’ve finally got it. This is of great use to me. If I had been of some use, would I ever have grown this large? Moreover, you and I are both of us things. What’s the point of this—things condemning things?

The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu | Columbia University Press The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu | Columbia University Press

After Carpenter Shi had returned home, the oak tree appeared to him in a dream and said, “What are you comparing me with? Are you comparing me with those useful trees? The cherry apple, the pear, the orange, the citron, the rest of those fructiferous trees and shrubs—as soon as their fruit is ripe, they are torn apart and subjected to abuse. Ivanhoe, P. J. (1993) Zhuangzi on skepticism, skill, and the ineffable Dao. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 61(4), 639–654 Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was myself. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.” If three men are traveling along and one is confused, they will still get where they are going—because confusion is in the minority.Burton Watson...possesses all the qualities which distinguish a master translator. As a craftsman and as a poet, he has inspired and challenged two generations. ( ASIAN AFFAIRS) Coutinho, S. (2015) Conceptual analyses of the Zhuangzi. In X. Liu (Ed.), Dao companion to Daoist philosophy (pp. 159–191). Dordrecht: Springer. The proposals put forward by the Confucians, the Mohists , and the Legalists, to name some of the principal schools of philosophy, all are different but all are based on the same kind of commonsense approach to the problem, and all seek concrete social, political, and ethical reforms to solve it. Zhuangzi [Chuang Tzu or Chuang Chou] (c.360 bce) may have written up to seven chapters (The “Inner Chapters”) of The Zhuangzi collection. His technical mastery of ancient Chinese linguistic theory in some of these suggests that Zhuangzi studied and thought deeply about semantics. Thinkers of related but distinct theoretical orientations probably wrote the remaining “Outer Chapters.” Some of the latter expand on but others contradict themes in the Inner Chapters. They typically draw on literary skills and religion more than linguistic philosophy. Day and night they change place before us, and wisdom cannot spy out their source. Therefore, they should not be enough to destroy your harmony; they should not be allowed to enter the storehouse of spirit. If you can harmonize and delight in them, master them and never be at a loss for joy; if you can do this day and night without break and make it be spring with everything, mingling with all and creating the moment within your own mind— this is what I call being whole in power.”