One should therefore think of Confucianism and Daoism in Han times not as rival systems demanding a choice for one side or the other but rather as two complementary doctrines. People who excuse their faults and claim they didn’t deserve to be punished—there are lots of them. But those who don’t excuse their faults and who admit they didn’t deserve to be spared—they are few. To know what you can’t do anything about and to be content with it as you would with fate—only a man of virtue can do that. Where there is acceptability, there must be unacceptability; where there is unacceptability, there must be acceptability. Where there is recognition of right, there must be recognition of wrong; where there is recognition of wrong, there must be recognition of right. Therefore the sage does not proceed in such a way but illuminates all in the light of Heaven.

After the collapse of the Han dynasty in AD 207 and the subsequent chaos of the Three Kingdoms period, both the Zhuangzi and Zhuang Zhou began to rise in popularity and acclaim. [9] The 3rd century AD poets Ruan Ji and Xi Kang, both members of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, were ardent Zhuangzi admirers, [40] and one of Ruan's essays, entitled "Discourse on Summing Up the Zhuangzi" ( 達莊論; Dá Zhuāng lùn), is still extant. [15] This period saw Confucianism temporarily surpassed by a revival of Daoism and old divination texts, such as the Classic of Changes, and many early medieval Chinese poets, artists, and calligraphers were deeply influenced by the Zhuangzi. [40] Daoism and Buddhism [ edit ] Zhuangzi's wife died. When Huizi went to convey his condolences, he found Zhuangzi sitting with his legs sprawled out, pounding on a tub and singing. "You lived with her, she brought up your children and grew old," said Huizi. "It should be enough simply not to weep at her death. But pounding on a tub and singing—this is going too far, isn't it?" Cover Image Source: Zhuangzi Dreaming of a Butterfly, by 18th century Japanese painter Ike no Taiga via Wikimedia Commons Little understanding cannot come up to great understanding; the short-lived cannot come up to the long-lived. Though primarily known as a philosophical work, the Zhuangzi is regarded as one of the greatest literary works in Chinese history, and has been called "the most important pre- Qin text for the study of Chinese literature". A masterpiece of both philosophical and literary skill, it has significantly influenced major Chinese writers and poets for more than 2000 years from the Han dynasty (206BC–AD 220) to the present.

If the mirror is bright, no dust will settle on it; if dust settles, it isn’t really bright. When you live around worthy men a long time, you’ll be free of faults.

Only by inhabiting Dao (the Way of Nature) and dwelling in its unity can humankind achieve true happiness and freedom, in both life and death. This is Daoist philosophy's central tenet, espoused by the person―or group of people―known as Zhuangzi (369?-286? B.C.E.) in a text by the same name. To be free, individuals must discard rigid distinctions between good and bad, right and wrong, and follow a course of action not motivated by gain or striving. When one ceases to judge events as good or bad, man-made suffering disappears and natural suffering is embraced as part of life. When Carpenter Shi woke up, he reported his dream. His apprentice said, “If it’s so intent on being of no use, what’s it doing there at the village shrine?” “Shhh! Say no more! It’s only resting there. If we carp and criticize, it will merely conclude that we don’t understand it. Even if it weren’t at the shrine, do you suppose it would be cut down? It protects itself in a different way from ordinary people. If you try to judge it by conventional standards, you’ll be way off!” You have had the audacity to take on human form, and you are delighted. But the human form has ten thousand changes that never come to an end. Your joys, then, must be uncountable. Therefore, the sage wanders in the realm where things cannot get away from him, and all are preserved. He delights in early death; he delights in old age; he delights in the beginning; he delights in the end. If he can serve as a model for men, how much more so that which the ten thousand things are tied to and all changes alike wait for! The Nameless Man said, “ Let your mind wander in simplicity, blend your spirit with the vastness, follow along with things the way they are, and make no room for personal views —then the world will be governed.”The ordinary man prizes gain, the man of integrity prizes name, the worthy man honors ambition, the sage values spiritual essence.” Whiteness means there is nothing mixed in; purity means the spirit is never impaired. He who can embody purity and whiteness may be called the True Man. 16 – Mending the Inborn Nature The first two sections of the Zhuangzi, which together constitute one of the fiercest and most dazzling assaults ever made, not only on man’s conventional system of values, but on his conventional concepts of time, space, reality, and causation as well.