User:Remsense/zhuangzi

Commentaries
Like most Classical Chinese works, over the centuries readers usually made extensive use of commentaries to guide their understanding of the text.

Jin

 * During the Jin, the historian Sima Biao (d. 306) was fascinated with the Zhuangzi, and wrote a commentary : originally, the commentary consisted of 20 chapters, but only quotations now survive.
 * Guo Xiang
 * Zhi Dun

Tang

 * Cheng Xuanying (d. 655)

Song

 * Lin Xiyi (1193–1271) –

Ming

 * Jiao Hong (1541–1620)
 * Jin Shengtan (d. 1661) "Six Works of Genius"

Qing

 * Wang Fuzhi (1619–1692) Annotation on the Zhuangzi
 * Wang Xianqian (1842–1917) Zhuangzi with Collected Explanations

Use of language
Analyses of the philosophical positions professed by the Zhuangzi in both Chinese and Western contexts have been attempted. Even limiting their analysis to the inner chapters, scholars have ascribed various incompatible positions to the text. of the inner that. Zhuangzi,
 * language
 * knowledge
 * ethics

Relativism and skepticism
Analyses of Zhuangzi's views on knowledge almost exclusively focus on "On the Equality of Things". According to Guo Xiang, Zhuangzi believed that the knowledge one can possess is fundamentally relative to their perspective. This notion has been picked up by modern Western scholarship, which has usually characterized Zhuangzi's positions as variously perspectivist, relativist, or skeptical, with the emphasis given to each varying among authors. Additionally, scholars differ as to whether Zhuangzi's is—

The perspectivism ascribed to Zhuangzi is usually understood as a pragmatic technique. This is usually differentiated from the perspectivism characterized by modern figures such as Nietzsche, where it serves: where the former employs perspectivism as a A perennial point of discourse lies in Zhuangzi apparently both professing relativism, but also putting forth a particular holistic view as better than others.

A. C. Graham, who pioneered English-language analysis of the Zhuangzi, characterizes Zhuangzi as anti-rationalist.

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Comparisons
The Zhuangzi was written in the context of the Hundred Schools of Thought of pre-Qin China. The text is demonstrably influenced by the other contemporary currents of Chinese thought. Moreover, the received text specifically contrasts its own positions with those of the schools of Confucius and Mozi.

Mencius
While the Confucian Mencius would have been direct contemporaries with the historical Zhuang Zhou, the former showed no interest or direct awareness of the latter, while the passages that could be plausibly engaging with the thought of Mencius within the Zhuangzi are few and indirect. Confucian concepts of the "Tao" are usually characterized as humanist.

Mohism and the School of Names
Zhuangzi has a particularly deep engagement with the School of Names, as portrayed by the recurring presence of Hui Shi.

Selected translations

 * James Legge (1891), The Texts of Taoism, in Sacred Books of the East, vols. XXXIX, XL, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
 * Fung Yu-lan (1933), Chuang Tzu, a New Selected Translation with an Exposition on the Philosophy of Kuo Hsiang, Shanghai: Shang wu.
 * Burton Watson (1964), Chuang tzu: Basic Writings, New York: Columbia University Press; 2nd edition (1996); 3rd edition (2003) converted to pinyin.
 * Mitsuji Fukunaga 福永光次 (1966), Sōshi 荘子 [Zhuangzi], 3 vols., Tokyo: Asahi.
 * Burton Watson (1968), The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, New York: Columbia University Press.
 * Liou Kia-hway 劉家槐 (1969), L'œuvre complète de Tchouang-tseu [The Complete Works of Zhuangzi], Paris: Gallimard.
 * Kiyoshi Akatsuka 赤塚志 (1977), Sōshi 荘子 [Zhuangzi], in Zenshaku kanbun taikei 全釈漢文大系 [Fully Interpreted Chinese Literature Series], vols. 16–17, Tokyo: Shūeisha.
 * A. C. Graham (1981), Chuang-tzu, The Seven Inner Chapters and Other Writings from the Book Chuang-tzu, London: George Allen and Unwin. Translation notes published separately in 1982 as Chuang-tzu: Textual Notes to a Partial Translation, London: School of Oriental and African Studies.
 * Kiyoshi Akatsuka 赤塚志 (1977), Sōshi 荘子 [Zhuangzi], in Zenshaku kanbun taikei 全釈漢文大系 [Fully Interpreted Chinese Literature Series], vols. 16–17, Tokyo: Shūeisha.
 * A. C. Graham (1981), Chuang-tzu, The Seven Inner Chapters and Other Writings from the Book Chuang-tzu, London: George Allen and Unwin. Translation notes published separately in 1982 as Chuang-tzu: Textual Notes to a Partial Translation, London: School of Oriental and African Studies.