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Overview
Chinese Name：庄子
English Name: Zhuangzi
Other Names: Nan Hua Sutra南华经，Nan Hua True Sutra南华真经
Author: Zhuang Zhou庄周/庄子
Originally Published: Warring States Period战国时期
Genre: Philosophy，Religion
Brief Introduction of Zhuangzi
Zhuangzi is a Taoist theory written by Zhuang Zhou庄周（Zhuangzi） in the Warring States period. Zhuangzi deeply criticizes instrumental rationality and puts forward the viewpoint of “being content and forgetting words得意忘言”.
After the Han Dynasty, Zhuangzi was honored as Nanhua Immortal南华真人, so the book Zhuangzi was also called Nanhua Sutra南华经.
Zhuangzi mainly reflects Zhuangzi’s critical philosophy, art, aesthetics, aesthetics and so on. Its content is rich, broad and profound, involving philosophy, life, politics, society, art, cosmogenesis and many other aspects.
Zhuangzi’s articles, with fantastic imagination, ingenious conception, colorful ideological world and literary artistic conception, wanton writing style, romantic artistic style, magnificent and treacherous, are the model works of the articles of the pre-Qin scholars.
Zhuangzi is not only a masterpiece of philosophy, but also a masterpiece of fables in literature and aesthetics. It has an inseparable and far-reaching impact on the development of Chinese literature and aesthetics. The publication and research of Zhuangzi’s Fables enable the excellent tradition of Chinese culture to be inherited and developed, and the spirit of the Chinese nation to be carried forward.
Zhuangzi clearly denied the social and political system of ethics and false cultural life. Politically, he advocated an approach different from Confucian social philosophy. He directly cut in from the principle of the operation of heaven and carried out the philosophy of “Tao” focusing on natural meaning, generative meaning and neutral meaning.
Taoism attaches importance to the freedom and liberation of human nature, improves personal quality and self-cultivation, and implements “Govern by Doing Nothing that Goes Against Nature无为而治”.
Zhuangzi is divided into three parts: inner part, outer part and miscellaneous part. There are thirty-three parts, including more than 200 fables and fables, with 65920 words, including seven inner parts; Outer part 15; Miscellaneous chapter 11. The book covers everything, including cosmogenesis, the relationship between man and nature, the value of life, critical philosophy and so on.
Author of Zhuangzi
The authors of the book “Zhuangzi” were Zhuang Zhou(Zhuangzi) and some Taoist students.
Zhuangzi (about 369 B.C. – about 286 B.C.) was a thinker, philosopher, and writer in the Warring States period. He was the founder of Zhuangzi school and the representative of Taoism. He was called “Lao Zhuang老庄” together with Lao Zi老子.
Zhuangzi inherited and developed Lao Zi’s thought of “Tao follows Nature道法自然” in philosophical thought, which made Taoism really become a school, and he himself became an important representative of Taoism.
Excerpts of Zhuangzi
相濡以沫，不如相忘于江湖。
It’s better for us to forget each other and swim in rivers and lakes instead of wetting each other with saliva.
人生天地之间，若白驹过隙，忽然而已。
A man’s life is like a little white horse running through a small gap, just one moment.
君子之交淡若水，小人之交甘若醴.
The relationship between gentlemen is as indifferent as water, and the relationship between villains is as sweet as honey
吾生也有涯，而知也无涯。
以有涯随无涯，殆已；已而为知者，殆而已矣。
Our life is limited, but knowledge is infinite. If you want to pursue unlimited knowledge with limited life, you will feel very tired; In that case, if you have to keep pursuing knowledge, you will be even more tired!
Evaluation of Mozi
His writing is graceful . No one can write the works of various scholars in the late Zhou Dynasty.
Lu Xun鲁迅
Almost half of every history of Chinese literature since the Qin and Han Dynasties has developed under his influence: the people who are thinkers and writers are really unique among ancient Chinese philosophers.
The appearance of Chinese literati is Confucianism, but the heart is always Zhuangzi.
