The Thought of Zhuangzi: How the Mind Can Be Free

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Summary

The “Zhuangzi” is an ancient Chinese philosophical treatise named after the Warring States period thinker Zhuangzi (庄子), and is known as one of the three great schools of Chinese philosophy along with Laozi and Confucius.

The “Zhuangzi” consists of a total of 20 essays, each of which contains independent stories and discussions. Zhuangzi’s thought is characterized by a freewheeling yet profound insight, and his ideas cover a wide range of areas, including Taoist thought, natural philosophy, religious thought, and discussions of human relationships. In a word, Chuang-tzu’s thought can be summed up as “freedom,” and in order to realize this, he explains the importance of people living freely and without prejudice or restraint. He also emphasized the importance of following the natural order and believed that human beings should coexist with nature.

Zhuangzi” is one of the most important classics of Chinese philosophy, and its ideas have greatly influenced Taoism and Zen Buddhism, and its unique style and way of thinking have had a great impact on traditional Chinese culture.

This section discusses Zhuangzi based on NHK’s “100 minutes de Meitaku” Books Zhuangzi.

The Thought of Zhuangzi: How the Mind Can Be Free

Zhuangzi is a book of thought that is said to have been written in the middle of the Warring States Period in China, approximately 2,300 years ago. The author’s name is also Zhuangzi (Zhuang Zhou), and this book is a compilation of the writings of Zhuangzi and his disciples. Looking at thinkers who have left their mark on history, neither Confucius, who wrote “Confucius’ Analects: A Comprehensive Treatise on Anthropology,” nor the Buddha, who wrote “Mahayana Buddhism and the Prajnaparamita Sutra,” nor Socrates, who wrote “The Analects of Socrates,” left any of their own writings. In the case of “Zhuangzi,” it is clear that Zhuangzi himself wrote the book, and it is a book in the unusual style of a joint work by a master and a disciple.

In Japan, it is customary to read “Zhuangzi” as “Soji” or “Nikose” in order to distinguish it from the Confucian “Zengzi.

The “Zhuangzi” uses many allegories to explain the idea that true freedom exists when one accepts everything as it is. This idea had a great influence on the later formation of Chinese Buddhism, or Zen (the introduction of Zen from China to Japan is described in “Rinzai Zen and the Five Mountains of Kamakura,” etc.). As can be seen from its use of allegory, “Zhuangzi” is a book of thought, but it is also very much a novel. In fact, the word “novel” also has its origin in the “Zhuangzi,” as in the passage in the “Gaimon Hen” that reads, “Adorn yourself with novels, and then you will be able to make the prefectural ordinances more reasonable. It means “to embellish a trivial treatise in a plausible manner and thereby seek the position of prefectural governor,” and such a person will not be able to achieve great success. This is the earliest example of the use of the word “novel,” although it does not mean much.

In fact, many Japanese writers and artists have been inspired by “Zhuangzi” in their creative works. Some well-known examples are Saigyo Hoshi in “Kaido yuku – Kawachi no michi“, Kamo no Chomei in “Houjouki“, Matsuo Basho and Sengai Gibon in “Haiku history and reading haiku from the perspective of communication“. Yoshihiro Ryōkan is said to have always carried two sets of “Shōzi” with him. In modern times, Mori Ogai and Natsume Soseki, who are mentioned in “Kanda neighborhood on the street,” and Dr. Hideki Yukawa, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics, were also avid readers of the “Zhuangzi,” and it is said that when they were thinking about meson theory, they dreamed of the story “Death in the seventh hole of the seventh hole of chaos” in the “O Tei Ou” chapter of the “Zhuangzi. It is said that he got a big hint.

Some people say that “Zhuangzi” is a book against common sense, that it is merely eccentric, but it is also something that one can carry around in one’s bag and read on a moment’s notice, and feel something unraveling. In a world where Confucian and legalistic ideas such as control and punishment are dominant (and social order may be such a thing), “Zhuangzi” always has the viewpoint of whether or not such ideas can lead to individual happiness. From the standpoint of how to think about individual happiness, Zhuangzi’s philosophy is indispensable.

Today, people have lost the recognition that words and ideas are created for arbitrary reasons and are provisional. For example, what is being done in the name of so-called globalism is not pan-globalism but the imposition of Western values, and in fact, the ideas of various ethnic groups and religions are very relative, and nothing is absolutely correct. This is the “Zhuangzi.

When we think about “nature,” we humans assume that we can understand and control nature in its entirety, but we also recognize that nature is a terrible thing and that we humans can never grasp it all. (The Tao, the fundamental concept of Taoism, one of the three great religions of China, is also discussed in “Living like Water: The Way at the Basis of Lao Tzu’s Thought“).

In the “Zhuangzi”, there is a phrase, “Always follow nature to the detriment of your own life”. This means that one should always follow nature without any personal feelings, because it is one’s own personal feelings for the good of one’s own life that are not good, and that will harm one’s own body.

In the O-tei-oh-hen, there is also the phrase, “If you follow nature and do not tolerate me, then the kingdom of heaven will not be subdued. This means, “If you do not allow your personal feelings to control you, the kingdom of heaven will be well governed.

In fact, Zhuangzi does not trust words. His basic attitude is based on the statement in the Anthropocene epic, “Words are like the wind and waves, they are constant and unreliable. (The uncertainty of words and meaning is also considered in modern linguistics and philosophy, as in “Two Approaches to the Meaning of Language (Fusion of Symbolic and Distributed Representations)” and “Artificial Anence Talks about Zen and Buddabuddha.)

However, just because Zhuangzi says so, it is no use suddenly saying “words are no good” without effort. It is also necessary to challenge how far words can be useful. Zhuangzi’s attitude is to say, “I will speak delusively, so you must listen delusively. (I shall not speak ill of this for the sake of a woman, but a woman shall listen to me.)