Zhuangzi 哲學一愛 493031319 王思云

Questions and Answers--- Zhuangzi

I am very glad to invite Zhuangzi to take my interview. We are in the Zhuangzi’s house. The following are our conversation.

Cheer: Hi! I’m Cheer Wang, studying in Fu Jen Catholic University and majoring in Philosophy. Nice to meet you! Could you introduce yourself in some simple words?
Zhuangzi: Hi! I’m Tzoang Tzu. Living in Warring States period. My teacher is a great thinker named Laozi.

Cheer: When were you born?
Zhuangzi: About 360 BC.

Cheer: In my view, you were a leading thinker representing the Taoism strain in Chinese thought. Could you explain what Taoism is?
Zhuangzi: Taoism, like Confucianism, was not an organized school, sect, or movement but developed into an intellectual tradition that had widespread influence throughout subsequent Chinese history.

Cheer: What is your Dao and De?
Zhuangzi: Dao, the “Way”, is an ineffable monistic principle that infuses and guides the spontaneous processes of all phenomena; De, “Inner Power”, is the realized manifestation of this Way within all phenomena.

Cheer: Besides, what is your central theory?
Zhuangzi: My central theory concerns the relativity of things, ideas, and language. It fulfills some of the same function for Taoist thought that Mencius’ work does for Confucianism by illustrating and elucidating key concepts.

Cheer: Oh! I see. And how many texts do you have?
Zhuangzi: I have Inner chapters, including”Wandering Beyond”, “Discussion on Smoothing Things Out ”, “The Principle of Nurturing Life”, “In the Human Realm”, “Sign of Abundant Potency”, “The Vast Ancestral Teacher” and “Responding to Emperors and Kings”.

Cheer: In your works, what ways do you use to express your view and thinking?
Zhuangzi: I usually was using parable and allegory.

Cheer: A famous story named Tzoang Tzu’s Dream in your parable. Could you describe what the content is?
Zhuangzi: once dreamed of myself becoming a butterfly fluttering in the sky. But is it I dreaming to become a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming to become me? The story of my dream of a butterfly awakens in us the concept that all things are one.

Cheer: Then, what is “Discussion on Smoothing Things Out ”?
Zhuangzi: Suppose you and I have had an argument. If you have beaten me instead of I beating you, then are you necessarily right and am I necessarily wrong? If I have beaten you instead of you beating me, then am I necessarily right and are you necessarily wrong? Is one of us right and the other wrong? Are both of us right or are both of us wrong? Whom shall we get to decide what is right? Shall we get someone who agrees with you to decide? But if he already agrees with you, how can he decide fairly? Shall we get someone who agrees with me? But if he already agrees with me, how can he decide? Shall we get someone who disagrees with both of us? But if he already disagrees with both of us, how can he decide? Shall we get someone who agrees with both of us? But if he already agrees with both of us, how can he decide? Obviously, then, neither you nor I nor anyone else can know the answer. Shall we wait for still another person? But waiting for one shifting voice to pass judgment on another is the same as waiting for none of them. Right is not right; so is not so. If right were really right it would differ so clearly from not right that there would be no need for argument. If so were really so, it would differ so clearly from not so that there would be no need for argument.

Cheer: Finally, I want to know what “The Principle of Nurturing Life” is.
Zhuangzi: I see civic involvement as particularly inimical to the preservation and cultivation of one’s natural life. In order to cultivate one’s natural potencies, one must retreat from social life, or at least one must retreat from the highly complex and artificially structured social life of the city. One undergoes a psychophysical training in which one’s sensory and physical attunement with the transformations of nature, and thus highly responsive to the tendencies of all things, people, and processes.

Cheer: Well, thanks for that you answer my question in details so that I could understand you more. Thank you!