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Chapter 322 Taoist Master Zhuangzi
Speaking of Laozi, there is the saying of Laozi and Zhuangzi, and the other one is Zhuangzi.

Zhuangzi lived in the Warring States Period, a time of social turmoil on the one hand and a hundred schools of thought on the other.

Confucian scholars lobbied various countries, Mohist disciples spread throughout the world, the Jixia School in Qi State flourished, and the ideas of various schools collided and merged with each other.

It was in such an era of free and liberated thought that Zhuangzi was inspired to begin thinking about the turbulent society.

Zhuangzi himself did not agree with the Confucian school's idea of ​​restoring Zhou rituals and advocating benevolence, righteousness, filial piety and brotherhood.

Zhuangzi also criticized the Mohist thought which was popular at that time.

Laozi's teachings provided a theoretical basis for Zhuangzi, and the idea of ​​non-action was directly inherited by Zhuangzi.

Chu culture also had an influence on Zhuangzi himself, and Zhuangzi's pursuit of spiritual transcendence was closely related to Chu style.

It was on this basis that Zhuangzi, based on Taoist thought, absorbed the thoughts of various schools of thought and refuted them, leaving behind the book "Zhuangzi" to be passed down to future generations.

Zhuangzi is a very distinctive and unique philosopher, the only one of his kind in the world, both ancient and modern.

His greatest characteristic is that he turned extremely profound thoughts into literature, art, and fables.

Zhuangzi's writings discussing philosophical issues are all appropriately metaphorical and are very interesting to read, thus making profound philosophy literary and interesting.

"He faced the internal involution with ease and ease."

"He turned into a butterfly in his dream, and influenced future generations."

"He spent his entire life, seeing through life and death, just to pursue the true freedom of the spirit."

"Zhuangzi, also known as Zhou, was a native of Song during the Warring States Period. He was one of the important representatives of the Taoist school."

"Zhuang Zhou liked to use fables to explain his thoughts. His greatest characteristic was that he turned very profound thoughts into literature."

"Famous fables such as Dong Shi's Imitation of a Woman and Learning to Walk in Handan come from his book Zhuangzi."

"Zhuangzi inherited and developed Laozi's view that Tao follows nature in his philosophical thought, making Taoism a real school of thought."

"He also became an important representative of Taoism, and was called Lao Zhuang together with Laozi."

"But Zhuangzi's thoughts are different from Laozi's. Laozi's philosophy serves the political and social governance."

"Although Laozi advocates non-action, the non-action is directed at the rulers, hoping that the rulers will reduce their interference in the operation of the country. What Laozi actually pursues is the goal of non-action and achieving everything."

"Zhuangzi is completely different from Laozi. He is not concerned with politics, but with individuals. He holds a contemptuous attitude towards right and wrong, honor and disgrace, fame and fortune in the world."

"Zhuangzi pursues a life state of no self, no merit, and no name, transcending society and everything about people, pursuing a carefree state of being free from all things and not being attached to things."

"To put it simply, it means not being influenced by external things, letting nature take its course and respecting your own heart."

"Among all the philosophers, only Zhuangzi is the most special."

"Confucius said to become a martyr, Mencius said to pursue righteousness, Laozi said to do nothing, and Mohist said to love all. In fact, they are all teachings and instructions."

“Only Zhuangzi’s philosophy does not talk about being a human being, society, or ideals. It only tells you how to achieve true happiness and freedom in life.”

"Today, in an era of material abundance, we are becoming increasingly empty, lonely, anxious and depressed."

"If we want to solve this problem, Zhuangzi actually gave us the answer more than 2,000 years ago."

"Zhuangzi once told a story. One day you were sitting on a boat and preparing to cross a river."

"Suddenly you find a boat colliding with you, and you shout loudly to ask the boat to move back."

"You shouted once but got no response. You shouted a second time but got no response. Then you shouted a third time but still got no response. Finally, your boat was hit."

"When faced with this kind of situation, even a person with a good temper might get angry and even want to beat up the other person."

"But when you find out that there is no one on the boat that hit you, it is an empty boat, then you will naturally not be angry."

"Because there is no one to be with, the reason why we get angry is actually whether there are people on the boat, not whether the boat hits you."

"In Zhuangzi's view, as long as you empty your boat, you won't be burdened by external things."

"We can all stay away from worries, and naturally be free from pain and harm. This is also Zhuangzi's classic theory of the empty boat."

Ying Zheng: Zhuangzi's empty boat theory tells us that many times, we have to regard others as an empty boat.

In fact, you will find that whether you are angry or not depends on whether there are people on the colliding boat.

Sometimes, you are angry simply because the other person behaves like that, not just because of the hurt that person has caused you.

But there are all kinds of people in this world, and there are all kinds of birds in a big forest.

If you get angry when you meet a weirdo, you will be making life difficult for yourself.

As Zhuangzi said, the more things, people and events a person cannot tolerate, the lower his realm will be and the smaller his pattern will be.

If you are tripped by someone, you should think that he must have done it unintentionally.

If a person takes himself too seriously and ignores others, he will easily get into disputes with others.

When people understand the empty ship mentality, they will not always blame others when something goes wrong.

This will not only reduce disputes, but also help you stay away from unnecessary anger, which is beneficial to your body and mind.

It is crucial to have a good mentality in one's life, which is directly reflected in a person's state when facing setbacks, difficulties and challenges.

The attitude you use to look at the world will determine how the world responds to you.

Getting angry at other people's behavior is as stupid as getting angry at a rock that's blocking your path.

In most cases, it is not the bad condition that affects the mentality, but the bad mentality that leads to the bad condition.

Zhuangzi warned the world that they should forget their selfish desires and prejudices in everything.

If you can have an empty boat mentality when encountering everything, you will not hurt others, nor will you be hurt by others.

"Zhuangzi spent his entire life searching for a carefree state of mind."

“Because in this state, we will get rid of the empty and anxious emotions and achieve absolute spiritual happiness and freedom.”

"The core of Zhuangzi's philosophical thought can actually be summarized into two parts: Theory of Equality of All Things and Free and Unfettered Journey."

“The former is the method of how to achieve it, and the latter is the final state to be achieved.”

"Zhuangzi believed that people can achieve a state of freedom."

“Maybe the body can’t do it, but the spirit can.”

“The world can shackle the body, but it cannot shackle the soul.”

“We may not be able to change the world, but we can change the way we understand the world.”

"Zhuangzi tells us that through the practice of fasting the mind and sitting in oblivion, one can reach a state of freedom and realize absolute spiritual freedom, and this theoretical method is called the Theory of the Equality of All Things."

"The theory of the equality of all things is reflected in the wisdom of life, which is to ask us to transcend the constraints of secular concepts."

“Forget the distinction between things and yourself, forget the distinction between right and wrong, and reach a state of freedom without distinction.”

“The meaning of equality is that heaven and earth are born with me, and all things are one with me.”

"All things are the same in the final analysis. There is no difference. There is no right or wrong, beautiful or ugly, good or evil, noble or humble."

"According to Zhuangzi, in order to achieve absolute spiritual freedom, one needs to have four kinds of cognitions of equality, namely equality between each other, equality of right and wrong, equality of self and things, and equality of life and death."

"The word 'qi' here can be understood as looking at each other, right and wrong, things and oneself, life and death in a dialectical and unified way."

"What is equality? Zhuangzi believes that everything has opposites."

"If you can't see it from the other side, you can see it clearly from this side."

“So, that comes from this, and this comes from that.”

"To put it further, this is also that, and that is also this."

"It means that everything has two sides, and there is no distinction between one and the other."

“We cannot be blinded by a single leaf and fail to see the whole thing from a single perspective.”

"What is right and wrong? Zhuangzi believes that there is no absolute right or wrong in the world."

"Because right and wrong are all based on people's subjective judgment."

"Zhuangzi said, if I debated with you and you won, did that really make me wrong?"

"I defeated you, so you are really wrong?"

"It's impossible to tell who's right and who's wrong between you and me."

"Even if we invite a third party, we still can't determine right or wrong."

"Because if a third person holds the same opinion as you and me, he has no right to judge."

“If you hold an opinion that differs from yours and mine, you have no right to judge.”

"Zhuangzi probably thought this statement was a bit confusing, so he gave another example."

"People will get rheumatism if they sleep on wet ground, but loaches won't."

"People are terrified when they climb trees, but monkeys can walk freely in trees."

"So, so-called right and wrong, good and evil, beauty and ugliness are all the same."

"Why should you go crazy over success or freak out over failure?"

"Why bother to dwell on right and wrong, success and failure, and argue about the pros and cons?"

"What is life and death? Zhuangzi said, life and death are simultaneous, and death and life are simultaneous. Death and life are also dependent on each other."

"From the perspective of Tao, death is life, and life is death."

"The road between life and death is like an unobstructed avenue. They have no beginning or end."

“If you understand this principle, you will not be more happy to be born into this world, and you will not feel that leaving this world is a disaster.”

"And in the Zhuangzi it is recorded that after Zhuangzi's wife died, Zhuangzi was not sad at all, but beat a basin and sang."

"Zhuangzi's actions were not heartless, but were based on his understanding of life and death."

"Zhuangzi believed that life and death are natural events. When qi gathers, life comes; when qi disperses, death comes."

“We are born in nature and die in nature. This is a process of returning to the great way.”

"In history, Peng Zu is said to have lived for 800 years, which is considered a long life."

"But compared to the big trees that live for thousands of years, it is short-lived."

"Compared to insects that live and die in the morning, children who die young are considered to have lived a long life."

“Longevity and short life are relative, and so are survival and death.”

"When you are alive, be content and accept your fate; when you die, be indifferent."

“If one can neither be happy with life nor hate death, and put life and death aside, then naturally there will be no worries about life and death.”

"Only this kind of person can achieve the state of freedom and ease."

“What is the self? Properly handling the relationship between the material world and the self is related to how people can settle down and live.”

"What makes Zhuangzi feel sad is that people are always enslaved by things and cannot control them. This is the root cause of life's lack of freedom."

“A truly free life is to be able to be in things without being in things, and to be assimilated with things into the great way of nature.”

"Zhuangzi once had the most philosophical dream in the history of Chinese literature. He dreamed that he turned into a butterfly, and the butterfly in the dream dreamed that it turned into Zhuangzi."

“When Zhuangzi woke up, he didn’t know whether he was a butterfly or Zhuangzi.”

"From a realistic perspective, Zhuangzi and the butterfly are certainly not the same person."

“But who can say that the process of life is not a beautiful dream? It’s just that people don’t want to wake up.”

"In this beautiful dream, Zhuangzi and the butterfly merged into one, indistinguishable from each other."

"This also implies that the ideal state is that people and things are integrated into one, people are no longer restricted by the material world and have achieved freedom. Only in this way can life be free and happy."

Liu Che: The profound wisdom in Zhuangzi's "On the Equality of Things" is a way to resolve disputes among people in the world.

If one were to find a wise man among saints, he believed that many people would choose Zhuangzi.

Of course, using the term "wisdom all the way to heaven" may seem a bit unsteady.

But he believes that this is the best definition of Zhuangzi.

In Zhuangzi's philosophical thoughts, there are many viewpoints involved, such as dialectical thinking.

No matter from which perspective people approach it, they can get a glimpse of the grandeur and depth of Zhuangzi's philosophy.

It can be said that among many philosophers, only Zhuangzi can have such insight into human nature, all things and the true nature of the world.

And those who can describe it accurately and find the ultimate solution are rare.

"On the Equality of Things" is the second chapter of "Zhuangzi", the first one being "The Happy Journey".

It is said that after writing "Xiaoyaoyou", Zhuangzi's mind was very open and he enjoyed the pleasure brought by spiritual freedom.

Zhuangzi also hopes that more people can reach his level and share this high-level enjoyment.

But Zhuangzi discovered that people's minds were bound by various concepts of right and wrong, and that it was impossible to reach this state.

The first thing to do was to resolve the confusion caused by the disputes among these schools, so he wrote "On the Equality of Things".

In "On the Equality of Things", Zhuangzi believed that all things are one and the same, that there is no fundamental distinction between things, and that they are interdependent.

The so-called equality of all things means that all things are the same in the final analysis.

There is no difference, no distinction between right and wrong, beautiful and ugly, good and evil, noble and humble.

At the beginning of "On the Equality of Things", Zhuangzi has a dialogue with his students through the experience of a great man named Nan Guo Zi Qi who is able to lose himself.

This explains a truth: different things lead to different insights.

Zhuangzi first proposed the true nature of the world of human sounds, earth sounds, and heavenly sounds through the mouth of Zi Qi of the Southern Kingdom.

It also points out that most people only know the sounds of man, and those with a slightly higher level of cultivation may know the sounds of earth, but very few people know the sounds of heaven.

Then, Nan Guo Zi Qi used the various shapes of tree holes in the woods, which made different sounds when the wind blew through them, to illustrate.

The wind is the same wind, but the tree holes have different shapes.

The sounds produced are different, some are like the sound of running water, some are like the sound of shooting arrows, and some are like shouting. Here, Zhuangzi has given the world enlightenment.

Different things will definitely give you different feelings.

But it would be a big mistake to regard this self-perception as the only truth.

But Zi Qi’s students are still trapped in concepts. Human sounds are produced by bamboo, earth sounds are like the sounds produced by tree holes, so what are heavenly sounds?

In fact, in general, Zhuangzi is not trying to reveal the origin of concepts, but to tell people about the problem of cognitive limitations.

The purpose of bringing up the sounds of nature is to illustrate that people's cognition is limited, and what they can see is very limited.

Therefore, Nan Guo Zi Qi did not answer the student's question, but instead raised a question to think about, and asked the student to face the cognitive problem directly.

The wind blows on the tree holes of different shapes, making them make their own sounds.

They can make all kinds of different sounds, so who is instigating these sounds?

The thought raised by Zhuangzi is the foundation of "On the Equality of Things".

This foundation is undoubtedly metaphysics.

Although Zhuangzi uses materialism, dialectics and other methods to explain his ideas throughout the book, the foundation of his philosophy is built on metaphysics.

Then, without waiting for Ziqi's students to answer, Zhuangzi changed his tone and pointedly addressed the problem of human beings.

Whether a person is very wise or not, everyone loves to hold his own opinions.

In order to prove that they are right, they come up with all kinds of false and fabricated means, and these are called shrewdness.

But these efforts to make themselves smarter than others are like their minds being tied up with ropes, and they are heading towards destruction day by day.

In other words, every individual is actually similar to those tree holes.

Each person has various disputes due to his or her own feelings and understandings.

Fundamentally, these disputes are meaningless.

Just like those tree holes making various sounds, they all think that the sounds they make are correct and the others are wrong, but in fact they are all feeling the same wind.

Zhuangzi further emphasized that without wind, they would not even have the chance to make a sound.

But the strange thing is that people's emotions are unpredictable, sometimes happy, sometimes angry, sometimes sad, and sometimes happy.

Sometimes I worry, sometimes I sigh, sometimes I regret, sometimes I am afraid, sometimes I indulge, sometimes I am arrogant, sometimes I act pretentiously, just like music coming out of the void.

If you think about it carefully, it is the same with people in the world. They are always inexplicably angry, resentful, sad, and furious, but they cannot stop it.

Understanding from this level, people cannot help but enter into metaphysical understanding.

When people use metaphysics to understand, they will know that people are really insignificant and cannot even control their own emotions.

This is the first level of "On the Equality of Things". Here, Zhuangzi lets people know the limitations of cognition. The disputes among people are all due to their own inner differences.

"What is the realm of free and easy travel? Free and easy travel is the opening chapter of Zhuangzi's book, and it is also the connotation of Zhuangzi's philosophical thoughts."

“If you understand Happy Journey, then you will understand all of Zhuangzi.”

"It can be said that Xiaoyaoyou is both the core of Zhuangzi's philosophical thought and his ultimate pursuit."

“Some people say that Zhuangzi’s philosophy is to avoid the world, but Zhuangzi used the word ‘free and easy’ to interpret the truth of life.”

"To fully understand the freedom is to return to one's true self."

"You can advance to be a general or a prime minister, or retreat to the mountains and forests."

"Xiaoyao is the view of life that Zhuangzi pursues, which is an absolutely free life."

"Zhuangzi believed that only by forgetting the boundaries between the self and the world, and reaching the state of the perfect man without self, the divine man without merit, and the sage without name, can one wander in the infinite without relying on anything."

“If people don’t have worries, they can be truly happy, and they can truly be carefree, that is, to empty themselves and travel the world.”

"By using the realms of the perfect man, the divine man, and the sage, Zhuangzi actually points out the three ropes that bind people."

“One is self-perception, such as the pursuit of self-centeredness.”

"The second is utilitarian values, such as the pursuit of achievements, wealth and benefits."

"The third is reputation and status, such as the pursuit of social status and personal influence."

“These three ropes are the root of our mental blockage and anxiety.”

"Since we were little, we were told to be a useful person to society, to be a scientist, not a chef."

"Many times, we are bound by so-called usefulness."

“Usefulness is pragmatism, and pragmatism is utilitarianism.”

“It seems that we are born to achieve what others call usefulness, but this is short-sighted and uncreative.”

"Zhuangzi said, 'The use of uselessness is the greatest use.'"

"Because everything useful comes from the useless. Without the useless, there is no useful."

“No matter who it is or what it is, uselessness and usefulness coexist. There is no absolute uselessness, nor absolute usefulness.”

“In our lives, we always keep calculating what is useful and what is useless, and we keep doing things that seem useful.”

"It is precisely because of this that my life became extremely difficult and I eventually became a slave to others."

Li Shimin: The book "Zhuangzi" is a classic of Taoist culture, and its first chapter "Xiaoyaoyou" is a classic among classics.

"Xiaoyaoyou" is the first chapter of "Zhuangzi", which reflects Zhuangzi's outlook on life.

Zhuangzi pursued freedom from any constraints as the highest state, and believed that only by forgetting reality and transcending material things can one be truly free.

Zhuangzi used simple and beautiful words to tell several short stories, leading to thinking about the realm of life.

The story is simple, but it contains profound wisdom on how to deal with people.

It is said in "Xiao Yao You" that little knowledge is not as good as great knowledge, and little years are not as good as great years.

It means that small wisdom is not as good as great wisdom, short life is not as good as long life, it is talking about vision and limitations.

Life is like a journey, with people coming and going, and everyone has their own place to go.

It's a waste of energy to argue with short-sighted people.

Reasoning with people of low level is like playing the lute to a cow.

Zhuangzi talked about this point in the form of a story in "Xiaoyaoyou" (The Happy Journey).

There was a big fish in the North Sea, which turned into a roc on a windy day.

Because it had to take advantage of this strong wind to fly to the south, the process was extremely difficult.

Small creatures like cicadas, turtledoves and sparrows could not understand the Peng's behavior, and they disapproved of it, and ridiculed Peng for doing something unnecessary.

They think it would be nice to live in the grass and trees all their lives.

The Peng bird did not say a word in response to the confusion, doubts and ridicule from the outside world.

Instead, we should firmly believe in our original belief, ride on the wind and move forward courageously.

The same is true for human society.

Some people are good at using clever tricks, while others are very wise.

Some people are as short-sighted as the doves and sparrows in the story, and are complacent about the little bit of land in front of them.

Some people have lofty ambitions like Dapeng and are willing to work hard to achieve their lofty ambitions.

Cognition determines the level, and vision determines the realm.

Those who have different ideals cannot work together, and those who have different goals cannot be friends.

There are three sentences in "Zhuangzi" that vividly illustrate this point.

A frog in a well cannot talk about the sea, a summer insect cannot talk about ice, and a crooked person cannot talk about the Tao.

There is no need to talk about the sea with the frog at the bottom of the well, talk about ice and snow with the insects in summer, or talk about the way of heaven and earth with people with shallow knowledge.

Everyone has cognitive limitations, but not everyone is aware of their limitations.

Some people prefer to measure others by their own standards. This is their deepest limitation and also their greatest sorrow.

Only by breaking through cognitive limitations can we have profound insights.

Only by broadening your horizons can you stand on the top of the mountain and look down on all the other mountains.

Life is short and time is limited, so compete with those who share the same interests and don't argue with fools.

No explanations, no arguments, just go your own way and be yourself.

"As Zhuangzi said in "The Art of Preserving Life", my life is limited, but my knowledge is limitless. To follow the limitless with the limited is to become lazy."

"This is not to say that we should not pursue knowledge, Zhuangzi just wants to tell us."

“Even if we spend our entire lives pursuing it, the knowledge and wisdom we gain are limited.”

“Some things cannot be achieved by our hard work. We need to let nature take its course instead of being obsessed with ourselves.”

"Every day I am busy and do everything for fame and fortune."

"Blindly pursuing usefulness will only make you overwhelmed."

“Only by letting go of so-called usefulness can you achieve freedom and ease.”

"In society, our roles are civil servants, workers and farmers."

"It seems like the so-called class, but in Zhuangzi's view, everyone is actually the same."

"Because everyone is burdened by external things, everyone has their own troubles."

“It is difficult for us to understand other people’s lives without being in our own environment, but we cannot criticize them just because we don’t understand them.”

"Instead, we should maintain understanding and respect for the differences in personality expression and meaning of existence."

"Let the mind break free from the shackles of the flesh and cast aside worldly prejudices."

“To be free from the limitations of time and space is the true freedom.”

“Lao Tzu said, Heaven and earth are not benevolent, they treat all things as straw dogs; sages are not benevolent, they treat the people as straw dogs.”

"It means that heaven and earth do not have the so-called mercy, and treat all things equally."

"And the same is true for the saints, for everyone."

“So Zhuangzi said, from the perspective of the Tao, there is no such thing as noble or humble.”

"Whether it is right or wrong, each other, life or death, or the self and the object, from the perspective of Tao, all things are the same, without any difference. Zhuangzi calls this the unity of Tao."

"This is a concentrated reflection of Zhuangzi's dialectical thinking, and also reflects the materialistic dialectical thinking of Taoist thought."

"What ethics, what midlife crisis? The more we are bound, the more we cannot move forward."

"Only by cutting the rope can you be freed."

“Freedom belongs to the mind. Our bodies may not be free, but our minds can be.”

Zhu Di: "The Art of Preserving Life" expounds Zhuangzi's unique insights into life, nature and the universe through vivid stories and figurative language.

"The Art of Preserving Life" is an important chapter in Zhuangzi's philosophical thought, which contains core concepts such as Tao.

The opening chapter of "The Art of Preserving Health" puts forward the proposition that life is limited, but knowledge is unlimited.

This sentence means that human life is limited, but knowledge is infinite.

If you use your limited life to pursue infinite knowledge, you will fall into an endless pursuit.

Eventually it will drain your life away and lead to exhaustion and hardship.

Zhuangzi believed that the meaning of life lies not in the pursuit of knowledge, but in living a fulfilling and meaningful life.

Therefore, people should use their limited lives to pursue the true meaning of life rather than pursuing infinite knowledge.

Then “The Art of Preserving Health” tells the first story, the well-known story of the butchering of an ox by the chef Ding.

The story of Cook Ding butchering an ox for Lord Wenhui illustrates the concept of Tao through Cook Ding's superb knife skills.

Pao Ding was a very skilled butcher. He was very skilled in butchering cattle and his knife skills were very exquisite.

When butchering an ox, the movements are simple and neat, and done in one go.

According to the skeletal structure of the cow, he can use appropriate knife techniques to cut the cow's skin, meat, tendons and bones cleanly and neatly without damaging the tendons or bones.

Lord Wenhui saw the butchering of an ox and was amazed at his superb skills and magical method.

However, Cook Ding believed that the reason why he was so skilled in butchering an ox was because he had mastered the Tao.

He is able to follow the laws of nature and use exquisite knife skills to perfectly separate the cow's bone structure.

Zhuangzi used the story of Cook Ding butchering an ox to explain the concept of Tao.

Zhuangzi believed that Tao is the origin of all things in the universe and the sum of natural laws.

People should follow the Tao to achieve success.

The most important words in the story of "Pao Ding butchering an ox" are "he cuts the ox with every inch of its body" and "he does it with ease".

People get anxious because they imagine the difficulties ahead to be too difficult to overcome and they get scared.

No matter how big or difficult a problem is, it can be solved by breaking it down into small goals, starting with the simplest one and solving them step by step.

The difficult things in the world must be done from the easy, and the great things in the world must be done from the details. This is what it means to not see the whole picture.

Just like there are spaces between cow bones, there is always room to take a break even in the most strenuous work.

People should not put too much pressure on themselves, but should find a balance between relaxation and work, and learn to take a break from their busy schedule.

As the saying goes, a day of leisure is a day of immortality, and this is what it means to be at ease.

Zhuangzi's "The Art of Preserving Life" has had a profound impact on later generations. It has inspired countless people and encouraged them to pursue the true meaning of life.

(End of this chapter)