Chuang Tzu Zhuang Zi Chuang Tzu between 399

Chuang Tzu (Zhuang Zi) –莊子 Chuang Tzu (between 399 -295 B. C. ) The book Chuang Tzu 7 Inner Chapters 內篇 15 Outer Chapters 外篇 11 Miscellaneous Chapters 雜篇

I. The Equality of All Things 齊物論 n Metaphysics, epistemology, and way of life. -- realizing that there is no distinction in reality -- because distinction is relative -- hence we should live without the bondage of distinctions.

n Lose oneself = empty the formed mind. Why? -- “Formed mind” compared to the “music of heaven and earth”(p. 181 -2) -- Who not to have a formed mind? -- Stupid people have theirs too (p. 182). There is no way of settling rights and wrongs, good and bad, real or not real (p. 187, 189) -- Relativity of distinctions. This and that, birth and death, accepting and rejecting, production and reduction, …. (p. 182 -5)

n Grasp the Axis of Tao -- The difference between Chuang Tzu and Plato and Descartes – methodological skepticism, leading to rationalism, searching for absolute certainty. Chuang Tzu – skepticism leading to a way of life that transcends distinctions and arguments, identification of oneself with Nature. -- The similarity between Chuang Tzu and Plato/Descartes – neither sides take skepticism as the end. -- Chuang Tzu’s “Tong” 通 (184). Grasping the axis and respond with flexibility or “following two courses at the same time. ”

Making senses of some obscure passages n “To take a horse to show that a [white] horse is not a horse (as such) is not as good as to take a non-horse to show that a horse is not a horse” (p. 183) –Kung-sun Lung 公孫龍 “a white horse is not a horse白馬非馬”p. 235 – Argument one – “horse” denotes the form and “white” denotes the color. What denotes the color does not denote the form. – Argument two – Ask for a horse, and either a yellow or a black one may answer. Ask for a white horse, and neither the yellow horse nor the black one may answer. – Chuang Tzu – Jump out of “horse” (given mind) to see that everything in itself (the un-differentiated nature) is the same.

n n Beginning of the universe (p. 185) There is nothing in the world greater than the tip of a hair …天下莫大于秋豪之末，而 大山为小；莫寿于殇子，而彭祖为夭。天地 与我并生，而万物与我为一。(p. 186) – example “the power of ten”

II. The Great Teacher 大宗師 n The Distinction between Human and Nature -- Instead of drawing a metaphysical line between the two, he shows how a pure man lives.

n Daily One-minute Paper 1. What is the big point you learned in class today? 2. What is the main, unanswered question you leave class with today?