Contributions of Pre-Qin Poet Zhuang Zhou

Zhuang Zi, surnamed Zhuang and Zhou, was a famous thinker, philosopher and writer in the middle of the Warring States period of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. This article is about the contribution of the pre-Qin poet Zhuang Zhou, welcome to read and understand.

Literary Contributions

Zhuang Zhou wrote a book of more than 100,000 words in his life, the book is called "Zhuangzi". The appearance of this document marks that in the Warring States period, Chinese philosophical thought and literary language, has developed to a very far-reaching, profound level, is the treasure of ancient Chinese canon. Therefore, Zhuangzi is not only a famous thinker in the history of Chinese philosophy, but also an outstanding writer in the history of Chinese literature. Whether in philosophical thought or literary language, he has given Chinese thinkers and writers through the ages a profound and great influence, in the history of Chinese thought and literature have an extremely important position.

Philosophical Contributions

His thought contains elements of simple dialectics, the main idea is "the way of heaven and the way of doing nothing", that all things are changing, and he believes that "the way" is "born before heaven and earth". He believed that "Tao" is "born before heaven and earth", from "Tao has not yet begun to seal", Zhuang Zi mainly think that the natural is better than man-made, advocate useless, think that the great useless is useful. Just like "an ugly tree is considered useless, a carpenter looking for a tree as a beam, but the tree is too crooked, can not do beams; the second carpenter looking for a tree to make the grip of the mill to be curved, but the tree is too ugly, and can not be done; the third carpenter wants to make the wheels of the car, but the tree can not be grown, from a certain point of view, is useless. But from Zhuangzi's point of view, uselessness is usefulness, great uselessness is great, so Zhuangzi advocates the spirit of uselessness (i.e., the "Tao" is no difference in boundaries), is a system of subjective idealism. "Tao" is also the foundation and the highest category of his philosophy, i.e., the concept of the origin and essence of the world, and the realm of human understanding. It advocates "doing nothing" and abandoning all delusional behavior. He also believed that all things were relative and imagined a subjective spiritual realm in which "heaven and earth were born together with me, and all things were one with me" (The Theory of Qizi), in which he was at peace with the times and at ease with himself, and fell back on relativism and fatalism. In politics, he advocated "doing nothing but ruling".

Zhuang Zi's philosophy mainly accepted and developed Lao Zi's ideas. He believed that the Tao is an infinite essence that transcends space and time, and that it is born between heaven and earth, but is omnipresent and omnipresent in all things. However, it is also natural and inactive, and is essentially nothingness.

In Zhuangzi's philosophy, "heaven" is the opposite of "man", "heaven" represents nature, and "man" refers to "man". The term "man" refers to everything that is "man-made" and deviates from nature.

Zhuangzi advocates obedience to the Way of Heaven, and abandon the "man-made", abandon the human nature of those "pseudo". The impurity of the human nature. To obey the "Way of Heaven", and thus communicate with heaven and earth, is the "virtue" advocated by Zhuangzi.

Zhuang Zi believes that people live in the world, as if "swimming in the Yi's enough", everywhere full of danger. Yi refers to the monarch, and enough refers to the monarch's means of punishment and rule. For the monarch's brutality, Zhuang Zi is repeatedly emphasized, "back to hear the Wei Jun, its years of strength, its line alone; light with its country, and do not see its faults; light with the people die, the dead to the country amount of Ze Ruo Banana, the people of its no such as carry on." . So Zhuangzi did not want to go to the official, because he thought that accompanied by the king as accompanied by a tiger, can only be "smooth". "You do not know the man who raises a tiger! Do not dare to creature with it, for its kill the anger; do not dare to all things with it, for its decision of the anger; when its hunger and satiety, up to its anger. The tiger that is different from man and winks at those who feed themselves is also obedient; therefore those who kill them are also rebellious." But also to prevent the horse's ass patted to the horse's feet, "I love the horse, to baskets full of vectors, to 鈥蜄ain full of drowning. Appropriate mosquitoes and gadflies servant edge, and pat from time to time, then the lack of title destroyed head broken chest." The difficulty of accompanying the king can be seen. Zhuangzi believes that life should be the pursuit of freedom.

Similar to Buddhism, Zhuangzi also believes that life has a sad side. In "The Theory of Things", there is "a received its molding, do not forget to wait for the end. With the thing with the edge of the edge of the exhaustion, its behavior is as chi, and no one can stop, is not also sad! Lifelong service without seeing its success, tired and fatigued without knowing where to go, can not be sad! People call it immortality! If his form and heart are the same, is it not a great sadness? Is the life of a human being like that of a man? I am the only one, and there are people who are not?" Zhuang Zi believed that if he could "harmonize things", then he would be able to reach the realm of "freedom". This is another important concept in Zhuangzi's philosophy, which is the realm of individual spiritual liberation, i.e., living in the world without contradictions. Zhuangzi does not deny contradictions, but only emphasizes the subjective freedom from them. Zhuang Zi explains this term with the term "Wu Wei", which, unlike Lao Zi, refers to the state of the mind that is free and unconstrained, not encumbered by external objects. This state is also known as "no waiting", meaning that there is no relative thing. At this point, one abandons merit, fame, and fortune, and "rides on the righteousness of heaven and earth, while controlling the defense of the six qi, in order to travel to infinity." This sentence is generally recognized as the main theme of the article "Easy Travel", and also the main theme of the book "Zhuangzi". This is a realm where the mind and the Tao are one.

Zhuangzi believes that people in general are very hypocritical, "The human heart is more dangerous than mountains and rivers, and it is difficult to know the sky. The sky is still spring, fall, winter, summer, dawn and dusk, people are thick and deep." He criticized Confucianism. He criticized Confucianism for "opposing people's hearts with benevolence and righteousness", which would lead to "great chaos in the world's spine. And the autocratic rule of the monarch and the love of knowledge, will only make the hearts of the people even more corrupt, "the people of the profit is very hard, the son has to kill the father, the minister has to kill the king, is the day for the thief, the day in the cave 阫."

Liushahe believes that Zhuangzi's people have four main points, "First, the position, standing in the ring. Second, the method, believe in inaction. Third, the ideal, the pursuit of Ze Zhi Zhi. Fourth, cultivation, tightly guard the heart of the fast."

The so-called ring in the center, is not to hold any position. In the "Inner Chapter - the theory of Qi things" in the "to get its ring, in order to respond to the infinite", "miscellaneous articles - Zeyang" in the "to get its ring in order to follow into the". WU WEI appears frequently in Zhuangzi, which believes that no matter whether you are ruling a country or being a human being, you have to do nothing. However, WU WEI is quite difficult to interpret, and Liushahe thinks it means "pseudo" or "artificial". "Ze pheasant ten paces a peck, a hundred paces a drink, do not implore the animal to Fanzhong", is the pursuit of freedom. "If you have a will, you do not listen to the ear but to the heart, and you do not listen to the heart but to the air! Hearing stops at the ear, and the heart stops at the charm. The Qi is also the one who is empty and awaits things. Only the Tao set of virtual. Void, heart fasting." The so-called heart fasting is to eliminate all kinds of distractions in the heart.