Fish, tortoise and mourning
Read the debates and anecdotes of the outer and miscellaneous chapters on knowledge, office and death, and compare them with the inner core.
An original introduction. This guide accompanies the work; it is neither the complete text nor a translation.
Situating the text
These chapters were written by several hands between the late Warring States period and the early Han. Scholars such as A. C. Graham distinguish a school of Zhuangzi and primitivist, Yangist and syncretist strands; the grouping into outer and miscellaneous sections reflects Guo Xiang’s edition rather than an original plan. Chapters 8 to 33 extend, comment on and sometimes contradict the Inner Chapters. They include the debate on the joy of fish, Zhuangzi drumming on a basin after his wife’s death, the tortoise that prefers the mud to the temple, attacks on Confucian morality and a closing survey of the thinkers of the world.
Following the arguments
Knowing from a standpoint : On the bridge over the Hao, Zhuangzi and Hui Shi argue about whether one can know the joy of fish, testing what it means to know from where one stands. Mourning and transformation : Drumming after his wife’s death, Zhuangzi explains that her life arose from and returns to a ceaseless transformation of qi. Refusing office : The tortoise that would rather drag its tail in the mud than be venerated dead in a temple expresses a refusal of political service.
Continuing the reading
Read chapters 17 and 18 alongside chapter 2 and ask whether the later stories develop the Inner Chapters or turn them into memorable anecdotes. These chapters were written by several hands between the late Warring States period and the early Han. Scholars such as A. C. Graham distinguish a school of Zhuangzi and primitivist, Yangist and syncretist strands; the grouping into outer and miscellaneous sections reflects Guo Xiang’s edition rather than an original plan.
The later chapters turn Zhuangzi into a character whose stories argue as forcefully as any treatise.
Your turn to think.
- From what standpoint does Zhuangzi claim to know the joy of the fish?
- Does drumming after a death express indifference or another form of grief?
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