Zhuangzi Speaks: The Music of Nature

by Chih-chung Ts'ai, Brian Bruya

Overview

During a period of political and social upheaval in China, the unconventional insights of the great Daoist Zhuangzi (369?-286? B.C.) pointed to a way of living naturally. Inspired by his fascination with the wisdom of this sage, the immensely popular Taiwanese cartoonist Tsai Chih Chung created a bestselling Chinese comic book. Tsai had his cartoon characters enact the key parables of Zhuangzi (pronounced jwawngdz), and he rendered Zhuangzi's most enlightening sayings into modern Chinese. Through Tsai's enthusiasm and skill, the earliest and core parts of the Zhuangzi were thus made accessible to millions of Chinese-speaking people with no other real chance of appreciating this major Daoist text. Translated into English by Brian Bruya, the comic book is now available to a Western audience. The classical Chinese text of the selections of the Zhuangzi is reproduced in the margins throughout. Evoked by the translation and the playful cartoons is the spontaneity that Zhuangzi favors as an attitude toward life: abandon presuppositions, intellectual debates, and ambitions, he suggests, and listen to the "music of nature." With the writings attributed to Laozi, the Zhuangzi contributed to an alternative philosophical ideal that matched Confucianism in its impact on Chinese culture. Over the centuries this classical Daoism influenced many aspects of Chinese life, including painting, literature, and the martial arts. It had a particularly strong effect on Chan Buddhism (Japanese Zen). For this book, Donald Munro has written an afterword that places Daoism and the Zhuangzi in historical and cultural context.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691008820
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	07/13/1992
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.40(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Guide to Pronunciation

Map

The Summer Cicada and the Wonder Tortoise 5

The Little Sparrow's Small Happiness 7

Hui Shi's Giant Gourd 8

The Song Family's Secret Formula 10

The Useless Shu Tree 12

The Tattooed Yue People 15

The Music of the Earth 16

Zhao Wen Quits the Zither 19

Does Wang Ni Know? 20

Is Xi Shi Really Beautiful? 22

Li Ji's Tears 23

Zhang Wuzi's Dream 24

Shadows Talking 25

The Dream of the Butterfly 26

Three at Dawn and Four at Dusk 27

Hui Shi Leans against a Tree 28

The Cook Carves Up a Cow 29

Passing on the Flame 31

The Caged Pheasant 32

Like A Mantis Stopping a Cart 33

The Horse Lover 35

The Earth Spirit's Tree 36

A Tree's Natural Life Span 38

The Freak 40

Oil Burns Itself Out 41

The Tiger Trainer 42

Toeless Shu 43

Nature the Superhero 44

Forgetting the Dao 45

Zi Sang Questions His Fate 46

Digging a Canal in the Ocean Floor 47

Are a Duck's Legs Too Short? 48

The Lost Goat 49

Bandits Have Principles, Too 50

Good Wine, Bad Wine 52

The Yellow Emperor Questions Guangcheng 53

Nature's Friend 54

The Old Wheelwright 55

The Earth and the Sky 57

Crows and Seagulls 58

Confucius Sees a Dragon 59

Don't Ring the Bull's Nose 60

The Wind and the Snake 61

Courage of the Sage 63

The Frog in the Well 65

Learning How to Walk in Handan 68

A Crow Eating a Dead Rat 69

You're Not a Fish 71

Zhuangzi Dreams of a Skeleton 72

Sea Birds Don't Like Music 74

The Drunk Passenger 76

Riding with the Dao 77

The Sweet Water is Gone First 79

Lin Hui Forsakes a Fortune 81

Swallows Nest in the Eaves 82

The Mantis Getting the Cicada 83

Fan Was Never Destroyed 85

Knowledge and the Dao 86

Gengsang Forsakes Fame 88

The Yellow Emperor and the Pasture Boy 89

The Stone Mason and the Ying Man 91

Two Nations on a Snail's Antennae 93

Zhuangzi Borrows Grain 94

The Turtle That Could Predict the Future 95

Natural Use 97

Catch the Fish, Discard the Trap 98

Yang Zhu Studies the Dao 99

Zi Gong's Snow-White Clothes 100

The Bandit Speaks 102

Zhuangzi's Three Swords 107

Confucius in the Black Forest 114

The Man Who Hated His Footprints 117

The Man Who Hated His Shadow 118

Like a Drifting Boat 119

The Dragonslayer 120

Shattering the Dragonpearl 122

Don't Make Sacrifices 124

Zhuangzi on His Deathbed 125

Afterword 127