Synopses & Reviews
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.
Synopsis
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.
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 |