The universe gives me my body so I may be carried, my life so I may toil, my oid age so I may repose, and my death so I may rest. To regard life as good is the way to regard death as good.85
In this passage, Zhuangzi assumed that there should be different func
tions for the different states of our life, and he included death as one of the states of life.
1 There are different states of life, which include birth, maturity, aging and death.
2 Each state of life has its own function for us.
3 The function of life gives us toil; the function of death is to give us rest.
4 Without one or the other, life would not be complete.
S Therefore, if we regard life as good, we should regard death as good too.
Is Zhuangzi successful in convincing us that the fear of death is actually unnatural or irrational? His arguments are based on two meta
physical assumptions. First, there is a form of existence that does not necessarily begin with our life, nor does it end with our death. Zhuangzi's notion of
afterlife,
however, is different from the common Western notion. The kind of existence that can continue after death does not necessarily include a prolonged memory of one's present life or even self-identity. It could be simply a form of dust and matter with no consciousness.86 FromDao's
perspective, such existence is still part of Nature and it is thus no different from the existence that we have had before we die. Life and death should have equal value because there is alwaysa certain form of existence
that remains. This view on life can be further explained by the comments in chapter 22 of the Miscellaneous Chapters:Life is the companion of death, death is the beginning of life. Who under
stands their workings? Man's life is a coming-together of breath. If it comes together, there is life; if it scatters, there is death. And if life and death are companions to each other, then what is there for us to be anxious about?87
From this passage, we see that Zhuangzi's view on life is that it is not just a process from birth to death. Birth and death are simply two stages in the whole transformation of things. The entity of transformation is
"breath," or energy ("
qi" )
in general. Different material objects are 1 76Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu)
formed when the energy is condensed and their death or disintegration releases the energy back to the universe. Therefore, viewed in the grand picture of things, nothing is gained from an individual's birth and noth
ing is lost from her death.
Second, the love for life and the fear of death comes from an obses
sion with the self and the body. If we did not care so much about ourselves, then the fact that after
we
die,something else
will emerge should be no reason for distress.We
will no longer exist;our bodies
willbe "eaten by the mole crickets and ants" underground.88 But our energy (or our spirit) will return to the wind, and our physical stuff will give other creatures nourishments. So, if we can forget about the self and the body, then we really should not be troubled by our own death. Graham says, "It seems . . . that for [Zhuangzi] the ultimate test is to be able to look directly at the facts of one's own physical decomposition without horror, to accept one's dissolution as part of the universal process of transformation. ,,89
Under these two assumptions, " Can we do it?" begs the question, since
we
certainly cannot do it. "We" is already a term associated with a self (or selves). For us ever to treat death as of equal value to life is to abandon our self-love, our self-identity, and our human relations. Russell Legge says that the Perfect Person in theZhuangzi
is one whose mind"is the group mind." "The only difference between his knowledge and that of others is that his is inclusive and theirs is exclusive. This is the nature of his transcendence. The perfect man has no self-identity apart from others.
His freedom from self makes this possible and in this is his freedom.
,,90 Therefore, Zhuangzi's arguments against the rationality of the fear of death would not be successfulto us
unless we can first learn to abandon our self-insistence. (As we shall see later, abandoning selfinsistence is one of the first lessons in Buddhism.)
In this context, we can interpret the famous story of Zhuangzi's dreaming of being a butterfly:
One night, Zhuangzi dreamed of being a butterfly - a happy butterfly, showing off and doing as he pleased, unaware of being Zhuangzi. Sud
denly he awoke, drowsily, Zhuangzi again. And he could not tell whether it was Zhuangzi who had dreamt the butterfly or the butterfly dreaming Zhuangzi. But there must be some difference between them! This is called the transformation of things.91
This is not the Cartesian Dream argument once again. In this story, Zhuangzi is explicating his notion of
the transformation of things.
One'sself-identity is no longer stable in the perpetual transformation of things.
One could be a person at one stage; one could be a butterfly at another.
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Ancient Chinese Philosophy
It is the same elements of
Dao
that get transformed into different shapes.If we can see this point, then we should welcome death, as it opens the door to the next stage of the transformation of things.
Zhuangzi's second task was to rid people of their obsession with their physical appearance. In chapter 5, "Signs of Virtue Complete," he used many examples of people who were born ugly, who suffer from strange illnesses that transform their physical shapes, who receive physical punishment that deprive them of some body parts, etc., to show that appearance really does not matter when it comes to the manifestation of the inner virtue.
Zhuangzi used as an example a story about someone who became physically misshapen by illness to present his own view of the impartial treatment of all physical conditions. When asked by his friends whether he resented the physical mutations, the man replied:
Suppose my left arm is transformed into a cock. With it I should herald the dawn. Suppose my right arm is transformed into a sling. With it I should look for a dove to roast. Suppose my buttocks were transformed into wheels and my spirit into a horse. I should mount them. What need do I have for a chariot? When we come, it is because it was the occasion to be born. When we go, it is to follow the natural course of things.
Those who are contented and at ease when the occasion comes and live in accord with the course of Nature cannot be affected by sorrow or joy.
This is what the ancients called release from bondage. Those who cannot release themselves are so because they are bound by material things. That material things cannot overcome Nature, however, has been a fact from time immemorial. Why, then, should I dislike it?92
Even though very few people can actually be persuaded by this view, it was not Zhuangzi's point to establish the claim that all physical conditions are really of equal value. A real cock could herald the dawn;
a real sling could be used to capture the dove. But a person's body thus transformed would lose the function of the human body. A crippled man cannot run as fast as an ordinary man, a blind person cannot see, and a deaf person cannot hear. These physical impairments do cause inconveniences in life. To interpret Zhuangzi's view as arguing that they are no different from a normal, healthy physical state is to turn him into a sophist, which he clearly is not. What Zhuangzi wanted to show is that when one's physical conditions are given as such, one can only accept one's fate and be content with it. One can amuse oneself with all those fanciful thoughts about the possible functions of one's new body.
However, unless one remembers that it is not the body, but the spirit, that is important, one cannot be truly content.
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Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu)
At bottom, Zhuangzi's philosophy of life and of one's conduct or attitude in life is similar to the teaching of the Stoics, which is a philo
sophical school that also developed during the worst of times. While one cannot change the reality one is given, one can always change one's perception of it. When we stop viewing our life as miserable, our life stops being miserable. Zhuangzi did not develop his view on life and death, on health and deformity, merely as a way to upset the ordinary people's perception of the world in order to establish his theoretical goal. His philosophy actually has a pragmatic goal of helping people deal better with their ill fates. Even with all the talk about "the outer realm," it is still based on a "this-worldly" concern.93 Under Zhuangzi's teaching, while one must learn to
survive
in the human world and see human distinctions as they are, one can always embraceDao's
perspective that eliminates all human distinctions. One thereby sets one's spirit free, allowing it to roam at ease in the world of
Dao.
The perspective of men enables one to deal with the external world; the perspective ofDao
enables one to escape into one's inner world. To lose the former would bring harm; to lose the latter would bring sorrow. Therefore, the two perspectives should not obstruct each other.
Conclusion
Zhuangzi stood out among ancient Chinese philosophers in his seem
ingly carefree attitude toward the turmoil of his time. As we have seen, a shared concern among ancient Chinese philosophers was to find the best way to restore world order, to instill morality in the rulers and the people, and to ensure peace and harmony in human society. Most of them spent the major part of their adult life trying to put their ideals into practice by assiduously seeking employment from lords or kings.
Zhuangzi, however, spurned political employment even when the op
portunity came to his door. A famous story, recorded by an ancient historian in the second century BeE, tells that when a king sent his messenger with lots of money to entice Zhuangzi to come to his court, Zhuangzi told the messenger:
Haven't you ever seen an ox used for sacrifice? After it had been fed with fine food for several years, it was clothed in embroidery and brought to the temple to be slaughtered. At that time, even if it wished to go back to its original lone state to be playing in the mud, it could not do it. Away with your money! I'd rather be like the ox playing in the mud than be serving your king. I shall never seek office so that I can always preserve my freedom and happiness.94
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Ancient Chinese Philosophy
This story and others like it give many commentators the impression that Zhuangzi was egoistic, that he was interested only in his own spiritual freedom and not in the political reform of his world. Some commentators even think that Zhuangzi's whole philosophy spins from his playful attitudes toward life and thus we should not take what he says too seriously.95 However, there was actually a heavy, serious, and world-oriented side to Zhuangzi that became hidden behind his jesting and teasing. In his time, it was easily possible to incur harsh and unrea
sonable punishments because of the whims of tyrannical kings. In his stories, Zhuangzi often used examples of people whose legs were ampu
tated, whose foreheads were branded, whose noses were cut off. This shows how difficult it was just to live out one's natural years without harm. Zhuangzi's lesson is about survival in this chaotic world. His favorite contrasting model is Confucius, for whom he seems to have had a great respect as well as mild criticisms. In his lifetime, Confucius was known to be "the one who knows a thing cannot be done and still wants to do it.,,96 Zhuangzi thought the glorious past that Confucius longed for could never be brought back; the distant future that Con
fucius dreamt about could not be brought nearer either. It is better to recognize the fate one is given and see the futility of resisting the inevit
able. A passage at the end of chapter 4, "In the World of Men," tells it well: "When the world has the Way, the sage succeeds; when the world is without the Way, the sage survives. In times like the present, we do well to escape penalty. ,,97 Under this motivation, Zhuangzi launched his attacks on competing schools in his time, and advocated his philosophy of "the use of the uselessness. ,,98 Zhuangzi's philosophy of life has given mental solace to many intellectuals in Chinese history, as it certainly will to people in the contemporary world as well.
Further discussion questions
1 What is Zhuangzi's view of the universe? What does Zhuangzi mean when he argues that everything in the universe is equal and there is no distinction
of values?
2 What does Zhuangzi mean by "the universe is One"? Is Zhuangzi's meta
physical view a version of monism? What is the relation between the One and the Many? Does the One produce the Many according to Zhuangzi?
3 What stands in the way of our knowing Dao? What are the fundamental epistemic limitations we have? Can we ever eliminate these limitations?
4 What do you think Zhuangzi is telling us about how we should act in a universe of equal values? What kind of attitude is he teaching people? Do you find Zhuangzi's view too radical?
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