The story of Zhuangzi trying his wife?

This story appeared in Feng Menglong's "A Warning to the World" in the Ming Dynasty, as follows:

Said one day, Zhuangzi travel, saw a new grave, a young woman waving a fan in front of the grave. Zhuangzi was very surprised and asked, "Why did you fan the grave?" The young woman replied, "My husband is buried in this grave. He told me before he died that I couldn't remarry until the grave was dry, so I wanted to fan it dry as soon as possible. "

Zhuangzi went home and told his wife Tian about it, teasing her and saying, "Are you one of these people?" Tian swears that she hates such a fickle and disloyal woman. A few days later, Zhuangzi suddenly fell ill and died. However, Tian flirted with the King Sun of Chu who came to pay his respects in front of Ling and wanted to marry him.

King Sun of Chu suddenly suffered from angina pectoris and foaming at the mouth. The servant said that his master's problem could be cured by swallowing the brains of the living or the dead with hot wine. The chef split Zhuangzi's coffin with an axe and took his brain, but he heard Zhuangzi sigh and sit up. She tried to calm down, helped Zhuangzi get up and went back to the house, but the grandson of the King of Chu and his servant had disappeared.

I was glad, but Zhuangzi said, "I want you to meet two people." Sun and his servant stood in front of him and waved, but Zhuangzi was gone. Look carefully, the grandson of the king of Chu and his servant are gone. It turns out that Zhuangzi did it to test his wife's loyalty. Tian had no face and hanged himself. From then on, Zhuangzi saw through life. After putting his wife in the broken coffin, he found a clay basin as a musical instrument and sang along with the drums. This is a story about spoiling sages and spoofing Zhuangzi.

Extended data:

Another story of Zhuangzi-Drum-basin and Song Dynasty.

According to The Joy of Zhuangzi, when Zhuangzi's wife died, Keiko, an old friend, went to offer condolences, only to find him singing in the "drum basin" and banging on the earthen basin. Keiko was puzzled and scolded, "Your wife married you, gave birth to your children, washed and cooked for you, and worked hard all her life. You can forget it when you are dead, but you still sing! Is it too much? "

Zhuangzi, on the other hand, delivered a philosophical speech about life and death to the effect that my wife just died, how can I not be sad? But when you think about it, there is no such life in this world, let alone life. There is no shape and harmony, only a "nothing". "Nothing" gives birth to something, and tangible harmony leads to life.

Life is death, and death is life, just like the four seasons cycle. What is the difference between life and death? The so-called life is like a person on a journey; Death is like going home. My wife is sleeping at home now, and I am crying here. Is it funny?

It turns out that Zhuangzi's "drum and basin singing" is a kind of "performance art". He is diluting or even dissolving the boundary between life and death, and regards life and death as the seasonal cycle of spring, summer, autumn and winter, so that people can calmly face the troubles and fears of physical illness and death and go home to rest. Zhuangzi's view of life and death is great wisdom, incredible and beyond the times. Thousands of years ago in ancient times, who would have thought that today, thousands of years later, people will still play music to send white flowers after death.

Singing with drums and pots expresses optimism about life and death, and also expresses the pain of losing his wife. Later, in the prosperous period of metaphysics in the Jin Dynasty, his successors inherited his performance art.

Baidu encyclopedia-Zhuang Zhou tries his wife

Baidu Encyclopedia-Drum Basin and Song Dynasty