Philosophical Interpretation of Zhuangzi's Concern for Freedom of Life

Start talking about Zhuangzi. Let me introduce Zhuangzi in general. Zhuangzi and Laozi, also known as Laozi and Zhuangzi, are the main representatives of Taoism. The representative works include Zhuangzi, and the famous articles include Xiaoyao, On Wuqi, Autumn Water, Tianxia and so on. Zhuangzi was an aristocrat of Chu, but he advocated freedom and refused to be hired by the governors. The most famous thing is that Chu Weiwang sent someone to invite him. He lives in the territory of Henan and Song Kingdom. Chu Weiwang hopes that he can return to his hometown of Hubei, Chu, and become a senior official. At that time, Zhuangzi was in Henan, working as a small middle-level official and in charge of a small plantation. Chu Weiwang gave him a senior official in Chu, but he didn't go.

He told a famous story. Look at the ditch in front of my house. There are several little turtles swimming around in the mud, swinging their tails and chasing each other. If this little turtle is said to have been invited away by the nobles, kill it, separate its bones from its meat, dry its shell, paint it, and put it in the ancestral hall to confess. Something big will happen in the future. Use it for divination. At this time, it is worshipped and noble. But as a turtle itself, is it willing to wag its little tail in the mud? Or are you willing to become a skeleton and an empty shell and burn to death for the temple? The messenger said that he might still want to be in the mud. He said I was in trouble. He won't go. That's what he is.

During the Kaiyuan period, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty named Zhuangzi a real person in South China. Later, Taoism called him a South China real person. Zhuangzi is also known as the classic of southern China. So Zhuangzi's book has two names. His main proposition is "harmony between man and nature", and man should have a realm of heaven, not the realm of environment, but the realm of nature, and advocate "inaction" Zhuangzi's theory has something in common with Zen, so it is called Zhuang Zen. There are also many problems in the study of Zhuangzi. First question, there are 33 Zhuangzi articles we saw today, but there should be 52 in the ancient books catalogue. Where are those articles? This is an unsolvable problem. Unless one is unearthed from the ground one day, it can be solved. But this hope is very slim.

The second question "Zhuangzi" is divided into three parts, internal, external and miscellaneous. The inner chapter is the most important for everyone, called the inner seven chapters. All in all, these seven books are the works of Zhuangzi. Foreign miscellaneous articles are all the works of his students, or students' students, and later people compiled them together. However, some scholars believe that the external miscellaneous articles belong to Zhuangzi, but the internal articles are not. Of course, this is different. Then some people think that the internal articles are, and a considerable number of external miscellaneous articles are also. Because some miscellaneous articles abroad are also well written. For example, "Autumn Water" and "The World" I just said are both well written. This question is also an unanswered question.