Tao Books - Zhuangzi Speaks

Zhuangzi Speaks gets two thumbs up or five stars from me!! It's a delightful book that really captures the basic essence of the philosophy of Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi). It's written in the format of a comic book replete with outlandish characters and easy to read text. Most of the stories end with the character of Chuang Tzu summing up the key points discussed.

Because Chuang Tzu speaks in parables and fantastic stories, his writings can be quite a challenge for the western reader. This book, however, makes the stories come alive and far easier to understand. I would recommend it especially for those of you who have had little exposure to Chuang Tzu. My guess is that this small volume (the comic book section spans a mere 125 pages) will whet your appetite to read one of the many English translations of the Chuang Tzu itself.

Here are four little snippets from the book to provide you with a little food for thought.

The principles of music and wood carving are alike -- when a wood carving is finished, it has been created at the expense of all the wood that has been carved away.

Standards are different from all things, so the standard set by man is by no means the only "certain" standard. If you mistake what is relative for something certain, you have strayed far from the ultimate Dao.

Principles can always be used toward evil ends, so maybe if these principles never existed, the bad person wouldn't be able to do so much harm.

High positions may be necessary to society, but a wise person views them as he would a cheap inn -- no reason to stick around.

If that wasn't enough, there is a superb afterword written by Donald J. Munro of the University of Michigan. It provides both a thumbnail sketch of the history of China around the time the Chuang Tzu was written plus it pulls together many of the major themes exhibited to present us with a tapestry of thought.

Here's a review from Amazon.com:

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.