See Also: Zhuangzi(encyclopedia)

Zhuangzi (sh)




or Chuang-tzu

born งใ 369, Meng, China
died 286 BCE

Most significant early Chinese interpreter of Daoism and the purported author of the Daoist classic that bears his name.

A minor official and a contemporary of Mencius, he drew on the sayings of Laozi but took a broader perspective. He taught that enlightenment comes from the realization that everything is one, the dao, but that the dao has no limitations or demarcations and whatever can be known or said of the dao is not the dao. He held that things should be allowed to follow their own course and that no situation should be valued over any other.