In the last part of the volume, we shall study the ideas of latter-day schools of Zhuang Zi's teachings on the basis of the so-called outer chapters and irregular, or miscellaneous, chapters of the text known as Zhuang Zi. We shall not, however, be making a full, comprehensive study of either of these outer and miscellaneous chapters of Zhuang Zi, nor shall we be making a full study of the ideas of latter-day schools of Zhuang Zi teachings. Rather, we will (...) be studying the ideas of these latter-day Zhuang Zi schools from the angle of exploring the various strands and lines of thought followed by the evolution of Zhuang Zi's philosophy down through the ages. In the third chapter of Part 1 of this book, we have already made rather detailed research and argumentation regarding the classification of the outer and miscellaneous chapters of the book Zhuang Zi, and we have separated the "essays" in these outer and miscelleneous chapters largely into three groups, representing the works of three major schools, which we have labeled as the "Shu Zhuang pai", the "wu jun pai", and the "Huang-Lao pai". [Translator's note: For the sake of clarity and convenience, in the following we shall refer to these schools as the Shu Zhuang School, the Wu Jun School, and the Huang-Lao School.] In this final portion of the book we shall discuss and describe the characteristics of these three schools and their relationship with the philosophy of Zhuang Zi. Thus, we hope to add further evidence that our scheme of classification of the writings in the outer and miscellaneous chapters of Zhuang Zi is a reasonable one. (shrink)

Among all the post-Zhuang Zi schools of Zhuang Zi philosophy, the Shu Zhuang school was the school of most direct descent. Its works included the twelve "chapters": "Qiushui", "Zhi le", "Da sheng", "Shan mu", "Tian Zifang," "Zhi beiyou," "Geng Sang Chu," "Xu wugui," "Ze yang," "Wai wu", "Yuyan", and "Lie Yukou." From the intellectual content and linguistic style of these essays, the works of the Shu Zhuang school appear to belong to a chronologically earlier category of the outer and miscellaneous (...) chapters. The chief characteristic of this category of writings is that they inherited and basically developed the meaning of the ideas of the "inner chapters." They provided a more careful and detailed explanation of Zhuang Zi's theories of original source, true knowledge, and the equality of things, and they also developed other key ideas of Zhuang Zi, including his idea of human life. The Shu Zhuang school did, to a certain extent, reform and develop Zhuang Zi's ideas, but there is no major breakthrough from his ideas, and, basically, the work of this school was to elaborate but not to innovate. The works of the Shu Zhuang school served as the major corpus of reference material for the study of Zhuang Zi's ideas. In Part 2 of this book, where we developed an interpretaion of Zhuang Zi's ideas, we have already touched on some of these essays written by the people of the Shu Zhuang school. Let us now analyze and critique the ideas of this school in a more concentrated fashion. (shrink)

In the last part of the volume, we shall study the ideas of latter-day schools of Zhuang Zi's teachings on the basis of the so-called outer chapters and irregular, or miscellaneous, chapters of the text known as Zhuang Zi. We shall not, however, be making a full, comprehensive study of either of these outer and miscellaneous chapters of Zhuang Zi, nor shall we be making a full study of the ideas of latter-day schools of Zhuang Zi teachings. Rather, we will (...) be studying the ideas of these latter-day Zhuang Zi schools from the angle of exploring the various strands and lines of thought followed by the evolution of Zhuang Zi's philosophy down through the ages. In the third chapter of Part 1 of this book, we have already made rather detailed research and argumentation regarding the classification of the outer and miscellaneous chapters of the book Zhuang Zi, and we have separated the "essays" in these outer and miscelleneous chapters largely into three groups, representing the works of three major schools, which we have labeled as the "Shu Zhuang pai" , the "wu jun pai" , and the "Huang-Lao pai" . [Translator's note: For the sake of clarity and convenience, in the following we shall refer to these schools as the Shu Zhuang School, the Wu Jun School, and the Huang-Lao School.] In this final portion of the book we shall discuss and describe the characteristics of these three schools and their relationship with the philosophy of Zhuang Zi. Thus, we hope to add further evidence that our scheme of classification of the writings in the outer and miscellaneous chapters of Zhuang Zi is a reasonable one. (shrink)