Zhuangzi and Laozi:
1. The relationship between philosophy and literature:
GIVE GENERAL INTRO TO ZHUANGZI
A. POLITICS: the importance ascribed to literature is more often than not it’s
supposed political function:
- May Fourth decision to reform China through literature speaks to this: (examples, Liang
Qichao, Lu Xun (shift from medicine to literature), Uncle Tom’s Cabin
- what we call literature, is often thought of in moral and political terms, poetry is often
written in the hopes of expressing political opinion and working political change,
different forms of fiction are often seen as an expression of political dissatisfaction or as
ways of improving government, local mores, etc. etc. (examples are found a plenty in
poetry and novels); also leads to great suspicion of literary works, i.e. Hai Rui dismissed
from office.
- zhuangzi here offers an alternative to this predominantly political/moral view of
literature:
- his general dislike of political service (King of Chu while Zhuangzi is fishing at
the river Pu); Note that his text, in contrast, to Laozi is not a political text. The Laozi
offers a way of ruling, even if this is rulership by not acting and keeping the people
dumb.
- his philosophical emphasis on relativity (including the difference between
good/evil); often expressed very humorously, i.e. by making light of the heavy burden of
literary importance.
- offers an alternative that focuses on self-cultivation, the pleasure of everyday
life, of living in the time/moment.
- in the Chinese literary tradition, the idea of retreating from the life of political
engagement, of cultivating other pleasures (chess, zither, cultivating flowers, whistling,
opera, calligraphy, etc. etc.) becomes incredibly important:
- Examples: 1. the seven sages of the Bamboo Grove 2. Tao Qian 3. Wang Wei Irony of
the apolitical political: i.e. retreating from office can be seen as a critique of the current
age of rulership.
B. the importance of rhetoric and the attention to language itself.
- strong self-consciousness of the importance of language, rhetoric in Chinese philosophy
- example: when Zilu asked Confucius what the first task of government was in
his view, the answer was the rectification of names.
- example2: jun jun, chen chen, fu fu, zi zi.
- think of how difficult this “literal-mindedness” is for the WRITING OF FICTION: the
history of fiction starts in the writing of history, this is literally true, this actually
happened, etc. Early forms of fiction, zhiguai, chuanqi claim to be historical accounts of
what is true, this continues until the seventeenth-century and people such as Jin Shengtan
who embrace fictionality and employ Zhuangzi to do so.
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Zhuangzi (and Taoism in general) is very critical of the stability of words, the
way in which they supposedly anchor reality:
Dao ke dao, fei chang dao; ming ke ming, fei chang ming.
Nets are for catching fish; after one gets the fish, one forgets the net.
Traps are for catching rabbits; after one gets the rabbit, one forgets the
trap. Words are for getting meaning; after one gets the meaning, one
forgets the words. Where can I find people who have forgotten words, and
have a word with them?
ORALITY: emphasizes the impermanence of
words/writing/materiality/monumentality
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IRONY: showing the irrelevance of words, the way words are arbitrary,
untrustworthy, but highly disciplined language.
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Humor and making fun of the existing rhetorical models: Zhuangzi excels at
mimicking the language of others (this goes straight to the heart of what we call
novel, Don Quixote makes fun of chivalric fiction), Zhuangzi makes fun of
rhetoricians, logicians. If Mencius stages dialogue after dialogue of kings and the
old man Mencius, Zhuangzi stages a completely fictional and hilarious dialogue
between The Earl of the Yellow River and Ruo of the Northern Sea discussing the
relativity of size (Autumn Floods).
- influence: emphasis on skill, rhetoric, but in a self-consciously playful and critical
manner which emphasizes mimicry.
In short, Zhuangzi is important because he allows us both to recognize some of the
crucial mainstream trends in Chinese literature (Confucian orthodoxy with its emphasis
on social significance, political significance, and literal mindedness), as well as offers an
alternative that comes much closer to what we think of nowadays of what literature is,
that is an aesthetically pleasing, disinterested, tasteful pursuit of things of no significance
whatsoever that emphasize fictionality, playfulness, etc.
DISCUSSION OF THE PARTICULAR TEXT: