The Book ofChuang Till draws
together the stories, tales, jokes and anecdotes that have gathered around the figure of
Chuang Tzu.
One of the great founders of
Taoism, Chuang Tzu lived in the fourth century BC and is among the most enjoyable and
intriguing personalities in the whole of Chinese philosophy. Like the Lieh Tzu and the Tao
Te Ching, the Chuang Tzu perceives the Tao - the Way of Nature - not as a term to be
explained but as a path to walk. 'The Tao that is clear is not the Tao'; experience is
all.
The Book ofChuang Tzu enters
into debate with logic and dances around philosophy, making Confucian earnestness - along
with the pretensions of emperors, bureaucrats and sages - the frequent butt of its jokes.
Radical and subversive, employing wit, humour and shock tactics, the Chuang Tzu is
concerned not with government but with the life and growth of the individual spirit.
With an Introduction by
Martin Palmer
320 pages