Plain Zhuangzi: A Classic Reading of Traditional Chinese Culture

Author: Zhang Yuliang, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-08-01
Features: China is a world-renowned ancient civilization, and its splendid traditional culture has become a common spiritual treasure of humanity. With the progress of the times and the continuous deepening of exploration into nature and understanding of society, people are more urgently than ever before in need of discovering the treasures of traditional culture, drawing on more wisdom and spiritual strength for self-improvement and self-enhancement, thereby achieving success. There are many classics in traditional culture, which raises the issue of priorities and selection. It is not advisable to promote something like "100 Must-Reads" or "50 Must-Reads," arbitrarily creating a closed system. The treasure trove of Chinese traditional culture classics should be open, with a rich variety and hidden gems. This series of books includes 20 selections, which can only be said to offer readers the basic classics that should be understood first.
The book Zhuangzi contains both essence and dross, featuring dialectical thought alongside some sophistry, beautiful literary techniques alongside obscure expressions, and both philosophical insights on life and as well as elements of nihilism. When reading this book, one must adopt a critical and selective approach, taking the essence and discarding the dross, so that it can better serve the construction of socialist spiritual civilization. To make it more accessible to a wider audience, we have organized some colleagues to translate the entire Zhuangzi into vernacular Chinese. The translation adopts a section-by-section approach, with an "Introduction" added before each chapter, briefly outlining the main themes of the text, and "Idioms and Allusions" added after each chapter to facilitate better reading and comprehension.