Plain Zhuangzi

Author: Zhang Yuliang
Publisher:
Publish 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 our exploration of nature and understanding of society, people are more urgently than ever before in need of uncovering 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 presents a challenge in terms of priorities and selection. We do not advocate the idea of "100 Must-Reads" or "50 Must-Reads," as it is arbitrary to create a closed system. The treasure trove of Chinese traditional culture classics should be open, with a rich variety of gems. This series of books includes 20 selections, which can only be considered as basic and essential classics that readers should first become familiar with.
The book Zhuangzi contains both essence and dross, featuring dialectical thought alongside some sophistry, beautiful literary techniques alongside obscure expressions, and life philosophies alongside 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 organized some colleagues to translate the entire Zhuangzi into colloquial Chinese. The translation follows a section-by-section approach, with an "Introduction" added before each chapter to briefly outline the main themes, and "Idioms and Allusions" added after each chapter to facilitate better reading and comprehension.