Abstract
Emotion is an essential component of human nature, and therefore it is necessary to explore the issue of a desirable emotional state if we want to properly discuss human well-being. This article examines the issue by advocating a new understanding of the Zhuangzi’s 莊子 ideas on emotion. In terms of the Zhuangzi’s ideas on the desirable emotional state, scholars have presented various interpretations to date, even arguing that the ideas themselves are mutually contradictory or inconsistent. This article shows that the Zhuangzi’s ideas about emotions are in fact consistent by dividing emotions into two types: “conventional knowledge-dependent emotions” and “true knowledge-dependent emotions.” It then examines the characteristics of a desirable emotional state and the conditions necessary to reach it and explores the implications of the Zhuangzi’s ideas for discussions on well-being in modern times.
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Acknowledgments
The Korean and Japanese versions of previous drafts of this article were presented at the Conference of the Institute of Philosophical Studies of Korea University on May 16, 2014, the Conference of the Korean Association of Classical Chinese philosophy on May 23, 2014, and a joint conference held by Hiroshima University and Korea University on November 25, 2016. I would like to thank Dae-won Suh, Hiroshi Goto, Yoshinori Eto, Takayasu Suenaga, Shimpei Okamoto, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this article. This research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Education (NRF-2014S1A5B8067575).
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Oh, S. Two Levels of Emotion and Well-Being in the Zhuangzi. Dao 20, 589–611 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-021-09800-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-021-09800-0