Primary Literature

For the convenience of the internet reader, citations from classical texts are referenced to the chapter and paragraph number in Online Original https://ctext.org. Translations of the Zhuangzi in this article are those of its author. A public domain translation accompanies the Online Original on the site and the reader can easily access a character-by-character standard dictionary translation of the passages by clicking the blue “jump to dictionary” icon. Other tranlsations of the Zhuangzi include:

• Graham, Angus C. (trans.), 1981, Chuang-tzŭ: The Seven Inner Chapters and Other Writings from the Book Chuang-tzŭ, Boston: Allen and Unwin. (Scholar)
• ––– (trans.), 1981, Chuang Tzŭ: The Inner Chapters, London: Hackett Publishing Co. Inc. (Scholar)
• Mair, Victor H. (trans.), 1994, Wandering on the Way: Early Taoist Tales and Parables of Chuang Tzu, New York: Bantam Books. (Scholar)
• Palmer, Martin, Elizabeth Breuilly, Chang Wai Ming, and Jay Ramsay (trans), 1996, The Book of Chuang Tzu, London: Penguin Books. (Scholar)
• Watson, Burton (trans.), 1964, Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings, New York: Columbia University Press. (Scholar)
• ––– (trans.), 1968, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, New York: Columbia University Press. (Scholar)
• Ziporyn, Brook, 2009, Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings (With Selections from Traditional Commentaries), Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing. (Scholar)

Further Reading

The number of philosophical articles published on Zhuangzi’s philosophy has grown exponentially in the years since the discovery of the Chinese philosophical tradition. The wide range of alternative views and approaches can only be hinted at in this bibliography. Particularly helpful are these collections of work dedicated to the understanding of Zhuangzi. They include (in order of publication):

• Mair, Victor H. (ed.), 1983, Experimental Essays on Chuang-tzu, Honolulu: [published for] Center for Asian and Pacific Studies [by] University of Hawai’i Press. (Scholar)

  [This was one of the earliest focused collections with several seminal papers that were pivotal in initiating the explosion in philosophical interest in the Zhuangzi.]

  (Scholar)
• Kjellberg, Paul and Philip J. Ivanhoe (eds), 1996, Essays on Skepticism, Relativism and Ethics in the Zhuangzi, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

  [This collection reacted to trend sparked by the Mair collection. Despite the title, the writers share concerns about understanding Zhuangzi in skeptical or relativist terms. Each has a different alternative characterization.]

  (Scholar)
• Ames, Roger T. (ed.), 1998, Wandering at Ease in the Zhuangzi, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

  [This more diverse collection is inspired by the explosion of philosophically sophisticated treatments of the Zhuangzi.]

  (Scholar)
• Cook, Scott (ed.), 2003, Hiding the World in the World: Uneven Discourses on the Zhuangzi, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

  [This collection returns to the central themes of skepticism and relativism.]

  (Scholar)
• Ames, Roger T. and Takahiro Nakajima (eds), 2015, Zhuangzi and the Happy Fish, Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai‘i Press.

  [This collection focuses on the discussion between Zhuangzi and Hui Shi about whether one can know the fish are happy.]

  (Scholar)
• Lai, Karyn and Wai Wai Chiu (eds), 2019, Skill and Mastery: Philosophical Stories from the Zhuangzi, London/Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

  [This collection, as the title indicates, focuses on the theme of skill in the Zhuangzi.]

  (Scholar)
• Chong, Kim-chong (ed.), 2022, Dao Companion to the Philosophy of the Zhuangzi (Dao companions to Chinese philosophy, 16), Cham: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-92331-0">10.1007/978-3-030-92331-0

  [This massive new collection (34 contributions) ranges from text theory to all of the above and Western comparisons.]

  (Scholar)

Secondary Literature

• Ames, Roger T., 1998a, “Knowing in the Zhuangzi: ‘From Here, on the Bridge, over the River Hao’”, in Ames 1998b: 219–230 (ch. 11). (Scholar)
• ––– (ed.), 1998b, Wandering at Ease in the Zhuangzi, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. (Scholar)
• Callahan, William A., 1998, “Cook Ding’s Life on the Whetstone: Contingency, Action, and Inertia in the Zhuangzi”, in Ames 1998b: 175–196 (ch. 8). (Scholar)
• Chen Gu-ying 陳鼓應, 1983, Zhuangzi Jinzhushi 《莊子今註今譯》北京：中華書局. (Scholar)
• Chiu, Wai Wai. 2015. “Goblet Words and Indeterminacy: A Writing Style that Is Free of Commitment”, Frontiers of Philosophy in China, 10: 255–72. (Scholar)
• Chong, Kim-chong, 2006, “Zhuangzi and the Nature of Metaphor”, Philosophy East and West, 56(3): 370–391. doi:10.1353/pew.2006.0033 (Scholar)
• –––, 2011, “The Concept of Zhen 真 in the Zhuangzi”, Philosophy East and West, 61(2): 324–346. doi:10.1353/pew.2011.0019 (Scholar)
• ––– (ed.), 2022, Dao Companion to the Philosophy of the Zhuangzi (Dao companions to Chinese philosophy, 16), Cham: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-92331-0 (Scholar)
• Connolly, Tim, 2011, “Perspectivism as a Way of Knowing in the Zhuangzi”, Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy, 10(4): 487–505. doi:10.1007/s11712-011-9246-x (Scholar)
• Coutinho, Steve, 2004, Zhuangzi and Early Chinese Philosophy: Vagueness, Transformation, and Paradox, (Ashgate World Philosophies Series), Aldershot: Ashgate. (Scholar)
• –––, 2015, “Conceptual Analyses of the Zhuangzi”, in Dao Companion to Daoist Philosophy (Dao Companions to Chinese Philosophy 6), Xiaogan Liu (ed.), Dordrecht: Springer, 159–191 (ch. 7). doi:10.1007/978-90-481-2927-0_7 (Scholar)
• D’Ambrosio, Paul J., 2020a, “Reading the Zhuangzi Playfully: Stepping Back from ‘Ancient Chinese Wisdom’”, Asian Philosophy, 30(3): 214–229. doi:10.1080/09552367.2020.1813870 (Scholar)
• –––, 2020b, “The Zhuangzi on Coping with Society: Misreading the ‘Skill’ Stories with Modern (and) Religious Overtones”, Journal of Religious Ethics, 48(3): 474–497. doi:10.1111/jore.12321 (Scholar)
• Fingarete, Herbert, 1972, Confucius—The Secular as Sacred, New York: Harper & Row. (Scholar)
• Fox, Alan, 1996, “Reflex and Reflectivity: Wuwei in the Zhuangzi”, Asian Philosophy, 6(1): 59–72. doi:10.1080/09552369608575428 (Scholar)
• Fraser, Chris, 2008, “Psychological Emptiness in the Zhuāngzǐ”, Asian Philosophy, 18(2): 123–147. doi:10.1080/09552360802218025 (Scholar)
• –––, 2009, “Skepticism and Value in the Zhuāngzi”, International Philosophical Quarterly, 49(4): 439–457. doi:10.5840/ipq200949462 (Scholar)
• –––, 2012, “The Limitations of Ritual Propriety: Ritual and Language in Xúnzǐ and Zhuāngzǐ”, Sophia, 51(2): 257–282. doi:10.1007/s11841-012-0303-7 (Scholar)
• –––, 2014a, “Wandering the Way: A Eudaimonistic Approach to the Zhuāngzǐ”, Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy, 13(4): 541–565. doi:10.1007/s11712-014-9402-1 (Scholar)
• –––, 2014b. “Heart-Fasting, Forgetting, and Using the Heart Like a Mirror: Applied Emptiness in the Zhuangzi”, in J. Liu and D. Berger (eds.), Nothingness in Asian Philosophy, Routledge: New York. (Scholar)
• –––, 2016, The Philosophy of the Mòzĭ: The First Consequentialists, New York: Columbia University Press. (Scholar)
• –––, 2022, “Finding a Way Together: Interpersonal Ethics in the Zhuangzi”, in Chong 2022: 561–580 (ch. 23). doi:10.1007/978-3-030-92331-0_23 (Scholar)
• Fraser, Chris, Dan Robins, and Timothy O’Leary (eds.), 2011, Ethics in Early China: An Anthology, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. (Scholar)
• Fried, Daniel, 2012, “What’s in a Dao?: Ontology and Semiotics in Laozi and Zhuangzi”, Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy, 11(4): 419–436. doi:10.1007/s11712-012-9290-1 (Scholar)
• Giles, Herbert Allen (trans./ed.), 1889, Chuang Tzŭ: Mystic, Moralist, and Social Reformer, London: Bernard Quaritch, Second revised edition, Shanghai: Kelly & Walsh, 1926. [Giles 1889 available online] (Scholar)
• ––– (trans./ed.), 1906, Musings of a Chinese Mystic: Selections from the Philosophy of Chuang-Tzŭ (Wisdom of the East Series 3), London: J. Murray. [Giles 1906 available online] (Scholar)
• –––, 1926 [1961], Chuang Tzu: Taoist Philosopher and Chinese Mystic, second edition, London: Bernard Quaritch. Reprinted, London: Allen and Unwin, 1961. (Scholar)
• Graham, Angus C., 1969, “Chuang-Tzu’s Essay on Seeing Things as Equal”, History of Religions, 9(2/3): 137–159. doi:10.1086/462602 (Scholar)
• –––, 1983, “Taoist Spontaneity and the Dichotomy of ‘Is’ and ‘Ought’”, in Mair 1983: 3–23. (Scholar)
• –––, 1989, Disputers of the Tao: Philosophical Argument in Ancient China, La Salle, IL: Open Court. (Scholar)
• –––, 1990, “How Much of Chuang Tzŭ Did Chuang Tzŭ Write?”, in his Studies in Chinese Philosophy and Philosophical Literature (SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture), Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 283–321. Reprinted in A Companion to Angus C. Graham’s Chuang Tzu, Harold D. Roth (ed.), Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 2003, 58–103. (Scholar)
• Hansen, Chad, 1989, “Mozi: Language Utilitarianism (The Structure of Ethics in Classical China)”, The Journal of Chinese Philosophy, 16(3–4): 355–380. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6253.1989.tb00443.x (Scholar)
• –––, 1983, “A Tao of Tao in Chuang Tzu”, in Mair 1983: 24–55. (Scholar)
• –––, 1992, A Daoist Theory of Chinese Thought: A Philosophical Interpretation, Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oso/9780195134193.001.0001 (Scholar)
• –––, 2003, “Guru or Skeptic? Relativistic Skepticism in the Zhuangzi”, in Hiding the World in the World: Uneven Discourses on the Zhuangzi, Scott Bradley Cook (ed.), (SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture), Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 128–162 (ch. 5). (Scholar)
• –––, 2011, “Dào as a Naturalistic Focus”, in Fraser, Robins, and O’Leary 2011: 267–295 (ch. 14).
• Ivanhoe, Philip J., 1991, “Zhuangzi’s Conversion Experience”, Journal of Chinese Religions, 19(1): 13–25. doi:10.1179/073776991805307729 (Scholar)
• Klein, Esther, 2010, “Were there ‘Inner Chapters’ in the Warring States? A New Examination of Evidence about the Zhuangzi”, T’oung Pao, 96(4): 299–369. doi:10.1163/156853210x546509 (Scholar)
• Kjellberg, Paul, 1994, “Skepticism, Truth, and the Good Life: A Comparison of Zhuangzi and Sextus Empiricus”, Philosophy East and West, 44(1): 111–133. doi:10.2307/1399806 (Scholar)
• Kjellberg, Paul and P. J. Ivanhoe, 1996, Essays on Skepticism, Relativism, and Ethics in the Zhuangzi, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. (Scholar)
• Lai, Karyn L., 2022a, “Freedom and Agency in the Zhuangzi : Navigating Life’s Constraints”, British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 30(1): 3–23. doi:10.1080/09608788.2021.1994366 (Scholar)
• –––, 2022b, “Performance and Agency in the Zhuangzi”, in Chong 2022: 661–682 (ch. 28). doi:10.1007/978-3-030-92331-0_28 (Scholar)
• Lai, Karyn L. and Wai Wai Chiu, 2014, “Ming in the Zhuangzi Neipian: Enlightened Engagement”, Journal of Chinese Philosophy, 40(3–4): 527–543. doi:10.1111/1540-6253.12052 (Scholar)
• Legge, James (trans), 1891, The Sacred Books of China: The Texts of Taoism, 2 volumes, (Sacred Books of the East 39–40), Oxford: Clarendon Press. Reprinted, New York: Dover, 1962. [Legge (trans.) 1891 volume 1 available online] [Legge (trans.) 1891 available online] (Scholar)
• Liu, X., 1994, Classifying the Zhuangzi Chapters (Michigan Monographs in Chinese Studies: Volume 65), Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies. [Liu 1994 available online] (Scholar)
• Lo Yuet Keung 勞悅強, 1999, “To Use or Not to Use: The Idea of Ming in the Zhuangzi”, Monumenta Serica, 47(1): 149–168. doi:10.1080/02549948.1999.11731326 (Scholar)
• –––, 2022, “The Authorship of the Zhuangzi”, in Chong 2022: 237–267 (ch. 11). doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92331-0_3 (Scholar)
• Mair, Victor H. (ed.), 1983, Experimental Essays on Chuang-tzu, Honolulu: [published for] Center for Asian and Pacific Studies [by] University of Hawai’i Press. (Scholar)
• Möller [Moeller], Hans-Georg, 1999, “Zhuangzi’s ‘Dream of the Butterfly’: A Daoist Interpretation”, Philosophy East and West, 49(4): 439–450. doi:10.2307/1399947 (Scholar)
• –––, 2022, “Humor and its Philosophical Significance in the Zhuangzi”, in Chong 2022: 287–304 (ch. 13). doi:10.1007/978-3-030-92331-0_13 (Scholar)
• Moeller, Hans-Georg and Paul J. D’Ambrosio, 2017, Genuine Pretending: On the Philosophy of the Zhuangzi, New York: Columbia University Press. (Scholar)
• Porat, Roy, 2022, “Language in the Zhuangzi”, in Chong 2022: 237–267 (ch. 11). doi:10.1007/978-3-030-92331-0_11 (Scholar)
• Raphals, Lisa, 1994, “Skeptical Strategies in the ‘Zhuangzi’ and ‘Theaetetus’”, Philosophy East and West, 44(3): 501–526. doi:10.2307/1399738 (Scholar)
• –––, 2022, “The Zhuangzi on Ming (命)”, in Chong 2022: 217–233 (ch. 10). doi:10.1007/978-3-030-92331-0_10 (Scholar)
• –––, 2022, “Neuroscientific and Cognitive Perspectives on the Zhuangzi” in Chong 2022: 683–702 (ch. 29). doi:10.1007/978-3-030-92331-0_29 (Scholar)
• Robins, Dan, 2011, “‘It Goes Beyond Skill’”, in Fraser, Robins, and O’Leary 2011: 105–123 (ch. 5). (Scholar)
• Roth, Harold D., 1991, “Who Compiled the Chuang-Tzu”, in Chinese Texts and Philosophical Contexts: Essays Dedicated to Angus C. Graham, Henry Rosemont (ed.), (Critics and Their Critics 1), La Salle, IL: Open Court, 82–128. (Scholar)
• Roth, Harold D. (ed.), 2003, A Companion to Angus C. Graham’s Chuang Tzu (Monograph of the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy, No. 20), Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press. (Scholar)
• Shang, Ge Ling, 2006, Liberation as Affirmation: The Religiosity of Zhuangzi and Nietzsche, (SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture), Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. (Scholar)
• Soles, Deborah H. and David E. Soles, 1998, “Fish Traps and Rabbit Snares: Zhuangzi on Judgement, Truth and Knowledge”, Asian Philosophy, 8(3): 149–164. doi:10.1080/09552369808575481 (Scholar)
• Stevenson, Frank W., 2006, “Zhuangzi’s Dao as Background Noise”, Philosophy East and West, 56(2): 301–331. doi:10.1353/pew.2006.0025 (Scholar)
• Sturgeon, Donald, 2015, “Zhuangzi, Perspectives, and Greater Knowledge”, Philosophy East and West, 65(3): 892–917. doi:10.1353/pew.2015.0064 (Scholar)
• Sun Yirang 孫詒譲, and 墨翟. 1965. 定本墨子閒詁 (世界書局: 台北).
• Van Norden, Bryan W., 1996, “Competing Interpretations of the Inner Chapters of the ‘Zhuangzi’”, Philosophy East and West, 46(2): 247. doi:10.2307/1399405 (Scholar)
• –––, 2016. “Zhuangzi’s Ironic Detachment and Political Commitment”, Dao: a Journal of Comparative Philosophy, 15: 1–17. (Scholar)
• Walker, Stephen C., 2019, “Boundless Ways: Undoing Dào in the Zhuāngzǐ”, PhD dissertation, The University of Chicago. (Scholar)
• –––, 2022, “‘Are You Really Right? Am I Really Wrong?’: Responding to Debates in Zhuāngzǐ 2”, Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy, 21(4): 533–548. doi:10.1007/s11712-022-09851-x (Scholar)
• Wang Xianqian, 1987, Zhuangzi ji jie (Xin bian zhu zi ji cheng), Beijing: Zhonghua Shu ju. (Scholar)
• Wong, David B., 2005, “Zhuangzi and the Obsession with Being Right”, History of Philosophy Quarterly, 22(2): 91–107. (Scholar)
• –––, 2022, “Constructive Skepticism in the Zhuangzi”, in Chong 2022: 639–660 (ch. 27). doi:10.1007/978-3-030-92331-0_27 (Scholar)
• Yearley, Lee, 1983, “The Perfected Person in the Radical Chuang-tzu”, in Mair 1983: 125–139. (Scholar)
• Ziporyn, Brook, 2013, Beyond Oneness and Difference: Li and Coherence in Chinese Buddhist Thought and Its Antecedents, State University of New York Press: Albany. (Scholar)
• –––, 2012, Ironies of Oneness and Difference Coherence in Early Chinese Thought: Prolegomena to the Study of Li, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. (Scholar)