Reviews for Chuang tzŭ: mystic, moralist, and social reformer

The average rating for Chuang tzŭ: mystic, moralist, and social reformer based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-03-17 00:00:00 Mike D. Wiethorn Zhuangzi deliberately makes himself very hard to pin down, but here are some of the things that struck me. 1. Zhuangzi is the Diogenes to Confucius' Aristotle, to use a slightly fatuous analogy. He disclaims ambition and self-aggrandizement, and systems in favour of proverbs, anecdotes and clever subversion. 2. Zhuangzi delights in paradox. This one of the greatest pleasures in reading the book. 3. Confucius and other 'sages' appear in stories at various points, filling the purpose of sympathetic characters. In Confucius' case, this oddly puts him in the position of making fun of his own philosophy, against which Zhuangzi is intent on inveighing. 4. I don't agree much with the philosophy/theology expressed in this book, in as much as it can be expressed at all. but I did enjoy it a lot anyway. (Note that I appreciate that the 'Book of Zhuangzi/Chuang Tzu' is not the sole work of a man of that name, but I refer to a 'he' for convenience).

Review # 2 was written on 2012-02-03 00:00:00 Jussara Giolo Silva Lovely poetic stories exemplifying key Daoist concepts. Whereas the Tao Te Ching is pure symbolism and poetry, this is a collection of parables. That means its a lot more "concrete." As a result, it gets even more explicitly anarchist than Laozi at times, but it also gets even more explicitly bizarre (condemning listening to complex music for example). This has the famous Butterfly Dream parable in it, as well as the Turtle of Ch'u parable, which were both excellent. This is a good way for people to understand Daoism who can't handle the vagueness of the Tao Te Ching. Laozi may be the old master, but Zhuangzi is the one I'd want to smoke with.