Zhuangzi: Closet Confucian?

Abstract

Confucius (aka Kongzi) and Zhuangzi are the two most famous thinkers in all of Chinese history, aside from Laozi, the Old Master. They occupy positions in the history of Chinese thinking roughly comparable to those held by Plato and Epicurus in the Western narrative of civilisation, in that they offer visions of the engaged political life and the engaged social self to which later political theorists and ethicists invariably return. For the last century or so, if not longer, Sinologists and comparative philosophers have been apt to name Confucius the ‘founder’ of a Confucian ‘school’, and Zhuangzi, one of two ‘founders’ of a rival Daoist ‘school’, despite the lack of evidence for sectarian factions in early China. What is at stake in this essay is nothing less than a recasting of the entire early history of Chinese thinking in ways both bracing and potentially troubling to modern academics.

Confucianism and Daoism: On the relationship between theAnalects,Laozi, andZhuangzi, Part I

“…Regardless, neither is especially concerned with the relationship between the Laozi and the Lunyu. 5 For a detailed analysis of the character Kongzi in the Zhuangzi, as well as the relationship between the two in general, see Nylan (2017). 6 All translations are my own unless otherwise noted.…”

“…In one paradigmatic example (12.11) we find:

Duke Jing of Qi asked Confucius about governing. Confucius replied, “Let a ruler be a ruler, a minister be a minister, a father be a father, and a son be a son.”

“Good!” said the Duke, “If, indeed, the ruler be not ruler, the minister not minister, the father not father, and the son not son, even if there were grain, how would I get to eat it?” (Ni, 2017, p. 289)

…”

“…“Good!” said the Duke, “If, indeed, the ruler be not ruler, the minister not minister, the father not father, and the son not son, even if there were grain, how would I get to eat it?” (Ni, 2017, p. 289)…”

“…Even more caustically, some scholars (e.g., Chong, 2016;Moeller & D'Ambrosio, 2017) find the Zhuangzi to be nothing short of an attack on Kongzi and the Lunyu, taking passages such as Robber Zhi's insults towards Kongzi (29.1) as broadly representative of the attitude the Zhuangzi holds towards the Lunyu. 5 Others, including Wang Bi, Guo Xiang (252-312), Wang Fuzhi (1619-1692, Wang (2004Wang ( , 2014, Wang (2010), andNylan (2017), see the Lunyu and Zhuangzi as expressing similar perspectives on morality and self-cultivation, as well as criticizing the institutionalization of either. Wang Bo even thinks that of all pre-Qin texts these two are the closest.…”

“…5 5 For a detailed analysis of the character Kongzi in the Zhuangzi , as well as the relationship between the two in general, see Nylan (2017). …”