During a period of political and social upheaval in China, the unconventional insights of the great Daoist Zhuangzi (369?-286? B.C.) pointed to a way of living naturally. Inspired by his fascination with the wisdom of this sage, the immensely popular Taiwanese cartoonist Tsai Chih Chung created a bestselling Chinese comic book. Tsai had his cartoon characters enact the key parables of Zhuangzi (pronounced jwawngdz), and he rendered Zhuangzi's most enlightening sayings into modern Chinese. Through Tsai's enthusiasm and skill, the earliest and core parts of the Zhuangzi were thus made accessible to millions of Chinese-speaking people with no other real chance of appreciating this major Daoist text. Translated into English by Brian Bruya, the comic book is now available to a Western audience. The classical Chinese text of the selections of the Zhuangzi is reproduced in the margins throughout. Evoked by the translation and the playful cartoons is the spontaneity that Zhuangzi favors as an attitude toward life: abandon presuppositions, intellectual debates, and ambitions, he suggests, and listen to the "music of nature." With the writings attributed to Laozi, the Zhuangzi contributed to an alternative philosophical ideal that matched Confucianism in its impact on Chinese culture. Over the centuries this classical Daoism influenced many aspects of Chinese life, including painting, literature, and the martial arts. It had a particularly strong effect on Chan Buddhism (Japanese Zen). For this book, Donald Munro has written an afterword that places Daoism and the Zhuangzi in historical and cultural context.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
<TR>Acknowledgments<TR>Guide to Pronunciation<TR>Map<TR>The Summer Cicada and the Wonder Tortoise5<TR>The Little Sparrow's Small Happiness7<TR>Hui Shi's Giant Gourd8<TR>The Song Family's Secret Formula10<TR>The Useless Shu Tree12<TR>The Tattooed Yue People15<TR>The Music of the Earth16<TR>Zhao Wen Quits the Zither19<TR>Does Wang Ni Know?20<TR>Is Xi Shi Really Beautiful?22<TR>Li Ji's Tears23<TR>Zhang Wuzi's Dream24<TR>Shadows Talking25<TR>The Dream of the Butterfly26<TR>Three at Dawn and Four at Dusk27<TR>Hui Shi Leans against a Tree28<TR>The Cook Carves Up a Cow29<TR>Passing on the Flame31<TR>The Caged Pheasant32<TR>Like A Mantis Stopping a Cart33<TR>The Horse Lover35<TR>The Earth Spirit's Tree36<TR>A Tree's Natural Life Span38<TR>The Freak40<TR>Oil Burns Itself Out41<TR>The Tiger Trainer42<TR>Toeless Shu43<TR>Nature the Superhero44<TR>Forgetting the Dao45<TR>Zi Sang Questions His Fate46<TR>Digging a Canal in the Ocean Floor47<TR>Are a Duck's Legs Too Short?48<TR>The Lost Goat49<TR>Bandits Have Principles, Too50<TR>Good Wine, Bad Wine52<TR>The Yellow Emperor Questions Guangcheng53<TR>Nature's Friend54<TR>The Old Wheelwright55<TR>The Earth and the Sky57<TR>Crows and Seagulls58<TR>Confucius Sees a Dragon59<TR>Don't Ring the Bull's Nose60<TR>The Wind and the Snake61<TR>Courage of the Sage63<TR>The Frog in the Well65<TR>Learning How to Walk in Handan68<TR>A Crow Eating a Dead Rat69<TR>You're Not a Fish71<TR>Zhuangzi Dreams of a Skeleton72<TR>Sea Birds Don't Like Music74<TR>The Drunk Passenger76<TR>Riding with the Dao77<TR>The Sweet Water is Gone First79<TR>Lin Hui Forsakes a Fortune81<TR>Swallows Nest in the Eaves82<TR>The Mantis Getting the Cicada83<TR>Fan Was Never Destroyed85<TR>Knowledge and the Dao86<TR>Gengsang Forsakes Fame88<TR>The Yellow Emperor and the Pasture Boy89<TR>The Stone Mason and the Ying Man91<TR>Two Nations on a Snail's Antennae93<TR>Zhuangzi Borrows Grain94<TR>The Turtle That Could Predict the Future95<TR>Natural Use97<TR>Catch the Fish, Discard the Trap98<TR>Yang Zhu Studies the Dao99<TR>Zi Gong's Snow-White Clothes100<TR>The Bandit Speaks102<TR>Zhuangzi's Three Swords107<TR>Confucius in the Black Forest114<TR>The Man Who Hated His Footprints117<TR>The Man Who Hated His Shadow118<TR>Like a Drifting Boat119<TR>The Dragonslayer120<TR>Shattering the Dragonpearl122<TR>Don't Make Sacrifices124<TR>Zhuangzi on His Deathbed125<TR>Afterword127
