Abstract
This Chapter examines and analyzes five positions on the Zhuangzi that consider its authors, classification, completion date, and evolution. Working from new internal evidence, the author proposes two principles for textual studies: (1) We should not simply ignore or deny the value of textual conventions, to do so would allow text-based discussion to devolve into free imagination or purely logical speculation with no historical or textual basis. (2) We should look for new evidence in both received texts and archeological findings, and re-assess conventional “fulcrums” as objectively as possible. The author also presents a relatively systematic and comprehensive picture of the Zhuangzi that accounts for the grouping of its chapters.
The author concludes that the Inner Chapter theory evidently gets the strongest support from conventional literary records and objective findings derived from textual and linguistic approaches. Other theories may contain reasonable insights, but they are one-sided or lacking in thoroughgoing deliberation.
The author is very grateful for Ms. Yama Wong’s assistance in the first drafting based on my essays and books. In addition, Dr. Ding Liya has significant contribution in polishing and improving the second draft.
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Notes
- 1.
Klein’s work is serious and based on a broad survey of related literature. However, her hypothesis is still essentially based on skepticism and questions, instead of positive new evidence. The presuppositions of her argument are: (1) all ancient books and sections of them should be cited in or mentioned by other books; (2) all other books should have survived over two millenia to be available for us today; (3) as long as we cannot see X, we have grounds to suppose that it never existed. Great numbers of unearthed texts have repeatedly proved that these suppositions are groundless and should not be a basis for textual analyses. Too many texts we knew nothing about have been discovered by archeologists in recent decades. Klein’s method is only valid for a defined and known object, but the realm of ancient books has proved an infinite, unknown kingdom. Klein’s way of reasoning had been used by Herbert A. Giles (1845–1935), who once contended that the Laozi was forged from Huainanzi in the early Han dynasty. Giles’ argument was based on his claim that Confucius, Mencius, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Huainanzi, and SIMA Qian never saw or claimed to have seen the text of the Laozi. Archeologist findings have proven this argument groundless.
- 2.
It is very probable that both the 52 and 33 chapter versions were in circulation by the end of Han dynasty. In Gao’s annotation of Lüshi Chunqiu 呂氏春秋 (The Spring-Autumn Annals of Master Lü), he also mentions that Zhuangzi wrote a book of 52 chapters. Ho Che-wah once thought that the number 52 might be a correction of the 33 in Gao’s annotation of the Huainanzi (Personal e-mail communication. As for the divergence of Gao’s annotations of the two books, see Ho 2007: 109–138.). However, if we believe that Gao was a true scholar and would not make an annotation based on hearsay rather than literary evidence, then: (1) the word “thirty-three” must have been based on what he saw; (2) it is unlikely that the number “thirty-three” was a careless mistake for “fifty-two” because the pronunciation and graphs of the two in ancient Chinese were quite different; (3) it is difficult to imagine that such a mistake would coincidentally, yet perfectly, match the number of chapters in Guo Xiang’s version of the Zhuangzi, which would only be completed dozens of years later.
- 3.
The text is based on a translation by Mr. Huang Zhuhua 黃柱華 with amendment; Yama Wong contributed to the first draft. I am responsible for any faults or mistakes.
- 4.
Translation by William E. Savage. Emphases are mine.
- 5.
The convention of distinguishing between “inner” and “outer” chapters has continued throughout history; for example, Ge Hong’s 葛洪 (284–363) Baopuzi 抱朴子 has inner and outer chapters, dealing with Confucianism and Daoism, respectively. As late as the Qing dynasty, Zhuang Xuecheng’s 章學誠 (1738–1801) Wenshi Tongyi文史通義 also divided into inner and outer chapters. Obviously, essays of the inner chapters are more important and serious than the outer ones. There is no grounds to claim that the distinction between the inner and outer chapters is meaningless.
- 6.
Ma collected 128 items and Wang 150. These are neither valuable for the study of Zhuangzi’s thought, nor useful for textual recension because scholars in antiquity quoted others’ words according to memory and understanding, instead of copying word for word. And the “lost” passages are piecemeal and insignificant. Some are very strange, and some are redundant. See Wang 1988: 1383–1314; Ma 1925; for comments about the lost pieces, see Cui 1992: 50–52.
- 7.
About the weakness of sample argumentation, please see chapter one.
- 8.
The translation is by William E. Savage, adopted from Liu 1994: 40.
- 9.
- 10.
The word “compound” is used here in a loose sense, namely a fixed combination of two words. It is not used as a rigorous linguistic term.
- 11.
- 12.
Here we did not consider the “Tuanzhuan 彖傳” and “Shuogua 說卦” of the Zhouyi 周易, in which xingming性命 appears twice and daode道德 once, because there is no clear agreement on the dating of those passages. In addition, the Guodian bamboo-slip text “Tangyuzhidao” 唐虞之道 uses xingming once. But even if all these works date to before the Mencius, our general observation would not be adversely effected because compounds emerged gradually, so that if a few cases appear earlier than their general usage that can be counted as normal and understandable.
- 13.
- 14.
- 15.
For all the 29 passages, see Liu 1994: 18–21 (English) and Liu 2010: 34–36 (Chinese). There is a special section in chapter 33 “Tianxia,” that clearly comments on Zhuangzi’s thought. Because the general form of this chapter differs from the others, however, we are unable to compare it to similar essays, and we will not include it in our comparative figures.
- 16.
For the weakness of the sample argumentation see chapter 1 of this volume. Some think the present author also uses language “samples” as evidence, but this misunderstands and distorts our method. Our argumentation is based on statistics gained from a comparison of all relevant language materials in specific text bodies. It relies on a definite database, depending on neither selected examples that support a position already decided nor general conjectures made in an infinitely open world.
- 17.
Passages of the Zhuangzi, Lushi Chunqiu, and other texts in this section were translated by William E. Savage; they are cited from Liu 1994.
- 18.
- 19.
For details see Liu 1994: 61–66 (English); Liu 2010: 57–60 (Chinese) It is unlikely that the Zhuangzi was completed in the very short Qin dynasty (223–206 BC) because the first emperor of Qin issued an order to ban all books among the common people except official laws and some practical technology works.
- 20.
- 21.
For a detailed discussion of the three groups, see Chapter 9 “Various Theories of Outer and Miscellaneous Chapters.”
- 22.
- 23.
The work described in this paper was partially supported by a grant from Peking University’s Project on the history of Chinese hermeneutics (12&ZD109).
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Liu, X. (2015). Textual Issues in the Zhuangzi . In: Liu, X. (eds) Dao Companion to Daoist Philosophy. Dao Companions to Chinese Philosophy, vol 6. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2927-0_6
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