From action, attainment.įrom their stillness comes their non-action, which is also actionįor stillness is joy. The Book of Chuang Tzu draws together the stories, tales, jokes and anecdotes that have gathered around the figure of Chuang Tzu. So from the sage’s emptiness, stillness arises:įrom stillness, action. Silence, non-action: this is the level of heaven and earth.įrom this, the conditioned, the individual things. The name Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi in the Pinyin system) means Master Chuang. He was a unique presence, a great mind like no one before or since. He was the sage who stood apart from all others in Chinese history. You can look in it and see the bristles on your chin.Įmptiness, stillness, tranquillity, tastelessness, The Book of Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi), translated by Martin Palmer, Elizabeth Breauilly, Chang Wei Ming, and Jay Ramsay, is available here in EPUB, AZW3, and PDF formats. If you have not encountered Chuang Tzu before, you are in for a treat. The sage is quiet because he is not moved, The non-action of the wise man is not inaction. However, there are still some differences between Zhuangzi and Lao Tzu such as Lao Tzu thought that hardness and strength are the same species as death. Chinese philosopher Chuang Tzu, author of foundational Taoist texts, writes in this poem: “The sage is quiet because he is not moved / Not because he wills to be quiet.” Inaction, he argues, is a type of action an appropriate response that arises from the tranquility of the clear, level spirit of man, and such a state is the resting place of the wise. The true stillness that is at the root of human wisdom and the Taoist endeavor is a positive state, in as much as it is not the absence of anything nor a resistance to anything.

The chuang tzu