wuwei in the thoughts of zuang zi - 21810077

KINAADMAN An Interdisciplinary Research Journal Vol. 18, No. 2 October 2007Holy Name University, Tagbilaran City, Bohol

WUWEI IN THE THOUGHTS OF ZUANG ZI

Ranie B. VillaverUniversity of San Carlos

Cebu City

I aim in this paper to present and explicate the various conceptions of wuwei, a major Daoist doctrine generally thought of as the principle of nondoing and effortless action, in the Zhuangzi hua.1 Through a discussion of the dimensions of Zhuangzian wuwei and by recounting some of the Zhuangzi’s unsophisticated yet atypical tales, I shall expose wuwei’s connotations, which includes the following: the Daoist notion of light, vibrant (also redemptive) attitude one ought to exhibit amidst the chaotic universe, the principle as the purgation of one’s thoughts and desires, and wuwei as easy, prudential action achieved by constant practice of one’s craft and by intelligent, alert, and respectful cognizance of and flexibility to the daos of things.

It is in the Zhuangzi where one finds the stoic, “who cares?” outlook and funny disposition of the early Daoists.2 The classic’s both explicit and implicit behavioral advice of wuwei proves this. As wuwei’s kindred concepts, indifference, humor, and carefreeness (xiaoyaoyou, see the Zhuangzi’s first chapter) express “nondoing” for they connote noninterference as well as wellfounded tolerance toward what exists and toward whatever comes.3

However, the idea of attaining this easygoing disposition or philosophy of life is not shared by all the early Daoist thinkers. Wuwei as lightheartedness and apathy isn’t the principle’s original, erstwhile meaning and use.4 In his work, the Zhuangzi, Master Zhuang , 5 radicalized wuwei by maneuvering it to support the mystical direction of his thought.6 Like his predecessor, he used wuwei as a tool. But unlike Laozi a, he used it to reject the mundane world in order to transport the self to a place where the playful, transcendent dao “dwells.”7 For Zhuangzi, wuwei is not so much an expedient means to manage a kingdom as it is a way towards true freedom.

Zhuangzi made wuwei a means to numb or “anesthetize,” so to speak, the human self from cosmic harshness just so one will become like the “wandering” (probably, to describe it anthropomorphically, unsympathetic and thoughtless) dao. By numbing oneself, that is by taking on the wuwei mode, Zhuangzi reckoned, one frees herself from the snares of the ominous world. As Liu Xiaogan says, whereas Laozi used wuwei as a leadership device, “Zhuangzi, on the contrary, [thru wuwei] wanted to transcend the everyday [absurd and sinister] world regardless of concrete considerations.”8 Accordingly, this “otherworldly” yet relaxed, i.e. unserious perspective of the theory as a mystical, liberating access led Master Zhuang to also propose it as a way towards happiness and balance in life.9

Because Zhuangzi wanted nothing but transcendence that entails freedom from life’s complexities and adversities, his wuwei then also implies the Buddhistlike state of vacuity, the state of “nomind, noemotion.”10 This is one of the central notions of his philosophy.11 And this “empty” state, in turn, necessitates ineluctably the mention of the socalled Daoist wuforms: wuxin ww (no heartmind), wuzhi (no knowledge, or now understood appositely as unprincipled knowing), and wuyu (no desires).12 These wuforms, to explain them, correspond to Zhuangzi’s


insistence on respecting the ziran i of things, including man’s (here, meaning human being). This is so because if one’s personal intentions (will), knowhow, and desires (mind/heart) – that is, one’s zhi, wei, zhi, yu , and xin x – are abandoned and purged from the self, what’s left is only nature’s ziran or “spontaneity.”13

Zhuangzi valued the natural essence and processes of the “tenthousand things” (wanwu ww) just as he valued nondoing and effortless action.14 Thus, the condition of nothingness (wu ) not only is a state of emptiness, it is also a state that moves one towards becoming more like the spontaneous, insouciant, and unstable dao, or towards remembering, and then (clever) assuming of, the (inactive) Way of tian.

Whoever is unclear about Heaven is impure in his Power, whoever is unversed in the Way is at fault whatever course he takes. Alas for the man who is unclear about the Way! What do we mean by the ‘Way’? There is the Way of Heaven [tian dao ], there is the Way of Man [ren dao ]. To be exalted by Doing Nothing [wuwei wu] is the Way of Heaven, to be tied by doing something is the Way of Man ….15

Furthermore, tian dao’s wuwei way, it must be noted, is understood yet again through the wuforms we have identified. This is because Zhuangzi’s wuwei, according to Watson, is “a course of action that is not founded upon any purposeful motives of gaining or striving.” His wuwei, therefore, advances the sage towards the mystical emulation and union with dao:16 “[Zhuangzi] uses wuwei to characterize a sublime level of the mind attained when the individual has successfully extricated himself from the bondage of selfhood and its attendant attachments and is free to find communion with the cosmic whole.”17

In sum, Zhuangzian wuwei, we have seen, entails sagely transcendence as well as indifference before the world’s hustle and bustle. That is, wuwei is “freedom,” it’s “a life of nonbondage and limitless possibility.”18 Nonaction as that is demonstrated moreover in the Zhuangzi’s elucidation, as will be seen below, of the following themes: “forgetting of one’s own life/self (waisheng a),” “fasting of the mind (xinzhai ),” “sitting and forgetting (zuowang u),” and going beyond (or “mastering cessation” of ) likes and dislikes, useful and useless, right and wrong.19

II

In this section, I shall present anecdotes from the Zhuangzi and also some Chinese and nonChinese stories from other sources that mention wuwei. These will illustrate wuwei as thought and developed by Zhuangzi and (concomitantly) by his later followers.20

The first one is from the nineteenth chapter of the Zhuangzi. This tale tells of a man who is wellversed of the way and who lives the principle of doing nothing.

Confucius looked at the view in Lüliang. The waterfall hung down three hundred feet, it streamed foam for forty miles, it was a place where fish and turtles and crocodiles could not swim, but he saw one fellow swimming there. He took him for someone in trouble who wanted to die, and sent a disciple along the bank to pull him up. But after a few hundred paces the man came out, and strolled under the bank with his hair down his back, singing as he walked. Confucius took the opportunity to question him.


‘I thought you were a ghost, but now I see you close up you’re a man. May I ask whether you have a Way to stay afloat in water?’

‘No, I have no Way. I began in what is native to me, grew up in what is natural to me, matured in what is destined for me. I enter with the inflow, and emerge with the outflow, follow the Way of the water and do not impose my selfishness upon it. This is how I stay afloat in it.’21

Benjamin Hoff’s translation of the man’s reply says:

... I go down with the water and come up with the water. I follow it and I forget myself. I survive because I don’t struggle against the water’s superior power. That’s all.22

This story depicts wuwei really well that it deserves here our first attention. Now, to proceed to its implication, we infer that what this simple, also unusual tale conveys is that a person does not need to exert needless effort and coercion to be happy with life and its circumstances. What she must do, as she releases her selfishness, is “nothing” – for when one tries too hard, things will rebel, naturally, against her. What must be considered is solely the ultimate reality’s way. To reach the level of wuwei, Daoists would learn to let alone, i.e., not intervene with the way things are and with the laws operating naturally around her, and then comply with them.23 Fox and Hoff call this the act of “blending in” with What’s There, with dao. Fox explains,

Instead of obstinately and vainly persisting against the tide of inevitability, which will only wear us out, Zhuangzi’s ideal person adapts and conforms, reflectively and reflexively, operating in an effortless, responsive, unobtrusive fashion, by finding the fit [shi h].24

Life is easy, but, according to the Daoists, it is only when you know how stuffs in the world work, when you know what dao is and how it moves. By acquainting yourself with what’s real and by fashioning your ways to imitate and accommodate dao, you take advantage of its energy and activity for your own good – such as what happens in taijiquan. And that is truly effortless action!

The frequently noted (it’s at par with the “Butterfly Dream”) Zhuangzi story of the butcher Ding (Pao Ding bu) further illustrates the abovementioned points on wuwei:

Cook Ting was carving an ox for Lord Wenhui. As his hand slapped, shoulder lunged, foot stamped, knee crooked, with a hiss! with a thud! the brandished blade as it sliced never missed the rhythm, now in time with the Mulberry Forest dance, now with an orchestra playing the Chingshou.

‘Oh, excellent!’ said Lord Wenhui. ‘That skill should attain such heights!’‘What your servant cares about is the Way, I have left skill behind me. When I first began to

carve oxen, I saw nothing but oxen wherever I looked. Three years more and I never saw an ox as a whole. Nowadays, I am in touch through the daemonic in me, and do not look with the eye. With the senses I know where to stop, the daemonic I desire to run its course. I rely on Heaven’s structuring, cleave along the main seams, let myself be guided by the main cavities, go by what is inherently so. A ligament or tendon I never touch, not to mention solid bone. A good cook changes his chopper once a year, because he hacks. A common cook changes it once a month, because he smashes. Now I have this chopper for nineteen years, and have taken apart several thousand oxen, but the edge is as though it were fresh from the grindstone. At that joint there is an interval, and the chopper’s edge has no thickness; if you insert what has no thickness where there is an interval, then, what more could you ask, of course there is ample room to move the edge about. That’s why after nineteen years the edge of my chopper is as though it were fresh from the grindstone.


‘However, whenever I come to something intricate, I see where it will be hard to handle and cautiously prepare myself, my gaze settles on it, action slows down for it, you scarcely see the flick of the chopper – and at one stroke the tangle has been unravelled, as a clod crumbles to the ground. I stand chopper in hand, look proudly around at everyone, dawdle to enjoy the triumph until I’m quite satisfied, then clean the chopper and put it away.’

‘Excellent!’ said Lord Wenhui. ‘Listening to the words of Cook Ding, I learned from them how to nurture life.’ [emphases added]25

Zhuangzi, by telling such a story, according to Fox, demonstrates the basic “cognitive” dimension of wuwei. This aspect is manifested prudential “adaptability” or “reflexivity” in human action:

Wuwei is not merely a way of acting, it is a way of approaching the world, of matching attitude to circumstance [which] requires a willingness to shift contexts and see things from novel or different perspectives, continuously finding new possibilities in things [emphasis added].26

Thus, “the ideal is to ‘follow things as they are’ [attend to the entirety of the presented situation] and therefore never confronts obstacles” but acknowledges their presence and moves on by ‘finding the fit’.27 In A.C. Graham’s words, this wuwei mode of action, of finding the “fit” (shi s), of matching up is spontaneous whereby “[p]eople who really know what they are doing, such as cooks, carpenters, swimmers, boatmen, cicadacatchers, do not go in much for analyzing, posing alternatives and reasoning from the first principles, they no longer even bear in mind any rules they were taught as apprentices; they attend to the total situation and respond [adapt, change, or reconfigure].”28

This, moreover, means that in order to make the most of life what one must pursue is “worldguidedness” or daoguidedness, that is, the condition of being guided or led by things, conditions, and circumstances.29 Therefore, the sage (shengren T) must act like the “hinge of dao” (daoshu ) – a metaphor for “openmindedness,” the condition “which does not obstinately insist on the world conforming to our preconceived preferences.”30 Like the door’s hinge, the hinge of dao forgets instinctively – it doesn’t bother – that the sides of the door or anything are opposites; it views them, on the contrary, as complements. Daoshu allows “reflexivity,” “adaptability,” “flexibility,” “yielding in,”31 or “giving way,” and wuwei.32 And finally, this “hinge” represents “openness to the situation at hand,” sensitivity, and situation and coping with the environment where one is in and to the surrounding entities: it proposes prudential reconfiguration of the sage’s cognitive and bodily structure and movements.33

Another famous Zhuangzi story – one on enlightenment – also relates wuwei:

‘I make progress,’ said Yen Hue.‘Where?’ said Confucius.‘I have forgotten about rites and music.’‘Satisfactory. But you still have far to go.’

Another day he saw Confucius again.‘I make progress.’‘Where?’‘I have forgotten about Goodwill and Duty.’‘Satisfactory. But you still have far to go.’

Another day he saw Confucius again.‘I make progress.’


‘Where?’‘I just sit and forget.’

Confucius was taken aback.‘What do you mean, just sit and forget?‘I let the organs and members drop away, dismiss eyesight and hearing, part from the body and

expel knowledge [wuzhi], go along with the universal thoroughfare. This is what I mean by ‘just sit and forget [zuowang].’

‘If you go along with it, you have no preferences [wuyu]; if you let yourself transform, you have no norms. Has it really turned out that you are the better of us? Oblige me by accepting me as your disciple.’34

When one lets things be, that is, when she leaves the world as it is, and tolerates nature to flow without hindrance, when one reduces the ego to nothing by releasing its preconceptions, and when one goes along with dao and practices “nonassertive activity,” he gets the benefits dao offers. Dao does the trick for him.35 It does the work for her: this is because “it is the world (the Way or the ‘inevitable movement’ of things) that is providing the motive force and ‘carrying’ the Subject in the proper direction.”36 Our next story tells of this providence and guidance the way bestows. People just need to trust dao and its power (de ), and do nothing:

Knowledge roamed north to the banks of the Black Water, climbed the hill of Loominthegloom, and met with Donothing Saynothing there. Said Knowledge to Donothing Saynothing

‘I have questions I wish to put to you. What should I ponder, what should I plan, if I am to know the Way? What should I settle on, what should I work at, if I am to be firm in the Way? What course should I follow, what guide should I take, if I am to grasp the Way?’

Three things he asked, but Donothing Saynothing wouldn’t reply. No, he wasn’t that he would not reply, he didn’t know how to reply. Knowledge with his questions unanswered returned to the south of White Water, climbed to the top of Desertofdoubts, and noticed Scatterbrain there. Knowledge repeated his questions to Scatterbrain.

‘Ahaa!’ said Scatterbrain, ‘I know it, I’ll tell you!’Halfway through what he wanted to say he forgot what he wanted to say. Knowledge with his

questions unanswered returned to the Imperial Palace, saw the Yellow Emperor, and put the questions to him.

‘Don’t ponder, don’t plan,’ said the Yellow Emperor, ‘only then will you know the Way. Settle on nothing, work at nothing, only then will you be firm in the Way [emphasis added]. Follow no course, take no guide, only then will you grasp the way.’

‘You and I know it. The other two do not know it. Which of us are on to it?’‘That Donothing Saynothing is truly on to it, Scatterbrain seems to be, you and I have never

been anywhere near it. The knower does not say, the sayer does not know, so the sage conducts a wordless teaching ….… “The doer of the Way every day does less, less and less until he does nothing at all, and in doing nothing there is nothing that he does not do.”37

We move on to one short Chinese story that Hoff narrates in The Te of Piglet. It, too, is a story that depicts the simple, insightful wisdom of wuwei.

A horse was tied outside a shop in a narrow Chinese village street. Whenever anyone would try to walk by, the horse would kick him. Before long, a small crowd of villagers had gathered near the shop, arguing about how best to get past the dangerous horse. Suddenly, someone came running. “The Old Master is coming!” he shouted. “He’ll know what to do!”


The crowd watched eagerly as the Old Master came around the corner, saw the horse, turned, and walked down another street.38

Akin to this humorous tale is a succinct one recounted by Anthony de Mello:

A monkey on a tree hurled a coconut at the head of a Sufi [a Muslim sagemystic].The man picked it up, drank the milk, ate the flesh, and made a bowl from the shell.39

According to the Daoists, when humans know how nature activates, life becomes troublefree. Wuwei means “making use of the natural forces to achieve one’s object with the greatest economy.”40 Hence, they urge that people observe carefully “the natural laws in operation in the world around [them] and live by [and with] them.”41 They encourage men and women to smartly acquaint themselves with the ziran of dao and then proactively emulate its ways. There is no point tilling a land that’s rocky and infertile. It’s no use to utilize “square wheels” for cars when one knows that round one’s work. The benefits come when the natural laws and forces (beings, circumstances, situations, and conditions) are honored and obeyed.

What wuwei of course demands is difficult to do. People are egoistic and controlling. They think they can handle things on their own and that they can get away with anything. Also, it is arduous and taxing to follow nature’s fluid ways. As Ing says,

The “way of the Absolute” in nature is easy to see. But in man, it is difficult because man’s activity is tainted with artificiality. What is artificial action? It is to act in such a way as to disrupt harmony. From experience, we know that there are many chaoscausing acts. These acts come from selfishness and greed ….42

Yet, in the end, the person who seeks joyful and harmonious living has to realize that it is only by knowing and following the movements of nature, and, most significantly, by releasing her technical (calculative), artificial mindset, and personal desires will she reach and enjoy it.

Now, the way of wuwei is the way of acceptance. When one really knows the way, “fathoms the essentials,” she would untie herself from “anything irrelevant to life.”43 The person who allows nature to be nature pleases herself with what life gives her, unlike the Stonecutter in one known story. Envious of other people’s fortunate conditions, he wished to live affluent, abundant, and famous lives (which were all granted magically). But, because he was always dissatisfied, he ended up being awed by his being, by his very nature as a stonecutter.44 Wuwei would simply make people happy, safe, and secure because dao is with them and for them. No amount of compulsion will be expended to get what one wants and needs.

Wuwei is the ideal attitude that people should exhibit because it is the Way (or the qualities) of Heaven, of dao d that they are supposed to emulate and “embody.”45 As such, nonaction and effortless action connote the way of never refusing dao’s promptings:

Wuwei, or unforced action, means letting things [nature] come to us. Even more, it means letting things become us, or – more prosaically – become reflected in us …. We don’t struggle to figure things out but allow things to speak to us and tell us what to do with them.46

To explain this further, let’s take one Chinese fable: The Crocodile and the Monkey.


A carefree monkey lived in a jungle. He was honest and sincere to others and had many friends. He was a smart animal, never had any evil thoughts, and always trusted his friends.

One late afternoon, after jumping around in the trees all day, he went to the river to wash his dirty hands. A crocodile swam over. The monkey had no friends in the water, so he said ‘Hello’ to the crocodile.

The crocodile was a wicked animal. He was hungry, and he had heard that a monkey’s liver was delicious. The crocodile approached the monkey and asked, ‘My dear friend monkey, have you ever traveled to the other side of the river?’

When the monkey replied that he had not, the crocodile said, ‘I just came over from the other shore. There are many more large delicious peaches over there than on this side of the river.’

‘But I don’t know how to swim.’ The monkey was interested and had to tell the truth.The crocodile offered that the monkey could stand on his back, and he would take the monkey

across the river. It sounded like a good idea. The monkey jumped on the crocodile’s back without hesitation.

In the middle of the river, the crocodile began to sink into the water, which frightened the monkey.

‘Brother crocodile,’ the monkey begged, ‘please don’t keep sinking. I know nothing about swimming.’

‘I know you don’t swim,’ the crocodile answered loudly with a vicious laugh. ‘I want to drown you so I’ll have delicious monkey liver as my supper.’

At this moment, the monkey realized that the whole thing was trick. There were no larger peaches on the other shore. He himself was in immediate danger. But the monkey was smart. He calmed down and immediately replied, ‘Brother crocodile, why didn’t you say so earlier? I forgot to bring my liver with me. I cleaned it this morning and hung it up on a branch of a tall tree. Let’s go back to the shore, and I’ll give it to you right away.’

The crocodile was disappointed, but in order to have delicious monkey liver for dinner, he took the monkey back to the shore and followed the monkey to a tall tree. While the crocodile was watching the monkey jump up on the tree, the careless crocodile did not notice a trap made by a hunter to catch animals by the tree.

The crocodile accidentally fell into the deep hole. He yelled for help. The monkey jumped back to the edge of the trap and said, ‘Listen, crocodile, I treated you as a sincere friend. But you are not. You are but a stupid reptile …. I’m sorry. I cannot help you.’47

Expecting things or persons to be different when one knows “who or what they really are” brings troubles. The crocodile will always be a crocodile and the monkey will forever be a monkey. The dao has set their natures and the nature of the whole reality. What one can do then is to acknowledge, reconfigure one’s ways and being to accommodate the other, and live harmoniously with their realities. This is the means of efficacy – the way of not forcing, of not trying too hard. This is the means of wuwei.48

Finally, our closing story here reveals that trying to master and control dao is indeed futile; wuwei should really be the last and the best resort. Though the narrative is sad, it posits lessons of wuwei. It teaches that the principle of effortless action exhorts men and women to make careful, prudent (not hasty and unwise) decisions upon knowledge of the nature of things.49

It is the tale of “The Scorpion and the Turtle”.

A scorpion needs to cross a river to get to his usual whereabouts, having lost its way out in the wilderness for quite some time. Scorpions can’t swim, so it has to find another way across. There are no bridges or stepping stones in sight, and the river is far too wide to jump. Searching the surroundings, the scorpion meets a turtle. It asks the turtle for a ride across the big river. “Not a


chance. You’ll sting me, and I won’t be able to swim, and then I will drown,” the turtle replies. “I’ve got a family to take care of.” The scorpion acknowledges the turtle’s concern for his family, but assures him that he has nothing to fear. “You see, I would drown also, as you sink. It would be very stupid of me to sting you,” the scorpion argues in a convincing manner. So the turtle considers.

After giving the situation some thought, it becomes pure scientific logic to the turtle. What can be more valuable than one’s life, or the lives of your loved ones? The turtle asks the scorpion if it too has a family. “Certainly I have, and their wellbeing is more dear to me than anything else in this world.” The scorpion pulls out a worn picture of its family and points out the family members to the turtle. The scorpion talks in a gentle voice, and by the look of its posture, it seems very sincere. “Please,” the scorpion begs, “please help me to get back home.” A desperate look spreads across the face of the scorpion as its thoughts wander to its home soil. “There is noone here but you to help me,” the scorpion continues to argue. Touched by this concern for family matters, the turtle finally agrees to carry the scorpion across the big wide river.

Once in the water, the waves are tough on the newfound friends, but the turtle keeps the pace up with great effort not to let his passenger down. Halfway across, the turtle suddenly feels the scorpion’s terminal sting in his neck. “Why, why,” it gasps as the venom paralyses it, “why did you do it?” They both begin to sink into the dark waters. “Damned if I know. Guess it’s just in my nature,” the scorpion replies.50

After all that’s said, I hope this work will help men and women become enlightened about the wisdom that early Daoist teachings offer to the present. I hope too, finally, that, as they’ll relish the insights of the ancient, practical theory of wuwei, they will heed its challenges.51

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Van Norden, Bryan W. Review of Hiding the World in the World: Uneven Discourses on the Zhuangzi, edited by Scott B. Cook. China Review International 12, no. 1 (Spring 2005): 114.

Villaver, Ranie B. “Daoist Wuwei and Filipino Gender Sensitivity.” USC Graduate Journal 23, no. 1 (October 2006): 120.

________. “Wuwei in the Daodejing: Understanding Daoist Ethics.” PHAVISMINDA Journal 6 (May 2007): 3146.

Wu, Kuangming. “Hermeneutic Explorations in the Zhuangzi.” Journal of Chinese Philosophy 33, Supplementary 1 (December 2006): 6179.

Zhu, Rui. “WuWei: Laozi, Zhuangzi and the Aesthetic Judgement.” Asian Philosophy 12, no. 1 (March 2002): 5363.

C. Unpublished Materials

Fox, Alan. “Wuwei in Early Philosophical Daoism.” (Paper presented to the International Society for Chinese Philosophy (ISCP) at the 1995 Eastern Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, 28 December 1995).

Fraser, Christopher J. “Wuwei, the Background and Intentionality.” (Revised version of a paper presented at “Searle’s Philosophy and Chinese Philosophy: Constructive Engagement,” 2nd International Society of Comparative Studies of Chinese and Western Philosophy (ISCWP) International Conference, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 1415 June 2005).


Krueger, Joel W. “‘Doing Without Trying’: Taoism, Cognitive Science, and Embodied Cognition.” (Paper presented at the 2005 Eastern Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, New York City, New York, 2730 December 2005).

Slingerland, Edward Gilman. “Effortless Action: Wuwei as a Spiritual Ideal in Early China.” Ph.D. diss., Stanford University, 1998.

Villaver, Ranie B. “On Ziran and the Daoist Philosophy of Education.” Unpublished manuscript.

D. Electronic Sources

Ames, Roger T. “Daoist Philosophy.” In Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Edward Craig. London: Routledge, 1998. Article online. Available from http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/G006; 26 May 2007.

________. “Zhuangzi.” In Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Edward Craig. London: Routledge, 1998. Article online. Available from http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/G051; 26 May 2007.

Coutinho, Steve. “Zhuangzi.” In The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Article online. Available from http://www.iep.utm.edu/z/zhuangzi.htm; 2 March 2007.

Dy, Manuel. “Zhuang Zi’s Perfect Joy: An Answer to the Contemporary Predicament?” In The Humanization of Technology and Chinese Culture, eds. Tomonobu Imamichi, Wang Miaoyang, and Liu Fangtong. Book online. Available from http://www.crvp.org/book/Series03/III11/chapter_xix.htm; 15 November 2005.

1 The Zhuangzi is the second major philosophical Daoist classic after the Daodejing a a. The work, as compiled by Guo Xiang Gu, has 33 chapters, of which only the first seven chapters (known as the “Inner Chapters” Neipian e) is said to have been written by Zhuangzi. The other parts of the Zhuangzi include the Outer Chapters, the Waipian Wa (chapters 822) and the Mixed or Miscellaneous Chapters, Zapian a (chapters 2333). See Steve Coutinho, “Zhuangzi,” in The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy [article online]; available from http://www.iep.utm.edu/z/zhuangzi.htm; 2 March 2007.

2 The Daodejing, or the Laozi LLaL, on the other hand, deals with formal, serious propositions on metaphysics and rulership,. See James D. Sellman, “Transformational Humor in the Zhuangzi,” in Wandering at Ease in the Zhuangzi, ed. Roger T. Ames (New York: State University of New York Press, 1998), 163174; Orlando Ali Mandane Jr., “Humor in Zhuang Zi’s Philosophy,” PHAVISMINDA Journal 4 (May 2005): 5173.

3 We recall that the characters wu w and wei literally mean “absence” and “action.” Combined, they mean “no action” or “absence of doing.” Rui Zhu, “WuWei: Laozi, Zhuangzi and the Aesthetic Judgement,” Asian Philosophy 12, no. 1 (March 2002): 57; Edward Slingerland, “Conceptions of the Self in the Zhuangzi: Conceptual Metaphor Analysis and Comparative Thought,” Philosophy East & West 54, no. 3 (July 2004): 334. See also Steve Coutinho, Zhuangzi and Early Chinese Philosophy: Vagueness, Transformation and Paradox (Aldershot, United Kingdom: Ashgate, 2004), 6263.

4 Cf. Ranie B. Villaver, “Wuwei in the Daodejing: Understanding Daoist Ethics,” PHAVISMINDA Journal 6 (May 2007): 3146.

5 Zhuangzi, known also as Zhuang Zhou Z, is putatively recognized as Laozi’s foremost follower. However, a note regarding the relationship of the two thinkers must be mentioned: Other authors, like the late A.C. Graham, theorize that Zhuangzi never knew that he was following Laozi and that he never expressed he was a Daoist. Thus, it could even be that Master Zhuang was the “original” Daoist. Chad Hansen, “Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu),” in Encyclopedia of Chinese Philosophy, ed. Antonio S. Cua (London: Routledge, 2003), 911.

6 This means that Zhuangzian wuwei is Laozian wuwei minus the sociopolitical aspect. It considered wuwei only as a “state of consciousness.” Isabelle Robinet, Taoism: Growth of a Religion (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1997), 31; Zhu, “WuWei,” 5556.

7 Liu Xiaogan, “Wuwei (NonAction): From Laozi to Huainanzi,” Taoist Resources 3, no. 1 (July 1991): 47. Dao, oftentimes referred to as nature, the way, or the ultimate reality, is, for the Daoists, the world or the universe, what it is and its mechanisms.

8 Ibid.; Burton Watson, Introduction to Zhuangzi: Basic Writings (New York: Columbia University Press, 1964, 2003), 3.

9 Alan Fox, “Zhuangzi (Chuangtzu),” in Great Thinkers of the Eastern World, ed. Ian P. McGreal (New York: HarperCollins, 1995), 99103. See also Manuel Dy, “Zhuang Zi’s Perfect Joy: An Answer to the Contemporary Predicament?,” in The Humanization of Technology and Chinese Culture, eds. Tomonobu Imamichi, Wang Miaoyang, and Liu Fangtong [book online]; available from http://www.crvp.org/book/Series03/III11/chapter_xix.htm; 15 November 2005.

10 Liu, “Wuwei (NonAction),” 48.11 Zhu, “WuWei,” 5657. See also Roger T. Ames, “Daoist Philosophy,” in Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy,

ed. Edward Craig (London: Routledge, 1998) [article online]; available from http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/G006SECT6; 26 May 2007; Eske Møllgaard, “Zhuangzi’s Religious Ethics,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 71, no. 2 (June 2003): 347370. Cf. Ranie Villaver, “On Ziran and the Daoist Philosophy of Education,” unpublished manuscript.

12 These are only among the wuforms we can identify in Daoist thinking. Wuwei is one of them. For a substantial discussion of these forms, see Roger T. Ames and David L. Hall, Daodejing: “Making This Life Significant”: A Philosophical Translation (New York: Ballantine, 2003), 3653, and Ames, “Daoist Philosophy,” in Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

13 According to Edward Slingerland, one’s doing minus personal motives and desires is Zhuangzi’s idea of naturalness (or wuwei) for Zhuangzian wuwei, according to him, “requires a transcendence of the human.” The wuforms are qualities of dao. By incorporating the wuforms, one then goes beyond what is human. He becomes like dao. Edward Gilman Slingerland, “Effortless Action: Wuwei as a Spiritual Ideal in Early China” Ph.D. diss. (Stanford University, 1998), 270.

14 Note too that both concepts, wuwei and ziran, are synonyms in the eyes of the Daoists. For illustrations, see A.C. Graham, trans., Chuangtzŭ: The Inner Chapters (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1981; Unwin Paperbacks, 1986), 189, 200201.

15 Graham, Chuangtzŭ, 268.16 Watson, Introduction to Zhuangzi: Basic Writings, 6; Benjamin I. Schwartz, The World of Thought in Ancient

China (Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1985), 234.

17 Roger T. Ames, “Wuwei in ‘The Art of Rulership’ Chapter of Huai Nan Tzu: Its Sources and Philosophical Orientation,” Philosophy East & West 31, no. 2 (April 1981): 196.

18 Zhu, “WuWei,” 57.0 Cf. Changchi Hao, “Wuwei and the Decentering of the Subject in LaoZhuang: An Alternative Approach in the Philosophy of Religion,” International Philosophical Quarterly 46, no. 4 (December 2006): 445457.

19 Graham, Introduction to Chuangtzŭ: The Inner Chapters, by Zhuangzi (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1981; Unwin Paperbacks, 1986), 6; Liu, “Wuwei (NonAction),” 4849. Cf. HansGeorg Moeller, Philosophy of the Daodejing. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006), 8797.These themes, thru Zhuangzi’s paradoxes and strange tales, gained Zhuangzi the reputation, the “great antirationalist who derides the claims of reason and offers only knacks and skills of a distinctly nonintellectual kind.”

Also, Zhuangzi uses wuwei as a general term to express these relative metaphors: “being at ease,” “wandering” or “playing,” “following” or “leaning upon,” and “riding upon.” J.J. Clarke, Tao of the West: Western Transformations of Taoist Thought (London: Routledge, 2000), 166; Slingerland, “Self in the Zhuangzi,” 334.

20 In this essay, the “Schools of Zhuangzi” chapters in the Zhuangzi are taken entirely as Zhuangzi’s. This, however, is not the true case since the “Outer” and the “Miscellaneous” Chapters, though syncretic, were written by Zhuangzi’s later followers. Yet, this approach may still be considered valid in studying Zhuangzi’s philosophy. Liu, “Wuwei (NonAction),” 45. See also Edward Slingerland, “Effortless Action: The Chinese Spiritual Ideal of Wuwei,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 68, no. 2 (June 2000): 308.

21 Graham, Chuangtzŭ, 136. See also Victor H. Mair, trans., Wandering on the Way: Early Taoist Tales and Parables of Chuang Tzu (New York: Bantam, 1994), 182.

22 Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh (London: Methuen London, 1982; Egmont, 1998), 69.23 Hoff, Tao of Pooh, 69, 76. Cf. Dy, “Zhuang Zi’s Perfect Joy.”24 Alan Fox, “Reflex and Reflectivity: Wuwei in the Zhuangzi,” Asian Philosophy 6, no. 1 (March 1996): 62;

Benjamin Hoff, The Te of Piglet (London: Methuen London, 1992; Egmont, 1998), 178.25 Graham, Chuangtzŭ, 6364. Stories about the bellstand maker, the ferryman, the hunchback catching cicadas,

and the skilled carpenter, as many scholars explain, also resonate wuwei. See Graham, Chuangtzŭ, 133140.26 Fox, “Wuwei in the Zhuangzi,” 61. “This means that the sage is able to immediately establish a ‘grip’ on every

situation she encounters. … [I]n other words, [there’s] alertness and readinesstorespond that attunes the sage to both the practically and morally salient features of encountered situations.” Joel W. Krueger “‘Doing Without Trying’: Taoism, Cognitive Science, and Embodied Cognition” (paper presented at the 2005 Eastern Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, New York City, New York, 2730 December 2005).

27 Alan Fox, “Wuwei in Early Philosophical Daoism” (paper presented to the International Society for Chinese Philosophy (ISCP) at the 1995 Eastern Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, 28 December 1995). Cf. Chenyang Li, “Zhuang Zi and Aristotle on What A Thing Is,” in Comparative Approaches To Chinese Philosophy, ed. Bo Mou (Aldershot, United Kingdom: Ashgate, 2003), 265.

It is no wonder that after examining the story scholars emphasize what Lord Wenhui have learned – he learned “not just a lesson on butchering, but a lesson on life,” the lesson of wuwei. Cf. Fox, “Zhuangzi (Chuangtzu),” 99103.

28 A.C. Graham, Disputers of the Tao (Illinois: Open Court, 1989), 186 quoted in Fox, “Wuwei in Early Philosophical Daoism.” These skilled men are able to adjust effortlessly and move easily, according to Bryan Van Norden, because they have reached the state of “nomind and noemotion,” the level or disposition of wuwei we have elucidated here. By emptying their minds and hearts (wuxin ww), i.e., by relinquishing individual intentions and preconceptions, they have become “more open and responsive” to the situations they are confronted with. Bryan Van Norden, review of Hiding the World in the World: Uneven Discourses on the Zhuangzi, edited by Scott B. Cook, China Review International 12, no. 1 (Spring 2005): 114.

29 Christopher J. Fraser, “Wuwei, the Background and Intentionality” (revised version of a paper presented at “Searle’s Philosophy and Chinese Philosophy: Constructive Engagement,” 2nd International Society of Comparative Studies of Chinese and Western Philosophy (ISCWP) International Conference, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 1415 June 2005). Cf. Hansen, “Zhuangzi,” in Encyclopedia of Chinese Philosophy, 917918.

30 Fox, “Wuwei in the Zhuangzi,” 64.31 This, for Joel Krueger, is the “deep [uncalculated and uncalculative] bodily and perceptual attunement [emphasis

added].” For him, to explain what he means by wuwei as well, the principle (on a practical level) refers to “spontaneous action or ‘skillknowledge’: an embodied and engaged form of activity consisting of bodily practices that restructure one[’s] perceptions and creative responses.” Krueger, “‘Doing Without Trying’.” See also Roger T. Ames, “The Zhuangzi and the Philosophy of Daoism,” Calliope: Exploring World History 11, no. 2 (October 2000): 15.

32 Fox, “Wuwei in the Zhuangzi,” 6568. Slingerland discusses this as the quality of a tenuous or adaptive self “capable of listening to things and responding appropriately.” Slingerland, “Effortless Action: Wuwei as a Spiritual Ideal in Early China,” 291.

33 Krueger, “‘Doing Without Trying’.”34 Graham, Chuangtzŭ, 92.35 One must see that this tale of awakening also illustrates the other aspects of Zhuangzian wuwei: it tells of the

dropping or dismissal of everything and desertion of knowhow (wuzhi ) to reach the state of nomind and noemotion, and noself.

36 Slingerland, “Self in the Zhuangzi,” 334.37 Graham, Chuangtzŭ, 159.38 Hoff, Te of Piglet, 149150.39 Anthony de Mello, The Song of the Bird (New York: Doubleday, 1984), 163.40 Lin Yutang, The Wisdom of Laotse (New York: Modern Library, 1948), 229230.41 Hoff, Te of Piglet, 148.42 Paul Tan Chee Ing, “The Principle of ‘Acting By Not Acting,’ Wei Wu Wei, in the Tao Te Ching,” International

Philosophical Quarterly 11 (September 1971): 367.43 Hoff, Te of Piglet, 181.44 Hoff, Tao of Pooh, 118119.45 After all, nature is “the ultimate paradigm for wuwei behavior.” Philip J. Ivanhoe, “Paradox of Wuwei?,” Journal

of Chinese Philosophy 33, no. 2 (June 2007): 284; Slingerland, “Effortless Action: Wuwei as a Spiritual Ideal in Early China,” 155.

46 Laurence Boldt, The Tao of Abundance (New York: Arkana, 1999), 87.47 Tom TeWu Ma, Chinese Fables & Wisdom: Insights for Better Living (New York: Barricade, 1997), 3738.48 Roger T. Ames, “Zhuangzi,” in Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Edward Craig (London: Routledge,

1998) [article online]; available from http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/G006SECT6; 26 May 2007.49 Cf. Florentino Timbreza, Introduction to Ang Tao Te Ching ni Lao Tzu sa Pilipino, by Laozi (Manila: De La

Salle University Press, 1999), 36.50 “The Scorpion and the Turtle” [article online]; available from http://home.planet.nl/~omar/ scorpio_story.htm; 1

August 2005.51 I am grateful to Professors Joel Krueger, Liu Xiaogan, Changchi Hao, Chenyang Li, James D. Sellman, and

HansGeorg Moeller for sharing their works (the ones used in this project) with me.

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