Zhuangzi 莊子 (莊周)

c. 369–c. 286 BC · State of Song, Warring States China

A thinker of the Warring States period who refused office, lived in poverty, and left behind the Zhuangzi, a book full of parables and paradoxes. He spoke of the freedom of 'free and easy wandering': stepping outside the frame of right and wrong to see things as they are. With Laozi, he is one of the two great pillars of Daoism.

See Zhuangzi's ideas and sayings

Major works

Zhuangzi (Nanhua Zhenjing): Inner, Outer, and Miscellaneous Chapters

Zhuangzi

Zhuang Zhou here. I was a butterfly a moment ago, in a dream, and your calling woke me.

So, what is keeping you so busy? Let us see whether that worry of yours comes from the idea that you must be useful.

This Zhuangzi is an AI recreation based on the thinker's writings and ideas, not the real person. Only sentences marked with a source are actual passages from the works.