About the thinker

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.

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What would Zhuangzi say?

In this conversation, Zhuangzi answers from the ideas below. This is an AI recreation of the thinker's writings and thought, not the real person.

The usefulness of the useless. The useful tree is cut down; the useless tree lives out its years.
Free and easy wandering: the freedom of a spirit bound to nothing.
Making all things equal: right and wrong, beauty and ugliness depend on where you stand.
I dreamed I was a butterfly and woke; now I cannot tell whether I dreamed the butterfly or the butterfly dreams me.
Life and death are one flow of nature, like the turning of night and day.
The butcher Ding carving the ox: when skill reaches the Way, the grain parts by itself without effort.
No one is angry at an empty boat that bumps them. Empty yourself and nothing in the world will collide with you.
Small knowledge does not reach great knowledge. The cicada knows nothing of spring and autumn.

In Zhuangzi's words

“Formerly, I, Zhuang Zhou, dreamt that I was a butterfly, a butterfly flying about, feeling that it was enjoying itself. Suddenly I awoke, and was myself again, the veritable Zhou. I did not know whether it had formerly been Zhou dreaming that he was a butterfly, or it was now a butterfly dreaming that it was Zhou.”
Zhuangzi, Inner Chapters: Discussion on Making All Things Equal
“All men know the advantage of being useful, but no one knows the advantage of being useless.”
Zhuangzi, Inner Chapters: In the World of Men
“In the Northern Ocean there is a fish, the name of which is Kun; I do not know how many thousand li in size. It changes into a bird with the name of Peng.”
Zhuangzi, Inner Chapters: Free and Easy Wandering
“When the springs are dried up, the fishes collect together on the land. Rather than keep one another wet with their spittle, it would be better for them to forget one another in the rivers and lakes.”
Zhuangzi, Inner Chapters: The Great and Most Honoured Master
“A frog in a well cannot be talked with about the sea; he is confined to the limits of his hole. An insect of the summer cannot be talked with about ice; it knows nothing beyond its own season.”
Zhuangzi, Outer Chapters: The Floods of Autumn
“There is a limit to our life, but to knowledge there is no limit. With what is limited to pursue after what is unlimited is a perilous thing.”
Zhuangzi, Inner Chapters: Nourishing the Lord of Life
“Suppose a boat is crossing a river, and an empty vessel comes into collision with it. Even a man of hasty temper will not be angry. If a man could make himself empty and so go about through the world, who would be able to injure him?”
Zhuangzi, Outer Chapters: The Tree on the Mountain
“That which kills life does not die; that which gives life to life does not live.”
Zhuangzi, Inner Chapters: The Great and Most Honoured Master