Zhuangzi

The thought of Tchouang-tseu [Chuang-Tzu], philosopher in the 4th century B.C., influenced greatly Matsuo Bashō, and he often quoted the texts of "The Book of master Tchouang" [Zhuangzi] in his hokkus.

The thinker Tchouang-tseu denied the artificiality and the utilitarianism, seeing value of intellect low. He asserted that things seemingly useless had the real value, and that it was the right way of life not to go against the natural law.

To a leg of a heron

Adding a long shank

Of a pheasant.

— Bashō

This poem parodied the following text in "The Book of master Tchouang": "When you see a long object, you don't have to think that it is too long if being long is the property given by the nature. It is proved by the fact that a duckling, having short legs, will cry if you try to draw them out by force, and that a crane, having long legs, will protest you with tears if you try to cut them with a knife. ~ Ryu Yotsuya

http://www.big.or.jp/~loupe/links/ehisto/ebasho.shtml

Once Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't know he was Zhuangzi. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuangzi. But he didn't know if he was Zhuangzi who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuangzi.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhuang_Zhou

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhuangzi_(book)

THE BUTTERFLY DREAM

http://www.truetao.org/living/2007/200703.htm

FULL TEXT TRANSLATION

http://www.daoisopen.com/ZhuangziTranslation.html

PDF [with extensive intro] http://www.indiana.edu/~p374/Zhuangzi.pdf

COMMENTARY

http://www.iep.utm.edu/zhuangzi/

OVERVIEW

http://www.worldlingo.com/ma/frwiki/en/Zhuang_Zi

"You enter upon the way of Chuang Tzu when you leave all ways and get lost." ~ Thomas Merton

QUOTATIONS FROM CHUANG TZU

by Thomas Merton

http://www.terebess.hu/english/merton.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Merton

HAPPY FISH

http://history.cultural-china.com/en/38History6785.html

in a pet shop window

the happy fish

watch snow

— jp

POSTSCRIPT

If we fall under Zhuangzi’s spell (if we’re wooed by his way !), are we naively yearning for the permanent reality of a mere Temporary Autochthonous [originating where found'] Zone of the imagination? Or are we lapsing into radical nostalgia for a romanticized distant past ? As enjoyable as utopian fantasy and radical nostalgia may be, neither is required in this case. Zhuangzi was looking back to real history, as mythologized and poeticized as this history has been. Eden and all its variations have actual historical roots in gathering and hunting societies, and in the village communities of the late Neolithic. But more crucially, Zhuangzi is describing a living world that anyone can enter in the present, through a wuweian [knowing when and when not to act] practice that undoes the psychic mechanisms of domination and allows us to open ourselves up to experience—to the absolute gratuity of all that appears. After all, that’s the way reality actually is, beyond the illusions of all reality "principles." When everything is a gift, the only appropriate attitude to life is gratitude and joy at receiving completely undeserved largesse. Everything is lagniappe! [small business gift'] ~ Max Cafard

http://raforum.info/maxcafard/IMG/pdf/AnarChapters.pdf

http://raforum.info/maxcafard/spip.php?article41

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagniappe

willy-nilly

on their wayless way

snowflakes

— jp

In early English nill was the opposite of will a contraction of 'ne will'. That is, will meant to want to do something, nill meant to want to avoid it.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/willy-nilly.html

http://loritate.blogspot.com/2009/03/holy-spirit-leads-wayless-way.html

"Wu wei", an important concept of Taoism, that involves knowing when to act and when not to act. ~ THE EAST

http://www.theeastworld.com/2010/10/wu-wei-important-concept-of-taoism-that_30.html

'Although haiku is well known throughout the world, few outside Japan are familiar with its precursor, haikai (comic linked verse). Fewer still are aware of the role played by the Chinese Daoist classics in turning haikai into a respected literary art form. Basho and the Dao examines the haikai poets' adaptation of Daoist classics, particularly the Zhuangzi, in the seventeenth century and the eventual transformation of haikai from frivolous verse to high poetry.''

[ extracts - download web page to access text pics for easier reading. ]

"What the caterpillar calls the end, the rest of the world calls a butterfly." Lao Tzu

“I dreamed I was a butterfly, flitting around in the sky; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?” Chuang Tzu

Betwixt and between Lao Tzu's 'way' and Chuang-Tzu's 'wayless way' there must be a point of balance. . . .

wayward

this leaf and I—

detached

"Go to the pine if you want to learn about the pine, or the bamboo if you want to learn about the bamboo. And in doing so, you must leave your subjective preoccupation with yourself. Your poetry issues of its own accord when you and the object have become one – when you have plunged deep enough into the object to see something like a hidden glimmering there. However well-phrased your poetry may be, if the object and yourself are separate – then your poetry is not true poetry but a semblance of the real thing." (Bashō)