Research On The Human World

Imputed words make up nine tenths of it; quoted words make up seven tenths of it; absurd words come forth day after day; harmonizing things in the Heavenly Equality. This style of Chuang Tzu has brought for itself various interpretations. Meanwhile, some phenomenon of repetitions lies behind these differences. The Human World provides us a good case in point, and thus marks itself in the total work.The Human World consists of seven stories, the specific themes of which are internal training, being content with destiny, speaking the truth, acting cautiously and hiding competence. The theme of the whole text can thus be summed up like this: the human world is hard and dangerous, but one can learn to speak the truth, act cautiously and hide competence on the base of internal training known as mental fast; by doing so, he will attain to perfection and do very well both in timely helping the society and in protecting himself. Among seven stories, Yen Huei going to the State of Wei is significant because of its solution to internal training and significance of conducting oneself in society. This solution, specifically, consists of three aspects: firstly, the internal cause of troubles in associating with people, i.e. the root cause of virtue frangibility; secondly, the methodology of conducting oneself in society; thirdly, the significance of associating with people.There has long ago been the idea that Chuang Tzu was a Confucian. The Human World opens a window through which we can further scrutinize the connection between Chuang Tzu and Confucian. Physically speaking, the trend of The Human World towards Confucian lies in: the affirmation of immutability of ethical responsibility for Father and Monarch (perhaps the early expression of"the three cardinal guides and the five constant virtues"); the affirmation of being content with destiny and trying hard to perform duty honestly; the idea of speaking the truth, acting cautiously and hiding competence. Metaphysically speaking, the state of mental fast is very similar to that of Zhi Cheng described in Zhong Yong, and The Human World embodies the idea of external convergence along with internal independence, and the idea of controlling the transformation of things while preserving the source intact, and such ideas are concordant with the third-grade-structure of"Tai Chi-Yin and Yang"in Yizhuan.Apart from great achievements, there are two problems in the tradition of notes and commentaries of The Human World: the excessive inheritance of hermeneutic classics, and the particular stress on semantic considerations while ignoring to some extent the structure of the whole text. Since the 20th century, with the introduction of Western Paradigm, academia shows little interest in the single text of The Human World, and, in most cases, in the form of allotting to it certain room, for example, a chapter or even a paragraph, in the whole book, takes pluralist interpretation based on the inheritance of the tradition of notes and commentaries. Such characteristics of the hermeneutic history of The Human World will help to explain the necessity of the reflection of the past hermeneutic method.