Research On The Criticism On Zhuangzi's Thought In Histories

It's an impressive topic that there are so much criticism on ZhuangZi and his thought in history,from his friend HuiShi to many scholars nowadays.The criticism not only relates to the adoption and understanding of ZhuangZi,but also the right or wrong of ZhuangZi,it even relates to the transition of the history of Chinese thought and the role that ZhuangZi played in it.It has been well studied,but not enough.This paper contains six parts which are the criticism on Xiaoyaoyou,Qiwulun,nourishing of life,the thought of Tao and about the politics and society,according to the inner chapters of Zhuangzi.The first chapter is about the criticism on Xiaoyaoyou.Xiaoyaoyou is the main idea of Zhuangzi,which means independence and contains three levels of no-onself,no-fame and no-merit.However,GuoXiang explained Xiaoyao by obeying one's nature,and the scholars in Ming and Qing dynasties thought the high state as Xiaoyao,both are different of ZhuangZi's original thought.The idea of no-merit by ZhuangZi was thought as harmful to the society,and Wei and Jin dynasty were destroyed because of the Qingtan which was full of ZhuangZi and other similar books that were very far from reality.In the eyes of the scholars of Neo-Confucianism,it was very selfish that one cherishes life by pretending to be useless.Besides,the idea of heartlessness was modified by some ideas of Confusion.The second chapter is the criticism on Qiwulun.Qiwulun contains Qiwu which means the sameness of all things and Qilun which means the sameness of all thoughts.The scholars of Confusion criticized the idea of Qiwu according to Mencius' s idea that it was a fact that all things were different from others.In fact,they misunderstood ZhuangZi's idea which was similar to Mencius' s.There were two kinds of criticism on Qilun,one was that the disciples of Mo Zi thought ZhuangZi's idea as illogical,the other was that the idea of ZhuangZi would do a great disservice.However,the criticism was not so efficacious.The third chapter is about the nourishing of life.The idea of nourishing arose on the situation of life was easily killed in the period of Zhanguo.So the first mission of nourishing was the security of life,not the health of body.Otherwise,the Confucianist scholars thought it lack of duty.And for nourishing ZhuangZi said one should do goods but not get a good fame,do bad but not get a bad fame,this idea was not tolerated by Confucianist scholars who emphasized the difference of good and evil.The idea of life should go with its natural years was opposed by those who suggested that there were fairies in the world and one could live forever by practicing.The fourth chapter is about Tao.ZhuangZi's thought about Tao came from LaoZi.ZhuangZi paid more attention to its nature.In Wei and Jin dynasties,scholars were divided into two parts by the thoughts,one agreed with ZhuangZi that the Wu(Tao)was the origin and essence of the world,the other thought Wu was nothing so it couldn't be the role.ZhuangZi treated nature more important than human,but many other scholars thought human had their own value and had its own power that could make a great world.The fifth chapter is the criticism on ZhuangZi's thought of politics and society.In ZhuangZi' s opinion,the best period of human was the original world,as the time went on,the world went worse and worse,and the nature was damaged by the managements of the emperors and the Confucius thoughts like charity,justice,manner and wisdom.So ZhuangZi wanted to remove them and back to the original natural statement.XunZi and GuoXiang and other thinkers thought Wuwei which meant doing nothing was the wrong idea about human,and human could make good use of nature on the premise that the nature was obeyed,and if human beings listened to what ZhuangZi advocated,the problems would not be sovled.The sixth chapter is about the relationship between Tao and language.ZhuangZi divided language into the common language and the ultimate language,but only the later one could convey the Tao.The metaphysics scholars combined the idea of I Ching Xicizhuan,put Xiang which meant image between language and the Tao,then language was fastened second-hand with the Tao.The writers who advocated ancient prose in Tang and Song dynasties and the scholars of Neo-Confucianism thought that the Tao was able to be conveyed by language on the aspect of writing.Of course,the Tao they said belonged to Confucius.Otherwise,they treated the Tao belonging to LaoZi and ZhuangZi as a heresy.So the essays of ZhuangZi were of less value even they were very beautiful and delicate in their eyes.In a word,the criticism on ZhuangZi's thought was the continuation of contention in the period of Zhanguo,and it could not be ignored even it mainly happened between the Confucius and the Taoist.