A Comparative Study Between Wenzi And Liezi

Wenzi and Liezi are important Taoist classics handed down from the ancient times in China,which have similarities and individualities in aspects of both ideology and literature.Although scholars have controversial opinions about the writing and authenticity of the two works,their intrinsic value as the ancient classics of Chinese culture cannot be ignored.As such,this paper aims at the text contents of the current version of Wenzi and Liezi to conduct the comparative study of the two works from two aspects of Taoist ideological connotations and literary style.The introduction of this paper first sorts out the research status of this topic,and explains the research methodologies and the significance of the topic.The body of this paper is composed of three chapters,with the first two comparing the Taoist ideological connotations of the two works,and the third comparing their literary flavors.Each chapter or section is arranged by listing the similarities of the two works first,followed by interpretations of their differences.Chapter One compares the views of real life of Wenzi and Liezi,unfolded in the two aspects of life-death view and the view of health preservation.The first section is to comparethe life-death view of the two works.Both works take Tao as the basis of life existence,believing that life is dependent upon Qi;in their attitudes to life and death,Wenzi emphasizes cherishing life following the natural birth and death while Liezi advocates the happiness of life on the basis of understanding the naturality of life and death,suffering of survival and the commonality of death.The second section is to compare the view of health preservation of the two works.Both works support the body-spirit view of mind holding the bodyt;in the method of health preservation,Wenzi advocates thrift and abstinence,while Liezi advocates treating oneself generously and despising interests through spiritual detachment.Chapter Two compares the similarities and differences in their desire of ideal personality reflected in the two works.The ideal personality advocated by both works is the same Experiencer of Tao;in the methodologies of experiencing Tao,Wenzi proposes experiencing subject matters in vacuity and peacefulness,while Liezi proposes the reflection of selfness.Chapter Three compares the literary styles of two works.Being Taoist prose of reasoning,both works represent literary styles of the concise and accurate use of language and harmonious rhythm.What’s different is Wenzi is characteristic of being simple and meticulous,while Liezi is unconventional and peculiar.The simple and meticulous literary style of Wenziis reflected in that language is common and easy to understand,and the reasoning is rigorous and elaborated;while the unconventional and peculiar style of Liezi can be found in its use of fables for reasoning,of which the stories are full of strange and extraordinary ideas,and magnificent and wonderful imaginations.The skillful metaphors and diversified exaggerations make the language of the work appear peculiar.