On Graham's Study Of Zhuangzi

Graham's English translation of Zhuangzi,appears totally different from other English versions of the classic in terms of the whole book,chapters and passages,which is the result of his bold “creation”.Behind his creation is his creative interpretation of Zhuangzi.Graham's research of Zhuangzi has remarkable features,which is easy to see from the texts,including the following aspects: first,he applies the term of “spontaneity” to interpret the core philosophical terms in Zhuangzi such as “Dao”,“De” and “Xiaoyao”;second,regarding how to reach “Xiaoyao”,the ultimate ideal state in Zhuangzi's philosophy,Graham has develop a “brand-new” method(compared with that of Zhuangzi);third,Graham attempts to apply the method he discovers in the Western esthetics,that is,his well-known “quasi syllogism” to argue that “one can become a virtuous person by following his spontaneity”.Starting from the research of Zhuangzi,Graham has developed his own theory.Although his theory has received criticisms,the paper attempts to re-examine Graham based on the original text of Zhuangzi.The paper tries to find out the distance of Graham's understanding from the original text,by analyzing the inspiration Graham got from Zhuangzi and his own development.For example,Zhuangzi notices difference among individuals,the uniqueness of individual experiences and the unspeakableness of personal experience of the “Dao”.Whereas,Graham emphasizes the commonness shared by individuals that every person has spontaneity while ignoring that everyone's spontaneity is different and following different spontaneity cannot make equally virtuous persons.Despite of obvious defects in his theory,Graham's research of Zhuangzi has profound significance in Chinese philosophy.First,Graham confirms the value of Chinese philosophy to Western philosophy and even the world philosophy.One obvious feature of Chinese philosophy is that it admits spontaneity and the value of emotions,which may serve as correction of the reason-biased path in Western philosophy.Second,from the perspective of linguistics,Graham argues that the Chinese language,a poetic language,is an ideal language for philosophical thinking.Hence,Chinese philosophy is philosophy in a serous sense.More and more oversea scholars have studied Zhuangzi as a philosophical work after Graham.From their perspectives,although Zhuangzi is undoubtedly a literary work,it is a philosophical work as well.