"Chuang Tzu:the Human World" Research

As one of the inner chapters of Chuang Tzu: The Human World aims to discuss the issue of how to preserve oneself in a troubled world,and it expounds ideas from different perspectives through the dialogue of characters.It is closely integrated with the three modes of expression: "allegory","re-telling",and "reverberating words".The three modes of expression are closely combined,and thanks to the three modes of expression,a rich picture of characters is presented.Therefore,The Human World occupies a unique position in the book of Chuang Tzu.The Human World is closely linked to other chapters of the Chuang Tzu.By comparison,we can find that The Human World demonstrates the author’s focus on individual life and the thought of dealing with the world.Theretofore,it occupies a unique position in the Inner Chapters and is worth exploring and studying.Although there are doubts about the attribution of the contents of The Human World to Chuang Tzu,by analyzing current views of scholars and the content,we can see that this text is compatible with Chuang Tzu’s thought,including the ideas of heart fasting,wandering mind,and peace of mind,and that the text is closely connected with each other.In this paper,the author divides the ideological content of The Human World into two parts: "To be at peace with oneself" and "To be useless".Firstly,through the descriptions of Yan Hui,Ye Childe Gao and Yan He’s life dilemmas,the paper reveals the essence of their life dilemmas and the deep-seated causes,and then finds out how "To be at peace with oneself" dissolves mental pain and breaks through life dilemmas.In the second part "To be useless",the concepts of "nothing","something" and "use" are analyzed,as well as the dialectical relationship between "virtue intact" and "form incomplete",thus demonstrating Chuang Tzu’s unique concept of the world and his inner cultivation methods.The second part not only covers Chuang Tzu ’s distinctive value judgment,but also his rebellion against traditional morality.The main expressive techniques in The Human World include the three modes of expression and the dialogue style.The three modes of expression: "allegory","re-telling",and "reverberating words" are closely related and embedded in the dialogues.Therefore,the content and the form achieve unity and interact with each other,thus forming the open structure of Chuang Tzu ’s essay and reflecting the structural art of the book Chuang Tzu."Allegory" and "re-telling" mainly contribute to the form of the essay,while "reverberating words" contributes to the content.Starting from the three modes of expression can help us analyze the structure of Chuang Tzu’s essay,and thus better understand the essay.By using dialogues in his essay,Chuang Tzu further develops the discourse style,which not only enriches the content of the dialogue,but also amplifies the advantages of the discourse style--making the structural framework of the essay more tight and complete.Besides,the dialogue style is more closely related to allegory,and the close combination of these two makes the story scenes and plot development more interesting and the structure of the text more clear and intuitive.This paper mainly analyzes the images of scholars and Confucius.Scholars,namely Yan Hui,Ye Childe Gao,Yan He and Jieyu,are representatives of four different growth stages,before and after joining the government.These four people are not fictional,all recorded in history.Chuang Tzu combines reality and fiction.Through reversal and exaggeration,he makes the characters seem misaligned with historical reality,thus inviting people to think.The characters in Chuang Tzu’s work are rich and colorful.For example,Confucius in The Human World has dual identities,both a Confucian and Taoist spokesman.This contrast makes people reflect on Chuang Tzu’s attitude toward Confucianism and the relationship between Taoism and Confucianism.