Philippine E-Journals

Zhuang Zi's Perfect Joy: An Answer to the Contemporary Predicament?

Manuel B. Dy, Jr.

Discipline: Philosophy

 

Abstract:

Zhuang Zi lived in the fourth century B.C., during the Warring States period in Chinese history. Historians describe this era as one of social, economic, political and moral upheavals, and yet, ironically enough, one of great material and technological strides as well. States clashed for power and dominion, and people starved under –tyrannical rulers. Yet wars stimulated technological developments. New skills in casting iron introduced a new class of people engaged in commerce. Bronze alloys, soldering and inlaying came into use alongside weaving and other crafts. For currency, shells were replaced by minted metal coins. Imposed systems of levys financed the digging of canals and the exploitation of forests and lands. The improvement of writing instruments made writing and communication relatively easier and faster, and thus literary works abounded, became longer and their authors less anonymous. It was during this period that the "hundred schools of philosophy" arose, each one trying to grapple with and put some order into the chaos and complications of society. The chaotic conditions of the times stimulated the Chinese mind to become more alert and more receptive to new outlandish ideas that were in the air