Textual Issues in the Zhuangzi

Abstract

This Chapter examines and analyzes five positions on the Zhuangzi that consider its authors, classification, completion date, and evolution. Working from new internal evidence, the author proposes two principles for textual studies: (1) We should not simply ignore or deny the value of textual conventions, to do so would allow text-based discussion to devolve into free imagination or purely logical speculation with no historical or textual basis. (2) We should look for new evidence in both received texts and archeological findings, and re-assess conventional “fulcrums” as objectively as possible. The author also presents a relatively systematic and comprehensive picture of the Zhuangzi that accounts for the grouping of its chapters. The author concludes that the Inner Chapter theory evidently gets the strongest support from conventional literary records and objective findings derived from textual and linguistic approaches. Other theories may contain reasonable insights, but they are one-sided or lacking in thoroughgoing deliberation.