Wandering at Ease in the Zhuangzi.

• Author: GOLDIN, PAUL RAKITA
• Position: Review

Wandering at Ease in the Zhuangzi. Edited by ROGER T. AMES, SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture. Albany: STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS, 1998. Pp. 239. $24.95 (paper).

This is a collection of eleven articles by various authors, with an introduction by the editor, on the ancient Chinese philosophical text known as the Zhuangzi [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Wandering at Ease is the most recent in a succession of such anthologies devoted exclusively to the Zhuangzi; it is also the second published by SUNY Press in two years. [1] This degree of scholarly attention is altogether understandable and justifiable, considering the Zhuangzi's place as one of the most influential texts in the Chinese tradition. In this review, I will begin by considering some noteworthy issues raised by some of the articles--constraints of space preclude a careful review of all eleven pieces--and conclude with general comments on the volume as a whole. [2]

The first article in the collection, by Kirill Ole Thompson, focuses on the recurring images of fishermen in the Zhuangzi. Thompson points out that fishermen are often portrayed as possessors of unusual insight into the workings of the cosmos, and argues that one of the reasons for this topos is that fishermen are close to water. After all, water is frequently exalted in the Zhuangzi and related texts (especially the Laozi [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] as emblematic of the formless and flowing dao [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] However, having made these judicious observations, the paper then begins to move onto far less stable ground:

We find philosophers and poets across cultures and across the ages enchanted by and celebrating water. To mention just a few examples: Thales, the Greek philosopher, declared water the first principle of all things. The Greek poet Pindar called water "the best of all things." An Indian Purana praises water as "the source of all things and existence." Sounding somewhat like a Daoist, St. Francis celebrated water as the mirror of nature and the model of his conduct. And Zhu Xi poeticized... (p. 18)

Thompson continues in the vein, coming at last to Heraclitus and his famous maxim about the river. But what exactly does this catalogue demonstrate? Since Homo sapiens cannot survive without [H.sub.2]O, it should come as no surprise that writers from various cultures and epochs have had some very special things to say about water. Thompson does not make any sustained attempt to show that these other authors conceived of water in a manner resembling that of the Zhuangzi--or that comparing their several views on water can shed new light on Daoist philosophy. Thompson ends his article by quoting at length some Tang poems on fishermen (pp. 27--30), and again, since there is virtually no analysis, this section comes off as an incoherent pastiche. If one were to recite all the Chinese poems that were ever written about fishermen, one would be thus occupied for days on end. [3]

The second paper, by Chris Jochim ("Just Say No to 'No Self' in Zhuangzi"), may be the most provocative in the collection from a conceptual point of view. Jochim begins by reviewing several recent translations of the phrase wuji [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] contending that the conventional renderings ("no self," "selfless," etc.) reflect an unwarranted imposition of the relatively peculiar Western concept of "self." In the spirit of Charles Taylor, Jochim goes on to argue that we should "phenomenologically bracket out" our post-Cartesian concept of self when trying to understand "the concept of person...