Reading Notes about Fung Yu-lan’

As same as there is a difference between Lao Tzu the man and the book of Lao-tzu, maybe not all of the chapters in the Zhuang-tzu were written by Zhunag Tzu. But this is not a big problem. The first chapter of the book Zhuang-tzu, titled “The Happy Excursion.” It is full of stories whose main idea is that there are many degrees in the achievement of happiness. As Mr. Fung explains: “A free development of our natures may lead us to a relative kind of happiness; absolute happiness is achieved through higher understanding of the nature of things.”[1]

The Free Department of Our Natures and the Relative Happiness

A free development of our natures may lead us to a relative kind of happiness. This is the first degree in the achievement of happiness. A free development of our natures means a full and free exercise of the Te, for Te is what makes us what we are. Indeed different things have different natures, while there is something in common through the difference of natures that all things will be equally happy when they have a full and exercise of their natural ability.

Zhuang Tzu mentions us that there is a distinction between what is of nature and what is of man. Such a distinction reminds me a similar statement of Aristotle. Michael J. Sandel, a philosophical professor in Harvard University, once made a good illustration in a speech how will Aristotle distinguish what is of nature and what is of man. Suppose there is a clarinet which is the best one in the world. Although, Sandel says, maybe most people will agree that we should give this best clarinet into the hand of the best clarinetist and therefore it can perform the best music. But why must it be best played? The reasons may be much different for different people: the ordinary people maybe agree that the best clarinet should perform the best music, because therefore we can gain the best enjoyment; while Aristotle will thinks that the best clarinet should perform the best music because is it ought to be according to its nature. What is of nature is internal, while what is of man is external. The best clarinet ought to perform the best music, in the opinion of Aristotle, just because it comes from the nature of the clarinet—which is internal, but not for entertaining the audiences—which is external.

Different things have different natures. To the clarinet, performing for audiences is external to its nature. To the man, all laws, morals, institutions, and governments, are external to his nature. Therefore, Chuang Tzu opposes any forms of ruling and governing. Chuang Tzu is famous as an anarchist. As Mr. Fung explains: he thinks “that the best way of governing is through non-government.”[2] In the opinion of Zhuang Tzu, “if one fails to leave people alone, and tries instead to rule them with laws and institutions, the process is like putting a halter around a horse’s neck or a string through an ox’s nose.”[3] We know that Gao Tzu, a disciple of Mencius who was a contemporary of Zhuang Tzu, was similar to Zhuang Tzu in such a viewpoint(therefore some people believe that Gao Tzu was affected by Zhuang Tzu to some extent). And this is Zhuang Tzu’s way of achieving relative happiness.

The Understanding of the Nature of Things and the Absolute Happiness

Relative happiness is relative because it has to depend upon something. And therefore it may be limited by some other things as death, diseases, oldness. The relative happiness can easily destroyed by death, the ultimate disaster. Fear of death always brings to men unhappiness. So how to solve it? According to Zhuang Tzu, we just need a proper understanding to the nature of things. If we know that the birth and the death both follow the natural course, we will consider the sadness for death as a violation to the principle of nature. If we understand this, we will never fear the death. So when Zhuang Tzu’s wife died, he just sat on the ground, and song. By emotion, a man is unhappiness, while by understanding and by reason, a man release. Such, in the words of the Taoists, is “disperse emotion with reason.” Such is a way that be with the Tao. When we stand on a lower point, we see the dead has gone. While when we stand on a higher point, we see the dead has turned into the endless cycle of nature, and therefore is eternity. The sage or perfect man is one with the universe. Since the universe never ceases to be, therefore the sage also ceases to be. In the  Zhuang-tzu we read: “Heaven and Earth and I came into existence together, and all things with me are one.”

The Mysticism in the Zhuang-tzu

If the distinction between the “me” and “non-me” is relative. What is the absolute? That is, in the opinion of the Zhuang-tzu, the Great whole, or the Great One. In the Zhuang-tzu we read that: “Thus it is that there are roof-slats and pillars, ugliness and beauty, the peculiar and the extraordinary. All these by means of the Tao are united and become one.” Things, though different, yet are united and become one.

Therefore there are two kinds of knowledge. The lower one is the knowledge about distinct and changeable things. Some Confucianists like to say a word “Ge Wu Zhi Zhi”, which literally means “make a distinction between things and get the knowledge.” This kind of knowledge, according to the Zhuang-tzu, is a lower knowledge, or in the word of Parménide, is “opinion,” which is the contrast to “truth.” On the contrary, the knowledge about the Great One is a higher knowledge. As the Zhuang-tzu says: “To make a distinction is to make some construction. But construction is the same as destruction. For things as a whole there is neither construction nor destruction, but they turn to unity and become one.” When one make a distinction between the view of himself and that of others, and thinks that he is right while others are wrong, he just destroys the truth. A sage who has the higher knowledge, or in another word, the truth, should forget all the distinctions of things, even those involved in his own life. Not only has the knowledge about the Great One, but also can experience it. The Happiness of the sage is absolute.

While gaining the higher and absolute knowledge is difficult. The name “Great One” means that it is all-embracing, and nothing beyond itself. If a man can recognize the Great One, the Great One will be an object to him, and so he will exist externally to the Great One. This is a paradox. Therefore the Great One is unthinkable and inexpressible. As Mr. Fung says: “what is really ‘one’ can neither be discussed nor even conceived.”[4]

Mr. Fung considers such a Great One in the Zhuang-tzu as undifferentiated one, and thinks that the theory of Zhuang Tzu may be similar to that of Spinoza. But in my opinion, the theory of Zhuang Tzu is more like to that of Schelling, another western philosopher who is famous for his “undifferentiated unity.” They both consider the Great One as undifferentiated, therefore deny the possibility of thinking and expressing, and turn to the mysticism.

The knowledge about the Great One, due to that the Great One is unthinkable and inexpressible, is a kind of higher knowledge, “knowledge which is not knowledge.” Mr. Fung explains that there is a different between “have-no knowledge” and “have no-knowledge.” The babies and children always have the former. It is an original ignorance. While the sage has the latter. It is “forget” but not “ignore.” As Mr. Fung’s explanation: “Sages are not persons who remain in a state of original ignorance. They at one time possessed ordinary knowledge and made the usual distinctions, but they since forgot them.”[5] We can see the syllogism of Hegel’s dialectics in this word. And this is the point that Zhuang Tzu differs from Lao Tzu.

[1] Fung Yu-lan. A Short History of Chinese Philosophy. The Free Press, 1948,p.105.

[2] Ibid.,p.106.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.,p.114.

[5] Ibi.,p.116.