Chuang Tzu's Outlook on Life

Chuang Tzu's outlook on life developed but differed from that of Lao Tzu. Lao Tzu viewed that one should live in the secular world and his outlook embodied the art for living. Chuang Tzu saw the cruelty in life and viewed that one should live in the monastic world; therefore, his outlook on life presented us a philosophical attitude of stance toward life.

Chuang Tzu's outlook on life was represented by the idea Happy Excursion (Xiao Yao You) that meant the individual freedom. To Chuang Tzu, man in the world was commonly not free as they were limited by various conditions ("You Dai" or "You Suo Dai" in Chuang Tzu's term). In "A Happy Excursion," Chuang Tzu recounted the story of an enormous legendary bird called Peng that flied over wind. To ordinary man, the bird Peng was free as "when it flies southwards, the water is smitten for a space of three thousand Li around while the bird itself mounts upon a great wind to a height of ninety thousand Li, for a flight of six months' duration." However, Chuang Tzu thought the bird Peng was not free as it flew by depending on wind, without which it could not fly. In other words, the real freedom meant that it did not rely on any conditions, or that cast off any limits. In Chuang Tzu's view, the perfect, divine, and virtuous men were those who had real freedom and relied on nothing, as "The perfect man ignores himself; the divine man ignores achievement; the true Sage ignores reputation."In some cases, Chuang Tzu called them Zhen Ren: "A Zhen Ren in the past is neither pleased by life nor saddened by death. He does not rejoice at the birth or dread death. He leaves and comes freely." (The Great and Most Honored Master) Here, Chuang Tzu expressed Zhen Ren's attitude toward life and death: to accept life and death calmly and let them happen naturally. In fact, no matter in the perfect, divine, and virtuous man or in Zhen Ren, the most critical or essential lied in that they could transcend all trouble and puzzle, such as life and death, old and young, noble and humble, gain and loss, and praise and criticism, and finally reached the highest level of life.

Evidently, Chuang Tzu's idea sounded impossible as human could not act without limits. Rather, they must rely on society and nature. Therefore, the absolute freedom did not exist. Nevertheless, Chuang Tzu's outlook on life was significant for us. As Chuang Tzu suggested, Chuang Tzu did not pursue wealth, profit, and fame and led a poor life in his lifetime. Chuang Tzu's outlook on life was clearly indicated in a story in Qiu Shui:

Chuang Tzu was fishing at Puhe River. The King of Kingdom Chu assigned two officials to invite him, saying, "The king wants to entrust his affairs to you." Chuang Tzu held the fishing rod and turned the back to them: "I heard there was a divine turtle in Kingdom Chu that died 2,000 year ago. The king enveloped it with brocade and placed it in ancestral temple. Did the turtle choose to leave the bone valued by human or to live in the mud freely?" The two officials answered, "To live in the mud freely." Chuang Tzu said, "Please go back. I would like to 'live in the mud freely.'"

In addition, Chuang Tzu was glad at his destitute life: "I rove freely, not knowing what I pursue. I stroll leisurely, not knowing where I go. However, the numerous visitors are seeing the secular world." {Freedom and Tolerance) Chuang Tzu presented a scene in which a man roved in the lively and diverse nature and desired for nothing, strolled at his pleasure and had no idea of the destination, and appreciated the beauty in nature and the real life. It was notable that in Chuang Tzu's heart, there was imbued with pleasure that could not be described and expressed with words.

In summary, Chuang Tzu's outlook on life embodied his indifference to fame and profit, optimism on life, dissatisfaction with reality, and fondness of secluded life, in a word, his desire and pursuit of freedom . Undoubtedly, Chuang Tzu's outlook on life played a positive role in Chinese history and brought fresh air to society. In fact, Chuang Tzu's outlook on life exerted profound influence on intellectuals in the future and became one of the best and most valuable qualities of Chinese.