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Ahangzi Chapter Summaries

Decent Essays

Zhuangzi
Zhuangzi lived during the fourth-second century from 369-286 BCE. He was a philosopher set on embracing wisdom and striving to enjoy a good life even though the world is full of violence. Zhuangzi’s philosophical writings teach us why freedom is important. He longs to be set apart from the society and the political obligations of everyday life. Looking for a main theme proved to be difficult while reading Zhuangzi and several of the chapters in our textbook. I pondered many possible themes such as Transformation, and the Stages of Life, or the fact that Death is just a continuation of life. All of these themes can be found throughout the Zhuangzi’s inner and outer chapters. However, I eventually decided to make the main theme of my paper, Freedom. After much time and thought I found that freedom can be achieved in transformation, death, and knowledge.
Zhuangzi writes his …show more content…

In one chapter Zhuangzi uses the cicada to show the lesser knowledge, he later uses the morning mushroom to show the greater knowledge. The chapter titled free and easy shows that creatures with shorter life spans cannot possibly know of things that happen after their existence. A cicada has no possible way of knowing all that the autumn or winter know. The chapter also brings to our attention that creatures with longer life spans possess greater knowledge (Sturgeon). Zhuangzi uses several examples of greater and lesser knowledge along with the cicada and the little dove. He also uses the twilight and the dawn. Zhuangzi also uses the caterpillar which counts five hundred years as one spring and five hundred years as one autumn. The caterpillar has “greater knowledge” than a creature who has less time on earth. A greater knowledge has potential to lead to a greater understanding of the universe. Additionally, this greater understanding leads to free thinking therefore, knowledge is

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