LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Chuang Tzu: Freedom
built 606 days ago
Chuang Tzu's greatness lay in his bringing early Taoism to its full completion. While he was true to the Taoist doctrine of wu-wei (refraining from action contrary to Nature), he extended the Taoist system and carried out metaphysical speculations never heard of by the early Taoists. The philosophy of Chuang Tzu, as characterized by its emphasis on the unity and spontaneity of the Tao, its assertion of personal freedom, and its doctrine of relativity of things, is essentially a plea for the "return to Nature" and free development of man's inherent nature. It is in fact a kind of romantic philosophy that favors anarchistic individualism and condemns Confucian virtues and institutions - a philosophy, in short, that idealizes the state of natural simplicity marked by no will, no consciousness, no knowledge.
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In his introduction, your editor says that the "central theme of Chuang Tzu can be summed up in a single word: freedom" (3). The editor ... suggests that there are obstacles to attaining freedom----and that there may be a particularly good way of overcoming those obstacles.
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This focusing on freedom is essential in Chuang Tzu. But to refuse an office is only the logical consequence of possessing true freedom, which is a livberation from the bondage of mind and unity with the eternal Way, Tao. The 'true man' is the mystic who who has experienced and is able to live in this unified world. Seen from this point of view it is possible for Chuang Tzu to praise Tao as it unfolds in the eternal cosmic transformations, in which the birth, life and death of man ... join in the most obvious way.
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