Zhuangzi and Modern Chinese Literature

This is a powerful account of how the ruin and resurrection of Zhuangzi in modern China’s literary history corresponds to the rise and fall of modern Chinese individuality. The book highlights two central philosophical themes of Zhuangzi: the absolute spiritual freedom as presented in the chapter “Free and Easy Wandering” and the rejection of absolute and fixed views on right and wrong, as seen in the chapter “On the Equality of Things.” It argues that the twentieth-century reinterpretation and appropriation of these two important philosophical themes best testifies to the dilemma and inner struggle of modern Chinese intellectuals. In the cultural environment in which Chinese writers and scholars were working, the pursuit of individual freedom as well as a more tolerant and multifaceted cultural mentality has constantly been downplayed, suppressed, or criticized. By addressing a large number of modern Chinese writers, including Guo Moruo, Hu Shi, Lu Xun, Zhou Zuoren, Lin Yutang, Fei Ming, Liu Xiaofeng, Wang Zengqi, Han Shaogong, Ah Cheng, Yan Lianke, and Gao Xingjian, the book provides an insightful and engaging study of how they have embraced, rejected, and returned to ancient thought and how the spirit of Zhuangzi has illuminated their writing and thinking through the turbulent eras of modern China. This book not only explores modern Chinese writers’ complicated relationships with “tradition”, but also sheds light on whether the freedom of independence, nonparticipation, and roaming and the more encompassing cultural space inspired by Zhuangzi’s spirit were allowed to exist in a modern Chinese literary context.