PENGUIN CLASSICS
THE BOOK OF CHUANG TZU
MARTIN PALMER is Director of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education and Culture (ICOREC). A student of Chinese for over twenty years, he has translated many Chinese classics and folk religion texts, as well as having commented upon the major religious traditions of China in print and also on radio and television. As Director of ICOREC he works as a religious adviser to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) around the world, directing religion-based environmental programmes. Currently he is working with the China Taoist Association on a project to protect the main Taoist Sacred Mountains of China.
ELIZABETH BREUILLY is a member of ICOREC. She specializes in educational books and in assisting faith groups in articulating their fundamental teachings clearly to non-specialist audiences.
CHANG WEI MING, a practising lawyer, was Martin Palmer’s first teacher of Chinese. Her interest in Chinese philosophy has been an abiding passion for many years.
JAY RAMSAY has collaborated with Martin Palmer on a number of translations of Chinese texts, bringing his gifts as a poet to bear upon the translations. He is the founder of the Chrysalis poetry project.
The Book of Chuang Tzu
Translated by MARTIN PALMER
With ELIZABETH BREUILLY, CHANG WAI MING and JAY RAMSAY
PENGUIN BOOKS
PENGUIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3
(a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)
Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell,
Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre,
Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India
Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Mairangi Bay, Auckland 1310, New Zealand
(a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue,
Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
www.penguin.com
First published by Arkana 1996
Published in Penguin Books 2006
3
Copyright © ICOREC, 1996
Illustrations copyright © Circa Photo Library, 1996
All rights reserved
The moral right of the translators has been asserted
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject
to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent,
re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s
prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in
which it is published and without a similar condition including this
condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser
For Vicky with all my heart
Contents
Preface
Introduction
1 Wandering Where You Will
2 Working Everything Out Evenly
3 The Nurturing of Life
4 Out and About in the World
5 Signs of Real Virtue
6 The Great and Original Teacher
7 Dealing with Emperors and Kings
8 Webbed Toes
9 Horses’ Hooves
10 Broken Suitcases
11 Leaving the World Open
12 Heaven and Earth
13 Heaven’s Tao
14 Does Heaven Move?
15 Rigid and Arrogant
16 The Deceived and Ignorant Ones
17 Season of Autumn Floods
18 Perfect Happiness
19 Grasping the Purpose of Life
20 The Huge Tree
21 Tien Tzu Fang
22 The Shores of the Dark Waters
23 Keng Sang Chu
24 Hsu Wu Kuei
25 Travelling to Chu
26 Affected from Outside
27 Supposed Words
28 Abdication
29 Robber Chih
30 The Lover of Swords
31 The Old Fisherman
32 Lieh Yu Kou
33 Governing the World
Index
Preface
Translating an author as rich, diverse and as intense as Chuang Tzu is an immense undertaking. There are few full translations of Chuang Tzu, so I felt that there was space for another, especially one aimed at a more popular market. For this reason, there are one or two ways in which this translation differs from others.
Firstly, I have adopted a simplified form of romanization of Chinese names. There are two commonly used systems: Wade-Giles and Pinyin. The differences can be seen in the way they spell the capital of China: Peking (Wade-Giles) or Beijing (Pinyin). In many instances, Pinyin gives a more accurate phoneticization of the Chinese – as in ‘Beijing’. But in Pinyin, ‘Chuang Tzu’ becomes ‘Zhuang Zi’ – which is not as close to the original as the Wade-Giles. In using Wade-Giles, I have opted for a more familiar system for the average reader. However, to help the flow of reading, I have dropped the diacritical marks, and capitalized all parts of the name. Thus, in chapter 5, I have changed the name of the man with the terrible appearance from Ai T’ai-t’o to Ai Tai To. In chapter 4, the minister, Ch’u Po-yu, becomes Chu Po Yu. I hope purists will forgive me this in the interests of greater ease for readers.
Secondly, I have dropped some of the more obscure names which are given and only make a great deal of sense if one is able to see the puns in Chinese. For example, the last paragraph of chapter 18 in the Chinese contains detailed names for every bug and insect. I have dropped all but the most necessary because they get very confusing!
Thirdly, in the first seven chapters, we have marked out the text to show that it does not flow sequentially. The first seven chapters in particular contain self-contained stories and discussions. Trying to read Chuang Tzu sequentially is a mistake. The text is a collection, not a developing argument. In the first seven chapters, we have indicated this with clear breaks.
Approaching a text as ancient and as fascinating as Chuang Tzu, any translator needs all the help possible! Having translated a number of ancient Chinese texts in the last few years (The Tao Te Ching, the I Ching) I feel relatively at home in the linguistic and cultural world of China between the sixth and third centuries BC. But I was delighted to have three guides who either in part or in
