Xing Xin 幸鑫, Free and Easy Wandering (Xiaoyaoyou 逍遙遊), Detail, 2008, Photography of Performance, Macau Museum of Art, Ref. No. A-CPA-2012-024.
Brief Introduction to the History of Zhuangzi Receptions
The Zhuangzi’s influence on (Chinese) literature is immense. From Jia Yi 賈誼 (200-169 BCE) and Sima Qian 司馬遷 (c. 145-86 BCE) onward, there was almost nobody of the great writers of the past who was not affected by it. In Chinese thought, some picked up its detest for the world and its customs, broad and unrestrained. Others followed its pessimism and anti-attitude, downhearted and cynical. In the arts, some marveled at it endlessly. Others derived [their ideas] from, imitated, and, elaborated on it. Thus, it is responsible for numerous gorgeous and manifold pieces of art in ancient Chinese literature.
庄子在文学上的影响很大，自贾谊，司马迁以来，历代大作家几乎无一不受到它的黑陶。在思想上，或取其愤世嫉俗，旷达不羁，或随其悲观消极，颓废厌世；在艺术上，或赞叹不已，或汲取仿效，并加以发挥，从而创造了中国古代文学中众多绚丽多姿的艺术作品。
Fang Yong 方勇, Zhuangzi xueshi 莊子學史, 1.30-31
It is worth asking whether, in spite of all the historical-critical research into the true and actual Zhuangzi, there is another, less ‘true’ yet far more ‘real’ Zhuangzi: a work that has at least seen as truth the accumulation of a long history of [cultural] influence and reception.
[Es] ist eine Frage wert, ob nicht, bei aller historisch-kritischen Forschung nach dem wahren, eigentlichen Zhuangzi, noch ein anderer, vielleicht weniger ‘wahrer’, dafür aber umso ‘realerer’ Zhuangzi existiert, der als Wahrheit immerhin die lange Wirkung und Rezeption eines Werkes um sich versammelt sieht.
Hans Peter Hoffmann, Die Welt als Wendung: Zu einer literarischen Lektüre des Wahren Buches vom südlichen Blütenland (Zhuangzi), 59
The classic Zhuangzi 莊子, a collection of sayings and anecdotes traditionally attributed to Zhuang Zhou 莊周 (trad. 369-286 BCE), has deeply influenced cultural life in East Asia and beyond. A key text in East Asian religious and literary history, it is still routinely cited in diverse discussions of ethics and philosophy, and informs practices from calligraphy to landscape painting. Despite its importance in East Asia, classrooms and journals around the world rarely engage the text’s influence over the last two millennia. Today, we tend to read the Zhuangzi as a literary expression or through the lens of the academic disciplines of philosophy or religious studies. With the help of this project on the global reception of the Zhuangzi, we are providing an avenue to the multifarious responses the Zhuangzi has triggered throughout the last two millennia. In other words, we show that the text has been multivocal and mutable over history, resisting narrowly defined categories and academic disciplines.