Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings

168 Pages·1964·21.36 MB·English

by  Chaung Tzu

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CHUANG TZU
Prepared for the Columbia College Program of
Translations from the Oriental Classics
WM. THEODORE DE BARY, Editor

CHUANG
TZU
BASIC WRITINGS
BURTON WATSON
Translated by
New York and London
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Preparation of this work was done under a grant from the Carnegie Corpo-
ration of New York to the Committee on Oriental Studies for the produc-
tion of texts to be used in undergraduate education. That Corporation is
not, however, the author, owner, publisher, orproprietor of this publication,
and is not to be understood as approving by virtue of its grant any of the
statementsmadeorviewsexpressed.
Burton Watson is the author of Ssu-nia Ch'ien: Grand Historian of China
(1958) and Early Chinese Literature (1962), and the translator of Records
of the Grand Historian of China, translated from the Shih chi of Ssu-ma
Ch'ien, 2 vols. (1961), Mo Tzu: Basic Writings (1963), Hsiin Tzu: Basic
Writings (1963), and Han Fei Tzu: Basic Writings (1964). He isAssistant
Professor of Chinese and Japanese and is associated with the Committee on
Oriental StudiesatColumbia University.
UNESCO COLLECTION OF REPRESENTATIVE WORKS CHINESE SERIES
Thiswork hasbeenacceptedintheChineseTranslation Seriesofthe United
Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
©
Copyright 1964 Columbia UniversityPress
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 64-21079
ISBN 0-231-08606-7
Printed in the United States of America
9 « 7
FOREWORD
Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings is one of a group of publications,
the translations from the Oriental Classics, through which the
Committee on Oriental Studies hassought to transmit toWest-
ern readers representative works of the Oriental traditions in
thought and literature. In its volumes of source readings form-
ing the "Introduction to Oriental Civilizations," the Commit-
tee has provided a broad selection of excerpts from influential
thinkers in India, China, and Japan, discussing the great prob-
lems of their times. Excerpts from Chuang Tzu are thus in-
cluded in Sources of Chinese Tradition. Several of the great
philosophers of classical China, however, deserve a fuller read-
ing and analysis than such a survey allows, and there has been
a need for more complete translations of them. To say this is
not to deprecate the excellent work already done by pioneer
scholars in opening these writers up to the West. Often, how-
ever, their translations have not been kept in print or available
at prices most readers could afford. To give them much wider
circulation in the home and classroom than heretofore is the
aim of this series.
We
are indebted to Professor Watson that he has been will-
ing to devote his considerable talents and learning to meet this
need for accurate translations of basic works. No doubt it
would have been personally more gratifying to the researcher's
instinct in him, and in the professional fraternity, had he
vi Foreword
turned to some untouched subject, no matter how obscure and
out-of-the-way. That he has returned to several of the old
masters is a credit both to them and to him. Great figures like
Chuang Tzu, Han Fei Tzu, Mo Tzu, and Hsiin Tzu merit
rediscovery andreexamination by each generation. How much
more is this true when, in comparison to Confucius and Lao
Tzu, they have been known until now by so few!
WM. THEODORE DE BARY