Philosophical Interpretation Of Chuang-tzu’"Thing"

The ‘thing’ is the most representative concept in the nature theory of Chuang-tzu’sthought. The ‘thing’ refers to not only the object existence, but also human itself. Ignoring‘thing’ is equivalent to ignore human. Discussing ‘thing’ is discussing human. Therefore,‘thing’ is emphasized in Chuang-tzu’s philosophy.‘thing’ comes from Tao, Tao is thefundament of itself. Therefore ‘thing’ is based on itself. Thing and Tao come as one. But theindependent state of ‘thing’ is injured in human’s process of cognition and practice. Tao iscoveted because of losing its attribute. That is why Chuang-tzu spare no efforts to emphasisthe importance of ‘thing’.The losing of attribute leads to the conflict of ‘things’. It needsreflection to ‘thing’, recovering its attribute. It is the redemption of ‘thing’. There is a dualnature of ‘thing’ in Chuang-tzu’s thought. And this dual nature is what this paper discussed infirst chapter.The dual nature of ‘thing’ leads to dual meanings in Chuang-tzu’s thought. The original‘thing’ is as same as Tao. There is no difference between thing and Tao, as well as themetaphysical and the physical. But the absence of ‘thing’ nature separates the ‘thing’ and Tao.The difference between the metaphysical and the physical is increasingly distinct. The returnof ‘thing’ is the return to its nature, the return to Tao. In this level,‘thing’ is the practitioner ofTao. When ‘thing’ returns to its original condition, there is no boundary between Tao and‘thing’. The Tao operates in ‘thing’. In this level,‘thing’ is the representative of Tao. Thediscussion of thing’s dual meanings is the second chapter of this paper.How the ‘thing’ returns to itself, back to its independent existence, is the last part of thispaper. The return of ‘thing’ means to go beyond itself, namely the communication ofBeing-in-itself and Being-for-itself. This procedure follows the track of losing myself,equality of all Things, unity and the throughness of Tao. It is back to unfettered situationwhich is interlinked with Tao.