Discussion Of The Freedom Viewpoint Of Zhuang Zi

A very important reason why the later generations constantly review the philosophy of Zhuang Zi lies in that he, for the first time in the history of Chinese thoughts, put forward the human beings' freedom viewpoint, which thereby became one of the vital aspects pursued by Taoist school and even Taoism. Generally speaking. Freedom means possible or permitted actions which are started by people's awareness. But according to Zhuang zi, it is a state of being free from worldly cares or a realm of being too wonderful for words, which all along permeates through his whole philosophy and concentratedly reflects the intrinsic contradiction of his philosophy. In this article the author attempts to reveal Zhuang Zi's "roaming above the mankind world" viewpoint of freedom and clarify its influence on laterly appearing xuan xue (Chinese metaphysics) and literature from the aspects of his life philosophy, aesthetics, etc. According to the author, freedom viewpoint, the core of Zhuang Zi's philosophical thought, had produced great permeating power upon the whole Chinese, especially the upper class'es ideology during the past thousands of years. This kind of spirit sponsored by Zhuang Zi can't be ignored. His freedom viewpoint can be interpreted from political and spiritual angles, but mainly the latter. It is the final goal and end-result of Zhuang Zi's freedom view point to pursue the absolute freedom at the angle of spirit. Furthermore, his viewpoint far-teachingly influenced on later generations various thoughts, especially Xuan Xue (popular during Wei and Jin dynasties), and on some famous intellectual people who were dissatisfied with their social reality. Among these people, who were deeply edified by the thought of Taoist school, whether Tao Yuanming's self-seclusion and extrication or Li Bai's arrogance and detachment, they were all stamped obvious brand of Zhuang Zi's freedom viewpoint. Today when the mankind desirably pursue their action freedom, Zhuang Zi's freedom viewpoint sets forth again powerful echo of humanism spirit, the meaning of which, demonstrated by that viewpoint, is waiting for us to probe in our joint efforts.