Zhuangzi's View Of Freedom And Contemporary Examination

The later period of Warring States is the epoch of great social change that our feudal system was gradually established.The governors and doctors of every country waged war,annexed the land,plundered the property and population without interruption.This made people live in misery.At this time,Chuang-tzu who was deeply influenced by transcendental consciousness and humanistic care of jingchu culture,was extremely dissatisfied and helpless with the war-ridden years of social reality.So he deplored social reality,at the same time,he started to build his inner world.On the basis of inheriting Lao-tzu's thought,he developed the idea of "no cure for the world" to the extreme.He advocates pure natural and spiritual freedom,and he further elaborated the practice path of freedom,thus formed his view of freedom.Theory claims that detached from reality and pursued spiritual freedom,made Chuang-tzu's thoughts unique in the "hundred schools of thought" in the pre-qin dynasty,and it had a profound effect on later generations.His ideas have historical limitations,but for modern people,how to keep the mind independent and free in order to dealing with the troubles of life in the materialistic and dissimilative society still has practical significance.Therefore,this thesis tries to make a modern survey of Chuang-tzu's view of freedom and excavate its theoretical value to provide a kind of reference for modern people to think about the value of life and to seek the state of individual survival.