"Zhuangzi" And "The Debate Between Little And Big"

Generations of scholars attach significant importance to Chuang Tzu's argumentation over Smallness and Bigness in Random,and the interpretation of Xiaoyaoyi.As a result,views on this topic differ.On the basis of combing the related literature and analyzing the original text of Random,this dissertation will expound comprehensively Chuang Tzu's argumentation over Smallness and Bigness and Xiaoyaoyi,in attempts to supplement the study of Chuang Tzu.The first chapter introduces the importance of the argumentation over Smallness and Bigness in Chuang Tzu's philosophy,and summarizes previous studies on this topic.The second chapter introduces the discussions about Smallness and Bigness in realistic context.In the Spring and Autumn Period,various states regulated the size of other aspects in accordance with the size of national power.During the Warring States period,the strategists proposed the principle of “coordinating and linking vertically and horizontally” from the perspective of the strength and strength of national strength.When the strength in various states tend to be stable.Mencius throw away the issue of the size of national power,and rose to the size of the “general” and “smallness” of the person in question and eliciting the “Virtue” of the person.Zou Yan interprets the size from the limit and sets the “smallness” and “bigness” dimensions.The quantifiable relationship between operations pushes this operation to the limit and infinity.The general discussion of the “smallness” and “bigness” issue in the real world is the realistic basis for Chuang Tzu's argumentation over Smallness and Bigness.The third chapter deals with Chuang Tzu's philosophizing the debate between Smallness and Bigness.To begin with,focus is placed on Hui Shi who uses categories the Biggest and the Smallest to analyze the relationship of Smallness and Bigness.Chuang Tzu went further in Hui Zi's thinking.He reflected and criticized the way of recognizing the world which is based on the relativity between smallness and bigness.In the Random,Chuang Tzu often talked about the differences between smallness and bigness,but he didn't want people focus on the differences.Chuang Tzu did not prefer Bigness to Smallness,because recognizing the world in the way must lead to a paradox.After referencing On the Equality of Things and other articles of Chuang Tzu,it is concluded that his mode of thinking tends to break the boundary between Smallness and Bigness,and erase the existence of relativity so that a state of being random can be achieved.The fourth chapter presents Guo Xiang's and Zhi Dun's opinions on Chuang Tzu's argumentation over Smallness and Bigness.Guo Xiang thinks that Smallness and Bigness are both equally positive so humans should follow their nature to achieve randomness.On the contrary,Zhi Dun thinks that Smallness and Bigness are both equally negative.For this reason,he advocates exploring and worshiping the mindset of perfect man.No matter how different they are from the concrete explanations of Xiaoyaoyi,they all surpassed the argumentation over Smallness and Bigness in his own logic.This is completely consistent with the ideological spirit of Chuang Tzu.While Guo Xiang discusses on “nature” to get beyond the scope of smallness and bigness,Zhi Dun argues beyond it by discussing the “Virtue of the perfect man”,which is a new form of “the theory of ‘virtue' ” arising from of the influence of Buddism on this traditional theory.The last chapter summarizes the main points of the dissertation and put forward the deficiencies of this research and prospects for further research.