Zhuangzi on Confucius

      Although both Confucius and Zhuangzi lived in a historical time of chaos, these two philosophers had quite a different view of the world and life. The fundamental difference and also the reason for their arguing is, in short, that Confucius rushi(入世), Zhuangzi chushi(出世).

      What is rushi and chushi? They are actually Buddhist terms in Chinese, literally meaning entering and renouncing the world, or “entering worldly affairs” and “withdrawing from worldly affairs” (Brook,p.70).In details, the former word signifies “an action to participate in social change”, and the latter one signifies “a retreat to a spontaneous, natural, and personal life” (Liu).

      Confucius was an ideologist who tried to reform the social reality. He advocated to “restrain oneself and returning to the rites”(Ivanhoe,p.33); when it applied to governing, it shows the performance of the rules of virtue, including honoring one's parents, loyalty to government, and keeping one's place in society —“Let the lord be the true lord…the fathers true fathers…”(Ivanhoe,p.36),and so on. In another classic book about Confucianism called The Great Learning, there are eight characters written by later scholars to describe Confucius’s idealism—“Things being investigated”, “knowledge being complete”, “thoughts being sincere”, “hearts being rectified”, “persons being cultivated”, “families being regulated”, “States being rightly governed”, then “the entire world was at peace”. These are the standard Confucius set for himself, which lead to his Utopia—Datong大同(this term comes from The Classic of Rites),or the Great Harmony which means a perfect society towards uniformity. In a word, Confucius has a heart for the society.

       However, Zhuangzi emphasizes the value of personal life. He thinks the big questions of individual’s life are more important than society’s issues. His attitude to governing is quite cold, we can see it from the sacred turtle story that shows his rejection of administering Chu’s kingdom (Ivanhoe, p.246). He claims “Wuwei 无为”or “non-action” which means following the nature, and act without efforts, because he thinks any “Youwei 有为” (the opposite to “non-action” )is against Tian天 or nature—they are “mechanical contraptions”, “mechanical business”, “mechanical mind”, which can stop us preserving our simplicity and having a settled spiritual life (Ivanhoe,p.243)——and that is harmful; one of the examples is the emperor of the center who when holes were drilled in body ended up dead——“Everyone has seven holes to see, hear, eat, and breathe, but he alone he alone has none. Let’s try drilling him some! Each day they drilled a hole. And in seven days, All-full died” (Ivanhoe, p.243). Apparently, “Follow the middle line and you can protect yourself, complete your life, raise your family, and finish your years” (Ivanhoe,p.224) .This is Zhuangzi’s ideal of life that we should withdraw from the society, not worry for desires; in this way people can return to nature and to have a free spirit, and that’s what it matters.

Below is a comparison chart between Confucius and Zhuangzi’s ideas with key words.

	Confucius “rushi”	Zhuangzi “chushi”
Value 基本价值观	social ideal 社会理想	life ideal 生命理想
Governing 治国	ritual 礼乐之治	wuwei "non-action" 无为之治
Pursuing 追求	want to become an official 出仕	hermit life-style 隐士
View of secular affairs 世俗观	Negate greediness, approve proper desire 否定贪欲，肯定以道得之的私有满足 “If wealth were something worth pursuing, then I would pursue it, even if that meant serving as an officer holding a whip at the entrance to the marketplace.” (Ivanhoe,p.21)	Negate all secular desire with a neutral attitude 以不肯定不否定的态度否定 “…the sage does not make it his business to attend to affairs. He does not seek gain or avoid loss. He does not enjoy being sought out and does not follow any way. Saying nothing he says something, saying something he says nothing, and he wanders outside the floating dust ”(Ivanhoe,p.222)
View of life and death 生死观	respect life   尊重生命   “lavish funeral”;  Cry for Yanhui’s death (Ivanhoe,p.31)	“It’s just like the round of the four seasons”   达生主义  Sing for his wife’s death  (Ivanhoe,p.247)

      Moreover, from the description of Confucius’s image in the book of Zhuangzi, we have to admit, Zhuangzi doesn’t approve of him very much, especially in the story of Robber Zhi, Confucius was even accused of being a hypocrite by an infamous robber. But does that mean Confucius and Zhuangzi have nothing in common? Actually they do. They both pay attention to enhance personal cultivation, or the inner power of human, and both of them think that is the prerequisite to achieve their ideal. Either Confucius’s Way on humanity, or Zhuangzi’s Way on nature, is the idealism of civilization, and both of them play a role on criticizing and maintaining the reality.

       Maybe personally I prefer Zhuangzi's refined spiritual world, but —Confucius teaches us to take responsibility, Zhuangzi teaches us to handle complicated matters with great ease—indeed, we should take both of them in.

Works Cited

Brook, Timothy. Praying for power Buddhism and the formation of gentry society in late-Ming   China. Cambridge, Mass: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University and Harvard-Yenching Institute, Distributed by Harvard UP, 1993. Print.


Ivanhoe, Philip, and Bryan Norden. Readings in classical Chinese philosophy. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 2005. Print.


"The Great Learning, a Confucian classic - The Gold Scales." THE GOLD SCALES of Art, Wisdom, Extracts, Folktales, and Lore. Ed. Tormod Kinnes. Web. 16 Oct. 2009.
http://oaks.nvg.org/sa3ra7.html.


Xu, Feng. "Review of Kongzi and Zhuangzi' Cultural idealism动摇与依违--孔子及庄子之文化理想主义述评" JOURNAL OF LINYI TEACHERS' COLLEGE (2000). Print.



"Yan Lianke, Shouhuo, Liu Jianmei." Modern Chinese Literature and Culture Resource Center. Web. 16 Oct. 2009. <http://mclc.osu.edu/jou/abstracts/liujianmei2.htm>.