Zhuangzi: It does not belong to his own way of life, and he is not worthy of envy

Zhuangzi was named Zhou, a native of Mongolia (on the border between present-day Henan and Anhui). Regarding Zhuangzi's origins and experiences, no detailed material can be found except for a brief introduction to Zhuangzi and Sima Qian's "Records of History". And speculate that he was probably a contemporary of King Hui of Liang and King Xuan of Qi. He worked as a petty officer in his hometown.

Later, after resigning from the government, it was very difficult to go home, and for a while he could not even eat, so he went to the local Jianhehou who managed the water conservancy to borrow grain, and Jianhehou warmly received Zhuangzi and said: "It is no problem to borrow grain, but I have to wait until the autumn, and when I collect all the taxes, I will lend you three hundred taels of gold!" Zhuangzi immediately understood the meaning of the other party after listening, and said angrily: "Yesterday I passed by this place, suddenly someone shouted on the road, I looked around and found that there was a crucian carp in the rut, I asked it what it was doing here, why did it call me, the crucian carp said: I was originally a water officer in the East China Sea, a heavy rain washed me here, I can't go back, the water in the rut is also drying up, can you help me find some water near the district?" I said, "Okay, but you have to wait a while, and when I finish my journey to the land of Wuyue and convince the monarchs of the two countries to bring the water of the West River to you!" The crucian carp was very angry when he heard this, and he said: I only ask you for a small favor, but you say such a thing! After Zhuangzi finished telling this story, he did not wait for Jianhehou to speak and left without looking back.

Once, when the king of Chu Wei heard that Zhuangzi was very highly educated, he sent an emissary with a generous gift to invite him to do Xiangguo, at that time Zhuangzi was fishing by the river, and the envoy of the king of Chu conveyed the meaning of the king of Chu Wei, And Zhuangzi took a fishing rod in his hand, looked back at them, and said: "I heard that there was a sacred turtle in the chu country, and when he died, he was more than three thousand years old, and the king of Chu wrapped it in brocade and put it in a bamboo box to treasure it in the Zongmiao Hall." You say, from the standpoint of this sacred turtle, would it rather die and leave the skeleton to be enshrined? Or would you rather live in the mud and crawl with your tail in the mud? The two messengers replied, "Of course they are alive." Zhuangzi finally said, "Go back." I just want to live like a normal turtle dragging my tail in the mud. Zhuangzi thus rejected Houlu, a high-ranking official of king Chu Wei. For Zhuangzi, the generous gifts of thousands of gold and the honor of QingXiang are only the shackles of the soul, and the wealth and glory are not as easy as his leisure. He pursues spiritual freedom above all else.

In the opening chapter of "Zhuangzi", Zhuangzi writes about a huge fish named Kun. It is no longer bound by its appearance, and can transform into a bird and become a flying peng. When Dapeng spread his wings, carried the blue sky on his back, and shook up to ninety thousand miles, the cold cicada and the little bird laughed at Dapeng and said, "We fought hard and flew, but when we reached the elm and sandalwood trees, we stopped, and sometimes we couldn't fly, we just fell to the ground, so why should we fly to a height of ninety thousand miles and go south?" "For the cold cicada and the little sparrow, the imagination of flying all his life is only between the elm tree and the sandalwood tree, and he can never understand the ambition of the roc that has soared up to ninety thousand miles." Zhuangzi did not satirize the cold cicadas and the little birds and mice, nor did he praise Dapeng's grand ambitions. Zhuangzi knew that if he let the cicadas and little birds set the ambition of ninety thousand miles, and let the roc stop at the elm trees and sandalwood trees, it would be a deep bondage to them when they came. Ninety thousand miles of high flying and the jubilation between the trees are a state of life. Different life forms have different values.

Zhuangzi sees the world from a perspective that transcends the world, from a very high perspective. He saw the difference in all things, and he also saw the value of different lives. His friend Huishi once said to Zhuangzi: "The seeds of the great gourd that the King of Wei gave me were large enough to hold five stones (stone, dàn, ancient weight units). But with this big gourd to hold the water, the texture is too fragile to lift; cut open to make a scoop, and there is not so much room to hold it. Huishi thought the gourd was useless and eventually smashed it. Zhuangzi said, "You have a large gourd that can hold five stones, so why don't you make it into a flat boat and float on the rivers and lakes?" Instead, worry that it is too big to be found, which shows that your heart is too narrow. The same big gourd fell into the fate of being smashed in the hands of Huishi, but in Zhuangzi's eyes, it could become a ship above the rivers and lakes. Because Zhuangzi believed that all things have value.

Huishi is Zhuangzi's best friend, and he has a completely different philosophy of life from Zhuangzi. Huishi was the prime minister of the State of Wei, and when Zhuangzi had wandered to the State of Wei, someone said to Huizi, "When Zhuangzi came here, I am afraid that he came to take your place as prime minister!" Huishi was so panicked that he searched the country for three days and three nights. When Zhuangzi came to see him, he said something like this: "There is a bird in the south called the crane, which flies from the South China Sea to the North Sea, only to rest on the plane tree, eating only the fruits of bamboo, and not drinking the non-sweet spring water." At this time, a bird caught a putrid rat, and the bird flew in front of it, and it looked up and made a 'frightened' roar. Are you using your phases to scare me now too? Zhuangzi compared Huishi's concern for the position of prime minister to Shi's fondness for rotten rats. For Zhuangzi, who pursues spiritual freedom, the prestige that Huishi cherishes is only shackled and meaningless. But Zhuangzi will not belittle the value of Huishi's life because of the difference in life pursuits.

Huishi and Zhuangzi once walked on a bridge in Haoshui, and Zhuangzi pointed to the fish in the water and said, "The fish are leisurely in the water, this is the happiness of the fish." Huishi said, "Zi is not a fish, but the joy of knowing the fish?" Zhuangzi replied, "The Son is not me, but I know that I do not know the joy of fish." "Everyone faces different life situations, and everyone's life experience is unique and irreplaceable. Zhuangzi and Huishi were lifelong friends, and even made it clear that the trust between the two was irreplaceable.

The joys and sorrows of a person's life can only be experienced by himself, and how the good, evil, beauty and ugliness of others can affect his own life. Not limited to the world, not limited to stereotypes, living out the self, completing the self, is the meaning of life.