Customer Reviews

Chuang-Tzu: The Inner Chapters

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HISTORY OF BOOK TITLED: ZHUANGZI

The present version of the ancient Taoist book on philosophy titled Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi) was edited by Kuo Hsiang around 300 CE. He edited an earlier version consisting of 52 sections down to 33 sections, the omitted 19 sections were considered inferior and of a spurious nature. The 33 sections were divided into the inner chapters (seven sections), outer chapters (15 sections) and miscellaneous chapters (11 sections.).

The inner chapters the Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu) are considered to be the most authentic chapters and most likely to have been written by Zhuangzi or at least written by a brilliant and keen mind. (The inner chapters probably date to around the second century BCE.) The inner chapters contain all the important ideas and are consistently brilliant. The outer and miscellaneous chapters are more uneven and sometimes contain excellent pieces of philosophical writing and others times are the work of a feeble scribbler--to quote the famous Chinese translator Arthur Waley.


QUALITY and READABILITY of GRAHAM'S TRANSLATION

From the above, one can see why the late sinologist Angus Graham wisely chose to only translate the inner chapters of Zhuangzi. However, at least two things are essential for a good translation, capturing the meaning and getting the flow. If a translation sounds awkward or is not otherwise enjoyable to read it is not a successful translation.

This translation is more suitable for a scholar as it is uses terminology that is technically precise, but arcane and awkward in many places. The style of this translation is very academic. It is written by a scholar who appears to subscribe to the notion that any word that is close enough in meaning is the word to use regardless of how it sounds to the reader or what images it invokes in the reader's mind. If one has handy a good English dictionary and is willing to read Graham's end notes the meaning will become clear, but this kind of reading is not an enjoyable experience as the wit, energy and spirit of Chuang Tzu is diminished by this style of translation.

The more I translate Chuang Tzu, the less I like Graham's translation. His translations often significantly differ from Watson's and others translators. He makes many unusual translation choices.

I recommend that unless you are writing an academic paper on Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi), are a philologist, or are taking a class on Chinese philosophy to skip this translation. (Note, Angus Graham also wrote a second book detailing his translation notes for this book. Again this is only suitable for a scholar, not for the non academic.)


ALTERNATE AVAILABLE TRANSLATIONS

Burton Watson's translation is superior in capturing the exuberance of Chuang Tzu. The few "mistakes" Watson makes are inconsequential as he truly captures the essential meaning and the spirit and the flow of the writing. I highly recommend Burton Watson's translation in either his book: The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu (a full translation) or his smaller paperback: Chuang Tzu--Basic Writings. (This last is a subset of the most interesting and best written parts of Chuang Tzu, and it includes all the inner chapters.)

If one wants a more poetic translation suitable for random daily study or meditation then one should seriously consider Thomas Merton's translation of selected passages of Chuang Tzu. They are very well done. And despite the fact that Thomas Merton did not know Chinese, pretty faithful to the original text. The only drawback to his book--and this is its strength as well--is that the selections tends to be short and sometimes he omits passages that are logically and thematically connected and hence probably should not have been omitted. With few exceptions Thomas Merton's selections are the cream of Chuang Tzu. Very occasionally, Merton adds in something that is not in the original Chinese, but he does it so skillfully that it reads like something that Chuang Tzu could and even should have written.

I have read (and am inclined to agree) that Arthur Waley's selected translations of Chuang Tzu in his book: Three Ways of Thought are the best written, however Waley only translated some of Chuang Tzu.


COMPARISON BETWEEN GRAHAM'S and WATSON'S TRANSLATION

The late Angus Graham was a respected sinologist, so it is surprising that his translation is flawed, both in its readability and in my opinion in the accuracy of the translation itself. Compare Graham's translation of chapter three, section three, with Burton Watson's.

Graham's

My life flows between confines, but knowledge has no confines. If we use the confined to follow the unconfined, there is danger that the flow will cease; and when it ceases, to exercise knowledge is purest danger.
...
Three years more and I never saw an ox as a whole. Nowadays, I am in touch through the daemonic in me, and do not look with the eye. With the senses I know where to stop, the daemonic I desire to run its course. I rely on Heaven's structuring, cleave along the main seams, let myself be guided by the cavities, go by what is inherently so.


Watson's

Your life has a limit but knowledge has none. If you use what is limited to pursue what has no limit, you will be in danger. If you understand this and still strive for knowledge, you will be in danger for certain!
...
After three years I no longer saw the whole ox. And now---now I go at it by spirit and don't look with my eyes. Perception and understanding have come to a stop and spirit moves where it wants. I go along with the natural makeup, strike in the big hollows, guide the knife through the big openings, and follow things as they are.

Chuang Tzu is the wisest, wittiest, and easiest-to-read of all philosophical writers, and also the greatest. And the question that A. C. Graham's 'Chuang-Tzu - The Inner Chapters' raises in an acute form is this: Do you want to read Chuang Tzu himself? Or do you want to study what a scholarly mind thinks about him, and in the process have your mind carefully adjusted so that you will end up thinking in the same way too?

In other words, are you a mature and sensible person with an enquiring mind, who for some reason or other has become interested in China's most brilliant philosophical rascal - one who would have let out a howl of laughter if shown the present book? Or are you a student being run through society's ideological mill, and one needing to grub up on the history of Chinese philosophy and Chuang Tzu's relation to the Mohists and Logicians and other such extraneous stuff, a mill for whom Chuang Tzu is just another 'philosopher' (a word that hardly describes him since he's something much bigger)?

If you are one of the latter, perhaps Graham, who is one of the world's foremost Sinologists and a brilliant translator, is the man for you. So far as Graham is concerned, and many agree, most of the received text of Chuang Tzu wasn't written by Chuang Tzu at all. He feels that only the first seven chapters, the 'Inner Chapters,' are Chuang Tzu's own work, the other chapters being a collection of pieces written by others, and in his edition has rearranged the text to bring it into line with his thesis.

Consequently his book falls into six parts: 1. Introduction; 2. The Inner Chapters and related passages; 3. A 'School of Chuang-tzu' selection; 4. The essays of the Primitivists; 5. The Yangist miscellany; 6. The Syncretist writings.

The 40-page Introduction is both detailed and informative. Each of the remaining six parts has its own introductory note, and is annotated with other long notes. The book is rounded out with a List of Chinese Characters (sinographs) and an Index. All in all, then, this is a thorough and scholarly production in which Graham presents a very persuasive and convincing case for his complex rearrangement of Chuang Tzu's text, and one backed up by lots of impeccably logical argument.

So why did I say it would have made Chuang Tzu howl with laughter? Well, because Graham's rationalist approach violates the whole spirit of Chuang Tzu, a man who had seen through the folly of the overemphasis on reason. Graham founds himself squarely in reason, while failing to note that reason can never really arrive at the truth. Chuang Tzu, in contrast, and although he was certainly capable of a reasonable use of reason, was more a bubbling and sparkling fountain of joyous insights, brilliant insights into the nature of man and woman and reality, and he doesn't need any commentators. All you need to read him is a mind of your own.

Confronted by the kind of mindset represented by Graham, we should never forget what Lu Chi (+ 754-805) reminds us of in his brilliant 'Essay on Literature,' the 'Wen fu,' when he tells us that: 'Theses are convincing - but deceptive...' I can just see Chuang Tzu smiling and nodding his head in approval.

So if you are a student, and if you need a heavily annotated scholarly (though rearranged) translation because you have to grub up for an exam on Chinese Philosophy, Graham's edition can certainly be recommended. Others, however, who may be approaching Chuang Tzu for the first time, would be wiser to look for something less cluttered, something that allows them more immediate access to this scintillating writer without the distractions of a mass of extraneous matter. Two uncluttered and excellent translations that can be strongly recommended are those of Lin Yutang and Burton Watson.

And for the simplest and easiest approach of all to Chuang Tzu there is Thomas Merton's quite brilliant reworking and abridgement, 'The Way of Chuang Tzu.' Merton, who was not a scholar of Chinese, may not have given us Chuang Tzu's actual words in his selection of these ironic, witty, and sophisticated stories. But as a man of insight he's succeeded wonderfully in capturing the spirit of the old rascal.

Purists may scowl, but I think I spot Chuang Tzu looking down from his dragon as it flaps him across the heavens, and beaming and nodding in approval of Merton too.

This is one of the best translations of the writings attributed to the brilliant Taoist philosopher Chuang Tzu. Although less well known outside of China than "Lao Tzu," the reputed author of the _Tao Te Ching_, Chuang Tzu, who lived in the 4th century B.C., is both one of history's greatest anti-rationalist philosophers and one of the best prose stylist of world literature. Among the most famous (and moving) passages in his eponymous work is the story of how Chuang Tzu (whose full name is Chuang Chou) dreamed he was a butterfly, and, upon awakening, "does not know whether he is Chou who dreams he is a butterfly or a butterfly who dreams he is Chou."

Graham gives a complete translation of the "Inner Chapters," which are regarded by many scholars as the authentic works of Chuang Tzu, and also gives selections from later Taoist works, attributed to Chuang Tzu (but probably from other philosophers). Graham's interpretive Introduction (with sections on such tasty topics as "Rejection of Logic" and "Death and Mutilation") is itself one of the classic interpretations of Chuang Tzu's philosophy.

Readers familiar with the _Chuang Tzu_ from other translations will notice that Graham has rearranged some sections of the text. This is not mere whim on Graham's part, but part of his thoughtful view that parts of the text have been moved from their original locations due to textual corruption as the book was recopied by generations of scribes.

As you can see, this book is currently out of print (which is a testament to both the poor taste of much of the book-buying public, and to the near-sightedness of publishers). I sincerely hope that some publisher will pick up the rights to this outstanding translation.

Other excellent translations of the _Chuang Tzu_ include those by Burton Watson, _Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings_, and Victor Mair, _Wandering on the Way_. Two fine collections of interpretive essays on Chuang Tzu's thought are Paul Kjellberg and Philip J. Ivanhoe, eds., _Essays on Skepticism, Relativism, and Ethics in the Zhuangzi_, and Victor Mair, ed., _Experimental Essays on Chuang-tzu_.

I recently finished reading the last of three translations of the Chuang Tzu, which is one of my favorite (if not my all-time favorite) texts. If you've never read it, I politely urge you to run as quickly as you can to your nearest bookstore (or use Amazon--cheaper, but your gratification will not be instant) and pick up a copy of Burton Watson's Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings, which includes the text's most famous and vibrant passages and is, in my opinion, the best English translation of this life-altering text. If you HAVE read the Chuang Tzu and have already been bewitched by the mind-blowing wisdom of its authors, I humbly recommend A.C. Graham's translation as the most philosophically-rigorous translation I've come across to date. Graham's introduction and individual chapter introductions are surprisingly insightful and very helpful for grasping Chuang Tzu's ideas, as well as the less, shall we say "Chuang Tzu-ian" ideas that are expressed in the Outer and Miscellaneous chapters.

I first decided to read Graham's translation of this text because I'd read his excellent complete translation of the Lieh-Tzu, one of the lesser Taoist classics. Although I found the actual translation in the Lieh Tzu to be much more impressive and readable, I found Graham's commentary on the Chuang Tzu to be excellent and fresh. Most translations of the Chuang Tzu have an obligatory and tedious introduction that attempts to place Chuang Tzu as a historical personage and feebly extrapolate facts about his life from the little and unreliable information we know about him. Graham's not off the hook--his translation has this in its introduction--but it also has six different sections that preface the types of ideas that will be dealt with in the text, and provide excellent preparation for the reader's understanding of the following text. Likewise, each and every chapter (often each and every section within each chapter) includes a clarifying introduction from Graham. I find these to be invaluable--though it may seem like overkill (more on that later), these introductions are excellent tools for understanding, and Graham's treatment of the philosophy fills a void somewhat lacking in other translations. These are especially useful when reading the Outer and Miscellaneous chapters--rather than trying to reconcile their confusing and contradictory philosophy with the Inner chapters, I find that Graham's commentary helps me better understand these chapters for what they are. If you want to really understand the different types of philosophy at work in the Chuang Tzu as a whole (not just the famous Inner chapters sections), there's no better translation than Graham's.

Despite his philosophical rigor, Graham's translation has numerous weaknesses. As other reviews have noted, he rearranges the text at whim, reorganizing it so that each chapter contains passages of like philosophy. This is very helpful for analyzing the ideas, but it shows a bit of academic arrogance and truly disrupts the flow of a text that has been in the same form for around 2000 years. By rearranging the sections, Graham messes with the synergy present in the traditional arrangement (sort of like music track sequencing--classic album vs. greatest hits collection), and restricts the ideas in each section to the philosophical subheading he's chosen, rather than allowing the reader's imagination to draw its own connections. Likewise, Graham can sometimes be TOO philosophically rigorous for his own good--he brings with him 3000 years of philosophical tradition, often comparing Chuang Tzu's philosophy with that of unrelated classical European philosophers, or applying modern philosophical theory to the Chuang Tzu. In this way, he really misses the point--the Chuang Tzu was never meant to be a systematic philosophical system. It's just a collection of wisdom, anecdotes, observations, and ideas--of course it's not going to hold up to a modern philosopher's inspection! This over-scrupulousness also tends to gut the spirit of Chuang Tzu's mission. In the process of logically-mapping Chuang Tzu's ideas and systematically pursuing the rationality behind his philosophy, Graham acts like the rationalists that Chuang Tzu is constantly making fun of--not to mention the fact that he ignores the mystical nature of the Chuang Tzu; it's not about creating a watertight philosophical argument, it's about experiencing the awe-inspiring power and feeling of the Tao, which is beyond tidy summation in words and philosophy. Graham's philosophical acuity neatly cuts off any path the reader may have followed to use Chuang Tzu's writings as a springboard for understanding and experiencing the Tao in a similarly ecstatic, mystical, and perhaps irrational way. Chuang Tzu's point is that the Tao is ultimately beyond human rationality--Graham forgets this and tries to restrict Chuang Tzu's admittedly limited attempts to describe the Tao to human rationality.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Graham's translation is generally difficult to read and lacks the eloquence or flow found in the other two versions I've read (Watson's The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, and Mair's Wandering on the Way: Early Taoist Tales and Parables of Chuang Tzu). Even a quick glance at the chapter titles will leave fans of Chuang Tzu wondering why he chooses the wording he does. More often than not, his pursuit of philosophical accuracy (which is so helpful in the introductions) makes the text unreadable--case in point, Chapter 2, "The Sorting Which Evens Things Out," is so cluttered with explicit technical language that you can hardly imagine what it must have been like when it was an idea in the head of the real person who wrote it--Burton Watson's translation reads much more like a person sitting in front of you, using words and hand gestures to act out his ideas and make you understand.

In the end, though I've criticized Graham's translation a lot, I really love it. It's just not easy reading. If you're willing to put in the extra effort and really concentrate on it, this book can enhance your understanding of Chuang Tzu's thought AND your readings of other, more linguistically eloquent translations (I still wish I could get Watson's translation with Graham's commentaries!). If only one translation is indispensable, though, I'd have to say it's Watson's Complete Works of Chuang Tzu.

" ... How is one to do equal justice to Chuang-tzu as a philosopher and as a poet? Most versions show a bias towards one side or the other. A primarily literary translator (such as Giles or Watson) will probably have some liking for the Taoist view of life but also a Taoist distaste for the analysis of concepts, without which he cannot select and manipulate his English equivalents effectively. More intellectual translators (such as Legge, or the great historian of Chinese philosophy Fung Yu-lan, who published a version of the Inner chapters) are inclined to neglect the literary aspect as though it were mere decoration of the ideas. But a Taoist is a thinker who despises thoughts, yet values, and finds the imagery and rhythm to convey, any spontaneously emerging process of thinking which he senses is orienting him in the direction of the Way. My own private final test of whether translation is really working is whether it catches any of the extraordinary rhythmic energy of Chuang-tzu's writing, not merely for the lift of the heart which it gives but because to lose it falsifies the pace and shifts and stresses of his thinking.
In the Chinese original the thinker and the poet are one." Page 33

"Cook Ting was carving an ox for Lord Wen-hui. As his hand slapped, shoulder lunged, foot stamped, knee crooked, with a hiss! with a thud! the brandished blade as it sliced never missed the rhythm, now in time with the Mulberry Forest dance, now with an orchestra playing the Ching-shou." Page 63

" ... With his outrageous opinions, reckless words, extravagant formulations, he was sometimes too free but was not partisan, he did not show things from one particular point of view. .. He thought that `spillover' saying lets the stream find its own channels, that `weighty' saying is the most genuine, that saying `from a lodging-place' widens the range. Alone with the quintessential-and-daemonic in heaven and earth he went to and fro, but was not arrogant towards the myriad things. He did not make demands with a `That's it, that's not', and so he got along with conventional people.
Although his writings are extraordinary there is no harm in their oddities. Although his formulations are irregular, their enigmas deserve consideration. What is solid in them we cannot do without. Above, he roamed with the maker of things; below, he made friends with those for whom life and death are externals and there is neither end nor beginning. As for the Root, he opened it up in all its comprehensiveness, ran riot in the vastness of its depths; as for the Ancestor, it may be said that by being in tune he withdrew all the way back to it. However, when one assents to transformation and is released from things, the body has not exhausted its pattern, having come it will not be shaken off. Abstruse! Obscure! A man who did not succeed in getting it all." Page 283

New to Chuang tzu? Read Graham for the exhilaration he brings. Long familiar with Chuang tzu? Read Graham to refresh your vital energy.

This is the best translation. Graham was the leading scholar of his generation, and we are blessed to have his translation. Brook Ziporyn has done a more recent one for Hackett which is also very good. Burton Watson is lively, but he flattens the text: it is all one style. It is absurd to ask for anything other than a scholarly translation: Chuang Tzu is saturated in the philosophy of his time -- he's no airy hippie, he's a vicious sweet anarchist who knows exactly who his enemy is.

I am a person who wants to know everything about the philosophy of Daoism. This book is indispensible to me beacause it reveals many "hidden" meanings in the text of Master Zhuang (Chuang Tzu). But like some others, I find Graham gets a little too analytical for his own good (not to mention ours). He did a much better job with his translation of Lieh Tzu (Lie Zi).