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Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings with Selections from Traditional Commentaries
 
 
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Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings with Selections from Traditional Commentaries [Paperback]

Brook Ziporyn (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Book Description

September 1, 2008
This volume is a translation of over two-thirds of the classic Daoist text Zhuangzi; (Chuang Tzu), including the complete Inner Chapters and extensive selections from the Outer and Miscellaneous Chapters, plus judicious selections from 2000 years of traditional Chinese commentaries, which provide the reader access to the text as well as to its reception and interpretation. Brief biographies of the commentators, a bibliography, a glossary, and an index are also included.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

The Zhuangzi, with its 'goblet words,' lends itself by design to endless interpretation, of which no single instance has any real claim to the 'correct' meaning of the text. To date, Zhuangzi translations have presented their readers with only a single view of the text that of the translator himself. With Ziporyn's book, the English world finally has the means to read the Zhuangzi the way it should be read: through the eyes of many. Ziporyn has carefully selected the most illuminating passages to be found within several of the most brilliant Zhuangzi commentaries written over the past two millennia, and he has rendered these often abstruse interpretations, along with the key Zhuangzi chapters which form their subject, accurately and lucidly into flowing English prose. This extraordinary work sets the new standard for Zhuangzi translations, and will prove an indispensable resource for anyone who wishes to take a comprehensive view of this most timeless and boundless of Chinese philosophical classics --Scott Cook, Grinnell College

In Ziporyn, the Zhuangzi has found a worthy translator who brings both philosophical and Sinological acumen to the book. . . . Readers encounter not only the primary text in a fluid, readable translation, but also may refer to selected commentaries on particular passages with ease. . . . His translation offers a splendid portal into the thought of one of the funniest philosophers of all time. --Jeffrey L. Richey, Berea College

With judicious abridgement (sixteen full chapters, including all seven Inner chapters, plus selections from six more) and valuable added commentary, this book is a great choice for the undergraduate classroom. The translation often provides a fresh perspective to old problems, and the selection of commentary delivers a focus and accessibility that engages and encourages us to re-engage the considerable commentarial tradition.
The translation is a delight. Ziporyn s lucid prose is often a marked improvement over his predecessors. . . . Footnotes are more plentiful than in the previous translations and are especially helpful with a text like the Zhuangzi.
The selections from traditional commentaries are the most innovative feature of this translation, in keeping with Edward Slingerland s Analects and Bryan Van Norden s Mengzi translations (also from Hackett). Ziporyn provides extracts from forty-seven commentators that offer valuable contextualization as well as a variety of perspectives from which to approach the text.
Overall Ziporyn s translation is smooth, clear and accurate, his notes are helpful, and his commentary selections bring new and welcome dimensions to the text as textbook and as an aid for scholarly research. --Paul Fischer, American University in Cairo, in Philosophy East & West

Product Details

  • Paperback: 238 pages
  • Publisher: Hackett Pub Co (September 1, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0872209113
  • ISBN-13: 978-0872209114
  • Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #122,277 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars New Dimensions, September 25, 2009
This review is from: Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings with Selections from Traditional Commentaries (Paperback)
For those who find inspiration in Chuang Tzu, this translation of the text and the commentaries which have accompanied it from its original canonization to this day are a real treat. The translation of the text itself shows a true symapthy with its intended message. For those of us non-scholars of ancient Chinese, the commentaries provide a whole new dimenision of insight into the often obscure meanings of Chuang Tzu's work. In you enjoy Chuang Tzu, much pleasure awaits you here.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Butterflies and Philosophers, January 22, 2011
This review is from: Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings with Selections from Traditional Commentaries (Paperback)
This is now the best version on the market. It combines accuracy and fluency. I have been tracking through it along with Watson and Graham, and I think it is the one I will work with. The only slight reservation I have is that one misses the Graham introductions "placing" the later chapters in their philosophical contexts: but the very extensive footnoted commentaries throughout the text make up for this. Really, this version is all any but the most devoted student will need. The selections are appropriate, with the bonus of some early commentaries. Hackett strikes again!!!
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars the definitive translation, December 4, 2011
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This review is from: Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings with Selections from Traditional Commentaries (Paperback)
This translation easly surpasses all others in print, even though scholars will still, I'm sure, refer to the AC Graham version (I will). Ziporyn has translated into current American English with style and clarity while preserving enough of the Classical Chinese cast of the text to make this a translation for scholars as well as students. I appreciate too how he has varied the translation of key terms with footnotes in romanized Chinese, so we can appreciate the dexterity of the translator's art as well as the one sustained Chinese term. Especially valuable in this edition are the superb commentaries which give significant new insight into the passages, especially for me Guo Xiang, Wang Fuzhi, and Shi Deqing. I used this text for the first time in a discussion class at Shimer College this past semester; our discussions reached a level of maturity and insight early in the course as great or greater than we achieved in a whole semester in other years. Clearly, I recommend it highly!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
miscellaneous chapters, genuine human being, eight virtues, uncontrived condition, genuine controller, gushing surge, unfettered wandering, incipient impulse, sovereign responses, crossbow pellet, genuine ruler, five internal organs, inborn nature, one thing wins, autumn hair, characteristic inclinations
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
The Inner Chapters, Essential Writings, Yan Hui, The Outer Chapters, Consummate Person, Lao Dan, Illumination of the Obvious, Great Course, Nanrong Chu, Walking Two Roads, Carpenter Shi, Song Rongzi, Nie Que, Yellow Emperor, Gengsang Chu, The Great Source, Genuine Knowledge, Ruo of the Northern Sea, Hui Shi, Heaven the Potter's Wheel, Spirit Man, Numinous Reservoir, The River God, Equalizing Assessments of Things, Heavenly Impulse
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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