Read this when
Zhuangzi
Feeling useless? The oldest tree in the forest survived because nobody could make anything out of it. Zhuangzi says: maybe that's the point. 🌳
Who it's for
Zhuangzi teaches through jokes, paradoxes and talking trees, so the reader's rigid categories get loosened without a lecture.
Feelings it meets
What it is
The Zhuangzi is one of the two foundational texts of Taoism, alongside the Tao Te Ching, written in the late Warring States period and traditionally attributed to Zhuang Zhou, though it was composed by multiple authors; its 33 chapters divide into seven Inner chapters, fifteen Outer and eleven Miscellaneous. It teaches through stories, allegories and parables rather than argument.
Where to find it
Older translations are public domain: Herbert A. Giles's 'Chuang Tzŭ: Mystic, Moralist, and Social Reformer' is free on Project Gutenberg, and James Legge's is online. Burton Watson's (Columbia) and B.
Before you start
Heads up: A spouse's death treated with humour.
Age: Ages 12+
The stars are not afraid to appear like fireflies.Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds, no. 48
