Zhuangzi translation and commentary

Thank you for coming to this site, a translation and commentary on the fourth century BC Chinese philosopher, Zhuangzi! This is a work-in-progress, so your feedback is welcome. Feel free to read away below, or here are an introduction to this project, how to use this site, and how to leave comments.

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齊物論

Sorting things in

The three words of this title, 齊 qí, "even, level," 物 wù, "thing," 論 lùn, "to explain, organize," can be parsed in different ways. Some people read it as 1(2,3), verb-object-object: "leveling out things and discourses." The titles of the other Inner Chapters generally make more sense (1,2)3, modifier-modifier-noun, something like 'the evening-things explanation.' The irony lies in the fact that 論 lùn, explaining or organizing things (for instance, things like family members or obligations), typically involved ranking them in terms of priority, so there is something paradoxical about a prioritizing that evens them out. Since we usually sort things out, I try to capture this by sorting things in.

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