Abstract
You 遊 is a crucial term for understanding the Zhuangzi. Translated as “play,” “free play,” and “wandering,” it is usually defined as an ideal, playful Zhuangzian way of being. There are two problems with this definition. The first is logical: the Zhuangzi cannot consistently recommend playfulness as an ideal, since doing so vitiates the essence of you—it becomes an ethical imperative instead of an activity freely undertaken for its own sake. The second problem is performative: arguments for playful Zhuangzi as exemplar resemble those of the logicians and philosophers who appear to come in for Zhuangzian criticism. This essay addresses these tensions by demonstrating how the Zhuangzi ambiguates the nature and value of you. Apparent endorsements of you are not freestanding, instead occurring in grudging replies of teachers to overly zealous students. In light of this recontextualization, a new version of you is offered that accommodates “non-playful” ways of being.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bokenkamp, Stephen R. 1999. Early Daoist Scriptures. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Carr, Karen L. and Ivanhoe, Philip J. 2000. The Sense of Antirationalism: The Religious Thought of Zhuangzi and Kierkegaard. New York: Seven Bridges Press.
Huizinga, Johan. 1971. Homo Ludens. Trans. unattributed. London: Paladin.
Ivanhoe, Philip J. 1993. “Zhuangzi on Skepticism, Skill, and the Ineffable Dao.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 61: 639–653.
Jullien, Francois. 2000. Detour and Access. Trans. Sophie Hawkes. Zone Books: New York.
Mair, Victor. 1983. “Chuang-Tzu and Erasmus: Kindred Wits.” In Experimental Essays on Chuang-Tzu. Ed. Victor Mair. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Moeller, Hans-Georg. 2004. Daoism Explained: From the Dream of the Butterfly to the Fishnet Allegory. Chicago, IL: Open Court.
Møllgaard, Eske. 2007. An Introduction to Daoist Thought. New York: Routledge.
Watson, Burton. 1968. The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu. New York: Columbia University Press.
Van Norden, Bryan W. 1996. “Competing Interpretations of the Inner Chapters of the ‘Zhuangzi’.” Philosophy East and West 46.2: 247–268.
Wang, Youru. 2003. Linguistic Strategies in the Daoist Zhuangzi and Chan Buddhism. New York: RoutledgeCurzon.
West, Stephen H. 2000. “Look at the Finger, Not Where it is Pointing.” In Ways With Words. Ed. Pauline Yu et. al. University of California Press.
Wu, Kuang-Ming. 1982. Chuang-Tzu: World Philosopher at Play. New York: Crossroad Publishing.
_____. 1990. The Butterfly as Companion: Meditations on the First Three Chapters of the Chuang-Tzu. Albany: SUNY.
Yang, Rur-Bin. 2003. “From ‘Merging the Body with the Mind’ to ‘Wandering in Unitary Qi’: A Discussion of Zhuangzi’s Realm of the True Man and Its Corporeal Basis.” In Hiding the World in the World, ed. Scott Cook. New York: SUNY.
Yearley, Lee. 2005. “Daoist Presentation and Persuasion: Wandering Among Zhuangzi’s Kinds of Language.” Journal of Religious Ethics 33: 503–535.
Ziporyn, Brook. 2000. “Setup, Punch Line, and the Mind-Body Problem: A Neo-Tiantai Approach.” Philosophy East and West 50.4: 584–613.
_____. Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett. and http://www.hackettpublishing.com/zhuangziphil.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Levinovitz, A. The Zhuangzi and You 遊: Defining an Ideal Without Contradiction. Dao 11, 479–496 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-012-9292-z
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-012-9292-z