View source for Zhuangzi

*''Dates: c. 370-301 BCE?''
*''Other Names'': 荘[[周]] ''(Zhuāng Zhōu)''
*''Chinese/Japanese'': 荘子 ''(Zhuāngzǐ / Soushi)''

Zhuangzi is a prominent Chinese philosopher, perhaps the second-most prominent figure in [[Taoism]] after [[Laozi]] himself. The author of a text known simply as "the ''Zhuangzhi''," he is described by historian [[Sima Qian]] as having lived during the reigns of King Hui of Liang (370-319 BCE) and King Xuan of Qi (319-301 BCE). This chronology would make him a contemporary of [[Mencius]]. Among his many sayings and teachings, Zhuangzhi is perhaps most famous for waking from a dream and questioning whether he was a man who had dreamed of being a butterfly, or if he was a butterfly, now dreaming of being a man.

Details of Zhuangzhi's life are scant. Sima Qian describes him as a native of Meng, and as having served at some point as an official in the [[lacquer]] garden, though the details of this description, too, are quite vague. It remains unclear where Meng might have been, though some have suggested it may have lay within the [[state of Song]], ruled by the descendants of the emperors of the [[Shang Dynasty]].

Of the thirty-three chapters of the text which bears his name, Zhuangzhi is believed to have himself written the first seven. Following these so-called Inner Chapters are fifteen Outer Chapters, and eleven Miscellaneous Chapters, said to have been written by multiple, later, individuals.

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