Prologue.
Zhuang Zhou, commonly known as Zhuangzi, is born in Meng in the state of Song during the Warring States period. Meng is currently located in the north of Sang-gu, Hanam Province. The survival date is approximately 369-286 BC. It is the era of King Hui of the Yang dynasty and King Seon of the Qi dynasty. After working as a manager at Chilwon for a while, he does not hold a post for the rest of his life. He devotes himself to writing while interacting with the prime ministers of the time. In a turbulent and unstable time, he looks at the world with Taoism. Ideas that stray from reality have a great influence on Chinese culture. Emperor Xuanzong of Tang canonizes the Zhuangzi as one of the Chinese classics and awards it the honorific title ‘True Scripture of Southern Florescence’. Zen Buddhism of the Tang dynasty blossoms with the philosophy of Zhuangzi. It is said that the Zhuangzi originally consisted of fifty-two sections, but only thirty-three sections by Guo Xiang(AD.252-312) are reported. Guo Xiang of the Northern Song Dynasty divides into seven sections called ‘inner chapters’, fifteen sections called ‘outer chapters’, and eleven sections called ‘miscellaneous chapters’. The ‘inner chapters’ are descriptive of the theme of the chapter as a whole and regarded as the pure Zhuangzi. The ‘outer and miscellaneous chapters’ are the details of the disciples. There is a saying that the Zhuangzi is the commentary of Lao tzu, but it is an excessive denunciation. The Huainanzi, an ancient Chinese text, treats Lao tzu and Zhuangzi Philosophy as a unique thought within a philosophical system. Zhuangzi interprets the Tao proposed by Lao tzu in the form of a story in a new way. He embodies Lao tzu's ideas, awakening the Great Integrity.
