A Confucian Reply

Zhuangzi undeniably has an unparalleled influence on Chinese culture and philosophy. However, me, and my Analects, are still very much a part of both the Chinese and worldwide culture of this modern era. While on the other hand, Zhuangzi and his philosophy/religion became much less revered as many as 6 centuries ago, as Daoism became less respected because of one major inconsistency with a world wide phenomena; that being the rise of the market revolution and other civilizing aspects going on throughout the world. Zhuangzi’s philosophy that people should rid themselves of all the bureaucracy and conventional government in the world just was not in accordance with East Asian growth in the 12^th century. My philosophies took on the changing world and accounted for the growth of
East Asia
while offering a way of life that was concurrent with it.







Zhuangzi once said that:

“By cultivating one’s nature, one will return to virtue. When virtue is perfect, one will be one with the beginning, one become vacuous, one become great.”




Interpreting that, Zhuangzi is advocating the dominance of nature in people’s lives by claiming that the development of one’s own nature will result in becoming virtuous. Daoism preaches that being one with nature and allowing life and everything in it to just move along naturally is the way to go about life. The end result of allowing everything to follow its own natural course is “The Way.” It is that philosophy that is behind Zhuangzi and the Daoist’ quest to rid of government and the bureaucracy of civilization. This, however, is not the way to go about leading the perfect life. There are several reasons for which allowing life to go about indifferently goes against my teachings for leading a good and humane life. One, humane and good people are to be both orderly and arranged. Secondly, good people embrace the populace and nurture the masses. And thirdly, humane people can handle living in society without acting unobtrusively when submersed in it.