Making Friends with Nature: Zhuangzi and Human Self
（与道为友：庄子的人论）
Chung-ying Cheng
General Remarks
How do we understand Zhuangzi，his wisdom and his philosophy? I suggest that we situate him in relation to the Yijing （易以道阴阳—天下篇）and to Daodejing.（以本为精，常无有，主太一—天下篇） From the Yijing, Zhuangzi learns the importance of changes and transformation. From Daodejing, he learns how to embrace the changes from the origin-source of the changes. On these bases we are also able to see how Zhuangzi understands the difference between man （人）and animals including non-animals (物) on the one hand, and the difference between man and heaven or the Dao (道) on the other.
Making Friends with Nature and Shaping of Self of No-Self
Aristotle has no idea of making friends with Nature and things in nature, but he suggested that it is in friends we come to know ourselves. Zhuangzi or Zhuang Zhou (庄周circa 350-270 BCE) has made the point of making friends (为友) with Nature which is the Dao and one may see that it is in making friends with Nature or the Dao that one comes to know oneself, and not only just to come to know oneself, but to realize and fulfill the true identity of oneself . The interesting question for us to ask is what does making friends with Nature amounts to and how attitude and action in making friends with Nature lead to an important understanding and conception (or image) of the human self.
I shall first state the essence of Zhuangzi’s philosophy as human self’s responding to changes in the world by changing oneself and thus identifying oneself with Nature or the Dao whereby Nature as the Dao is the single infinite and inexhaustible source (oneness) of changes and transformations of things in the world. It is in Nature or the Dao that one can see and experience the distinction of one’s own self. Yet one has the option and choice of either of insisting on becoming one’s own empirical self by following the naturally emerging human desires and human perceptive knowledge (逐物而不返) or of resisting to become such a self by both transcending and following Nature as changes and thus to change oneself into the all-present Dao.
It is in seeking to become Nature that one makes effort to divest (forget) and transform one’s human self as naturally given (loaded with subjective desires and empirical knowledge). This involves an exercise (功夫) and discipline of mind-fasting (心斋) by sitting toward forgetting (坐忘), resulting in losing oneself in oneself (吾丧我) . With this capability of self-change based on identity with the Dao one is able to have deep feelings of empathy and sometimes even sympathy or pity toward whatever has been happening in Nature and what already exist in nature. One is also able to have projective understanding of things (animals and plants) in Nature by creative imagination and intuition.
On these grounds (empathy, sympathy and creative imagination and intuition) one is able therefore to make friends with Nature as Many which is Nature as individual life-forms and their activities with their inherent limitations and dependencies. But we must also recognize that making friends with Nature as Many is also to develop a deeper understanding of self so that one could become more as the Nature as One, which in turn would strengthen one’s ability to make friends with all things in Nature (Nature as Many) by resonating with and animating them.
Re-Modeling Life and Re-Defining Language
This means that making friends with Nature whether as One or as Many is a reciprocal process of developing and achieving deeper identity of the human self so that the human self transcends its empirical humanity and reaches for an identity of pervasive power of change and self-change . In this sense it becomes a Self-Creative Power of Creativity which is the Dao in action by non-action. It becomes the power to be and let be which is what creative creativity (造物) and transformative creativity (物化) are to consist in.
In becoming Self-Creative Power of Creativity one’s life would become nourished and enhanced (养生/达生) in its form, its body and its spirit. One would not force oneself on things nor let things forced on oneself. One would acquire a mind which follows and accepts what comes naturally in important matters of life (the so-called事之变，命之行in <德充符>). One would not seek good and knowledge nor do wrong in a conventional world and therefore lives above the conventional world beyond good and evil (养生主). It is to use mind like a mirror, responding to things without retaining them. One may therefore eliminate opposition without hurting or being hurt. This is aptly called “才全而德不形”(德充符).
One can also see how human language would be transformed from an instrument of human communication and identifying things as objects into a form of expression and articulation of natural changes and transformation of things in Nature and of Nature as the transforming power. It becomes a pure and original Sound of Nature (地籁/天籁) rather than Sound of Man (人籁). It is in becoming the Sound of Nature that one ‘s language becomes the natural overflow of the creative activity of the Dao which is referred also as Overflowing Words (卮言)，which is basis for both Indwelling Words (sometimes in the form of impersonating words) (寓言) and Impounding Words (重言).
Friendship and Contest with Hui Shi （惠施）
The friendship between Zhuangzi and Huishi is interesting because it is a contrastive and contestant one: they enjoyed each other’s company because they could argue against each other and disagree on subjects of philosophy which interest them. Zhuangzi dislikes argument and argues against language of disputation (辩言)。 Yet he knows that without argument and analytical questioning from Hui Shi and the like his language of metaphors, similes and creative intuitions would not stand out as striking and significant. In a sense Zhuangzi still knows the value of argument and analysis. What he insists to do is to present truth based on direct intuition and holistic vision because of their genuine embodiment of life and natural eventuality.
In a close examination of Hui Shi’s Ten Theses (历物十事) on合同异one sees what Hui Shi has asserted are precisely what Zhuangzi has in mind regarding his view on the Nature. Hui Shi has even brought out the normative implication of Zhuangzi’s view on Nature: “Love all things in the world without discrimination as things in the world are one body”. (天下篇）Even the Twenty One Theses on离坚白could be said to be implicit in Zhuangzi’s ideas of “spiritual intelligence” (神明) and universality of the Dao. Yet Zhuangzi strongly rejected them for their generative argumentativeness and disputatiousness. His speaking of卮言shows how he wishes not to have a moment’s separation of language from the truth of being and life in one’s engagement with Nature.
Regarding whether it is Zhuangzi dreaming of the butterfly or the butterfly dreaming of Zhuangzi, can we decide by analyzing the meaning of “dream” in our usage or must we answer by some speculative imagination because the question has naturally arise or has been creatively raised in a moment of wonderment? It is clear that it is because Zhuangzi could dream of being a butterfly by common experience so that a butterfly being Zhuangzi in Zhuangzi ‘s dream could dream of being Zhuangzi in the butterfly’s dream: the same dream has made both Zhuangzi and the dreamed butterfly identical if we take this dreaming seriously. This dreaming experience would render everything equally ephemeral and epiphenomenal. On the other hand we must also recognize that Zhuangzi does have a strong sense of reality as the dao, the ultimate and universal power of generation and transformation.
Important Passages from Zhuangzi
I shall identify some key passages concerning forms of change and transformation a human person can experience which would lead to a reshaping of our consciousness of human self-identity as co-creativity of the Dao as well as of the human language as embodiment of the Dao going beyond common usage.
1. “芴漠无形,变化无常,死与生与,天地并与,神明往与.芒乎何之,忽乎何适,万物毕罗,莫足以帰….独与天地精神往来而不傲倪于万物.不谴是非,以与世俗处….上与造物者游，而下与外生死无终始者为友。“ （天下篇）
2． “非彼无我，非我无所取，是亦近矣。如有真宰，而特不得其朕。可行已信，而不见其形，有情而无形。。。。物莫非彼，物无非是，自彼则不见，自知则知之。故曰：彼出于是，是亦因彼。彼是方生之说也。“（齐物论）
3.壶子气机四示：杜德机，善者机，衡气机，未始出五宗（委蛇随意机）。 （应帝王）
4． “鱼相造于水，人相造于道。相造乎水者，穿池而养给；相造乎道者，无事而生定。故曰：鱼相忘于江湖，人相忘于道术。“ （大宗师）
5．庄子（对惠子）曰：“道与之貌，天与之形，无以好恶内伤其身。今子外乎子之神，劳乎子之精，倚树而吟，据槁梧而瞑。天选子之形，子以坚百鸣。“（德充符）
6． “不知周之梦为蝴蝶与，蝴蝶之梦为庄周与？周与蝴蝶，则必有分矣。此之为物化。“ （齐物论）
7． “夫道未始有封，言未始有常，为是而有畛也。请言其畛：有左，有右，有伦，有义，有分，有辩，有竞，有争，此之为八德。六合之外，圣人存而不论；六合之内，圣人论而不议。春秋经世先王之志，圣人议而不辩。故分也者，有不分也；辩也者，有不辩也。曰：何也？圣人怀之，众人辩之以相示也。“ （齐物论）
8. “以指喻指之非指，不若以非指喻指之非指也。以马喻马之非马，不若以非马喻马之非马也。天地一指也，万物一马也。可乎可，不可乎不可。道行之而成，物谓之而然。恶乎然？然而然。恶乎不然？不然于不然。物固有所然，物固有所可。无物不然，无物不可。“ （齐物论）
9． “卮言日出，和以天倪，因以蔓衍，所以穷年。不言则齐，齐与言不齐，言与齐不齐也，故曰无言。言无言，终身言，未尝不言；终身不言，未尝不言。有自也而可，有自也而不可。有自也而然，有自也而不然。恶乎然？然而然。恶乎不然？不然于不然。恶乎可？可于可。恶乎不可？不可于不可。物固有所然，无固有所可，无物不然，无物不可。非卮言日出，和以天倪，孰得其久！万物皆种也，以不同形相禅，始距若环，莫得其伦，是谓天均，天均者天倪也。” （寓言）
10． “彷徨乎冯闳，大知入焉而不知其所穷。物物者与物无际，而物有际者，所谓无际者也。无际之际，际之不际者也。谓盈虚衰杀，彼为盈虚非盈虚，彼为衰杀非衰杀，彼为本末非本末，彼为积散非积散也。“ （知北游）
11.为友五义:一.同游相与,二相知相惜,三切磋互勉,四知己知彼,五和而不同,相忘乎江湖(道术).