The Inner Chapters

"Graham’s study and translation of the Zhuangzi remains one of the most valuable and important sources for students of Zhuangzi’s thought. The Introduction is remarkably rich, and the combination of philological care and philosophical insight that Graham brings to the text make this the most philosophically revealing and productive translation available.”
     —Philip J. Ivanhoe, Boston University 

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26031g

Chuang-Tzu
Translated, with Commentary, by A. C. Graham

2001 - 304 pp.

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Format ISBN Price Qty
Cloth 978-0-87220-582-6
$48.00
Paper 978-0-87220-581-9
$20.00
Instructor Examination (Review) Copy 978-0-87220-581-9
$5.00

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The Inner Chapters are the oldest pieces of the larger collection of writings by several fourth, third, and second century B.C. authors that constitute the classic of Taoism, the Chuang-Tzu (or Zhuangzi). It is this core of ancient writings that is ascribed to Chuang-Tzu himself.

 

About the Authors: 

"Graham’s study and translation of the Zhuangzi remains one of the most valuable and important sources for students of Zhuangzi’s thought. The Introduction is remarkably rich, and the combination of philological care and philosophical insight that Graham brings to the text make this the most philosophically revealing and productive translation available.”
     —Philip J. Ivanhoe, Boston University 

 

"More than just a translation of the renowned seven initial chapters of this foundational Taoist text, Angus Graham’s Chuang-Tzu: The Inner Chapters includes about four-fifths of the entire work. It is the only Western translation organized around the distinct philosophical viewpoints in the text, and it is without a doubt the most innovative, philologically precise and religiously significant. It has been out of print for most of the past decade and its republication is most welcome.”
     —Harold D. Roth, Brown University

 

"Angus Graham was for many of us the most distinguished sinologist of his generation. This annotated translation of the Zhuangzi is a splendid demonstration that only his rare combination of philological and philosophical acuity can provide the Western reader nuanced access to the profundity and humor of one of the world’s masterpieces of philosophical literature.”
     —Roger T. Ames, University of Hawaii

 

Contents:

PART ONE: Introduction.
1. Chuang-tzu and the origins of Taoism
2. Spontaneity
3. Rejection of Logic
4. Heaven and man
5. The unifying vision
6. Death and mutilation
7. Language
8. The book Chuang-tzu and the problems of translation.
Notes. Finding List for the Chinese text.

PART TWO: The writings of Chuang-tzu: the Inner chapters (chapters 1-7) of Chuang-tzu and passages related to the Inner chapters.
1. Going rambling without a destination (Chuang-tzu, chapter 1)
2. The sorting which evens things out (chapter 2)
3. What matters in the nuture of life (chapter 3)
4. Worldly business among men (chapter 4)
5. The signs of fullness of Power (chapter 5)
6. The teacher who is the ultimate ancestor (chapter 6)
7. Responding to the Emperors and Kings (chapter 7)
8. Passages related to the Inner chapters.

PART THREE: A “School of Chuang-tzu” selection.
1. Stories about Chuang-tzu
2. The dialogues of Confucius and Old Tan
3. The advantages of spontaneity
4. Rationalising the Way: the “Great Man”
5. Irrationalising the Way: “Knowledge roams north”
6. Utopia and the decline of government (“Menders of nature”, chapter 16)
7. The cult of immortality
8. “The essentials of our nature and destiny”
9. Stray ideas:
-1. Evolution
-2. Self-alienation
-3. Down with technology!
-4. It isn’t his fault, it’s society.
10. Miscellaneous.
Notes.

PART FOUR: The essays of the Primitivist and episodes related to them.
1. Webbed toes (Chuang-tzu, chapter 8)
2. Horses’ hooves (chapter 9)
3. Rifling trunks (chapter 10)
4. Keep it in place and within bounds (chapter 11, introduction)
5. Episodes related to the Primitivist essays.
Notes.

PART FIVE: The Yangist miscellany.
1. Yielding the throne (Chuang-tzu, chapter 28)
2. Robber Chih (chapter 29)
3. The discourse on swords (chapter 30)
4. The old fisherman (chapter 31)
Notes.

PART SIX: The Syncretist writings.
1. The Way of Heaven (Chuang-tzu, chapter 13, introduction)
2. Finicky notions (chapter 15)
3. Syncretist fragments
4. Three rhapsodies on the way
5. Below in the empire (chapter 33).
Notes. List of Characters. Index

 

About the Author:

A. C. Graham (1919-1991) was professor of Chinese, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and a member of the British Academy.