Note on the Philosophy of Chapters 1 to 7 original: "Chaps. i-vii"

The translator of Zhuangzi original: "Chuang Tzŭ" has asked me to add a note on the philosophy of chapters 1 to 7. It is difficult to see how someone like me—writing not only in ignorance of Chinese ways of thinking, but also with the preconceived ideas of Western philosophy—can truly help much in understanding a system that is known to be difficult, involving terms and expressions on which Chinese scholars have not yet agreed. However, an attempt to point out the similarities original: "parallelisms" in thought and reasoning between the East and the West may be useful in two ways. First, it may encourage those who are truly qualified to understand both sides of the comparison to tell us where the similarities are real and where they are only superficial. Second, it may help to get ordinary readers used to looking for and expecting resemblances in systems where an earlier generation would have seen nothing but contrasts.

There was a time when historians of Greek philosophy used to identify what they considered the unique characteristics of Greek thought, and then attribute anything that did not immediately fit those characteristics to "Eastern influence" original: "Oriental influence". How and through what means this "Eastern influence" was exercised was never easy to determine, nor was it always considered worth much discussion. In recent times, however, a deeper knowledge of Eastern systems has made us familiar with many ideas that, by that same logic, ought to be attributed to "Greek influence." As a result, we have learned to set aside theories about which culture borrowed from which. Instead, we content ourselves with tracing the development of reason and logical problems, expecting to find similarities even when the circumstances are very different.

One example is worth mentioning as an illustration. We used to be told that the Greek mind, in its theories and its art, was defined by a love of order, harmony, and symmetry. This was contrasted with the "monstrous" creations of the Eastern imagination and the "massive ugliness of the Pyramids." It was often said, quite reasonably, that the Aristotelian doctrine of... The text breaks off here at the end of the page.