The Zhuangzi is the foundational text of Daoist philosophy, composed in China during the Warring States period. Through allegory, parable, and paradox — from the butterfly dream to the skill of Cook Ding — it challenges fixed categories and invites the reader to attune to the spontaneous, all-pervading flow of the Tao. Herbert A. Giles's 1889 translation was the first complete English rendering of all thirty-three chapters and remains a landmark of classical Chinese philosophy in the West.
33 chapters · Public domain
1
Transcendental Bliss
~10 min · 5 pages
›2
The Identity of Contraries
~19 min · 9 pages
›3
Nourishment of the Soul
~4 min · 2 pages
›4
Man Among Men
~18 min · 8 pages
›5
The Evidence of Virtue Complete
~12 min · 6 pages
›6
The Great Supreme
~18 min · 8 pages
›7
How to Govern
~7 min · 3 pages
›8
Joined Toes
~6 min · 3 pages
›9
Horses' Hoofs
~4 min · 2 pages
›10
Opening Trunks
~8 min · 4 pages
›11
On Letting Alone
~15 min · 7 pages
›12
The Universe
~21 min · 10 pages
›13
The Tao of God
~14 min · 7 pages
›14
The Circling Sky
~16 min · 7 pages
›15
Self-Conceit
~4 min · 2 pages
›16
Exercise of Faculties
~4 min · 2 pages
›17
Autumn Floods
~19 min · 8 pages
›18
Perfect Happiness
~9 min · 4 pages
›19
The Secret of Life
~16 min · 7 pages
›20
Mountain Trees
~15 min · 7 pages
›21
T'ien Tzŭ Fang
~14 min · 7 pages
›22
Knowledge Travels North
~16 min · 7 pages
›23
Kêng Sang Ch'u
~15 min · 7 pages
›24
Hsü Wu Kuei
~23 min · 10 pages
›25
Tsê Yang
~16 min · 7 pages
›26
Contingencies
~10 min · 5 pages
›27
Language
~6 min · 3 pages
›28
On Declining Power
~19 min · 8 pages
›29
Robber Chê
~21 min · 10 pages
›30
On Swords
~6 min · 3 pages
›31
The Old Fisherman
~10 min · 5 pages
›32
Lieh Tzŭ
~11 min · 5 pages
›33
The Empire
~20 min · 9 pages
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