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Yu Dan's Notes on Zhuangzi

Yu Dan’s Notes on Zhuangzi, the latest book from the best-selling author Yu Dan, set another new book sales record, selling 15,000 copies on its first day of release, March 3. The popularity of Yu Dan’s books highlighting Chinese thought was also reflected in the crowds of people who lined up outside the Zhongguancun Xinhua bookstore waiting as many as eight hours in the rain to get Yu Dan’s autograph.

The only downside to the event was a man wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with slogans accusing Yu Dan of allegedly misreading and misinterpreting traditional Chinese works.

Yu Dan, a professor with Beijing Normal University, lectured on her understanding of Zhuangzi in the Lecture Room programme on China Central Television (CCTV) during the Spring Festival. The transcript of this wildly successful programme was edited to make the book. Zhuangzi, who lived in 369–286 BC, was an excellent litterateur and philosopher of Taoism. In his book, Zhuangzi wrote that the Tao was the root of everything, and he encouraged people to escape all social obligations and to pursue sheer spiritual freedom. Zhuangzi and his book had an enormous and lasting influence on later generations in China.

One of the characteristics of Zhuangzi was that he teaches wisdom with small stories. When Zhuangzi was offered an official position, for example, he refused the job by simply asking: “Who is happier, a turtle sacrificed in the noble temple, or a turtle living in the mud pond?” Another time, when people criticized an old useless tree, Zhuangzi pointed out that being useless was actually the only way for a tree to live a long life. In his opinion, Tao is the root of all existence. There is no difference between useful or useless, big or small, living or dead, right or wrong. Even when his wife died, he didn’t feel sad but considered it an easy and peaceful way to return to nature.

When asked to compare Zhuangzi and Taoism with Confucianism, Yu Dan wrote in the preface of her new book: “Confucianism was like a solid land, while Taoism was the free sky. Only when we live in between can we get the endless mind. When Confucianism teaches us how to shoulder heavy responsibilities, Taoism teaches us how to turn the heavy weight into total lightness.”