David Chai

Early Zhuangzi Commentaries: on the Sounds and Meanings of the Inner Chapters David Chai

The Zhuangzi is a text needing no introduction. Asone of the principle works of Chinese Daoistphilosophy, the Zhuangzi may be a well known titlebut few have grasped its true meaning. Although thecommentary by Guo Xiang does so extremely well, it istaken for granted as being the only one worthy ofin-depth discussion. This book forgoes the commentaryof Guo Xiang, offering a phonetic and hermeneuticreading of the other five major commentaries in useprior to the Tang dynasty, many of which survive infragmentary form as glosses to the Zhuangzi Yinyi(Sounds and Meanings of the Zhuangzi) by Lu Deming. While they may not possess the sophistication of GuoXiang, they nevertheless provide us with an importantinvestigative tool when it comes to the sounds andmeanings of the Zhuangzi. Indeed, the variousphonetic and hermeneutic interpretations of theseearly commentators can only further our understandingof this linguistically beautiful but philosophicallychallenging text while freeing us from the weight ofcommentarial authority traditionally assigned to GuoXiang.