The Dao of Zhuangzi: The Harmony of Nature

by Tsai Chih Chung

The fifth book in the tremendously successful "Zen Speaks" series of cartoon-illustrated adaptations of Chinese thought and philosophy by world-renowned author Tsai Chih Chung (100,000 copies in print), The Dao of Zhuangzi explores core portions of the Zhuangzi, one of the great Daoist texts. Together with the writings of Laozi, the Zhuangzi had an immense impact on Chinese culture that matched that of Confucianism. Over the centuries, this classical Daoism has influenced millions of readers and students of philosophy and literature throughout the world.Tsai Chih Chung first tackled portions of the Zhuangzi in his first book published in the U.S., Zhuangzi Speaks, which sold 20,000 copies for Princeton--an astonishing number for a university press--and was the book that brought C.C. Tsai to the attention of American readers. In The Dao of Zhangzi, Tsai Chih Chung brings humorously to life new portions of the Dao--and extends the reach of his early efforts in profound and entertaining ways.As with the previous works, the book will include an introduction by a scholar that will help to place Daoism and the Zhuangzi in historical and cultural context.

Genres: Taoism, Comics

Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1997

About the author

Tsai Chih Chung (蔡志忠) is a world-renowned cartoonist and popularizer of Chinese classics whose books have sold more than 40 millions copies worldwide. He first came to prominence through his award-winning animated movies and his immensely popular daily comic strips. When he turned his hand to the classics after a prolonged period of self-education, they were acclaimed by critics and shot to the top of the bestsellers lists.

Starting from the 1980s, Tsai created a series of Chinese comic books on ancient Chinese classics, like huangzi Speaks: The Music of Nature, Zen Speaks: Shouts of Nothingness, Confucius Speaks: Words to Live by, Sunzi Speaks: The Art of War, and The Tao Speaks: Lao Tzu's Whispers of Wisdom. Confucius, Lao Tzu, Zhuangzi, and Sunzi are widely credited as sages whose thoughts have played an important role in China's development. Tsai put his unique understanding and feelings of ancient thoughts into his cartoons, and added a modern interpretation of them, making boring ancient philosophies quite amusing as well as understandable. His works won a large number of adult readers for comic books, a market predominantly children-targeted. This series of comic books has hoarded great applause from readers both in Taiwan and Chinese mainland, with 4 million copies sold in Taiwan.

Differing from most Chinese parents, Tsai has a unique way of bringing up his daughter, stressing independence and self-reliance. His daughter even traveled to Japan by herself at the age of 12.With the influence of her father, his daughter has also become fond of cartoons. Her creativity and originality is comparable to that of her father, and many of her cartoons have been published as well. Tsai once made a comparison between human beings and wolves, stating that a parent wolf never teaches its children the necessary skills of survival, leaving the child with the challenge of acquired these skills on their own.

Reviews

[Kitap · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Zhuangzi's naturalism] does require us to remember that our languages are part of nature. We cannot use language to leverage ourselves out of the world in order to talk about it in absolute terms. Language cannot make us transcend or overcome our status as limited creatures.
—from the Introduction, p.19)

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

graphic novel! lots of fun, good introduction to chuang tzu. great for the younger folks. original chinese in the margins help make for a visually beautiful book.

if you want the real thing the burton watson translation is great.

[Beyond · Rating 4 out of 5]

The drawing is certainly very good. and it makes reading such an ancient writing quite easy.