The Evolution of Three Schools of Latter-Day Zhuang Zi Philosophy: Preface

In the last part of the volume, we shall study the ideas of latter-day schools of Zhuang Zi's teachings on the basis of the so-called outer chapters (wai bian) and irregular, or miscellaneous, chapters (za bian) of the text known as Zhuang Zi. We shall not, however, be making a full, comprehensive study of either of these outer and miscellaneous chapters of Zhuang Zi, nor shall we be making a full study of the ideas of latter-day schools of Zhuang Zi teachings. Rather, we will be studying the ideas of these latter-day Zhuang Zi schools from the angle of exploring the various strands and lines of thought followed by the evolution of Zhuang Zi's philosophy down through the ages. In the third chapter of Part 1 of this book, we have already made rather detailed research and argumentation regarding the classification of the outer and miscellaneous chapters of the book Zhuang Zi, and we have separated the "essays" in these outer and miscelleneous chapters largely into three groups, representing the works of thr...