Who is Zhuangzi?
莊子 Zhuangzi ("Master Zhang") is a Chinese philosopher of Taoism in 4th century BC. The main source about him and his students is the book Zhuangzi. His original name is 莊周 Zhuang Zhao, but as traditional for great Chinese thinkers, he was called "Master Zhang". Due to romanization issues, you might see his name written as Chuang Tzu, Chuang-tzu, Chuang Chou, etc. Same as why Mao Zedong is also referred to as "Mao Tse-tung".
Taoism, if talked about at all in Western countries, is usually by quoting something witty from the 道德經 Tao Te Ching, a terse philosophical poem by 老子 Laozi, the legendary founder of Taoism. This is unfortunate, since Zhuangzi, the second classic of Taoism, is far more fun and approachable than Tao Te Ching.
The Book of Zhuangzi is one of the most entertaining as well as one of the profoundest books in the world.
— Arthur Waley, English orientalist and sinologist
Well, not anymore. I'll compile fun stories from Zhuangzi in this post!
