Zhuang Zi is an excellent writer. Articles written in Tang dynasty are better than those in Song Dynasty, those in Han dynasty are better than those in Tang Dynasty, those in Qin Dynasty are better than those in Han Dynasty, for there were Li Si and Han Fei in Qin Dynasty. But the articles of Qin Dynasty were not as good as that of pre-Qin period. Among articles written in pre-Qin period, Whose articles are best written? Zhuang Zi’s and Mencius’ articles Zhuang Zi’s Articles are like sea, while Mencius’ articles are like tide. for he liked to use parallel sentences, just like a wave after another wave, which are very powerful. Many people who read his articles are not subdued by his ideas, but his vigor. So Mencius’ articles are like tides. What about Zhuang Zi’s articles? Like sea, majestic and grand. Lu Xun said Zhuang Zi’s articles were unparalleled among the philosophers in late Zhou Dynasty. Even among those pre-Qin philosophers, Lu Xun deemed that Zhuang Zi was excel at writing. As to the comments on Zhuang’s articles, I think Wen Yiduo’s comment is the most interesting. He said, while reading Zhuang’s articles, you can’t tell the difference between the beauty of idea and words, and no one in history and maybe in future can combine the ideas and words so masterly. When you read his works, you find you get something, but once you ponder, it seems diffusing away, just like the ripples. You have no idea where it extends and diffuses. What it brings to us is exact the transient and immense surprise. So the characteristic of Zhuang Zi’s life is poor, haughty and knowledgeable. It forms a very artistic characteristic of his personality. Mr Wen said, Zhuang Zi was an philosopher among poets and a poet among philosophers. He was a person overlooking hometown from strange land. What is a poet? A poet is a person that brings us home, and helps us find our spiritual home. In this world, it was very hard to be a great poet with philosophy wisdom, and a great philosophers with a poet’s words. Just as Mr. Wen said, in the world, no one in history and maybe in future can combine poems and philosophy so well. In this lecture, I mainly talk about Zhuang Zi and his books. As for his life, we have just finished. So next I’ll briefly talk about his book Zhuang Zi, which has the other title Nan Hua Scripture, for Zhuang Zi was called as Nan Hua Immortal in Taoism. According to the Historical Records, the book originally was more than 100,000 words. But now, only 60,000 words. The book consist of 33 chapters including 7 Inner Chapters, 15 Outer Chapters,. and 11 Miscellaneous Chapters. Totally 33 Chapters. Scholars have long believed that the 7 Inner Chapters plus Qiu Shui, Were written by Zhuang Zi himself. So when talking about his works and ideas, I’ll mainly focus on 7 Inner Chapters. Let me first talk about the titles and main idea of the these chapters The first chapter is Peripateticism, A story of a roc and a sparrow. The second one is Great Master which deals with worship, worship the nature and the sages. Great Master. The third one is On the Equality of Things, dealing with two ideas. One is equality of things. That is all things are equal. The other is on the equality including various ideas and perspectives As well as equal treatment of right. The fourth one is Health Maintenance Included some stories we are familiar with. Such as Pao Ding dismember oxes Another story is about chicken at the waterside. It would peck every ten steps and drink every a hundred steps. Though it was, the chicken made it by its own efforts, without against its nature. The fifth one is the World. It is about the world we live in. What kind of life is conforming to Tao? The sixth one was the Emperor. It is about how emperors govern by conforming to Tao. The last one is Morality, fulfillment and symbol. It is about morality, fulfillment and symbols. If one fulfills his inner spirit, he is conforming to Tao. Ideas in this article are very profound, Because it involves those who are called the disabled win others’ respect because of their fulfillment of the inner spirit world, which is what I’ll talk about in detail later. Qiu Shui has been very popular since ancient times. It tells a story about a river god. The river god was very proud of himself when water swelling in autumn. He thought this was the most beautiful scenery in the world. But when he saw ocean, he lamented his littleness before the vast ocean. This story enlighten us to be modest and prudent. Another story is You Are Not Fish. It is an unhappy debate about whether fish is happy or not between Zhuang Zi and Hui Zi, which enables us to better understand Zhuang Zi’ Taoist thought. As mentioned previously, Mr Wen said, We always very revere those sages and great thinkers in history, but people we both revere and adore are rare. Zhuang Zi is one. So many people like Zhuang Zi’s articles. Reading and studying his works enables us to profoundly understand the ideas in Chinese culture, such as eager for freedom, equality, tolerance and generosity. That’s all I talk about in this lecture. Let’s call it a day. See you!