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The Conversation
Oscar Davis, Indigenous Fellow - Assistant Professor in Philosophy and History, Bond University

Finding your essential self: the ancient philosophy of Zhuangzi explained

Zhuangzi (c.369-286 BCE). Wikimedia Commons

Zhuangzi – also known as Zhuang Zhou or Master Zhuang – was a Chinese philosopher who lived around the 4th century BCE. He is traditionally credited as the author of the ancient Taoist masterpiece bearing his name, the Zhuangzi.

The work of Zhuangzi has been described as “humorous and deadly serious, lighthearted and morbid, precisely argued and intentionally confusing”. On the surface, his teachings can seem outright nonsensical. He maintains that “listening stops with the ear”, that we should “hide the world in the world”, and that a person on the right path is “walking two roads”.

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