Zhuangzi on Death
Mood:  incredulous
LIFE AND DEATH AS TWO OPPOSITE COMPLEMENTARIES: AN APPRAISAL OF ZHUANG ZI’S NOTION OF DEATH

Death is an elephant
torch-eyed and horrible;
Foam-flanked and terrible!
- Vachel Lindsay in The Congo

Tersely speaking, one of the greatest fears of man is the fear of death or dying. In Norse mythology the notion of Ragnarok or The Day of Doom aptly illustrates that man like the Norse gods (who will someday be destroyed) will also perish. This poignant illustration implies that since the dawn of civilization man became aware of delving into ways as to thwart off—if not to overcome death, paving the way for his struggle against it (supposing it could be considered as such).
In ancient Egypt for example, people of that time mummified their corpses starting from their pharaohs, slaves, pets, down to the earthly possessions of a certain kingdom and hoard them inside collective tombs (now known as the pyramids) believing that Annubis, the Egyptian god responsible for preserving the dead, will someday revive the kingdom.
First and foremost is man’s quest for immortality. The onset of Tao-chiao (Religious Taoism) reveals the shamanistic practices of Daoist sects (e.g. Lungmen, Chengyi and Changtienssu Daoists) that became established norms as offshoots from the philosophical principles of Daoism posited both by Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi. This search for immortality is manifested through finding the elixir of life or the fountain of eternal youth.
Then came science that submitted faith to experimental processes or verifiable demonstrations for extending one’s generation through cloning, which in a way an indirect manifestation of fear of death.
But contrary to these empirico-historico-mythological convictions, death should not be viewed as the main culprit of humanity nor be it deemed to be perceived as “humanity’s mortal enemy, the fearsome Grim Reaper armed with a scythe for cutting down human lives.” Instead, it should be visioned like the flowing of rivers to the seas—a way of nature. Zhuang Zi, one of the forerunners of Daoist philosophy, conceived of the same position. For him death is inseparable to life. They are two opposite notion that complement each other. However, due to the limited discussion of death in The Book of Zhuang Zi, this paper humbly attempts to include the life of the venerated recluse-sage as well as to associate the idea (death) from his (Zhuang Zi’s) concept of freedom and relativism for the purpose of further elaboration and justification of the claim that life and death are two opposing complementaries.

Zhuang Zi: The Revered Daoist Recluse

Life

Between 369-286 B.C. a man named Zhuang Zi who was a native of Song lived and was unarguably regarded as one of the most significant philosopher of ancient China. Aside from Daisetz T. Suzuki who declared “Zhuang Zi as “the very greatest” of the Chinese philosophers,” Dr. Alfredo Co on the other hand describes him as: a scholar of wide learning, the scion of an artistic family that had fallen on hard times caused by the turmoil prevalent of the age. He was not without connections but he despised earthly ambitions. He once served as a minor official in charge of the Song lacquer tree gardens but resigned in order to teach and write. Thereafter he lived a reclusive life, dwelt in a hut, and made his own straw sandals, at times borrowing to stave of starvation. His neck was scrawny and his face cadaverous, and he wrote a patched gown of coarse linen; but he accepted his poverty with an air of resignation and a spirit of nobility.

Unlike the followers of the doctrines of Kong Zi who were concern with the problems of material and practical world, Zhuang Zi, like Lao Zi concentrated on the problem of the metaphysical and the supra-mundane and “with the most intimate knowledge of life through a direct intuitive and existential grasp of reality.”
In terms of his writings, The Book of Zhuang Zi is the doctrine attributed to him. According to Ofiliada, Sinologists have divided it into three parts notably:
“a) The Inner Chapters (Nei), which comprises of the first seven chapters and said to be the original writings of Zhuang Zi; b) The Outer Chapters (Wai), the next fifteen; and c) The Miscellaneous Chapters (Tsza), the remaining seven. The remaining twenty six are of questionable origin, probably the works of later disciples or compilations of verbal treatises or, as Lin Yutang and other sinologists claim, forgeries”

Compared to the Dao De Jing, Wu states “it was a more substantial and better organized philosophical work “consisting of thirty-three brilliantly composed essays, in terms of brilliance of mind, power of imagination, subtlety, and wit, no other Chinese writer surpasses him.” Ofiliada reiterates, “the style of Zhuang Zi is that he writes in prose but is very poetical, fond of metaphors, uses language similar to that of the Dao De Jing, praises the unconventional and makes frequent use of humor.”
Nevertheless, Zhuang Zi is both a difficult philosopher and text for the reason that the orientation of thought is “generally obscure, but its obscurities do not in any way devaluate and degrade its aesthetic qualities.” Consecutively, Ofiliada again says that:
to begin a study of Zhuang Zi’s philosophy and to comprehend him, one must have to empty his mind of preconceived bias as well as making an interpretation of the interpretation given by Zhuang Zi since he interpreted reality as the Dao or Nature and gave such interpretation a magic touch. What one must target is the interpretation of Zhuang Zi’s thought—a “vision quest” which is difficult but enriching and worthwhile, which also means that the understanding of Zhuang Zi cannot be obtained at one sitting for it takes constant inquiry, re-reading, research, and much time. Whereas in interpreting him, one must not impose on his own categories but instead meet the Master in his own ground.

Furthermore, Billington supports this claim by saying that:

It is important not to approach Chuang Tzu (Zhuang Zi) without being well versed in the Tao Te Ching (Dao De Jing), because the teaching contained in the earlier book permeates the later one. Fundamental to it is the acceptance of the underlying creative and sustaining energy of the universe emanating from the Dao, and manifested in each creature and entity through the Te. These two forces are the catalyst of Zhuang Zi’s philosophy, even where it involves in issues that the Dao De Ching left unexplored or undeveloped.

So much for Zhuang Zi’s life and a brief description of his personality and style of writing as well as how to approach him, the paper will now explore his philosophical ideologies.

Philosophy

Co affirms, “The philosophy of Zhuang Zi is one of plea for the individual’s freedom of spirit from the confines of his own mind.” This is because the orientation of his philosophy is anthropocentric in his claim of relativism in knowledge except in his concept of death which is less anthropocentric in the sense that he maintains the Dao as superior to man as “it is obviously beyond the reach of man: invisible, immaterial, obscure and incorporeal.” “It is the all-pervading principle that exists prior to the existence of the universe, and it is to be found in everything, no matter how trivial or base.” Though it is a non-being, it is from this nothingness to which something came from. Moreover, it is from this idea where most of his treatises were rooted, from his idea of relativism (pertaining to knowledge), freedom and death.


Zhuang Zi on Death

“I, too was a living being of flesh and blood, another animal, who had my time on earth now, but who one day would cease to be here.”

- Jostein Gaarder in Maya

“To be or not to be, that is the question.” This clichéd maxim of Shakespeare’s Hamlet matches to the idea of life and death. It is like saying, “to live or not to live.” Most people, when asked with the question whether they want to live or die, the choice was easy, that is—to live. With this, Co raises the question, “Why must man be born when he also has to die?” This question is philosophical since it cannot be solely answerable by scientific conjectures but requires a cogitative mind to explore and come up with a concrete and construed principle about life and more significantly of death.
The notion of life is at the same time hard to deal with is more tolerable compared to death. Death for most people is an antagonist and therefore considered to be the greatest fear of man. But shrouded in this popular belief is the fact that death is a natural phenomenon. However, poignantly speaking, most people are perturbed of its idea because they assume it to be the end of everything. This should not be the case, it should not be feared rather, it must and must be thought of as in accordance to the flow of Nature. If people would thoroughly and truly accept it as such, then that unenlightened notion of death will disappear. In order to establish this proposition, this paper will provide an overview of Zhuang Zi’s concept of death.
Unlike, the notion of relativity of knowledge and freedom that is rigorously discussed in The Book of Zhuang Zi, Zhuang Zi’s concept of death is distributed in all chapters of the book. Nevertheless, his notion of death is coherent with these two and painstakingly; these three are immersed in the fountainhead of Daoist philosophy—the Dao. Magill noted that in the philosophy of Zhuang Zi, “man is part of dao’s making. He has a share of dao just as a clod of dirt does. If he preserves this share of dao, he will not be lost.”
In his relativism, Zhuang Zi upholds that “man cannot attain perfect construction of anything through his own effort. Hence, whatever he undertakes to complete, he leaves something undone.” His lyrical and ecstatic acceptance of death permeate in his conviction that “fear of death is one major source of human unhappiness. If we understand the principle of relativity, then we will understand that life and death are relative phases of the process of the Dao.”
Inclusive to Zhuang Zi’s discussion of death are the stories on the death of Lao Zi and the death of his wife
In the death of Lao Zi, the story narrates that Chin Shin who became critical of the Old Master claiming that Lao Zi weakened his true being. Zhuang Zi replied:
The Master came at his right time into the world. When his time was up, he left it again. He who awaits his time, who submits when his work is done; in his life there is no room for sorrow or for rejoicing. Here is how the ancients said in four words: God cuts the thread.

Dr. Co elaborates, “Zhuang Zi urges people to follow the course of nature and glide naturally and spontaneously with it.
Another story, the death of Zhuang Zi’s wife recounts that during the funeral of Zhuang Zi’s wife, Hui Zi found Zhuang Zi singing and beating a bowl which the former attests that not to shred a tear over her is bad enough, drumming a bowl and sing is too much. Zhuang Zi responded:
not at all. When she died, I could not help being affected by her death. Soon, however, I remembered that she had already existed in a previous state before birth, without form, or even substance; that while in that unconditioned condition, substance was added to spirit; that this substance then assumed form; and that the next stage was birth. And now, by another virtue of a further change, she is dead, passing from one phase to another like the sequence of spring, summer, autumn and winter. And while she is thus lying asleep in Eternity, for me to go about weeping and wailing would be to proclaim myself ignorant of these natural laws. Therefore I refrain.

In this account, death for Zhuang Zi is “the natural result of life, and to feel bitterness against such a result is to violate the principle of Nature and to increase the emotions of man.”
Billington affirms that for Zhuang Zi:
the death of his wife cannot deny the fact that there will of course be a deep sense of loss; but it is the survivor, not the deceased, who is the loser, and he/she must come to terms with the changes that this loss must mean. The sorrow of the death is the sorrow of the living, not of the dead who are at rest and in peace in the eternal harmony with the Dao.

In this case, it can be conceived that life and death cannot be dichotomized. They are not apart from each other in a way that they are distinct but are inseparable with each other. Moreover, an internet article by Courson recaps:
Life and Death are a part of Destiny. Their sequence, like day and night, is of God, beyond the interference of man. These all lie in the inevitable nature of things. He simply looks upon God as his father; if he loves him with what is born of the body, shall he not love him also with that which is greater than the body? A man looks upon a ruler of men as one superior to himself; if he is willing to sacrifice his body (for his ruler), shall he not then offer his pure (spirit) also?
- Book of Zhuang Zi, Deformities, or Evidence of a Full Character
This does not mean that Zhuang Zi’s concept of death is a depiction of disgust with life. For Zhuang Zi is using his understanding of natural laws to disperse his despair recognizing emotions but sees to it that they do not affect him; “there is no need to fear death since it is a perfectly natural transformation.” Graham describes Zhuang Zi’s attitude towards death is that he is “neither an optimist nor a pessimist, and takes it for granted that sorrow and joy alternate like night and day, and death and life.”
Another internet article by Vasey McClory mentions a vivid description of Zhuang Zi’s concept of death. The article was a fictional meeting between Chinese philosophers, Meng Zi and Zhuang Zi. On their way they heard a scream coming from a voice of a little girl finding out that she was about to fall into a well. Meng Zi did not hesitate to save her whereas Zhuang Zi remained unmoved. That event brought about a discourse on philosophy between the two thinkers, one a Confucian and the other a Taoist. In this article, Zhuang Zi raises the question:
Who is to say that life is any better than death? Men love to label things as good and bad, self and other, beautiful and ugly. Our dependence on these labels weakens our access to the chi. To say that death is bad is to acknowledge man’s limitations. Maybe the child would have been happier right now if she lay at the bottom of the well. If her fate were death, then she would be dead. Obviously, though her fate was to be saved by you. Either way, I would be overly happy or overly sad. I put my trust in the natural Way of things and find tranquility in this.

Recapitulation

Zhuang Zi purports that death is inclusive in the process of the Dao. Along with day and night, light and darkness, death together with life, illustrate a ‘duality of opposites’, which portrays a profound sense of Daoist spirit. His concept of death debunks the idea that man is the measure of things for the reason that the Dao is the measure. Knowledge is not ethereal, it is relative and thus apart from the Dao as the all-encompassing, everything else is relative.

Application

Reflecting on the notion of Zhuang Zi’s death, it can be inferred painstakingly that it is a misconception that death is something grave and painful. In line with the constant flux of change advocated by Heraclitus, that there is nothing permanent in this world but change, death is one of those unchangeable changes that will happen to a human being. Plants became wilt and die, animals decay and die; man reaches his final destination—eternal repose. All living things will perish for all of then emanated from the Dao. What came from the Dao will come a time when they will also return to the Dao. As Jostein Gaarder puts it, “It’s not only the beginning that defines the end. The end defines the beginning as well.” Zhuang Zi’s concept of returning to the Dao is similar to the notion of the Atman-Brahman. Wherein the Atman is part of the Brahman. The Atman departs from the Brahman but someday will be united with it.
Applied in the Philippine context where there are several beliefs of the Filipinos on how to revere their dead ancestors or elsewhere the funeral practices mostly done were in a way matching if not similar to Zhuang Zi’s notion of death. Traditionally, Filipino way of burying their dead relatives involves certain measures. The pakikiramay to the bereavement relatives of the dead is prevalent like that story during Lao Zi’s and Zhuang Zi’s wife’s death. The tradition of 40 days and Babang-Luksa wherein there is a feast offered in memory of the dead is an indirect manifestation of Zhuang Zi’s singing during the death of his wife. This entails that the Filipino concept of death somehow resembles a Daoist orientation. Likewise, there are practices of giving up of or get rid of all the possessions of the dead e.g., clothes, blankets or anything that belongs to the deceased relative. This is also concomitant to what Zhuang Zi and Daoist philosophy would uphold as detachment from material things as well as being resistant to the dictates of emotions, as mentioned earlier. This act of eradicating the ownership of the departed is one way of going on through life. For this memories, suffice it to say can spark one’s emotion which according for Zhuang Zi must be overcome in order not to be enslaved in bondage and therefore be successively able to carry on with life; for if man continues to be enslaved by his emotions, he cannot be united with the Dao.
In view of the aforementioned, Zhuang Zi’s concept of life and death is that both are complementaries. Some of the Filipino practice or tradition in venerating the departed is concomitant to the Daoist philosophy for it bears a resemblance to some of the philosophy of Zhuang Zi. And finally, that the Filipino concept of death is either way an appraisal of Zhuang Zi’s concept of death.