The Zhuangzi can sometimes be very difficult for people to read and understand. It uses contradictory and paradoxical rhetorical techniques or arguments such as fables and parables which challenges people’s modern way of thinking and how modern people perceives the world around them. I do think such an approach is effective in some instances and ineffective in other instances. Reading the Zhuangzi can leave some readers uncertain. The reason for the uncertainty is that some of the writing style of the Zhuangzi tend to be rather confusing to most readers.
In order to challenge the way people think about certain situations, the Zhuangzi uses fables as a teaching tool. One particular fable that I have read was titled “The Butterfly.” The fable starts off simple enough by stating that “One day about sunset, Zhuangzi dozed off and dreamed that he turned into a butterfly” (Zhuangzi). However, at the end, he questions whether he was a man dreaming about being a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming about being a man.
It is rather confusing because the reader is told at the beginning that a man, Zhuangzi, had fallen asleep. However, it ends with questioning the beginning of the story. Even though it is confusing to read, it effectively made me wonder about how we perceive the world around us. Today, we are more educated and advanced than societies of the past. Yet, we still wonder about the true meaning of life, if we are truly alive, or if life is simply a dream. Apart from the use of fables, the Zhuangzi uses other rhetorical techniques such as parables.
The Zhuangzi’s use of parables further challenges the thought process of many of its readers. In the “Happiness of Fish,” Zhuangzi and Huizi are walking across a bridge when Zhuangzi comments about the happiness of the fishes. However, Huizi points out that Zhuangzi does not understand what makes fishes happy since Zhuangzi is not a fish. Zhuangzi counters with an argument of “'You are not I. How do you know that I do not know what constitutes the enjoyment of fishes?'” (Zhuangzi). They argue back and forth with Zhuangzi seemingly winning the argument. However, unlike “The Butterfly,” this argument is rather confusing from beginning to end.
It is understandably that we cannot know what makes others happy especially animals since they cannot speak human languages. However, Zhuangzi was steadfast in his belief that he knew the fishes were happy. I am uncertain what moral conclusion Zhuangzi wanted readers to make. In a way, I believe “The Happiness of Fish” is ineffective at challenging me to perceive the world around me differently because of the impossibility to understand others without knowing them first.
The Zhuangzi was written many centuries ago and have been influencing the way people think ever since it was published. However, the writing style of stories can sometimes confuse some people due to the contradictory ways some stories are written. There are times when the stories such as “The Butterfly” effectively make people think about the world around them. Additionally, there are times when the stories fail short for some readers because the subject matter is rather confusing. “The Happiness of Fish” is one such story that a few readers may have a hard time interrupting.
Works Cited
Zhuangzi. "Zhuangzi : Inner Chapters : The Adjustment of Controversies - Butterfly." Chinese Text Project. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2016. <http://ctext.org/zhuangzi/adjustment-of-controversies?searchu=butterfly&searchmode=showall#result>.
