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<p>I would like to invite Wang to join me to think together about an interesting question: how Confucian is the <i>Zhuangzi</i>? My hunch is that Wang’s answer is “very much!”. This can be seen from his discussion of the phrase “forgetting benevolence and rightness” (<i>wang ren yi</i> 忘仁義) in the passage on “sitting and forgetting” (zuowang 坐忘) in 6.2 of his book. Although Wang situates his discussion in the contemporary debate between moral generalism and moral particularism, claiming that the Zhuangzi takes a via media, he comes to the conclusion that “the Zhuangzian attitude does not exclude the role of received Confucian ethical paradigms in routine practice” (Wang, 2025: 99); and that the Zhuangzian cultivated person reaches a stage that “is analogous to Confucius’ final stage of virtuous development, which is attaining harmony between external moral requirements and the internal desire of the individual hear/mind” (101). While Wang is not alone in holding this view, in this paper, I shall argue that he is wrong, and the Zhuangzi is hardly a Confucian.</p>

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How Confucian is the Zhuangzi?

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月17日

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  • Yong Huang

摘要

I would like to invite Wang to join me to think together about an interesting question: how Confucian is the Zhuangzi? My hunch is that Wang’s answer is “very much!”. This can be seen from his discussion of the phrase “forgetting benevolence and rightness” (wang ren yi 忘仁義) in the passage on “sitting and forgetting” (zuowang 坐忘) in 6.2 of his book. Although Wang situates his discussion in the contemporary debate between moral generalism and moral particularism, claiming that the Zhuangzi takes a via media, he comes to the conclusion that “the Zhuangzian attitude does not exclude the role of received Confucian ethical paradigms in routine practice” (Wang, 2025: 99); and that the Zhuangzian cultivated person reaches a stage that “is analogous to Confucius’ final stage of virtuous development, which is attaining harmony between external moral requirements and the internal desire of the individual hear/mind” (101). While Wang is not alone in holding this view, in this paper, I shall argue that he is wrong, and the Zhuangzi is hardly a Confucian.