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Zhuangzi, sometimes referred as Zhuang Zhou, remains one of history’s most fundamentally subversive thinkers. As a writer in the chaotic period of Warring States of ancient China around the 4th century, Zhuangzi positioned himself not as a revolutionary for the improvement of government but as an opponent to the idea of such an entity altogether. Instead of giving his opinion on how the governing body could be improved, he tore apart the legitimacy of its authority by means of sarcastic criticism aimed primarily at Confucianism. He maintained that the desire to rule is the main evil of mankind, which destroys the whole hierarchy of power within the ruling elite.
The other philosophers of his era attempted to offer advice to the kings on how to manage their states, but Zhuangzi considered the rulers themselves to be one of the major sources of chaos in the world. He claimed that each living creature has an inner nature and lives happily when left alone. But rulers tried to domesticate it, which is extremely harmful as it disturbs the natural movement of the Universe. He even compared the rulers to the horse trainers who branded, bridled, and hobbled horses to render them useful. From doing so, he claimed that most of them died during this process of domestication. Moreover, the more actively the ruler tried to rule by imposing various rules and moral precepts, the greater confusion he generated.
Zhuangzi reached to the conclusion that so-called love towards the people by the ruling classes was the source of harm to the ruled because top-down benevolence introduced artificial criteria for behaviour. Referring to the example of history when Lord Tien Cheng killed a ruler and occupied the state of Chi together with its institutions developed by sages, Zhuangzi called all the legal and moral framework established by sages the tool of usurpers to maintain their position in each state. Zhuangzi advised that beating the sages and letting the thieves and robbers run free will put an end to the turmoil in the world. Regarding this, he left an insightful quote to the future generation. The quote is as follows: “The petty thief is imprisoned but the big thief becomes a feudal lord”.
In addition to criticizing the state and its legitimacy, Zhuangzi expressed his disapproval of political status and its value as well. Zhuangzi firmly rejected the King of Chu’s invitation to become a minister.. Instead, he preferred to live among the masses as an individual) and not become a servant of the king of any kingdom. He believed that an official was just another humble servant who served his master from the office and drained his vital force. Through the story of the twisted tree, Zhuangzi suggests that it may be better for an individual to remain “useless” to rulers and the state. A straight and beautiful tree is the first to be cut down by a lumberman because it is useful, while a twisted tree survives precisely because no one sees any practical value in it. Similarly, an individual who is too useful to the state may be exploited for political or administrative purposes. For Zhuangzi, uselessness can therefore become a form of protection, allowing the individual to preserve their freedom and avoid being consumed by power.
Hence, a twisted one would therefore survive due to this lack of interest on behalf of the officials, leaving all the other individuals to destruction. In this way, it is important for the perfect man not to care about anything that goes outside of him and thus reject his status and throw it away metaphorically as muddy water.
In addition to the scepticism towards state and politics, Zhuangzi also criticized other artificial tools used by rulers in the governance such as laws, penalties, and ritual practices as corrupting influences which violated the simplicity of humanity. According to him, the invention of weights and measures, written contracts and codes of law could not hinder the criminals, but teach them to commit more crimes in the course of following the imposed order. Therefore, the elimination of all the complexity and wisdom introduced by institutions will naturally result in the disappearance of the robbers. Zhuangzi called violent and cruel punishments an expression of the degenerate generation which completely lost the sense of Tao, the natural way of life. At his times, those who were sentenced to death could be seen heaped in public places while those who possessed political power could freely lecture about virtue without any shame. Instead of taking ritual as an essential part of civilization, Zhuangzi called it a mere adornment of the Tao which predicted the coming disorder. For him, the practice of cringing, bowing, and grovelling before the ruler disturbed the human spirit.
The ruling class, if it exists, needs to operate based on “wu-wei” (the effortless action) in order to foster a spontaneous social order. According to his philosophy, human beings naturally know how to weave clothes, plant food crops, and live in peace and collaboration without hierarchical structures of governance, especially the states. When occupying a ruling position, a wise man refrains from interfering with the affairs of its citizens and other individuals, showing no signs of ambition, prejudice, or a wish to leave his mark behind. In this case, he becomes as clear as air and gives preference to nobody. Thus, he functions as a mirror rather than a commander. As a result, the best thing to do in such a situation is to engage in doing nothing – improving one’s personal sincerity and reacting to the universe.
Zhuangzi reserved his harshest words of ridicule to the Confucian and Mohist (Chinese rationalist) schools of philosophy. According to him, all the virtues about benevolence and righteousness that goes on in the courts serves only as a cover for political corruption. Moreover, he insisted that these virtues were not native to humanity but have been forcibly introduced by the ruling class to justify their actions. Zhuangzi ridiculed the pretentiousness of the sages who obsessed about court ritual music throughout their entire lives and distorted the Tao to their own detriment and that of humanity. Zhuangzi even portrayed the great philosopher Confucius as a hypocrite in his “Robber Zhi” (Dao Zhi) chapter, stating that Confucius created beautiful doctrines and searched for riches, fame, and royal favour while preaching virtue, thus distracting the rulers and entire kingdoms.
To sum up, Zhuangzi provided a remarkable alternative to the political philosophies of the time. Namely, he argued that the ruling class was not the cure for the chaotic state of society but its main cause. Thus, Zhuangzi became a champion of radical individualism and personal freedom. His philosophy teaches that one cannot find peace through politics and government regulations; humanity must learn to stop ruling each other and live in harmony with the spontaneous order of nature.
