Zhuangzi

The Guo Xiang redaction of Zhuangzi revised a fifty-two chapter original by removing material he thought was superstitious and generally not of philosophical interest to his literati sensibilities, resulting in a thirty-three chapter total. He appended a philosophical commentary to the text that became famous, and within four centuries his shorter and snappier expurgated recension became the only one known.

This Zhuangzi recension is traditionally divided into three sections: 『Inner Chapters』 (1-7), 『Outer Chapters』 (8-22), 『Miscellaneous Chapters』 (23-33). This division is quite old and is likely to have been part of the original recension.

Guo's redaction focuses on his understanding of Zhuangzi's philosophy of spontaneity (自然 zìrán|w=tzu jan; literally "self so"). This practiced spontaneity is demonstrated by the story of Cook Ding, rendered as Cook Ting in the Burton Watson translation (which is itself ultimately derived from the Guo Xiang recension):

Here, the careful yet effortlessly spontaneous way in which Cook Ding is described cutting up the ox is both an example of the cognitive state of mind Zhuangzi associated with the Tao and the assertion that this state is accessible in everyday life.

In popular culture

A computer-generated image of Guo Xiang's head is used as the logo for the Russian television production company, VID until 2017 when the old logo was heavily redesigned.

相關條目

• 向秀

• 玄學

• 宋明理學

• 獨化（郭象註解《莊子》的核心觀念）

注釋

外部鏈接

• 蕭馳：〈郭象玄學與山水詩之發生〉。

• ：〈僧肇與老莊思想——郭象與僧肇〉。

• 賈晉華：〈《小品般若經》遠離說與郭象朝隱論之比較研究 〉。