莊子注

Zhuāngzǐ zhù 莊子注

Commentary on the Zhuāngzǐ — Guō Xiàng

by 郭象 (Guō Xiàng, zì Zǐxuán 子玄; c. 252–312 CE) — the foundational WèiJìn Xuánxué 玄學 philosopher who produced the canonical 33-chapter redaction of the Zhuāngzǐ

The foundational commentary on the Zhuāngzǐ by Guō Xiàng 郭象 — together with his 33-chapter redaction of the text, the single most consequential scholarly intervention in the history of the Zhuāngzǐ. Preserved in the Wén yuān gé Sìkù quánshū 文淵閣四庫全書 (V1056.1, p1) in the zǐ bù 子部 Dào jiā lèi 道家類 in ten juàn. Distinct from the Daozang Nán huá zhēn jīng zhù shū 南華真經注疏 (DZ 745, which combines Guō Xiàng’s commentary with Chéng Xuányīng’s 成玄英 subcommentary) — the WYG KR5c0138 edition preserves Guō Xiàng’s commentary alone.

About the work

The 33-chapter redaction

Guō Xiàng’s most consequential editorial act was his reduction of the Hàn-period 52-chapter Zhuāngzǐ (listed in Hàn shū, Yì wén zhì 漢書藝文志 30.1730: 7 inner + 28 outer + 14 miscellaneous + 3 jiěshuō) to the 33-chapter received text (7 inner + 15 outer + 11 miscellaneous). Guō’s preface declares that he “considered sizeable parts of the work spurious or superfluous and therefore discarded them”; virtually none of the excised material survives independently. This editorial intervention — whether philologically justified or not — has defined the Zhuāngzǐ that subsequent readers have had access to.

Philosophical system

Guō Xiàng’s commentary develops his distinctive dú huà 獨化 (“lone self-transformation”) metaphysics:

1. Each thing self-transforms spontaneously (zì huà 自化, dú huà 獨化) without external cause.
2. There is no transcendent Dào standing behind or above particular things — the Dào is nothing other than the aggregate spontaneous self-transformation of all beings.
3. Each thing has its proper fēn 分 (allotted portion, role) — and happiness consists in accepting and fulfilling that fēn.
4. The sage-king rules by not-ruling — letting each being fulfil its own fēn without interference.
5. The interlocking parallel style of Guō Xiàng’s prose mirrors and elaborates that of the Zhuāngzǐ itself — establishing the mature Xuánxué rhetorical idiom.

This system deliberately inverts Wáng Bì’s 王弼 Lǎozǐ-derived běnmò 本末 metaphysics: where Wáng Bì grounds being (yǒu 有) in non-being (wú 無), Guō Xiàng refuses any such grounding and treats being as self-sufficient in its multiplicity.

The Xiàng Xiù plagiarism question

A later tradition (attested in Shì shuō xīn yǔ 世說新語 Wén xué 文學 17) accuses Guō Xiàng of plagiarising the commentary of Xiàng Xiù 向秀 (c. 227–272), elaborating only the Qiū shuǐ 秋水 and Zhì lè 至樂 chapters himself. Modern scholarship (Tāng Yòngtóng 湯用彤, Wáng Shūmín 王叔岷, Brook Ziporyn) treats the plagiarism charge as exaggerated while acknowledging significant textual overlap — Guō Xiàng worked in a continuous Zhú lín 竹林 xuánxué tradition with Xiàng Xiù, and some shared phrasing is to be expected.

Tiyao and Sìkù editors’ verdict

The Sìkù quánshū zǒng mù tí yào notes Guō Xiàng’s commentary as the foundational Zhuāngzǐ reading, and treats it as essentially co-equal with Wáng Bì’s Lǎozǐ commentary (KR5c0073) in philosophical importance.

Abstract

Guō Xiàng’s commentary is the single most influential commentary on the Zhuāngzǐ in Chinese history. Its 33-chapter redaction has defined the textual base; its dú huà metaphysics has shaped subsequent Daoist, Confucian, and Buddhist philosophical discourse. Every subsequent Zhuāngzǐ commentary works either with or against Guō Xiàng’s reading.

Dating. Composition within Guō Xiàng’s mature career (c. 290–312). Per the project’s dating rule, the frontmatter gives 290–312 as the composition window. Dynasty: 西晉.

Author. See 郭象 for the comprehensive author biography.

Translations and research

• Ziporyn, Brook. The Penumbra Unbound: The Neo-Taoist Philosophy of Guo Xiang. Albany: SUNY Press, 2003. The definitive modern English-language monograph on Guō Xiàng.
• Knaul, Livia (Kohn). Leben und Legende des Ch’en T’uan. Frankfurt: Lang, 1981. For broader xuánxué context.
• Guō Qìngfán 郭慶藩. Zhuāngzǐ jí shì 莊子集釋. Běijīng: Zhōnghuá, 1961 (rpt. 2013). The standard modern critical edition of Guō Xiàng’s commentary alongside other classical commentaries.
• Tāng Yòngtóng 湯用彤. Wèi Jìn xuánxué lùn gǎo 魏晉玄學論稿. Shànghǎi: Shànghǎi Gǔjí, 2001 (rpt.). On the xuánxué context.
• Wáng Shūmín 王叔岷. Zhuāngzǐ jiào quán 莊子校詮. Taipei: Academia Sinica, 1988. Definitive text-critical edition.
• Graham, A. C. Chuang-Tzu: The Inner Chapters. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1981. Standard English translation; significantly influenced by Guō Xiàng’s reading.

Other points of interest

Guō Xiàng’s commentary — preserved also in the Daozang as DZ 745 Nán huá zhēn jīng zhù shū with Chéng Xuányīng’s Táng Chóngxuán 重玄 subcommentary — is the lingua franca of Chinese Zhuāngzǐ scholarship. Modern Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Western scholarship on the Zhuāngzǐ nearly always engages with Guō Xiàng as the primary interlocutor.

The present WYG edition preserves Guō Xiàng’s commentary without Chéng Xuányīng’s Táng addition — providing a “pure” Guō Xiàng text useful for philological comparison with the DZ 745 combined version.

Links

• Kanseki Repository KR5c0138
• Parent text: KR5c0051 Nán huá zhēn jīng.
• Parallel DZ edition: DZ 745 (Zhù shū, with Chéng Xuányīng’s subcommentary).
• Author: 郭象 Guō Xiàng.
• Ziporyn, The Penumbra Unbound (2003) — standard monograph.
• ctext.org: 莊子注