Zhuāngzǐ Zápian Xuǎnwén 莊子雜篇選文
Selected Passages from the Miscellaneous Chapters of the Zhuāngzǐ
About the work
This file contains three self-contained passages from the Zhuāngzǐ 莊子, specifically from the “Miscellaneous Chapters” (雜篇 Zápian, chs. 23–33), identified in the file by their chapter titles and numbers:
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《莊子．雜篇．則陽》二十五 (Ch. 25, Zéyáng): the passage on Qú Bóyù 蘧伯玉 who “at sixty had changed sixty times,” meditating on the limits of knowledge and the impossibility of escaping what one is.
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《莊子．雜篇．外物》二十六 (Ch. 26, Wài Wù): the story of Lord Yuán of Sòng 宋元君 who dreams of a divine turtle messenger, has the turtle killed for divination, and is corrected by Confucius’ observation that even a knowing spirit cannot avoid the net of mortality.
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《莊子．雜篇．讓王》二十八 (Ch. 28, Ràng Wáng): the narrative of Bó Yí 伯夷 and Shū Qí 叔齊, the exemplary hermits who refused to serve the Zhōu king and starved to death at Shǒuyáng 首陽山, held up as models of high-minded integrity who “took delight only in their own will.”
The file is digitised in the Kanripo corpus as a single plain-text document (no multi-file structure) and contains no manuscript headers, prefaces, or datelines. Its placement in the KR5c corpus immediately after the Mǎwángduī and Guōdiàn excavated texts (KR5c0387–KR5c0390, KR5c0392) and lack of catalog metadata suggest it was compiled as a companion or reference document within the excavated-text series rather than representing a discrete ancient manuscript find.
The passages use the archaic character 无 for 無 throughout, consistent with early manuscript practice.
Prefaces
No prefaces or paratexts.
Abstract
Textual identity. The three passages correspond to standard received Zhuāngzǐ text as found in Guō Xiàng’s 郭象 4th-century redaction (33-chapter version) and Guō Qìngfān’s 郭慶藩 Jí shì 集釋 edition (KR5c0386). Variants from the received text appear to be minimal, though the passages do employ 无 for 無.
Archaeological context. Fragments of the Zhuāngzǐ Miscellaneous Chapters have been identified among early Han excavated manuscripts. The Fuyang (阜陽) Han bamboo slips from the Shuanggudui (雙古堆) site (tomb sealed 165 BCE, excavated 1977) yielded approximately 20 fragments (8 strips, 56 characters) from the Miscellaneous Chapters (雜篇). A Dào Zhī 盜跖 chapter text (44 slips, received ch. 29) was found at Zhāngjiāshān (張家山) Han Tomb No. 136, Húbĕi. A short fragment paralleling the Qū Qiè 胠篋 chapter was found among the Guōdiàn bamboo slips (ca. 300 BCE). The Fuyang Zhuāngzǐ fragments are the closest early witness to chapters of the Miscellaneous group including 則陽, 外物, and 讓王.
Scope and provenance of this file. The three passages in KR5c0391 are complete narrative units from the received text, not fragmentary. Their extent (several hundred characters) greatly exceeds the 56 characters recovered from Fuyang for the Miscellaneous Chapters. The file cannot therefore be identified with the Fuyang fragments or any known excavated manuscript find. The most plausible interpretation is that these passages were compiled — perhaps by the scholars who assembled the KR5c excavated-text series — to illustrate early Zhuāngzǐ textual themes that parallel the surrounding Huáng-Lǎo and Mǎwángduī materials. The selection of these three Miscellaneous Chapter passages — on the limits of knowledge, the inescapability of fate, and hermit integrity — connects thematically with the political and ethical concerns of the Huáng-Lǎo texts in KR5c0389 and the Confucian virtue ethics of the Wǔxíng (KR5c0388).
The Miscellaneous Chapters and textual history. Chapters 23–33 of the Guō Xiàng edition are conventionally classified as the “Miscellaneous Chapters” (雜篇), probably compiled or expanded by Zhuāngzǐ’s followers after his death, and displaying a wider variety of styles and concerns than the “Inner Chapters” (內篇, chs. 1–7). The chapters 則陽 (25), 外物 (26), and 讓王 (28) that appear in KR5c0391 belong to this outer stratum of the text; their early circulation is attested by the Fuyang finds and the Shǐjì’s reference to a 100,000-character version of the Zhuāngzǐ (the Han catalogue version of 52 chapters being longer than the received 33-chapter text).
Dating. If interpreted as a companion document to the Mǎwángduī series, this file has no independent ancient date. The underlying Zhuāngzǐ passages derive from compositions that circulated by the early Hàn at the latest (confirmed by Fuyang tomb, sealed 165 BCE); many scholars date the Miscellaneous Chapters broadly to the late Warring States through early Hàn. The bracket notBefore: -300, notAfter: -165 reflects the probable composition-and-circulation window for these specific chapters.
Translations and research
- Watson, Burton. 1968. The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu. Columbia UP. (Contains all three chapters; see chs. 25, 26, 28.)
- Ziporyn, Brook. 2020. Zhuangzi: The Complete Writings. Hackett. (Full critical translation; commentary on the Miscellaneous Chapters.)
- Graham, A. C. 1981. Chuang-tzŭ: The Inner Chapters. Allen & Unwin. (Includes appendix on the textual layers of the Miscellaneous Chapters.)
- Han Ziqiáng 韓自強. 1983. “Fuyang Hanjian Zhuāngzǐ” 阜陽漢簡莊子. Wénwù 文物 1983.2. (Publication of the Fuyang Zhuāngzǐ fragments.)