ACKERMANAt a glance
History, context & interpretation
The text and its story
Witty stories and paradoxes about freedom, change and the limits of language. It is the second great classic of Daoism.
Traditional attribution
Written by the sage Zhuang Zhou.
Historical scholarship
The 'Inner Chapters' are usually credited to Zhuangzi; the rest to his school.
Context and curiosity
The butterfly dream is one of the most famous thought experiments in philosophy.
Chronology and transmission
This text belongs to China (Warring States China). The catalogue gives its approximate dating as c. 4th–3rd century BCE and original language or script as Classical Chinese. The dated manuscript witnesses and traditional claims may not refer to the same historical event.
Sources and further reading
Historical descriptions are educational summaries. Religious traditions, scholarly interpretations and unverified claims are distinguished where possible; imagery may be illustrative rather than an artifact photograph.
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