Skip to content
The ConsciousLibrary

Library Zhuangzi

Later compilation

Zhuangzi, ch. 16: "Mending the Inborn Nature" (Shanxing)

《莊子·繕性》

Zhuangzi en el álbum de retratos de soberanos sabios y ministros virtuosos
byZhuangzi

An essay on decline: those who try to "mend" their nature with vulgar learning lose themselves. It describes the descent from an age of undifferentiated unity to the times of Yao and Shun, and praises the ancients who hid without needing to withdraw to the mountains.

Not available

No edition of this work is currently on sale in a store we have been able to verify.

Editions and translations · 3

EnglishFrançaisChino clásico

Authorship note

Outer chapter (waipian). Not by Zhuang Zhou, even though the book circulates under his name: it belongs to the schools that claimed him between the 4th and 2nd centuries BCE, and its present form is that of Guo Xiang's recension (c. 300 CE). Of disputed classification: it is usually read alongside chapter 15 for its treatise-like tone.

Editions and translations

Editions in your language first, without hiding the others. Each with its cover and its store.

English

  • Chuang Tzŭ, ch. 16: Exercise of Faculties

    Bernard Quaritch / Wikisource, 1889

    Translation: Herbert A. Giles

    Dominio público (Giles murió en 1935).

Français

  • Œuvre de Tchoang-tzeu, Chapitre 16. Nature et convention

    Imprimerie de Hien-hien / Wikisource, 1913

    Translation: Léon Wieger

    Dominio público (Wieger murió en 1933).

Chino clásico · 文言

Other works by Zhuangzi

Sources

  • Roth, Harold D. «Chuang tzu 莊子». En Michael Loewe (ed.), Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide. Berkeley: Society for the Study of Early China / Institute of East Asian Studies, 1993, pp. 56–66.

Affiliate link: if you buy through it, the library may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. When an edition's real cover is not available, we show an illustrative library cover.