SOURCE: Kupperman, Joel. “Spontaneity and Education of the Emotions in the Zhuangzi.” In Essays on Skepticism, Relativism, and Ethics in the “Zhuangzi,” edited by Paul Kjellberg and Phillip J. Ivanhoe, pp. 183-95. Albany: State University of New York, 1996.

In the following essay, Kupperman explores the key role of spontaneity in Chuang Tzu's philosophy.

A working title of this paper had been “A Cicada Propounds Three Theses About Zhuangzi.” This had been intended not only to be modest, but also to allude to the perspectivism with which the Zhuangzi opens. Part of the greatness of the Zhuangzi is that it is rewarding from so many perspectives. This is not accidental: The strongest vein of skepticism in the Zhuangzi, if I am right, is skepticism about meanings, including skepticism about interpretations of itself. It would go against the spirit of the work to pretend to supply a definitive or a...