During the Warring States period, Mencius was a representative figure of the Confucian school, while at the same time, the representative figure of Daoist thought was Zhuangzi. Zhuangzi, whose personal name was Zhou, was the inheritor and developer of Laozi's philosophical ideas, and later generations often referred to him and Laozi together as "Lao-Zhuang," with their philosophical system being honored as "Lao-Zhuang philosophy."
Zhuangzi was a descendant of King Zhuang of Chu, born into a family that had already declined in status; due to social upheaval, he moved to Meng in the state of Song, where he served as a minor official in charge of the lacquer garden. However, he later found the world corrupt and felt deep grief and despair toward society, believing that in such a dark reality, holding office would distort human nature. Thus, he detested officialdom, "never serving in government for life," and lived a reclusive life content in poverty and devoted to the Way. Zhuangzi felt that in a life of poverty, he could stand apart from the world, find joy in himself, and maintain spiritual freedom; therefore, though poor, he scorned wealth, honor, power, and fame.
Once, Zhuangzi went to visit the King of Wei. Seeing him in patched coarse clothes and shoes tied with straw ropes, the king asked, "Master, how have you fallen into such a state of destitution?" Zhuangzi felt the remark was incorrect and corrected him, saying, "What you see now is poverty, not destitution. Only those who cannot manifest their virtue in the world are truly destitute. Today, with my tattered clothes and worn shoes, you witness poverty, not destitution—this is what people call being born at the wrong time! Great King, have you ever seen agile monkeys? In tall nanmu and camphor trees, they leap and swing freely, so much so that even the divine archers Houyi and Fengmeng would be helpless against them. But once they enter a thicket of thorns, they become cautious and constrained, appearing stiff and clumsy. This is not because their bodies have lost agility, but because their environment restricts them from displaying their abilities. In today's world, with a benighted ruler on the throne and treacherous ministers flaunting their power, even if I wished not to be destitute, I could hardly manage it."
Zhuangzi inherited and developed Laozi's Daoist philosophy, becoming a profoundly unconventional and great thinker. The concept of "Dao" is the essence of Daoist thought. Zhuangzi's "Dao" is the Dao of heaven, a Dao that emulates nature, and is fundamentally intangible. It is not bound by time or space, existing eternally, while also permeating all things between heaven and earth, encompassing everything and being everywhere. Human form is bestowed by the Dao, and the human body is given by heaven; thus, we should not harm life or injure our nature due to likes or dislikes. Therefore, Zhuangzi advocates for "tranquility and non-action."
Zhuangzi and his disciples arrived at the foot of a mountain, where they saw a tall tree standing by a stream, lush and towering, very eye-catching. That such a tree could grow in the forest without being cut down for timber struck Zhuangzi as strange, so he asked a woodcutter about it.
The woodcutter said dismissively, "This tree's wood is useless. If you use it to build a boat, it will sink; if you make a coffin from it, it will rot quickly; if you fashion it into tools, they will break easily; if you use it for doors or windows, it will stay damp; and if you make it into a pillar, it will attract insects. Because this tree's wood is of no use, it has been able to stand here for so long and grow so tall."
After hearing this, Zhuangzi said to his disciples, "This tree has been able to stand here all along precisely because it is useless for timber—isn't this the benefit of being useless, and isn't it advantageous to oneself to do nothing?"
The disciple felt this was very correct and nodded repeatedly in agreement. Zhuangzi then said: "A tree, because it is useless, escapes being cut down; when sacrificing to the river god, a cow with white hair on its head or a person with hemorrhoids is considered inauspicious by the shaman and thus spared from being thrown into the river; during conscription, those with physical disabilities are exempt from military service and can live out their natural lives to old age. If physical disabilities can preserve life and protect the body, then those without virtue or talent are even more so. A tree that is useless will not be felled; a person without ability can also preserve themselves." Finally, Zhuangzi concluded that this is the "usefulness of the useless."
Zhuangzi advocated for the unity of heaven and humanity, and the forgetting of both self and the external world, so he faced life and death with great detachment. When Zhuangzi's wife passed away, his good friend Huizi went to offer condolences. Upon arriving at Zhuangzi's home, Huizi saw him sitting cross-legged on the ground, singing while tapping on a basin. Huizi was furious and scolded, "She spent her whole life with you, raised your children, cared for your elders, and managed the household. Now that she has passed away, not only do you not cry, but you even sing while hitting a basin—how heartless!" Zhuangzi replied, "That's not the case. At first, I was deeply saddened, but after understanding the principles of life and death, I stopped grieving. Now, although she has died, she still exists within nature. If I were to wail in sorrow, I would be going against the natural order. So instead of mourning, I sing."
Zhuangzi believed that all things in the universe are fundamentally the same, and that humans should merge with the myriad things, achieving a state of unity between self and the world. He hoped for a spirit unbound by constraints and a body independent of external forces, reaching a realm of absolute freedom and ease. He once dreamed he had become a butterfly, fluttering about without any restrictions, feeling completely at ease and joyful, entirely forgetting that he was Zhuang Zhou. When he woke up, he found himself lying stiffly on his bed, still Zhuang Zhou. The dream had felt so vivid that he was momentarily confused—was he Zhuang Zhou who had dreamed of being a butterfly, or was he a butterfly now dreaming of being Zhuang Zhou?
Zhuangzi was also a literary figure, and his literary talent even surpassed that of Laozi, with his work the Zhuangzi passed down through the ages. The Zhuangzi is a Daoist classic as renowned as the Tao Te Ching, and its writings are vast and unrestrained, brimming with romanticism, exerting a profound influence on later literature.