The Zhuangze is Daoist work attributed to Zhuangzi. Given the enigmatic nature of this work, I would like to make a modest attempt to bring a few things together to help make sense of it.

All quotes are from

Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy

The text begins:

In the northern darkness there is a fish named Minnow. No one knows how many thousand li around he is. He transforms himself into a bird named Breeze. No one knows how many thousand li across she is. She ruffles and flies, and her wings are like clouds hanging from Heaven. As the seas turn, she thinks to migrate to the southern darkness. The southern darkness is Heaven’s pool.

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A fish is transformed into an enormous bird. We might think that because of his name Minnow is small, but his size is measured in thousands of li. He becomes she. A creature of the water becomes a creature of the sky. We are not told how this transformation takes place.

Little knowledge does not measure up to big knowledge, or few years to many. How do I know this is so? The morning mushroom does not know the waxing and waning of the moon, and the Hui-cricket does not know spring and fall. This is because they are short lived. South of Chu there is a turtle called Dark Genius, which counts five hundred years as a single spring and five hundred years as a single fall. In high antiquity there was a tree called Big Spring, which counted eight thousand years as a single spring and eight thousand years as a single fall. Nowadays, only eight-hundred-year old Peng Zu is famous and everyone compares themselves to him. Isn’t it sad?

Peng Zu is very old in human terms but is like the short lived creatures when compared to Dark Genius or Big Spring. Just as few years do not measure up to many, little knowledge does not measure up to big knowledge. And yet each creature takes itself to be the measure.

The theme of transformation is addressed in the “butterfly dream”.

One night, Zhuangzi dreamed of being a butterfly—a happy butterfly,
showing off and doing as he pleased, unaware of being Zhuangzi. Suddenly
he awoke, drowsily, Zhuangzi again. And he could not tell whether it was
Zhuangzi who had dreamt the butterfly or the butterfly dreaming
Zhuangzi. But there must be some difference between them! This is called
“the transformation of things”.

Despite his momentary confusion it was Zhuangzi dreaming he was a butterfly. There is some difference between them. In his dream he is transformed into a butterfly. In his dream he knows what it is to be a butterfly. But he is not a butterfly.

There is nothing that cannot be looked at that way.
There is nothing that cannot be looked at this way.
But that is not the way I see things;
Only as I know things myself do I know them.

Being Zhuangzi he does not know things as a butterfly does. He can look at things like that or like this but looking is not seeing.

Zhuangzi and Huizi were wandering on a bridge over the Hao River.
Zhuangzi said, “Look at those mottled fish out wandering at ease. That’s
what fish like!”
Huizi said, “You are not a fish. How do you know what fish like?”
Zhuangzi said, “You are not me. How do you know I don’t know what
fish like?”
Huizi said, “I’m not you, so I certainly don’t know what you know. And
since you’re not a fish, you don’t know what fish like. There, perfect!”
Zhuangzi said, “Let’s go back to the beginning. When you asked how I
knew what fish like, you had to know I knew already in order to ask. I
know it by the Hao River—that’s how.

The footnote explains that the word ‘how’ can also be translated ‘where’. In other words, he knows it relative to his own perspective, from a bridge above the water.

There is a lot of talk here on the forum and elsewhere about all things being one. The following story addresses this:

But exhausting the spirit trying to illuminate the unity of things without knowing that they are all the same is called “three in the morning.” What do I mean by “three in the morning”? When the monkey trainer was passing out nuts he said, “You get three in the morning and four at night.” The monkeys were all angry. “All right,” he said, “you get four in the morning and three at night.” The monkeys were all pleased. With no loss in name or substance, he made use of their joy and anger because he went along with them. So the sage harmonizes people with right and wrong and rests them on Heaven’s wheel. This is called walking two roads.

As an explanation the story seems somewhat puzzling. The monkeys do not try to illuminate the unity of all things. Quite the opposite. They fail to see that three in the morning is the same as three at night. But they were angry before and pleased now that they get four nuts in the morning. The monkey trainer does not try to explain to them that it is all the same, he simply goes along with them.

The key to understanding this is found in the last two lines. The people enter into dispute. One says ‘that’ and the other ‘this’. One says right and the other wrong. Zhuangzi does not take sides. He walks two roads.

So we have the rights and wrongs of the Confucians and the Mohists. Each calls right what the other calls wrong and each calls wrong what the other calls right. But if you want to right their wrongs and wrong their rights, it’s better to throw them open to the light.

The attempt to illuminate the unity of things exhausts the spirit because it cannot be demonstrated. It leads to endless disputes. Such differences do just the opposite of what is hoped for.

We are told that all things are one. We may even believe this. But is this something we know? If you think so, how or where do we know this? Is it known in the way Zhuangzi knows what fish like? Do you know things only as you know things yourself? That is, not as things themselves are but as you yourself are? Zhuangzi may dream that he is a butterfly but he has not been transformed into a butterfly. His perspective is not that of a fish or butterfly. It is not that of any other thing let alone all things.

Our perspective is limited and relative to both the kind of creatures we are and who each of us is. What happens to Minnow in the transformation? Does the bird Breeze retain what the fish Minnow saw and knew?

The transformation of things is from one distinguishable thing to another. Without distinctions there cannot be transformation. Although the same Chinese term can be translated as transformation or change, not all change is a transformation in the sense of one creature becoming another. But this is exactly how some interpret him. Perhaps we can walk two roads by acknowledging limits and boundaries while recognizing our role in setting them based on our own limits. Some of those limits we may be able to exceed to a greater or lesser degree. That is, we can change. We should not be too quick to close off the boundary or dream we know what we do not know.