A posthumanist reading of the “happy” fish in The Zhuangzi

ABSTRACT

This article argues for an alternative interpretation of the happy fish scene in The Zhuangzi: the fish are not happy. The fish undergo an unpleasant experience while the philosophers debate animatedly over the joy of the fish. The dramatization of the fish scene compels us to contemplate anthropocentrism and species communication. Moreover, the contrast between the fish-bird becoming and the subsequent human narrations reinforces the anthropocentric usurpation of nonhuman agency. To get away from anthropocentrism, Zhuangzi proposes a posthumanist approach to deal with species communication in three interconnected stages: to acknowledge the limits of human cognition, to forget anthropocentric prejudice, and to de-obscure childlike innocence.

KEYWORDS:

• Happy fish
• species communication
• nonhuman agency
• child

Acknowledgement

I would like to express my gratitude to Christina Smith, Duncan Smith, and Joanne Tan for providing me with “a home away from home” in the UK. This cozy family makes my research at the University of Cambridge invigorating and unforgettable.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The translation comes from The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu by Burton Watson, with a minor modification.

2. Some scholars might interpret ‘Hao Liang’ as the dam or the banks of the Hao River. If we examine the specific features of the Hao River in its concrete geological location (Fengyang County of Anhui Province) and scholarly comments on The Zhuangzi, we will find that the bridge over the Hao River is a more compelling interpretation. Moreover, even if we concede the possibility of the dam, it will not influence the argument: the fish are distressed because of two other reasons discussed in the subsequent paragraphs.

3. Unlike Confucius who emphasizes the collective aspect of society, Zhuangzi prefers individualism and identifies himself with Heaven and distances himself from society. Carefree wandering exemplifies the aloof image of the Daoist Sage who concentrates on cultivating him to connect with heaven and earth. In the story of the happy fish, Zhuangzi also projects this lonely Daoist image onto the fish, in the form of its single or paired swimming.

4. ‘Parallelising and Adducing’ come from The Lesser Pick (the Xiaoqu), a later Mohist text. “What is present in one’s own case is not to be rejected in the other man’s, what is absent from one’s own case is not to be demanded of the other man’s.

(A) ‘Illustrating’ is referring to other things in order to clarify one’s case.

(B) ‘Parallelising’ is comparing propositions and letting all ‘proceed’.

(C) ‘Adducing’ is saying: ‘If it is so in your case, why may it not be so in mine too?’

(A. C. Graham, trans, Later Mohist logic, ethics and science, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2003, p. 483, cited in Teng, 41–42).

When Zhuangzi retorted, ‘You’re not I, so how do you know I don’t know what fish enjoy?’, he actually employed the combination of these two rhetoric devices: ‘parallelizing in this exchange to support his case’, and ‘adducing’ in the sense that ‘one asks the opponent to see that a parallel pattern is being established’ (Teng 42).

5. ‘Cross-species becoming’ is a key concept overarching the philosophical edifice of Zhuangzi. Quan Wang examines ‘Cross-species becoming’ from three aspects: its definition, conditions, and manifestations. For more information, please refer to ‘Posthumanism and cross-species becoming in Zhuang Zi’ in Rupkatha Journal, 14.2 (Wang, 2022).

6. Quan Wang makes a systematic study of Zhuangzi’s seminal influence on Jacques Lacan, especially the Lacanian subject in terms of the Real, the Imaginary, and the Symbolic. For more information, please refer to Quan Wang, ‘A comparative study of the subject in Jacques Lacan and Zhuangzi’, Asian Philosophy, 27.3 (Wang, 2017).

Additional information

Funding

This research is sponsored by the major project of the National Social Science Fund of China under the title of “A Study of the Idea of Cultural Community in American Ethnic Literatures” (NO. 21&ZD281) and China Scholarship Council (NO. 202306020121).