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ABSTRACT
The thought on nature education plays an important role in both Eastern and Western history of educational thoughts. However, the rich thought on nature education in Pre-Qin Taoism in China was little-known in Western academia. Chuang Tzu was the co-founder and one of the main representative figures of Pre-Qin Taoism philosophy and nature education. This study will reveal the core contents of Chuang Tzu's thought on nature education mainly based on the analysis of Chuang Tzu. For Chuang Tzu, the aim of education is the individual’s inner freedom. And in order to realise it, this study reveals, is not to learn knowledge or morals from somebody but to recognise the Way of Nature. The basic rules and methods of education are following the Way of Nature. But Chuang Tzu’s understandings on nature and nature education are different from Rousseau. For Chuang Tzu, one may get real freedom only if he can find a way to reconcile with nature, society, and himself. These opinions may be very meaningful for today’s education.
Acknowledgments
We would like to express our gratitude to Ms. Hu Yuanyuan, Jiangnan University, in the standardization of English writing in this article.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 Chuang Tzu has become known in the West through a variety of transliterated names, among them Zhuang Zi and Chuang Tze; Taoism is also commonly referred to as Daoism according to the standardised Pinyin transliteration of Chinese names or words. Since most of the printed materials quoted in this work use the Wade-Giles system of transliterating Chinese words, we use the Wade-Giles system as well in order to avoid confusion.
2 Victor H. Mair, ed., Experimental Essays on Chuang-Tzu (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1983), Preface, xv.
3 See Robert W. Gaskins, “Free as a Butterfly,” Journal of Literacy Research 30, no. 1 (1998): 172; Liam Corley, “Chuang Tzu as Teacher: Pedagogical Insights from the Chuang Tzu,” Religion and Education 29, no. 2 (2002): 36–48.
4 Jie Yu, The Taoist Pedagogy of Pathmarks (Switzerland: Palgrave Pivot, 2018).
5 The details of the Chuang Tzu and the textual problems are far too complicated and difficult to discuss in an essay of this sort. In the West, it is Frederic Henry Balfour who was the first translator of Chuang Tzu. The name of his translation book is The Divine Classic of Nan-hua, but it is not complete. The first complete English edition is Chuang Tzu: Mystic, Moralist, and Social Reformer, translated by Herbert A. Giles in 1889. But the Giles translation is not very accurate. In the nineteenth century, the authoritative edition of Chuang Tzu is the writings of kwang zou, translated by James Legge in 1891, published in the texts of Taoism. In the first half of the twentieth century, two Chinese scholars, Yu-lan Fung and Yutang Lin, also translated it in English. And now, the popular edition of Chuang Tzu in the English world is The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, translated by the famous English sinologist Burton Watson in 1968. In China, the most welcome edition of Chuang Tzu is Wang Rongpei and others, Chuang Tzu, which has both the modern Chinese translation and English translation. In this paper, I would like use different editions as needed. For the different translations, please see Xu lai, “research on the English translation of Chuang Tzu” (PhD diss., Fudan University, 2005).
6 Wang Rongpei and others, trans., Chuang Tzu (Changsha: Hunan People Press, 1997), 9.
7 Jonathan Croall, ed., All the Best, Neill: Letters from Summerhill (New York: Franklin Watts, 1984), 172.
8 J.-J. Rousseau, Emile, trans. Barbara Foxley (Rutland: Everyman, 1911 edn, 1955 reprint), 48.
9 Rousseau, Emile, 84–5.
10 Ibid., 299.
11 Thomas Cleary, trans., The Essential Tao: An Initiation into the Heart of Taoism Through the Authentic Tao Te Ching and the Inner Teachings of Chuang-Tzu (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1991), 120.
12 Burton Watson, trans., The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu (New York: Columbia University Press, 1968), 194–5, 208.
13 Rosenow Eliyahu, “Rousseau’s Emile: an Anti-Utopia,” British Journal of Educational Studies 28, no. 3 (1980): 215.
14 J.-J. Rousseau, The Social Contract (New York: Washington Square Press Pocket Books, 1971), 43.
15 Rongpei and others, Chuang Tzu, 144.
16 Ibid., 63, 65.
17 Watson, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, 126.
18 Rongpei and others, Chuang Tzu, 145.
19 Watson, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, 187–8. In China, the turtle was regarded as having great and mystical power that it can foretell.
20 Rongpei and others, Chuang Tzu, 187.
21 Ibid., 261.
22 Ibid., 263.
23 Watson, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, 153.
24 Rongpei and others, Chuang Tzu, 261.
25 Watson, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, 156.
26 Michael Crandell, “On Walking without Touching the Ground: ‘Play’ in the Inner Chapters of the Chuang – Tzu,” in Experimental Essays on Chuang-Tzu, ed. V. Mair (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1983).
27 Ibid., 50.
28 Ibid., 109–13.
29 Ibid., 50–1.
30 Ibid., 77.
31 Rousseau, Emile, 56.
32 Ibid., 191.
33 Ibid., 291.
34 Ibid., 376.
35 R. Grimsley, Jean-Jacques Rousseau: A Study in Self-Awareness (Cardiff: University of Wales Press,1969), 260 .
36 Hunter McEwan, “A Portrait of the Teacher as Friend and Artist: The Example of Jean-Jacques Rousseau,” Educational Philosophy and Theory 43, no. 5 (2011): 509.
37 Rousseau, Emile, 89.
38 Walter, “The ‘Flawed Parent,’” 265.
39 Judith N. Shklar, “Rousseau’s Images of Authority,” American Political Science Review 58, no. 4 (1964): 930.
40 Corley, “Chuang Tzu as Teacher,” 36.
41 Watson, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, 242.
42 Ibid., 39.
43 Ibid., 224.
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Shujuan Yu
Shujuan Yu is Associate Professor of History of Education in the Department of Education, School of Humanities, JiangNan University. Her interests centre on educational thoughts, teacher development, history of the university. A common thread that runs through her work is a historical perspective on the relationships of education, society, and individual development in the context of cultural dialogue between the East and West.
Yi Sun
Yi Sun is Associate Professor of Institute of Education History and Culture in Beijing Normal University. Sun Yi’s research focuses on the history of higher education and the comparative education between China and western countries.