These few centuries, referred to as the Warring States period, witnessed the growth of thinkers and schools of thought, later named Daoism, Confucianism, Legalism, Sophism, Yangism and, significant to our discussion on ‘usefulness’, Mohism. Zhuangzi lived in an extraordinarily vibrant and fertile period in the development of Chinese thought. We should not always strive to produce or do things that benefit ourselves or others. That is, we should not always aim for usefulness. Throughout the book, Zhuangzi suggests in a similar vein that it is good to enjoy yourself.
#USESESS FREE#
Huizi, a logically minded thinker, censures the tree as ‘big and useless, and so everyone alike spurns !’ But his friend Zhuangzi responds in defence of the crooked tree: plant it in Not-Even-Anything Village, or the field of Broad-and-Boundless, relax and do nothing by its side, or lie down for a free and easy sleep under it. The chapter concludes with a discussion of another wonder of nature: an immense, gnarled, wart-ridden tree – so twisted and knotted as to make its wood unusable for carpenters. In the first chapter of the ancient Daoist masterpiece the Zhuangzi (attributed to Zhuang Zhou, c 369-286 BCE) there is a parade of marvellous animals and plants: a fish named Roe, measuring thousands of miles in length, who turns into a magnificent bird named Peng, with a wingspan thousands of miles across, and a caterpillar and a rose of Sharon that both live for thousands of years. 0:01 Brought to you by Curio, a Psyche partner Need to know
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