/lit/ - Literature

>>21490174
For what?

>>21490402
good for toilet paper since it's sold cheap

>>21490174
That's not the Holy Bible.

>>21490485
>>21490508

>>21490174
The mountain tree plunders itself. The candle fat scorches itself. The cinnamon tree is edible, and thus it gets chopped down. The lacquer tree is useful, and thus it is cut down. Everyone knows how useful usefulness is, but no one seems to know how useful uselessness is.

>>21490174
whats it about? just philosophy quotes?

>>21490609
Parables

>>21490619
what does he advocate? I'm asking in earnest because im in a pretty deep rut rn

>>21490622
Taoism. Lots of paradoxical stories and examples of the Tao Te Ching in short story form if I’m remembering correctly because it’s been some years.

>>21490633
cool. i'll give it a look. thanks

>>21490534
trust me, i know, anon. i know it.

>>21490534
That’s pretty good. Post more.

>>21490661
>>21490622
Here's one pdf of it that I've found
https://terebess.hu/english/tao/Zhuangzi-Burton-Watson.pdf
>Ziqi of Nanbo was wandering around the Hill of Shang when he saw a huge tree there, different from all the rest. Athousand teams of horses could have taken shelter under it, and its shade would have covered them all. Ziqi said, “What tree is this? It must certainly have some extraordinary usefulness!” But looking up, he saw that the smaller limbs were gnarled and twisted, unfit for beams or rafters, and looking down, he saw that the trunk was pitted and rotten and could not be used for coffins. He licked one of the leaves, and it blistered his mouth and made it sore. He sniffed the odor, and it was enough to make a man drunk for three days. “It turns out to be a completely unusable tree,” said Ziqi, “and so it has been able to grow this big. Aha!—it is this unusableness that the Holy Man makes use of!” The region of Jingshi in Song is fine for growing catalpas, cypresses, and mulberries. But those that are more than one or two arm lengths around are cut down for people who want monkey perches; those that are three or four spans around are cut down for the ridgepoles of tall roofs; and those that are seven or eight spans are cut down for the families of nobles or rich merchants who want side boards for coffins. So they never get to live out the years Heaven gave them but are cut down in midjourney by axes. This is the danger of being usable. In the Jie sacrifice, oxen with white foreheads, pigs with turned-up snouts, and men with piles cannot be offered to the river. This is something all the shamans know, and hence they consider them inauspicious creatures. But the Holy Man, for the same reason, considers them highly auspicious.

>>21490686
Ziqi and the Very Spicy Tree.

>>21490686
based. very chill. reckon this will be a good read.

Zhe zhonly zhook zhou'll zhever zheed.

>>21490174
YELLOW PERIL
you chinks are getting as bad as the mooooooooooslims

>>21491080
>retard dismisses almost 2500 year old daoist work for being chinese
>Y-YOU ARE JUST LIKE MUSLIMS AAAAA

>>21491249
>ignores political reality
>dies a slave

>>21491273
>fat amerishart thinks he lives in a free democracy and fights against communist chinese by spamming his literal US government garbage everytime chinese literature is brought up
You are either a shill or beyond retarded my friend.

>>21491273
Also let me ask, are you one of those retards who think that all of chinese philosophy has been made up by the communists after the take over?

>>21490174
>Named Zhuang Zhou
>Writes book called Zhuangzi
Seems based

>>21491318
>>21491328
thank you for supporting us..........

you fools..........

HAHAHAHAHAHA

>>21490174
A lot gets lost in translation, unfortunately.

>>21490174
>>21490534
>>21490686
>just do nothing bro
okay, how do i pay rent, what do i eat

>>21492197
>how pay rent
lol
Lmao even.

>>21492197
Does it look like the man is sleeping inside a house?

>>21492228
>>21492216
Almost all those Taoists were noble men who never touched a plow in their life

>>21490534
Is this Dogen or Soto Zen stuff?

>>21492249
Zhuangzi and Laozi spent their days either fishing, hunting, and gathering, or working odd jobs to buy meat from butchers. Yes, there are stories by later dynasties that make them into scholars or bureaucrats, but the texts make it clear that these men were wanderers. The whole big4gu3 LMFAO GRAINCELS BE DYING EARLY grain avoidance thing is a testament to that. Even if they were, by birth, nobility, they HAD to be removed from that entire system.

So, yes, they never touched a plow, but for a different reason than you imply.

>>21491080
>the chinese are taking over!
good i hope they turn all DCniggers into pleasure slaves

>Once Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn’t know he was Zhuang Zhou. Suddenly he woke up, and there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuang Zhou. But he didn’t know if he were Zhuang Zhou who had dreamed he was a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuang Zhou. Between Zhuang Zhou and a butterfly, there must be some distinction! This is called the Transformation of Things.