Reddit mentions of Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries (Hackett Classics)

So I read #21... "Never stray from the Way" and the article's analysis of the meaning of this precept was "The way is your path. Your mission through life. You need to spend your life finding the beginning of your path. Then, the rest of your life walking as far as your feet will carry you."

This is an entirely inaccurate analysis of the precept. He was talking about "The Way" as described in Taoism.

https://robertlindsay.wordpress.com/2014/08/02/the-taoist-influence-on-japanese-martial-arts-by-dota/

Check out that article.

If you are further interested let me recommend The Tao Te Ching as translated by Redpine. (It has many commentaries on each passage that help you understand the material.) Additionally and perhaps more important is the Chuang Tzu by Zhuangzhi. Here is a decent copy with commentary;

https://www.amazon.com/Zhuangzi-Essential-Selections-Traditional-Commentaries/dp/0872209113/ref=sr_1_24?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524947461&sr=1-24&keywords=Chuang+Tzu

It's very important to get editions with commentary because many of the concepts are very difficult to understand without the commentary explaining it owing to differences in language, culture, and time period.

Here is a quote from the Chung Tzu;

The Empty Boat:

Who can free himself of achievement and fame,

Then descend and be lost

Amidst the masses of men?

He will flow like Tao, unseen…

He will go about like life itself.

With no name and no home

Simple is he, without.

To all appearances he is a fool.

His steps leave no trace.

He has no power.

He achieves nothing.

He has no reputation.

Since he judges no one,

No one judges him.

Such is the perfect man.

His boat is empty.

— Chung Tzu

I got this version of Zhuangzi that has a lot of added traditional commentary, along with good explanations of words like “Tao” and “Virtue” plus a lot of other stuff. I’ve only made it through the first chapter, since it’s a bit of a tough read, but it’s worth it.

This is the version I got: Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries (Hackett Classics) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0872209113/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_PbUBCbH8QN404

The Tao of Pooh wasn’t at all bad, it was actually pretty enjoyable :) if you’re not very familiar with the concepts of Wu Wei and the Uncarved Block, then it’s a great way to learn about those.

No problem at all.

The texts I have are Moss Roberts' translation of the Daodejing, Ziporyn's translation of Zhuangzi, and then Ivanhoe and Van Norden's Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy.

The Ivanhoe/Van Norden book has the Daodejing and other works in it so it's probably not worth the money until you've gone through the Daodejing maybe (and want to compare translations), but if you're mostly just interested in the Zhuangzi strain of Daoism the Zhuangzi texts are probably more than enough. Though confusing, they're not quite as abstract as the Daodejing itself (and the commentary in Ziporyn's text helps a lot).


http://www.amazon.com/Dao-Jing-Book-Way-Laozi/dp/0520242211/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1301237538&sr=1-1 and


http://www.amazon.com/Zhuangzi-Essential-Selections-Traditional-Commentaries/dp/0872209113/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1301237406&sr=8-1


http://www.amazon.com/Readings-Classical-Chinese-Philosophy-Ivanhoe/dp/0872207803/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1301237612&sr=1-1