Similarities and Connections Between Zhuangzi and Marxism

Previous essay: “Marx and Zhuangzi: A Philosophy for Ordinary People and Those Who Lie Flat”

(I) Equality for All, Unconditional Existence, and Humanism

The worldview of objective idealism is the source of the Daoist idea of “the unity of heaven and humanity” and Zhuangzi’s “equalizing things”—the idea that “Heaven and earth arise together with me, and all things and I are one.” The individual is a link, a constituent part, in the great Dao of the world. This offers an ultimate explanation and an ultimate existential affirmation. It is also the same thing as the harmonious connection among “the self–others–the world” emphasized in psychodynamics.

1. An answer to the meaning of individual existence.

What is the meaning of an individual’s existence? Cockroaches have existed for hundreds of millions of years—what is the meaning of that? Meaning is a “meaningless” question. People ask about “meaning” when they experience alienation and meaninglessness in life.

“How Can People Become Better and More Confident? Through Healing and Clearing Karmic Obstructions to Return to the Authentic Self, Rather Than Relying on External Things”

1. Unconditional existence

What is the meaning of a cockroach’s existence? What contribution must it make to society? What conditions must be met for happiness? None are required.

Humans are children of the universe, one of the myriad things the universe has brought forth. All things are siblings, and all exist unconditionally.

“Zhuangzi: You Are Not (Only) Your Parents’ Child, but a Child of the Universe, with an Overview of Zhuangzi’s Seven Inner Chapters”

1. Equality among all people, equality between people and things, no attachment to the notion of a self or to the notion of sentient beings

When people recognize that they are completely equal to another person, another animal, a tree, a stone, or a fallen leaf:

a. They feel a connection with the world at its source, rather than feeling rejected by, isolated from, or estranged from it. This addresses the petty ego’s pathological pursuit of superiority and uniqueness.

b. They also become less afraid of death. Birth and death arise together; returning to atoms is the beginning of another round of evolution.

c. Unlike Buddhism, which wrestles with whether all things and individuals are real or illusory, when we touch a tree, we can deeply feel each other’s existence.

1. Everyone is equal; everyone possesses innate wholeness

This is one of the core ideas of Chan Buddhism, Zhuangzi, humanism, and Marxism. Everyone has an equal and complete mind. Seek within rather than through spiritual cultivation: the wisdom of the authentic self has always been complete.

For this reason, Marx and Engels never underestimated the working class’s intelligence, capacity to read, or progressive character. Engels said: The bourgeoisie and intellectuals have abandoned philosophy to pursue wealth; philosophy now retains its vitality only among the working class, because they need philosophy to solve practical problems.

1. Everyone is equal; those of the lowest standing possess the highest wisdom

The psychological explanation for the proletariat’s progressive character is that the petty and very small bourgeoisie and other upper classes are deeply corrupted and alienated, whereas proletarians are more unpretentious, truthful, kind, and appreciative of beauty. They retain more of the authentic self’s tranquility and experience more flow and mindfulness in labor. Hence their progressive character.

Humanism, Zhuangzi, and Marxism

Previous essays:

“Humanism VS Marxism: A Key Point About Marxism and the 1844 Manuscripts”

“The Buddha-Nature Doctrine: It Took Hundreds of Years for Chan Buddhism’s Concept of ‘Innate Wholeness’ to Rise to Prominence”

(II) Shared Philosophical Roots

1. Objective idealism and Daoism

Many people think Zhuangzi and Marxism have completely different orientations and are utterly incompatible: one advocates giving up and lying flat, the other revolution and struggle. This is not actually the case.

One major thread in modern German philosophy is objective idealism, running from Spinoza’s “God as Nature” -> Schelling’s “absolute identity” -> Hegel’s “Absolute Spirit.” These are essentially the same thing as the Dao of Daoism. Together with Hegel’s objective idealist view of history, this represents a high point of premodern philosophy. Marxism’s dialectical materialism takes another major step forward on precisely this foundation.

Guo Moruo recalled his early intellectual development: “I loved our country’s Zhuangzi, and I loved Spinoza of the Netherlands. Once I encountered pantheist thought from abroad, I rediscovered the *Zhuangzi* I had loved in my youth. Comparing it with foreign thought truly brought me to the point where ‘everything suddenly became clear and fell into place.’”

1. Objective idealism that criticizes elitism and takes a stance close to labor

Moreover, reviewing the early histories of Marx and Engels and comparing them with Feuerbach and Hess shows that the fundamental reason Marx and Engels could cross the gulf between objective idealism and dialectical materialism was their proletarian standpoint and their overcoming of petty-bourgeois elitism: enlightenment from above, favors bestowed from above, contempt, and faith in the omnipotence of reason, education, and love.

Zhuangzi’s philosophy is precisely an objective idealism that criticizes elitism and takes a stance close to labor. Before Marxism emerged, this was already the pinnacle of philosophy. Historical limitations prevented him from proposing an objective view of history as Hegel did. Yet in “Breaking Open Trunks,” Zhuangzi criticizes the Tian clan’s seizure of Qi: those who steal states become lords, while others accumulate wealth and stand guard for great robbers. During a period of enormous historical change—from the Spring and Autumn period to the Warring States period—this already amounted to objective idealism and class analysis to some degree.

Previous essays:

1. Similarities and Affinities Between Zhuangzi’s Philosophy and Late Greek Philosophy (Epicurus, Stoicism, and Cynicism)
2. A 20-Minute Explanation of Marx’s Doctoral Dissertation (Epicurus)

(III) Opposition to Enslavement

Zhuangzi’s chapter “Horses’ Hooves” presents his utopian thought. Taking horses as an example, it shows how people, like horses, are enslaved by the ruling class. This is consistent with George Orwell’s *Animal Farm*.

“The people have a true and constant nature: they weave to clothe themselves and till the soil to feed themselves. These are their shared instincts. Being united as one without partiality is called allowing nature to take its course. Thus, in an age of abundant virtue, people moved slowly and deliberately, simple and uncontriving.” — The instinct to labor + “being one without forming factions (united as one without partiality)”: this is Zhuangzi’s socialist thought.

(IV) Zhuangzi Criticizes Elitism and Takes a Stance Close to Labor

Zhuangzi speaks of abandoning sagehood and discarding cleverness, and criticizes Bole for enslaving and harming horses. His writings are full of mockery directed at the ruling class and the intellectual class; there is no need to list examples.

Zhuangzi often explains the Dao through various artisans and ordinary people: Cook Ding carving up an ox, carpenters, carvers, a peasant catching cicadas with a sticky pole, people with disabilities, and so on. These also express human beings’ innate wholeness, equality for all, and the fact that advanced productive forces are in the hands of laborers.

(V) Zhuangzi Criticizes “Reification”

“Treat things as things without being made into a thing by things”; “toil and labor all one’s life”—what clear critiques of “reification” and “objectification” these are. They directly connect with Marx’s idea, expressed throughout his work, including the 1844 Manuscripts and *Capital*, that “workers are ruled and enslaved by their own products (capital).”

When Zhuangzi speaks of natural dispositions, of capacities being whole while virtue goes unexpressed, and so on, he is speaking of the natural and complete development of human beings, advocating humanism and opposing human alienation.

(VI) Zhuangzi Criticizes Exploitation: “Accumulating for Great Robbers” and “Standing Guard for Great Robbers”

Zhuangzi’s “Breaking Open Trunks” is the sharpest weapon in ancient China for criticizing the ruling class. This is also why Confucians have hated it for two thousand years.

Zhuangzi criticizes the Tian clan’s seizure of Qi. He puts forward the famous statement, “Those who steal a belt hook are executed; those who steal a state become lords.” This connects with the reasoning about criminology emphasized in *Les Misérables* and by Engels.

It is also an entire theory of class exploitation:

1. “Accumulating for great robbers”: When the middle and lower classes work hard and accumulate the fruits of their labor, are they not preparing these things for great robbers?

1. “Standing guard for great robbers”: Tian Chengzi killed the ruler and seized the entire state of Qi. But was Qi all he stole? He also stole all its sagely laws and institutions. Do these sagely laws and institutions not serve precisely to protect him as a robber? — Anyone with clear eyes can see that this is already extremely close to the Marxist view of the state: “The state is a tool of the ruling, exploiting class.”

1. “Establish benevolence and righteousness to correct them, and they will steal benevolence and righteousness as well”: Benevolence and righteousness are established to govern the world and regulate people’s behavior, only to be stolen along with everything else. — This criticizes Confucianism, as well as the way the superstructure and ideology serve the exploiting class.

Addendum: Of course, much of Zhuangzi’s Outer Chapters was not written by Zhuangzi himself, but it follows the same line of thought. The fierce criticism of the Tian clan’s replacement of Qi’s ruling house is not directed only at Confucianism. Some of its fire is aimed at the “Huang-Lao school” (Daoist revisionism), which served the ruling class. This is connected with the history of the Jixia Academy in Qi. Professor Chen Guying of National Taiwan University’s Department of Philosophy offers an excellent account of this. See the previous essay, “After Laozi, Daoism Split into Two Schools: Huang-Lao Advocated Action, Zhuangzi Nonaction.”

(VII) Existentialism, Zhuangzi, and Marxism

What human beings seek psychologically is a profound, tranquil existential experience of harmonious existence among the self–others–the world—the area on which philosophies popular after World War II, such as phenomenology, intersubjectivity, and existentialism, focus. The absence of this experience is an existential crisis.

A large part of Zhuangzi’s philosophy uses existential philosophy to analyze social problems: alienation, freedom and responsibility, death, meaning, ethics, and objectification, for example (“dragging one’s tail in the mud,” “being perceptive without putting it to use,” and “being wise without exercising one’s skill”). Zhuangzi, existentialism, and Epicurus are all renowned for their philosophies of death. The renowned interpreter of Zhuangzi, Professor Chen Guying of Taiwan, began by interpreting Nietzsche and existentialism, and turned to Zhuangzi’s philosophy in his middle and later years.

(Previous essay, “A Common Form of Confusion Among University Students: Existential Crisis”: IV. This Is Also Why Existentialism Must Be Combined with Marxism)

Another large part of Zhuangzi’s philosophy describes the state of a healthy self: capacities are whole while virtue takes no outward form; sitting in forgetfulness; an empty chamber gives rise to light. “An empty chamber gives rise to light” is very simple: there is warm light within the tranquil, fasting heart (the chamber of the heart). Its opposite is an empty chamber (the self) that is itself fragile and filled with bad objects, a false self, and defense mechanisms, while outwardly craving cheap, malignant selfobject experiences (narcissistic overgrown infants, NPD, vampires).

Marxism, humanism, existentialism, Zhuangzi, Epicurus, and so on are all fingers pointing at the moon from different angles, pointing toward the truth of the human mind and the world. This is why Marx attached great importance to Epicurus. Sartre studied existentialism and humanism, then turned toward Marxism in his middle and later years, attempting to combine Marxism with existentialism. This was the right path.

(VIII) Acting in Accordance with the Course of Things, Inability and Nonaction, and Historical Materialism

This is not difficult to understand, so I will not expand on it.

Engels: Freedom consists in control over ourselves and over external nature, founded on knowledge of natural necessity.

In the histories of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, and Mao, we can all see helplessness, inability, and nonaction.