比较哲学工作坊第三十二讲：逍遥即是自由吗？——论大鹏的象征意义

In modern scholarship, there is a peculiar focus on the idea of freedom in the studies on the Daoist classic Zhuangzi and the overwhelming number of works on this issue can easily constitute a discourse on freedom. Strangely enough, in spite of the pivotal importance accorded to freedom, its exact referent is hardly ever delineated, though freedom is consistently presumed to be identical in meaning with the term xiaoyao (“carefree”) in the Zhuangzi. As the concept of xiaoyao itself is not critically analyzed in its own right, a vague notion of “spiritual freedom” is imagined which is typically associated with a return to Nature (ziran) or the Dao. Yet, the meanings of Nature and the Dao—two dense concepts of fundamental importance in the Zhuangzi—are not unpacked either. In effect, readers are often left with a game of wordplay in the freedom discourse. On the other hand, it is an academic consensus that the gigantic Peng bird symbolizes spiritual freedom in the opening episode of the first chapter of the Zhuangzi. As such, the legendary creature may offer a convenient clue to unpack some of the conceptual baggage in the freedom discourse. This talk clarifies how “freedom” could be a useful concept in understanding xiaoyao and argues that the carefree meandering of the Peng, while a spiritual achievement, is firmly grounded on the peripatetic practices of the Daoist who gracefully and effortlessly negotiates the uncertainties inherent in his life-journey. It is not so much the spiritual achievement as the praxis that facilitates it that concerns xiaoyao in the Zhuangzi. 

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