Leaping into the Boundless: A Daoist Commentary on the Zhuāngzǐ 莊子 (Volume 1) (Daoist Commentary Series)

A Daoist contemplative commentary on the Zhuāngzǐ rooted in an applied, committed, and lived Daoist perspectiveInformed and inspired by the Daoist scholastic sub-tradition and Daoist commentary literature, here Komjathy offers the first tradition-based Western Daoist commentary on the Zhuāngzǐ 莊子 (Chuāng-tzǔ; Book of Master Zhuang; DZ 670; ZH 616), with specific attention to its contemplative and mystical core. Although traditionally attributed to the semi-legendary Zhuāng Zhōu 莊周 (Chuāng Chōu; ca. 369-ca. 286 BCE; a.k.a. Zhuāngzǐ 莊子 [Master Zhuang]), the received text actually is an anonymous/pseudonymous multivocal anthology consisting of historical and textual layers dating from the fourth to second centuries BCE and containing teachings and practices associated with various anonymous, pseudonymous, and named Daoist elders of the Inner Cultivation Lineages of classical Daoism. Engaging the classical Chinese Daoist source-text as such, and once again challenging and remedying received interpretive legacies and current trends of philosophical, popular, and spiritualist appropriation, including in the ubiquitous Zhuāngzǐ Philosophy Industry (ZZPI), Komjathy provides a systematic Daoist commentary on the entire received text. Correlated to the literary and near-standard complete translation (1968/2013) of the American Sinologist and translator Burton Watson 華茲生 (1925-2017; Ph.D., Philosophy; Columbia University), Leaping into the Boundless is organized according to the traditional division of Inner/Outer/Miscellaneous Chapters and the revisionist text-critical cartography centering on five principal Daoist “lineages” or “schools.” Further developing his pioneering Daoist contemplative hermeneutics with a bilingual sensibility, Komjathy provides paragraph-by-paragraph commentary, frequently supplying new bilingual translations of the most technical and important passages. Volume I includes the front matter, introduction, and chapters one through sixteen, while volume II includes chapters seventeen through thirty-three, the appendices, and the bibliography. The nine accompanying appendices provide a variety of resources for deeper engagement and application. In the process, Leaping into the Boundless offers tradition-based Daoist guidance for individuals aspiring to understand the Zhuāngzǐ on actual Daoist terms, especially as informed by the advocated and assumed training regimen rooted in contemplative practice in general and apophatic meditation in particular. This is the Zhuāngzǐ as a major Daoist text, a classical Chinese Daoist source-text and traditional storehouse of foundational Daoist views, practices, and models. From the flight of the Péng 鵬 bird to understanding All-under-Heaven. From wandering carefree while equalizing things to nourishing life with abiding acceptance. And much, much more. Read more