Chuang Tzu as World Literature

March 9, 2008

Reading through Chuang Tzu (Basic Writings, trans. Burton Watson) I am fascinated by nearly opaque anecdotes. Like this one, for instance:

A man of Sung who sold ceremonial hats made a trip to Yueh, but the Yueh people cut their hair short and tattoo their bodies and had no use for such things. Yao brought order to the people of the world and directed the government of all within the seas. But he went to see the Four Masters of the far away Ku-she Mountain, [and when he got home] north of the Fen River, he was dazed and had forgotten his kingdom there. [28]

Cook Ting and the man who dreamed he was a butterfly are more available for interpretation.. but a large percentage of what we have of Chuang Tzu reads more like the passage above.. which explores in two quick sketches the way a skill appreciated in one context is worthless in another. But how does that fit in with other themes in Chuang Tzu? I don't know.

This body of writing comes down to us under the name of Chuang Tzu, who may have lived in the 4th century BC. It is interesting to think about how this ancient Chinese philosopher fits into the category of "world literature." It appears that some pretty radical surgery has taken place to allow him his place: we are presented only with the seven inner chapters, and not the 15 outer chapters and 11 miscellaneous chapters. Basic Writings consists of a series of anecdotes and reports organized loosely into chapters. Many of these have a certain density and playfulness that start to approximate what we expect from a work of literature. But here again I think it is important to look at the lesser known and opaque portions: these fit uneasily into a category like literature.

When we talk about a work as "literature" we broadly mean that it has more than historical interest. There is something entertaining and edifying in reading a particular work even now. That the work retain some kind of value "even now" is, I think, crucial to our popular usage. We could thus more objectively describe literature as that body of texts that happens to fit comfortably into contemporary niches of experience. Our own niche is highly influenced by the novel and the expectations generated by this form. We want the experience of texts from distant cultures to be something like a novel.. and if a text can be read in this manner, then it probably already exists in a paperback Penguin Edition. Texts from distant cultures get cut and edited in all kinds of strange ways to make them fit our expectations.

An opaque anecdote can draw me up short, though. I am tempted to just keep reading, looking for the good parts. Like I wait out the boring parts of a film to get to the interesting parts. But that could be dangerous if the point of a work is exactly to be opaque.. or perhaps jarring and shocking. In that case I should not read over the difficult parts so quickly. There is always the possibility that a work is not meant to be an entertaining experience, but rather to affect me in a certain way.

Take a Zen koan: "Two hands clap and there is a sound. What is the sound of one hand?" That statement could be anthologized just the same as a haiku or very short poem.. and the koan would become "literature." But that would obviously lead to a misunderstanding of the koan, which is out to do something to us.. shake us up or put us into a different state.. not entertain us. The anecdotes that populate Chuang Tzu are longer than koans, but they are trying to do something not so different. If understanding is our goal, then it is important not to make Chuang Tzu into literature.

To make my point about literature clearer, imagine that in a hundred years people were even busier than they are now (hard to do!). In fact, they spent on average three hours of every day commuting to work on a public rail line. Everyone owns a small multi-functional gadget that is a lot like an iphone. All forms of popular entertainment—from movies to video games to books—have migrated to this platform. With its limited screen and the hectic social niche in which it is used, most people gain an appreciation for shorter works that can be digested easily on this gadget. In this context "literature" would be the word we use for those texts that continue to have value. We might be surprised how such a change in experiential format could shake up the canon. Some works that had previously been unimpeachable would now be boring (like some of these long modern novels!) and works that were obscure and short might gain a new hearing (maxims by Erasmus?). Of course discussions about literature would undoubtedly still go on under the annoying heading of "greatest universal works of humanity." But we should by then know differently: "Literature" is just a ten letter word for what fits into our schedule.

Chuang Tzu and every other ancient author (Homer!) deserve to be understood in their own right.. and I promise I won't skip over the hard sections. The hard sections are what we are all about at Old Roads.