How to read Zhuang Tzu

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About the talk:

In premodern East Asian culture, the boundaries that separated literature and philosophy were unclear. Therefore, it would be immaterial to consider whether to read Zhuang Tzu as literature or read Zhuang Tzu's texts as philosophy, because any criterion for classification into one category or the other is arbitrary. However, one principle that must be acknowledged is that great ideas should be born in the form of literature. Zhuang Tzu's profound idea is conveyed by way of hundreds of different stories as one coherent truth. Through this lecture, I will illustrate how Zhuang Tzu's many varied episodes interact and relate with each other.

About the speaker:

Jin-bae Chung graduated from Yonsei University with a B.A. in 1984, and received his Ph.D from UCLA with a specialization in modern Chinese literature. He taught in the Department of Comparative Studies at SUNY-Stony Brook between 1992-94. He is currently teaching in the Department of Chinese and serving as the Dean of Underwood International College at Yonsei Univeristy, while teaching and doing research on modern Chinese literature, traditional Chinese thoughts and cultural studies. He has authored many books on Chinese literature and philosophy.