After Sui and Tang Dynasties, Zhuangzi was divided into internal, external and miscellaneous articles. "All by Guo Ben", gradually fixed. So, what criteria is this division based on? In other words, what's the difference between internal, external and miscellaneous articles? This has become a problem discussed and debated by scholars, especially the annotator of Zhuangzi.

The earliest answer to this question was Cheng of the Tang Dynasty, who wrote in the preface of Zhuangzi Note:

Speak of principles internally and actions externally. Although things are obvious, they are unreasonable; Reason is subtle, it is not obvious; If you want to make sense first, you have to put the inside story first. The story inside is very profound. Don't set a directory outside the story, such as "carefree" and "neat things". From the outside to the inside, take the first word of the article as the title, "parallel hoof" and so on. Obviously, Cheng put forward the standard of dividing and distinguishing domestic texts from foreign languages and essays by the existence of titles and the depth of contents. For a long time, many scholars have recognized and used this standard, such as Luo Miandao in Song Dynasty. "Articles are named first, but articles don't like this; Foreign articles and miscellaneous articles are named after the first word of the article. It is enough to report the inside story, but the outside story and miscellaneous stories are not enough. " ("South China True Classics, Easy to Follow Books") Lu Changgeng also said in the Ming Dynasty: "There are seven internal articles, and Zhuangzi has a topic, saying that life is moral, and the inner saints are prepared by the king; The outer chapter is marked with the word' first', and then it is reduced, and the inner chapter of the wing is covered, doing its best. " Feng Youlan also advocated that "all Zhuang studies papers circulated after Qin and Han Dynasties have titles and titles. Those who compiled Zhuangzi classified those with titles into one category and those without titles into one category." ("Zhuangzi's criteria for dividing internal and external essays", Yanjing Journal, No.20)

Taking the existence of titles as the standard to distinguish the inner chapters from the outer chapters and miscellaneous articles of Zhuangzi, there must be such a premise: the titles of the seven inner chapters are all written by the authors of Zhuangzi. In this way, editors and proofreaders can classify it as "internal articles" accordingly. However, from the above analysis, this is absolutely difficult to establish.

The standard of dividing internal text from foreign language and essays by the depth of content has also been questioned and criticized by other scholars. For example, Song Dailin said: "What is the difference between this article (essay" Geng Sang Chu ") and the internal article, or that the external article is rough and the internal article is fine, which is wrong!" Wang Fuzhi in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties also thought that "the language of essays is implicit, scholars take its essence, and street articles are interesting." (Zhuangzi Xie Zapian) Indeed, it is very difficult to distinguish internal articles from external articles and miscellaneous articles by the depth of content. This standard itself is difficult to determine and relative. From time to time, the annotators of Zhuangzi find that many articles, chapters and sentences in foreign essays are by no means inferior to the internal ones in the depth and breadth of ideological content. Ru Geng thinks that the foreign article "Journey to the North" is "wonderful in teaching and strange in appearance". For those who study in South China, Journey to the West is the most desirable. "(A Journey to the North in South China) is also praised as another parallel prose and One Zhuangzi, and its purpose is here. (Mopian wood in Zhen Jing, South China). Commenting on the foreign article Autumn Water, Chen Shen said: "There are pedants, absurd people and resentful people in Zhuangzi, and the writing is uneven. Only this is brilliant and unprecedented, and Confucianism has never heard of it. " ("Zhuangzi Autumn Water") Yang Shen praised the article "Lie Yu Kou", saying that "those who know skillfully are the best" is "the rhyme is unparalleled, which is beyond the reach of other scholars" ("Zhuangzi Xie"). Wang Fuzhi commented on the chapter of "Shifting Shi" in "Geng Sang Chu". "At this point, I have tried my best to help Tibet ... and Zhuangzi's learning is here", I think "this article reveals Zhuangzi's purpose" (Zhuangzi Xie Geng Sang Chu). Wait a minute. But it is not difficult to find that there are some differences between the inner part and the outer part and the miscellaneous part in the realm and charm. Generally speaking, the inner chapter basically shows that the thought is lofty but not difficult, the language is natural but not carefully decorated, and the names and things are simple but not strange and complicated; And these are only more or less fragments, chapters and paragraphs in foreign and miscellaneous articles.

Before the Song Dynasty, scholars generally believed that Zhuangzi was written in the Zhou Dynasty, but they had different views on the criteria for the content division of Zhuangzi. After the Song Dynasty, because Su Shi's Zhuangzi Ancestral Hall was questioned by a special and actually incorrect angle-"Zhuangzi helped Confucius"-whether the four miscellaneous works of Zhuangzi, Stealing Foot, Fisherman, Rang Wang and Jian Shuo, were written by Zhuangzi, scholars began to question from the aspects of naming system and language. The inside story was written by Zhuangzi, and the outside story was written by Zhuangzi. At the same time, this view is also used as a new standard to divide and distinguish the internal and external parts of Zhuangzi-the difference of authors. It can be concluded that many scholars in the Ming Dynasty clearly formed this view. Such as: "Stealing the meaning, but its interior is Zhuang's book, and 26 articles are miscellaneous or described by disciples, so it is attached." Zhu Dezhi said, "You Er's' Li' is not written by one person who has heard about it in foreign articles, miscellaneous articles or Zhuangzi." Jiao Hong said: "The internal article is beyond Zhuang Sheng's ability to write, and the external miscellaneous articles will be invaded by future generations." ("Shi Jiao Bi Cheng") and so on. Wang Fuzhi, Yao Nai and others also held this view in Qing Dynasty. Wang Fuzhi put it most clearly: "The foreign book is not Zhuangzi's, but a scholar in Zhuangzi. I want to introduce it, but I can't catch it when I see it. " This view is surrounded by many people and has its origin, so scholars in recent years regard it as a traditional view.

According to different authors, contemporary scholars divide and judge the differences between internal and external articles, articles and essays in Zhuangzi. There are mainly three opposite views:

Most scholars inherit the traditional view that seven chapters of Zhuangzi were written by Zhuangzi, and the other miscellaneous chapters were written by his disciples. The most representative is Gaoting. Zhuang Zi's New Annotation puts forward six proofs at the beginning, in addition to three arguments that are always used by traditional viewpoints, but always seem to be weak. He also quoted three facts mentioned in Zhuangzi, which happened after Zhuangzi's death: "Tian Chengzi XII once had Qi State" (Frontier), which is obviously stronger than the traditional argument.

Contrary to the views of most scholars, this is Ren's opinion. Stone Man thinks that Zhuangzi was written by Zhuangzi at the beginning of Han Dynasty, and Miscellaneous Articles was written by Zhuangzi, which can only represent Zhuangzi's thoughts. The basis of his argument can be summarized as three points: first, according to what Xunzi and Sima Qian saw. The titles listed by Sima Qian in Biography of Zhuangzi Historical Records, such as Fisherman and Stealing Foot and Limb, are all foreign essays. Xunzi criticized Zhuangzi for "hiding in the sky and not knowing people", saying that he only read foreign articles such as Heaven, Heaven and Earth, Heaven and Destiny. Second, according to Zhuangzi's content. Foreign miscellaneous articles are titled with the first word of the text, retaining ancient examples; There is something wrong with the inside part, which should be later than the outside part. Third, reflect the times according to thoughts. The inner chapter is pessimistic and world-weary, and it is a "late Zhuang school" representing the slave-owning class, which sends out a chilling cry in front of the emerging and powerful feudal empire. It should be said that the argument of the stone man is very fragile. The deficiency of his first foundation is that he didn't pay enough attention to it. Sima Qian deliberately quoted the titles of articles such as The Fisherman, with the purpose of emphasizing that Zhuangzi thought has a side of "despising Confucius" and belongs to the camp of Huang Lao. Under the academic theoretical background of the dispute between Confucianism and Taoism in the early Han Dynasty, it is quite natural to show the center or gravity of Zhuangzi Thought in this way. Sima Qian didn't mean to think that all the other articles were not written by Zhuangzi, because only these three articles can never be counted as "more than 100,000 words". Xunzi's criticism of Zhuangzi's "hiding in the sky and not knowing people" is extremely accurate and profound. But this is by no means because Xunzi only saw the titles of heaven, heaven and earth and heaven. The main content belongs to the external part of the enlightenment concept (it is doubtful whether there is this title in Zhuangzi when Xunzi was in power), but because Xunzi saw it ringing all the time in Zhuangzi. Variation is a philosophical theme of life that advocates transcending the worldly burden and returning to the original freedom, and this philosophical theme is exactly the most obvious, intense and consistent among the seven texts classified as "internal chapters" by later scholars.

For example, in "Happy Travel", "There is no one but yourself, and the sage is nameless"; "Heaven and earth coexist with me, and all things are one with me" in the Theory of Homogeneous Things; "Health Lord" "Eternal, because it is natural"; "Living in a house, but not on yourself" in "The World on Earth"; "knowing and doing are safe" and "often being unhealthy because of sex" in De Chong Fu; Master's "don't donate Tao with your heart, don't help Heaven" and "swim in things that can't evolve and exist"; "Emperor" means "following things naturally and not allowing personal gain", "I try my best to rely on the sky without knowing", and so on. Shi Ren's second mistake was that he didn't estimate that the writing and compilation of pre-Qin philosophers' works were often not in the same era, that is to say, the author and editor who received articles, proposed titles and titles were often not the same person. Therefore, we can't judge the author's thoughts by the editor's intention, nor can we simply judge the writing time of the work by some characteristics of the title. The weakness of Stone Man's third argument lies in its narrowness. Pessimism, whether as a social trend of thought or a psychological situation, is not unique to a certain class or an era, but people of any age and class may exist in certain social environments and situations. It is believed that the pessimistic and world-weary thought in Zhuangzi must only exist in the declining slave-owner class; It is hard to believe that the decline of the slave-owning class can only be released in the early Han Dynasty.

Contrary to the above two views, it is Zhou's view. Zhou returned to the more ancient traditional position before the Song Dynasty, and had no doubt about Zhuangzi's Foreign Miscellaneous Articles. He thought that the Inner and Foreign Miscellaneous Articles of Zhuangzi were written by Zhuang Zhou. Of course, Zhou's argument is based on a new foundation, that is, he puts forward a very logical explanation for the differences and inconsistencies between internal and external essays and essays that aroused scholars' doubts and objections after the Song Dynasty: the external essays are Zhuangzi's early works, and the internal essays are Zhuangzi's later works. Zhou put forward two arguments for his argument: first, the characteristics of the topic. The title of the external miscellaneous article is the first word of the article, and the title of the internal article is a general meaning, which is the proof of the chronology. Second, ideological characteristics. The tone of foreign essays is fierce, influenced by the theories of other schools, and the ideological system has not yet formed, which is the performance of young age; Negative, pessimistic, calm and harmonious inner chapters are the characteristics of his later years, full of worries and self-contained thoughts. Zhou's argument is logically impeccable. The titles of pre-Qin classics may indeed have gone through several stages: no title, the first word as the title, and the general idea as the title; People's psychology and thoughts do show different characteristics in youth and old age. However, facts are more convincing than logic.

At least two facts in Zhuangzi can't satisfy or even deny Zhou's logical inference: First, there is no credible basis to prove that Zhuangzi was edited, divided and renamed by Zhuangzi himself; What's more, those general article titles can't sum up the content of the article, but also contain ideas that Zhuangzi himself may not have? Secondly, there is no strong reason to explain why Zhuangzi's early works "Foreign Essays" contain events, names and languages that only existed in the era after Zhuangzi's death. Therefore, Zhou used the development process of Zhuangzi's personal thoughts to illustrate the differences between Zhuangzi, Zawen and Zhuangzi. Although it is feasible in abstract logic, it is not feasible in concrete fact confirmation. However, it is not only logical, but also in line with the facts to explain the evolution of Zhuang studies in the pre-Qin period with the differences between the internal and external miscellaneous articles of Zhuangzi. This is the center of our next discussion.