In "Zhuangzi", the author claims that his creative method is "taking proverbs as ramblings, repetition as truth, and fables as broad models" (the world). Fables are virtual words put in other people's things. People are used to taking "I" as a non-standard. In order to avoid being subjective and one-sided, to make the truth clear, and to win people's trust, it is necessary to "borrow foreign papers" (fables). Repetition means relying on the words of elders, venerable persons and celebrities, and believing that you respect the words of elders and venerable persons, so that your truth can be accepted by others. Speech is a kind of language, which comes from unintentional and natural expression. This kind of speech is endless, and spreading the truth through loose lips can last forever. In Zhuangzi, most people argue in the form of "three words". These three forms are sometimes integrated and difficult to distinguish. Among the "San Yan", "Fable Nineteen" (Fable) is the most important way of expression. Fables are the backbone of many articles in Zhuangzi, both inside and outside, as well as miscellaneous articles. A large number of fables are full of "absurd things, absurd things and groundless talk" ("On Earth"), which makes the composition of Zhuangzi loose and intermittent, changeable and unpredictable. For example, in the first half of Happy Travel, fables and tautology are widely used for exaggeration. The content from Kun Peng's spreading wings to Liezi's riding against the wind is not the main theme of the work, just to contrast and contrast people's idleness and idleness. But the phrase "man without me, sage omnipotent, god nameless" is just like dragonfly. The fuzziness and secrecy of the structural clues in Zhuangzi does not mean that the structure of the article lacks internal connection, but that profound thoughts and strong emotions are immersed in the writing, forming a bond, and connecting seemingly intermittent isolated fables and paragraphs into an organic whole. The theme of "Happy Travel" is to pursue a carefree realm of spiritual freedom. The article first paves the way for the theme, then expounds the theme, and finally ends with the sound of people swimming in the land with nothing. Other works of Neizhang are vividly displayed from different angles and levels with various fables under the guidance of clear internal themes, and finally completely avoid the judgment of logical reasoning and end with lyrical fables. Zhuangzi is a philosophical lyric prose.
The literary value of Zhuangzi lies not only in the appearance of a large number of fables, which makes the book look like a collection of fables, but also in the fact that these fables show extraordinary imagination and constitute a strange image world. (Liu Xizai's Introduction to Literature and Art) Zhuangzi's philosophical thoughts are profound, mysterious and mysterious. Instead of symbolizing suggestion through imagination and fictional image world, it is better to express it directly with concept and logical reasoning. At the same time, from the standpoint of "Tao", everything is integrated and things can be transformed into each other. And Zhuangzi realized the infinity of time, space and universe. He not only looks at everything in the world from a personal standpoint, but also looks at everything in the world from the height of the universe. Therefore, Zhuangzi's fiction often transcends the limitation of time and space and the difference between things and me, and is complex, absurd and changeable. The fish in the northern styles, turned into Peng, flew in anger, and if its wings hung in the sky, the water hit three thousand miles, and the soaring person was nine Wan Li. ("Happy Travel") Ren Gongzi fished, baited fifty cows, squatted on Huiji Mountain and cast a pole in the East China Sea. In a year, he caught a big fish, white waves were like mountains, and the sea fluctuated and fluctuated thousands of miles. People in eastern Zhejiang and northern Cangwu eat this kind of fish. (Foreign Objects) is magnificent, thrilling and mysterious. A glass of water is a mustard boat, fungus flies ("Xiaoyao Tour"), and the angle of snail is quite touching ("Zeyang"). The smaller the song, the better. On the other hand, the skeleton talks about Taoism ("happiness"), confusing two issues ("the theory of everything"), Zhuang Zhou's dream butterfly ("the master of health preservation"), between people, between things, between dreams and reality, everything is the same, without boundaries, and the imagination is strange and unrestrained, great and rich. "The works of the late Zhou philosophers should not be the first." (Lu Xun's Outline of the History of China Literature, the third article, Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi)
Zhuangzi's absurd imagination is to express his philosophical thoughts. The main feature of Zhuangzi is that it embodies the truth of life's core monuments and the truth of metaphysics. How strange and bold it is to think that the emperors of the South China Sea and the North China Sea suddenly dug a hole for their day in order to repay the chaotic hospitality of the emperor of the central government, and died in the chaos on the seventh day (the emperor)! This story is intriguing to illustrate the harm of "promise". The grotesque image of "hiding in the navel, shoulders above the top, pointing to the sky, five tubes on the head, and two spleens as threats" ("The World on Earth") is bizarre and incredible, and it wants to express the idea of getting carried away and avoiding harm, which is useless and useful. The absurd imagination in Zhuangzi not only vividly expresses his profound philosophical thoughts, but also reflects his understanding of the real society and is full of critical spirit. In the snail horn, tens of thousands of corpses lie, five times a day (Zeyang). The exaggeration of imagination is unbelievable. And this is exactly what happened during the Warring States period: "Fighting for land to kill people; Fighting for the city and killing it "(Mencius Li Lou) reflects this social reality. Cao Shang, the envoy of the State of Qin, got a hundred rides, got carried away, and portrayed the face of a villain who sought wealth by any means. Licking hemorrhoids and breaking carbuncle (Lieyukou) is the most pungent satire on this kind of villain. For example, "Confucianism sends a poem to the tomb" (a foreign object) ridicules the Confucian poem, which is also similar to criticizing the sage for knowing the law as a thief. "Zhuang Wenzi seems to be talking nonsense, but he has a score in his bones." (Introduction to Art and Literature) Zhuangzi's fantastic and complicated artistic image is a reflection of his philosophical thoughts and a tortuous expression of his deep feelings. Although the author of Zhuangzi advocates selflessness and forgetfulness, he also has strong personality and feelings. In Chu's crazy songs about Yu, he expressed the despair and sadness born in troubled times (Human); The luck of craftsmen has become a common practice, revealing the loneliness and loneliness that no one enjoys after Keiko's death (decorated by Xu Wugui).
Zhuangzi, with its rich fables and absurd imagination, constitutes a magnificent and mysterious artistic realm with the artistic effect of prose poetry. However, Zhuangzi, after all, is a philosophical prose, which belongs to argumentative writing like other schools. However, its reasoning is not based on logical reasoning, but shows a complex argumentation style. In Zhuangzi, fables are often used instead of philosophical views, and metaphors and symbols are used instead of logical reasoning. Less direct expression of their views and attitudes, but let readers appreciate and understand philosophy from strange, absurd and vivid fables. In the process of argumentation, the author's incisive speculative ability is often shown. From the standpoint of relativism, Zhuangzi put forward a series of propositions, such as right and wrong, equal life, and difference. , in terms of formal logic are close to sophistry. Some pure argumentative essays in Zhuangzi pay attention to logical reasoning, and often use logical methods such as deduction and induction to make inferences at different levels. But if we carefully examine the reasoning process, it is not very rigorous in logic. For example, horseshoe, thumb and tile are all discussed on the basis of a hypothetical premise, but these hypothetical premises are not necessarily related to the derived conclusions. Zhuangzi's debate was not so much conquered by his logical reasoning as infected by his fantastic artistic realm and rich emotions. For example, in the last two paragraphs of "Happy Travel", Zhuangzi and Keiko argued whether it was useful or not, which were all fables. Keiko first said that Daxuan was "useless", but Zhuangzi thought that he used it badly, and then set up a fable in the fable to explain the "difference in use" with "medicine that doesn't touch turtle's hand". Useless is useful. Keiko takes Da Zun as an example to illustrate that Zhuangzi's words are "big and useless", and Zhuangzi takes raccoons as an example to illustrate the harm of pursuing usefulness, and then there is a lyrical conclusion:
There are big trees today, and it's no use. Why not plant them on the land with nothing, plant them in the wilderness with nothing, wander around and do nothing, sleep under them, without killing an axe, which is harmless and useless, and suffer from loss.
He not only answered Keiko's argument of "uselessness", but also vividly and emotionally described the spiritual freedom and spiritual realm pursued by the whole article, which really got carried away. Such a debate has gone beyond the rules of formal logic and entered a "silent realm". Because of this, Zhuangzi's philosophy is full of poetry.
The language of "Zhuangzi" is like flowing water, and Wang Yang is unrestrained, ups and downs, with distinct rhythm and harmonious tone, which has the characteristics of poetic language. Fang, a poet in A Qing, said: "Taibai's poems are similar to Zhuangzi's, but they are not related in meaning, and their thoughts are unfounded, such as white clouds rolling in the sky, which are not fixed." ("Zhao Wei Zhan Yan" Volume 12) Zhuangzi's sentence patterns are complex and changeable, and he likes to use radical words and strange words, deliberately pursuing novelty. Such as the theory of things to write Gail:
Husband's tone is big, called wind. Do you feel angry if you don't do anything, but you can't smell it? The fear of the forest is the hole around the tree, such as nose, mouth, ear, eaves, circle, mortar, depression and dirt. Those who provoke, slap, scold, scold and bite, the former is singing and the latter is singing. The wind is small and harmonious, the drifting wind is big and harmonious, and the wind and the air are independent and awkward.
There are both the spread of Fu and the rhythm of poetry. And the last paragraph of "Happy Travel" is simply a lyric poem.