The Essential Chuang Tzu

Like a treasure chest of precious stones, the writings of Chuang Tzu shine with uncommon wisdom and insight. This new translation, which expertly preserves the humor and bite of these ancient teachings, will entice a whole new audience to read--and re-read--Chuang Tzu's writings. In their informative introduction, Hamill and Seaton discuss the vast influence Chuang Tzu, a disciple of Lao Tzu, has had on writers as diverse as Walt Whitman and T.S. Eliot. Chuang Tzu's moral and spiritual instructions teach distaste for technology, love of nature and suspicion of social convention. This revered Taoist teacher also longs in his writings for a golden age when everyone lived a better life. Although written in the third century B.C., Chuang Tzu's teachings are astonishingly contemporary. (Aug.)