Guo Xiang (; born 252 AD – died 312 AD) is credited with the first and most important revision of the text known as the ''
Zhuangzi'' which, along with the ''
Tao Te Ching'', forms the textual and philosophical basis of the
Taoist school of thought. He was also a scholar of
xuanxue.
''Zhuangzi''
The Guo Xiang
redaction
Redaction is a form of editing in which multiple sources of texts are combined and altered slightly to make a single document. Often this is a method of collecting a series of writings on a similar theme and creating a definitive and coherent wo ...
of ''Zhuangzi'' revised a fifty-two chapter original by removing material he thought was superstitious and generally not of philosophical interest to his literati sensibilities, resulting in a thirty-three chapter total. He appended a philosophical commentary to the text that became famous, and within four centuries his shorter and snappier expurgated recension became the only one known.
This ''Zhuangzi'' recension is traditionally divided into three sections: ‘Inner Chapters’ (1-7), ‘Outer Chapters’ (8-22), ‘Miscellaneous Chapters’ (23-33). This division is quite old and is likely to have been part of the original recension.
Guo's redaction focuses on his understanding of Zhuangzi's philosophy of spontaneity (; literally "self so"). This practiced spontaneity is demonstrated by the story of Cook Ding, rendered as Cook Ting in the
Burton Watson translation (which is itself ultimately derived from the Guo Xiang recension):
Here, the careful yet effortlessly spontaneous way in which Cook Ding is described cutting up the ox is both an example of the cognitive state of mind
Zhuangzi associated with the Tao and the assertion that this state is accessible in everyday life.
In popular culture
In 1990, a computer-generated image of Guo Xiang's head was used as the logo for the Russian television production company,
VID __NOTOC__
Vid or VID may refer to:
In linguistics
* VID, the Sanskrit root of Vidya, meaning "to know" and related to "veda".
* "vid", Eye dialect spelling of "with"
* Vid (given name), Slavic given name
In mythology
* Vid or Svetovid (Sva ...
. In 2017, the old logo was heavily redesigned.
Телекомпания «ВИD» показала новую заставку. Совсем не страшную!
''Meduza'', 6 October 2017.
See also
* Xiang Xiu
*Chan
Chan may refer to:
Places
*Chan (commune), Cambodia
*Chan Lake, by Chan Lake Territorial Park in Northwest Territories, Canada
People
*Chan (surname), romanization of various Chinese surnames (including 陳, 曾, 詹, 戰, and 田)
*Chan Caldwel ...
* Chinese philosophy
*Laozi
Laozi (), also known by numerous other names, was a semilegendary ancient Chinese Taoist philosopher. Laozi ( zh, ) is a Chinese honorific, generally translated as "the Old Master". Traditional accounts say he was born as in the state
...
* Zhuangzi (book)
* Xuanxue
* VIDgital
References
External links
Complete Works Of Chuang Tzu
translated by Burton Watson
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Zhuangzi
A sculpture of Xiang's head
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guo, Xiang
Jin dynasty (266–420) philosophers
Jin dynasty (266–420) Taoists
3rd-century births
4th-century Chinese philosophers
312 deaths
Xuanxue
3rd-century Chinese philosophers