It (unintentionally, one hopes) makes a mockery of that which it attempts to honor, despite what certainly appears to be the noble intentions of those involved. Having said that, it is with no small disappointment that I found this work wanting. In fact, the scholarly community should encourage and embrace the efforts of those who try to bring this captivating Chinese text to a broader Western audience. This does not mean, however, that efforts to translate and elucidate the Zhuangzi will inevitably come up short. Given the abundance and complexity of linguistic turns within the Zhuangzi (that often rely on tropes that work only within the language itself), such an English rendition may be too much to ask. The Zhuangzi, perhaps more than any other work in the classical Chinese corpus (and despite the monumental efforts of some very noteworthy translators, among them James Legge and Burton Watson), still wants for a lucid translation and exposition that is philosophically attuned to the native version. Perhaps I should begin by saying that I wanted to come away with a favorable impression of this book.
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