After his translations of the Yijing or The Classic of Changes (1994) and the Laozi or The Classic of the Way and Virtue (1999), both following the readings transmitted in Wang Bi's (226–249) commentaries, Richard Lynn's translation of the Zhuangzi as interpreted by Guo Xiang (265–312) completes his translation series of the three core readings of the so-called Neo-Taoist or xuanxue (Lynn: “arcane learning”) school of the Six Dynasties (222–589).
Presenting a fully integrated translation of the entire Zhuangzi with Guo Xiang's commentary, this new translation differs fundamentally from the array of translations of Zhuangzi at our disposal so far. Where Guo's lengthy commentary remains opaque and less forthcoming than one might hope, Lynn supplies detailed explanations that further elucidate Guo's readings, including those transmitted in Cheng Xuanying's (c. 600–c. 660) subcommentary and in Lu Deming's (c. 550–630) glosses in his Jingdian shiwen (Textual explanations for classics and scriptures). Guo Qingfan's (1844–96) Zhuangzi jishi (Collected explanations of Master Zhuang) serves as the base text of this translation. The textual arrangement of Lynn's Zhuangzi will be familiar to readers accustomed to his earlier translations: the translation of the main text (Zhuangzi) appears in bold print; the translation of Guo Xiang's interlinear commentary is in regular print. This layout helps remind us of the interwoven nature of the textual layers (main text, commentary, and to a certain extent also the subcommentary and further exegetical notes) which, in the heads of historical as well as modern readers, are all too often fused into one undiscriminating textual fabric.
Lynn's translation strategy inevitably leads to a situation where his reading based on Guo Xiang's commentary is incompatible with other renditions of the Zhuangzi, especially with those deriving directly or indirectly from Lin Xiyi's (c. 1210–c. 1273) syncretistic interpretation. In some instances readers may well disagree with Guo's understanding of the text and postulate that they have arrived at a more “suitable” or “correct” reading of the Zhuangzi. However, there are at least two, in my view, compelling arguments against the advancement of such criticism. First, given the interdependence of the main text and the commentary, Lynn's translation aims to represent and stay true to Guo's reading. Alternative reading options are discussed occasionally in Lynn's footnotes but do not divert from his task at hand. Second, it is well known that the Zhuangzi shows plenty of ambiguities. Where Guo's textual understanding differs from that of later readers, the question as to whose reading is to be taken as the “correct” one will largely depend on one's presumptions and conjectures, regardless of whether we are talking about the standpoints of a commentator/exegete or a translator. To go one step further, we may argue, from the perspective of the reception and effective history (Wirkungsgeschichte) of a text, that the question of whether an interpretation of a particular phrase is to be perceived as “correct” or not is immaterial, if not irrelevant. After all, hermeneutics requires phantasy and is somewhat akin to informed guesswork. What really matters is how Guo Xiang's commentary came to serve as one of the most influential interpretations of the Zhuangzi. Notwithstanding its imperfections, there is no question that Guo Xiang's reading choices played an enormously significant, in part even definitive role in the effective history of the Zhuangzi. It is for this aspect that we applaud Richard Lynn's rendition as an invaluable contribution to our appreciation of the historical dimensions of reading the Zhuangzi. As he has done in his translations of Wang Bi's Yijing and Laozi, Lynn's English version of Guo Xiang's Zhuangzi exemplifies a much-needed departure from an approach that takes historical reading choices as a pile of synchronic entities and, say, indiscriminately follows an early medieval commentary, intertwines it in with a gloss from the Song period, and knits it with an interpretation from the late imperial period, only to weave it all together with the presuppositions of the current reader. To be quite blunt, the treasure house of historical commentarial traditions is not a post-modern marketplace where glosses that are born out of different historical and philosophical backgrounds are displayed for our disposal at libitum and irrespective of their specifics. Richard Lynn's commitment to representing one historical reading in its entirety opens up a most valuable window for us to observe, like in a frozen picture, one particular moment in the reception history of one of the key texts of the Chinese tradition. Guo Xiang redacted the book Zhuangzi into the form known today and, building on previous exegetical efforts, he compiled the earliest extant full commentary on the Zhuangzi, which stands as one of the most important texts of the xuanxue tradition and beyond. This is what makes Richard Lynn's work so enormously significant. His Yijing, his Laozi and his Zhuangzi, all translated as interpreted by leading commentators of the early xuanxue tradition, yield most remarkable insights into the intellectual world of early medieval China and make accessible, in English, contextualized views and ideas that shaped essential parts of Chinese philosophy and literature.
Richard Lynn's translation of the main text and of Guo Xiang's commentary are copiously annotated, helping the reader to further place within its context a work that moulded the perception of the book Zhuangzi for centuries. His learned and thickly annotated introduction to key issues regarding the main text and the commentary, three appendices, two glossaries, a bibliography, and an index complete this most welcome contribution to our understanding of the Zhuangzi and its reception history. This new translation, an admirable result of a longstanding dedication to Guo Xiang's Zhuangzi, truly deserves not only a special place on our bookshelves but will become a treasured point of reference for anyone who appreciates the aphorisms, wisdom, and literary qualities of those bundles of cherished texts attributed to Master Zhuang.
