This brief essay aims to interpret the fourth chapter “In the Human World” of Zhuangzi by analyzing the seven fables in philosophical terms. The seven fables can be divided into two groups: the first three are concerned with how to be useful (youyong zhi yong 有用之用); the following four with “the use of the useless” (wuyong zhi yong 无用之用). From those two groups of fables, two different ways of life are identified in relation to the world. Zhuangzi's choice between them can be revealed in light of his art of speaking.

The archeological discoveries of the past several decades have radically expanded our knowledge of the Laozi and its context. Thus far, most research has focused on the various manuscript versions of the text itself, but there is another way in which archeological evidence has changed our knowledge of the Laozi: the discovery of several other cosmogonic texts, all dated to around the same time as the Guodian materials. While these texts share some concerns and assumptions, they also disagree and offer conflicting positions. Thus rather than assuming that anything sounding vaguely like the Laozi is saying the same thing in different words, we should be attuned to subtle differences on issues ranging from cosmogony to conceptions of action. We should also allow for the possibility that the Laozi itself incorporates diverse positions. This article analyzes one particular example, the role of “the one” (yi 一) in the Laozi. It argues that the five chapters discussing the one represent an attempt to incorporate what was originally a distinct position that took the one as the ultimate and had no concern with the interdependence of opposites. That position is expressed in the recently discovered Fanwu liuxing.