{109} Lesson 13
13.1. Reading: The Butterfly Dream from the Zhuāngzǐ
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。 則 必 有 分 矣 。 此 之 謂 物 化 。 |
胡 蝶 之 夢 為 周 與 。 周 與 胡 蝶 |
也 。 不 知 周 之 夢 為 胡 蝶 與 。 |
周 也 。 俄 然 覺 。 則 蘧 蘧 然 周 |
胡 蝶 也 。 自 喻 適 志 與 。 不 知 |
昔 者 莊 周 夢 為 胡 蝶 。 栩 栩 然 |
{110} 13.2. Vocabulary
(Fifteen new characters, six new uses)
昔 者 xī zhě adv., in the past, once upon a time
周 Zhōu n., Zhōu (personal name [名] of a great Daoist philosopher; 姓莊。字子休。)
夢 (梦) mèng t.v., to dream (that); n., dream
胡蝶 húdíe n., butterfly
栩栩 xǔxǔ s.v., to be lively
喻 yù t.v., to understand
適 shì t.v., to satisfy
志 zhì n., intentions, goals
與 (与) yú g.p. (sentence-final exclamatory); yǔ conj., and (joins nouns); yú g.p. (sentence-final interrogative)
俄 é s.v., to be sudden
覺 (觉) jué s.v., to be conscious
則 (则) zé conj., then; g.p. (contrastive topic marker)
蘧蘧 qúqú s.v., to be sudden
必 bì adv., must, necessarily
分 fēn n., distinction
此 cǐ n., this
之謂 zhī wèi exp., is what is called
化 huà n., transformation
Our final reading is one of the most famous passages in all of Chinese literature: the story of the butterfly dream from chapter 2 of the Zhuāngzǐ.1
{111} 13.3.1. Names Used in the First Person
If I were to say, “Bryan has been teaching you Classical Chinese. Bryan is proud of you for making it to the final lesson in this book,” you’d think I was painfully full of myself (and probably full of something else too). But in Classical Chinese it is perfectly polite and idiomatic to refer to yourself by your own name.2 Consequently, the proper translation of the opening line of this reading could be “Once, Zhuang Zhou dreamed that he was . . . ,” but (since this is a book attributed to Zhuang Zhou) it could also be, “Once, I dreamed that I was. . . .”
13.3.2. The Many Senses of 與 yǔ/yú
We see several different uses of 與 yú/yú in this passage. First, it is simply an exclamatory grammatical particle (yú). Next, it is used as paired interrogative particles to mark an alternative (yú):
P1與。P2 與。
Is it P1? Or is it P2?
Finally, it is being used as a simple conjunction (yǔ, from Lesson 7).
13.3.3. The Archaism 之謂 zhī wèi
謂 wèi, “to call [so-and-so] [such-and-such],” takes a direct and an indirect object (what is being called and what it is called). So what we would expect in Classical Chinese (and what we do find in some texts) is
Pattern:
謂 N1 N2
to call N1 “N2”
Example:
吾必謂之學矣。
I would definitely call him learned.3
{112} But there is also a way of expressing this that is an archaism (a fossil of pre-Classical Chinese that survives into Classical):4
Pattern:
N1 之謂 N2
N1 is what is meant by “N2.”
Example:
天命之謂性。
What is mandated by Heaven is what is meant by “nature.”5
This archaism is typically used when the author wants to give a definitive statement about what something is.
13.4.1. Philosophy: Skepticism or Monism?
This story ends on a note of uncertainty about whether Zhuāngzǐ is dreaming or not. This has led some interpreters to compare it to the dream argument of French philosopher René Descartes (1596–1650). Descartes considered the possibility that all of his specific beliefs about the world might be mistaken, because he could merely be dreaming that he is awake, sitting by the fire, writing a book, etc. The goal of Descartes’ philosophy was to find a way to escape this uncertainty by finding an indubitable foundation for knowledge.
In contrast, Zhuāngzǐ’s butterfly dream is about embracing the ambiguity of identity. Elsewhere in the Inner Chapters, Zhuāngzǐ writes that the “ancient sages . . . slept calmly and woke blankly. Sometimes they took themselves for horses. Sometimes they took themselves for cows.”6 So Zhuāngzǐ is not bemoaning the fact that we cannot tell what the truth is. He is taking delight in the fact that in awakening from a dream he has {113} gotten a glimpse of what the world looks like to a true sage, for whom everything is one.
The character 喻 yù means “to understand.” Consequently, the received text of this passage seems to say that, when he was dreaming that he was a butterfly, Zhuāngzǐ 自喻 zì yù, “understood himself” (as a butterfly). This is how the Qing dynasty commentator 郭慶藩 Guō Qìngfān understands it. However, the Six Dynasties (220–581 CE) commentator 郭象 Guó Xiàng thinks that 喻 is a miscopying for 豫 yù, “to be content.” This would give us the meaning 自豫, “happy with himself.”
Recognizing that the butterfly dream is not a skeptical argument takes us a step toward understanding what Zhuāngzǐ means by describing it as 物化 wù huà, “the transformation of things.” In the Zhuāngzǐ, 化 huà describes the continuous process of change of the natural world, in which there are no precise boundaries between one state and another. There are no absolute distinctions in the transformation of the living into the dead, or of a caterpillar into a butterfly. So in not clearly distinguishing between himself and a butterfly, Zhuāngzǐ has a more accurate perception of the world.
1. For an English translation, see Ivanhoe and Van Norden, Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy, p. 224.
2. The same is true of Modern Chinese and Japanese.
3. Analects 2.7.
4. Nerd note: For more on this archaism, see Pulleyblank, VIII.1, pp. 70–71. On 謂 in general see Pulleyblank, IV.8f, pp. 33–34.
5. Nerd note: The Mean, chapter 1.
6. Ivanhoe and Van Norden, Readings, p. 242.