The “Butterfly Dream” is perhaps the most famous image from the Zhuangzi.

The Zhuangzi and His Interpreters is one phase of a long-term project that aims to make accessible the engaging and compelling commentaries of Lin Xiyi, a thirteenth century writer who drew on Confucian and Buddhist philosophies to interpret the Zhuangzi, one of the most crucial texts of Daoist thought. Lin’s reading of the text -synthesizing classical poetry with philosophical writings – was typical of Song dynasty scholarship; this practice revitalized the Daoist classics, keeping them widely influential not only among Daoist thinkers but also among Confucian and Chan Buddhist scholars in East Asia. The project, representing the first attempt to translate Lin’s writing into a Western language, will contribute new knowledge to the study of Daoist classics in Western scholarship. Apart from producing a translation of Lin Xiyi’s notes and commentaries, an accompanying translation of the Zhuangzi – as seen through Lin’s interpretation – will also be written.

The first lines of the Zhuangzi describe a large fish named Kun. Here Lin Xiyi discusses introduces image.

My work began with reviewing and comparing prominent English interpretations of the key notions of the Zhuangzi with Lin’s, necessitating the close reading of the original text of the Zhuangzi as well as Lin Xiyi’s commentary, written in thirteenth century Chinese. From this, a comparative analysis of the extant translations was devised, analyzing their strengths and weaknesses with respect to accuracy, clarity, and accessibility as related to the understanding that Lin Xiyi provides. To create structure for the comparisons, key terms and images were selected from each of the first three chapters; short essays were synthesized that conducted detailed explorations of the terms from, contents of, and commentaries for each chapter.

Having read preexisting translations and studied both ancient texts, I began proofreading Professor Qiu’s translation of the Zhuangzi and Lin’s commentary, providing constructive feedback on the translation so as to convey the subtlety of the texts in English and to ensure the accessibility of the text to the general reader. The project will conclude with a paper that discusses the existing English interpretations of the key concepts in the first chapters of the Zhuangzi and what Lin Xiyi’s commentary has brought to light about these concepts.

Michael Norton ’14