This article explores how Zhuangzi’s philosophy of superhuman life can help individuals in the modern world find inner peace, break free from social constraints, and pursue true freedom.
People sometimes dream of being superhuman. Words like “superhuman strength” and “superhuman abilities” get people excited. That’s why popular culture loves to play with them. Hollywood’s creation of Superman, Spider-Man, Batman, etc. is a classic example. These heroes use their superpowers to save the world, defeat evil, and give people hope. But these superheroes are fictionalized, and we don’t have these powers in real life. So what does a true superhero look like that we can aspire to?
A superhero is not someone who can do something spectacular, but someone who can overcome life’s hardships with grace and love. A superhero is someone who has the inner strength to rise above the difficulties and pain of everyday life, to accept them gracefully and overcome them. Therefore, the philosophy of superhumanity has the power to help us live in this difficult world with a smile. This kind of superhumanity can be seen in small moments in our daily lives. The ability to hold back anger in the face of conflict with friends, the strength to get back up after failure, and the ability to understand and embrace the mistakes of others.
The Book of Chuang Tzu shows us this philosophy. “The Firstborn” allows us to turn our eyes from the small gains in front of us to a wider and deeper horizon. It transforms our hearts, which are full of resentment and hatred, into one of generosity and joy. The superhuman, according to Chuang Tzu, is a person who lives a life that is true to his or her inner self, without being swayed by the world’s gaze and judgment. His ideal of the superhuman reflects the human ideal of rising above the constraints and limitations of reality to achieve true freedom and peace.
However, the pomp and pageantry of Chuang Tzu is far different from the exuberant declarations and rhetoric that lack deep experience. We can feel the tragic gaze, the wet eyes of a cruel world, in the pages of this book. We can feel the anguished gaze of a cruel reality that is beyond the power of the individual. The Book of Chuang Tzu is a great text because it stands up against this abyss and gives us a sense of dawn and hope. Chuang Tzu’s thoughts provide deep insight into the various problems we face in our lives. They guide us to have an unwavering mind in the midst of pain, sorrow, and uncertainty.
Chuang Tzu’s thinking is thoroughly non-speculative. If we use the word empiricism not in terms of the narrow scientific methodology of direct perception, experimentation, and data collection, but as a fundamental attitude of thought, then Chuang Tzu is a thoroughly empiricist philosopher. Experience in this sense is not an external perception of reality, but rather the most honest look at life, at what life is. Chuang Tzu seeks to face the nature of life, accept it, and find freedom in it. His thinking is not theoretical or abstract. Rather, he seeks to discover the truth in the concrete problems of life.
With his vigorous writing style and striking images, Zhuangzi attempts to escape the harsh reality and narrow world of human beings. Zhuangzi’s thought is a thought of transformation. It is the thought of becoming someone else. The system of life given to us, the dividing lines that separate things, the system of symbols, the positions and statuses granted by the system, the values demanded by reality……. There is an unbridgeable gap of perception between those who accept this framework for granted, or those who do not have the courage to seek a different life even though they know it is not the case. This gap is also the difference between those who are complacent and those who seek freedom.
Human society is composed of positions and names. The system of positions and names constitutes a hierarchy. Most people accept this hierarchy and struggle within it, but the Firstborn rejects it: it is a life of nothingness. However, this life of nothingness does not mean demonstrating some kind of outstanding ability or accomplishing something spectacular and extraordinary. On the contrary, it is a life of consumption, free from the conflicts, rivalries, jealousies, envy, tired gazes of others, and fleeting joys and sorrows that hierarchy imposes. But on the contrary, such a life of striving brings with it all sorts of difficult suffering and the weary glances of others. A life of nothingness is a life of enduring such suffering and gazes, a life in which one can even let go of them. The Chuang Tzu superhuman is not the superhuman that the life above thinks of, but the superhuman that the life without thinks of. This means the true freedom of those who walk their own path, free from the expectations and social standards of others.
