There are three paragraphs in this selection, which are explained paragraph by paragraph below (the paragraphs in this article are different from the text-editor's note).
At first, from "there are fish in the north" to "everyone is not sad when they are horses". At the beginning, the author shows us a magnificent picture: in the deep sea in the north, there is a giant Kun, which is thousands of miles long. This fish is amazing in size, but it has become a Dapeng. How can it not be amazing? It is true that there are absolutely no such fish and birds in real life, and people have never seen them. Zhuangzi, with his rich imagination, insisted on making you believe that there are these two things in the world, and deliberately described them vividly. The focus of the description is Dapeng: this magical big bird is not only big, but also can take off in the air. It will also take a trip to Wan Li by sea breeze and fly directly from the North Sea to Tianchi in the South China Sea. It is full of power, full of feathers, vibrating and flying into the sky. Its wings cover the sky like a large cloud shadow. Then, under the guise of the so-called "Qi Xie", the author proves that his description is credible. "Qi Xie" said: "Dapeng moved to the South China Sea, first hitting the water surface, gliding for 3,000 miles, and then circling, supported by the atmosphere, soaring into the sky, reaching the height of nine Wan Li. After taking off, it took six months to stop. " So, what's the sky like in Wan Li in September? How high is it? The author first described it as a turbulent air and flying dust, and then compared it with people's experience of looking up at the sky, saying that Dapeng looked down at the lower bound at an altitude of 90 thousand miles, just as people in the lower bound looked up at the sky and saw the vastness, so it was difficult to distinguish its "positive color". Through such description, description and analogy, the life experience of ordinary people is virtually connected, people's association and imagination are mobilized, and the lofty philosophical realm in the author's mind becomes easy to understand and imagine from what ordinary people can't understand and imagine.
Next, in order to explain the difference between "equality" and "equality", the difference between small and big, and the disparity in ideological realm and knowledge between small and big, the author made a series of metaphors one after another. First of all, the analogy between water and ship shows that "the water is not thick, and its negative big ship is powerless", just as "the wind is not thick, and its negative big wings are powerless". This is to prove that Dapeng's high-flying southward migration is due to the strong wind in Wan Li in September, and there are still some unsatisfactory things. It has failed to achieve a real "carefree tour", that is, it has not reached the ideal state of absolute freedom. Then, the author tells the story of Yun (cicada) and Snow Pigeon (bird name) mocking Dapeng in a fairy tale. The cramped world, little knowledge, smug tone, and their conscious ridicule and ridicule of Dapeng show their pity and ridiculousness, and also strongly explain the truth that the author wants to express that "a little knowledge is not as good as a little knowledge." The following metaphors, such as those of Chaotian Mushroom, the Reform Movement of 1898, ghosts and gods (turtles), Da Chun, and Peng Zu, who lived for a long time, naturally illustrate the truth that "small years are not as good as big ones". The author made a series of metaphors to show that the distinction between small and big of these people and things is very obvious, but they all failed to reach the realm of "swimming" without exception.
In the second paragraph of the article, from "Tang Zhi asked whether the thorn was also true" to "this little discussion was also true", the general idea was that King Shang Tang asked the courtiers to stab: "Is there a boundary between the upper and lower directions?" The spine replied, "Beyond infinity, there is infinity. In the north of the barren land, there is a vast and boundless sea, which is a large natural pool. There is a fish there. It is thousands of miles wide. No one knows how long it is. Its name is Kun. There is a bird whose name is Peng. Peng's back is like Mount Tai, and his wings are like clouds that cover the sky. Riding a whirlwind of horns, it flew into the sky thousands of miles away, passed through the clouds, inherited the blue sky, and then flew south to the South China Sea. Sparrows in the swamp laughed at it and said,' Where is it going? I jumped up, but I fell down a few feet and flew around in Artemisia. It was my best flight. "Where on earth is it going?" This is the difference between small and big! "
This passage, through the posture of the ancients, vividly depicts the magical changes of Kun Peng again, as well as the grandeur of Dapeng's flying south, and also describes the birds' teasing of Dapeng. This description is obviously repeated with the above in content. This kind of writing is rarely seen in the writings of ordinary essayists. In fact, this is Zhuangzi's intentional pen. Zhuangzi's fable said: "Fable 19, restate 17, say sunrise, and the sky is good." Fables are meaningful words, tautology is repetition, and nonsense is random words. Zhuangzi said that fables and tautology account for a large proportion in his articles, and the "sayings" that change at will are endless, which is in line with the way of nature. These four sentences actually sum up the characteristics of Zhuangzi's prose. The application of the paragraph "Tang's question is also a thorn" in this article is to increase the weight of the argument through "repetition" and deepen the reader's understanding of "the debate between small and big" Through the echo and confirmation of this paragraph and the opening paragraph, it is more obvious that the image of Dapeng is tall and majestic, while those insects and birds are small and humble, thus explaining that "one knowledge (wisdom)" is not as good as "great knowledge (wisdom)" with a distinct "small argument".
In the third paragraph, from "an old man knows how to be an official" to "a saint doesn't know", after the above strange metaphor and description, several people with different ideological realms have been described and commented one after another. Zhuangzi tells us that some people can be competent for official positions with wisdom, protect the people of a township with actions, and gain the trust of the whole country with morality that meets the requirements of a monarch. Although they feel good about themselves, they are like little sparrows that can only jump a few feet. Song couldn't help laughing at them. Song Zi Rong can make the whole society praise him, but he won't work harder; The whole society criticized him, but it didn't make him depressed. Be able to recognize the difference between yourself and the outside world and understand the boundary between glory and shame. But that's all. Although he doesn't care about society, he still has an unachieved realm. Zhuangzi went on to tell us that Li Yukou is a man who can ride the wind and be extremely light. He flies once and will be back in fifteen days. He didn't concentrate on pursuing happiness. But although he can avoid walking, he still has something to rely on. Zhuangzi imagined: If he can conform to the laws of nature, grasp the changes of Yin and Yang's "six qi" and roam the boundless space, what should he rely on and what should he rely on? So his final conclusion is that God is useless and saints are nameless to those who have no self. These three sentences are translated into modern Chinese: people with high cultivation will forget the ego; Those who reach the mysterious cultivation state will no longer make achievements; People who reach the realm of saints don't even pursue any fame. Here, the central idea of the whole article comes clean, which makes people suddenly enlightened. It turns out that, according to Zhuangzi, not only cicadas and birds, but also people who have achieved something in a country are just ignorant and have not reached the realm of "carefree travel". Even Dapeng, who flies at an altitude of 90,000 miles, and Lieyu, who can travel far away, are not really "carefree travel" because they still have to rely on it-that is absolute freedom. The real carefree tour is to "take advantage of the meaning of heaven and earth, resist the discrimination of six qi, and swim in infinity", that is, to achieve the spiritual realm of absolute freedom such as selflessness, inaction, uselessness and inaction.
Zhuangzi's pursuit of "carefree travel" is an impossible subjective idealism fantasy between heaven and earth. But his articles are beautiful and represent his extraordinary literary achievements. He used fables as a metaphor to put philosophy in absurd imagination and vivid description. A series of fables in this article are bizarre and vivid. These fables are very story-telling, poor and serious, so they can deeply attract and impress readers and become a powerful means of reasoning. In addition to rich imagination and vivid images, the writing style of the article is also very prominent. This wonderful article of the ages pays no attention to the procedure of general articles, and is free and eclectic, much like the author's elegant and free personality. Lin Yunming, a native of the Qing Dynasty, commented on Wandering: "In the article, there are narratives, quotations, metaphors, and arguments, thinking that it is broken without breaking, that it is continuous without continuing, and that it is complicated but not complicated. I only saw clouds and empty air, and suddenly it became another scene. " Wandering is indeed a "different view" that breaks through the conventional art mode in ancient Chinese. (Liu Yangzhong)