This book also called "True classic of the Southern Flower Country" (Nanhua zhenjing 南華真經) is the oldest and at the same time the most literary book of Daoism, full of anecdotes, parablesand metaphors and with a wonderful lyrical drive that makes it a classical of world literature. The life of its author named Zhuang Zhou 莊周 is quite unknown, we only know that he, according to his teachings, refrained governmental offices to persue a private life of quietness, wiping off the desire to acquire knowledge and understanding. The many pictures try to explain to the reader what is not possible to explain, the Zhuangzi is a book for someone who does not need books. As a book is full of contradictions (dead or life is irrelevant, but dead is deliverance; accentuating at mental calmness and at the same time recommending it harshly), the Zhuangzi clearly shows the uselessness of trying to fix truth and reality. The only solution to make onself free the worldy problems would be to dematerialize oneself, to dissolve the linkages of the subject to the world. Skepticism and nihilism are the tendencies that result the impossible freeing the self, an experiment that is possible by shamanist practices. Some of the Daoist teachings are very similar to Buddhism, and during its first centuries in China, Buddhism was seen as a kind of Daoism, especially the claim of both philosophies/religions to offer a way by which the individuum is able to free oneself fear and anger and thereby achieving mental calmness and harmony.
The most important old commentary is that of Guo Xiang 郭象 (d. 312).

內篇　２．齊物論
昔者莊周夢為蝴蝶，栩栩然蝴蝶也。自喻適志與，不知周也。 俄然覺，則蘧蘧然周也。不知周之夢為蝴蝶與？蝴蝶之夢為周與？ 周與蝴蝶，則必有分矣。此之謂物化。
Inner chapters: On levelling all things
Once upon a time, I, Zhuang Zhou dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Zhou. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man. Between a man and a butterfly there is necessarily a distinction. The transition is called the transformation of material things.

外篇　１７．秋水
莊子釣於濮水。楚王使大夫二人往先焉，曰：「願以境內累矣。」莊子持竿 不顧，曰：「吾聞楚有神龜，死已三千歲矣，王巾笥而藏之廟堂之上。此龜者， 寧其死為留骨而貴乎？寧其生而曳尾於涂中乎？」二大夫曰：「寧生而曳尾涂中。」 莊子曰：「往矣！吾將曳尾於涂中。」
Outer chapters: Autumn floods
Zhuangzi was fishing on the Pu River when the Prince of Chu sent two high officials to see him and said, "Our Prince desires to burden you with the administration of the Chu State." Zhuangzi went on fishing without turning his head and said, "I have heard that in Chu there is a sacred tortoise which died when it was three thousand (years) old. The prince keeps this tortoise carefully enclosed in a chest in his ancestral temple. Now would this tortoise rather be dead and have its remains venerated, or would it rather be alive and wagging its tail in the mud?"

莊子與惠子游於濠梁之上。莊子曰：「鯈魚出游從容，是魚之樂也。」 惠子曰：「子非魚，安知魚之樂？」莊子曰：「子非我，安知我不知魚之樂？」 惠子曰：「我非子，固不知子矣；子固非魚也，子之不知魚之樂，全矣。」 莊子曰：「請循其本。子曰『汝安知魚樂』云者，既已知吾知之而問我。 我知之濠上也。」
Zhuangzi and Huizi had strolled on to the bridge over the Hao, when the former observed, "See how the small fish are darting about! That is the happiness of the fish." "You not being a fish yourself," said Huizi, "how can you know the happiness of the fish?" "And you not being I," retorted Zhuangzi, "how can you know that I do not know?" "If I, not being you, cannot know what you know," urged Huizi, "it follows that you, not being a fish, cannot know the happiness of the fish." "Let us go back to your original question," said Zhuangzi. "You asked me how I knew the happiness of the fish. Your very question shows that you knew that I knew. I knew it ( my own feelings) on this bridge."

１８．至樂
莊子妻死，惠子吊之，莊子則方箕踞鼓盆而歌。惠子曰：「與人居，長子、老、身死， 不哭亦足矣，又鼓盆而歌，不亦甚乎？」莊子曰：「不然。是其始死也，我獨何能 無概然？察其始，而本無生。非徙無生也，而本無形。非徙無形也，而本無氣。雜乎 芒芴之間，變而有氣，氣變而有形，形變而有生，今又變而之死，是相與為春秋東夏 四時行也。人且偃然寢於巨室，而我噭噭然隨而哭之，自以為不通乎命，故止也。」
Ultimate Joy
Master Zhuang's wife died. When Master Hui went to offer his condolence, he found Master Zhuang lolling on the floor with his legs sprawled out, beating a basin and singing. "She lived together with you", said Master Hui, "raised your children, grew old, and died. It's enough that you do not wail for her, but isn't it a bit much for you to be beating on a basin and singing?" - "Not so," said Master Zhuang. "When she first died, how could I of all the people not be melancholy? But I reflected on her beginning and realized that originally she was unborn. Not only was she unborn, originally she had no form. Not only did she have no form, originally she had no vital breath. Intermingling with nebulousness and blurriness, a transformation occurred and there was vital breath; the vital breath was transformed and there was form; the form was transformed and there was birth; now there has been another transformation and she is dead. Tis is like the progression of the four seasons - spring to autumn, winter to summer. There she sleeps blissfully in an enormous chamber. If I were to have followed her weeping and wailing, I think it would have been out of weeping with destiny, so I stopped."

莊子之楚，見空髑髏，然有形。撽以馬捶，因而問之曰：「夫子 貧生失理而為此乎？將子有亡國之事，斧鉞之誅而為此乎？將子有不善之行， 愧遺父母妻子之丑而為此乎？將子有凍餒之患而為此乎？將子之春秋故及此乎？」 於是語卒，援髑髏枕而臥。夜半髑髏見夢曰：「子之談者，似辯士，視子所言， 皆生人之累也，死則無此矣。子欲聞死之說乎？」莊子曰：「然。」髑髏曰：「 死，無君之上，無臣之下，亦無四時之事，從然以天地為春秋，雖南面王樂， 不能過也。」莊子不信，曰：「吾使司命復生子形，為子骨肉肌膚，反子父母、妻子、閭里、知識，子欲之乎？」 髑髏深矉蹙頞曰：「吾安能棄南面王樂而復為人間之勞乎？」
When Master Zhuang went to Chu, he saw an empty skull. Though brittle, it still retained its shape. Master Zhuang tapped the skull with his riding crop and asked, "Did you end up like this because of greed for life and loss of reason? Or was it because you were involved in some treasonous affiar and had your head chopped off by an ax? Or was it because you were involved in some unsavory conduct, shamefully disgracing your parents, wife, and children? Or was it because you starved or froze? Or was it simply because your time was up?" When he had finished with his questions, Master Zhuang picked up the skull and used it as a pillow when he went to sleep. At midnight, the skull appeared to him in a dream and said, "Your manner of talking makes you sound like a sophist. I perceive that what you mentioned are all the burdens of the living. When your're dead, there's none of that. Would you like to hear me tell you about death, Sir?" - "Yes," said Master Zhuang. "When you're dead," said the skull, "there's no ruler above you and no subjects below you. There are no affairs of the four seasons; instead, time passes leisurely as it does for heaven and earth. Not even the joys of being a south-facing king can surpass those of death." Not believing the skull, Master Zhuang said: "If I were to have the Arbiter of Destiny restore life to your physical form, to give you back your flesh, bones, and skin, to return your parents, wife, children, and village acquaintances, would you like that?" Frowning in deep consternation, the skull said: "How could I abandon the joys of a south-facing king and return to the toils of mankind?"

雜篇　３３．天下
惠施[辯曰]：卵有毛；雞三足；郢有天下；犬可以為羊；馬有卵；丁子有尾； 火不熱；山出口；輪不地蹍；目不見；指不至，至不絕；龜長於蛇；矩不方， 規不可以為圓；鑿不圍枘；飛鳥之景，未嘗動也；鏃矢之疾，而有不行，不止之時； 狗非犬；黃馬驪牛三；白狗黑；孤駒未嘗有母；一尺之捶，日取其半，萬世不竭。
Miscellaneous chapters: Under heaven
The sophist Hui Shi theorizes: An egg has feathers; chicken have three legs; the city of Ying covers the whole world; a dog can be seen as a sheep; horses have eggs; frogs have tails; the fire is not hot; the mountain produces a mouth; the wheel does not touch the ground; eyes do not see; pointings do not arrive, arrival never ceases; turtles are longer than snakes; squares are not rectangular, compasses can not draw circles; sockets do no contain their handles; shadows of flying birds never move; a hastening arrow does not go forward; a hound is not a dog; a yellow horse and a black horse are together three; a white dog is black; a orphaned foal has never had a mother; a ten inch long stick, if you cut half away every day, it will still last for ten thousand generations.

Translated by Lin Yutang resp. Victor H. Mair