844 KB70 KB2026Thaddée, Chantry-Gellensštevilka:1letnik:14 (30)str. 349-371DOI:10.4312/as.2026.14.1.349-371ISSN:2232-5131COBISSID_HOST:290863619URN:URN:NBN:SI:doc-F8R9DKE1enZaložba Univerze v LjubljaniAsian studiesadaptabilityDaoismdaoizememptinessHuzi ??prazninaprilagodljivostZhuangzi ??Encountering the Zhuangzi| adaptability and emptiness in the Story of Huzi, Jixian, and Liezi|The Zhuangzi ?? often uses its multicoloured characters and imaginative stories to make its points. So much so that one of these characters is, I wish to argue, a stand-in for the text of the Zhuangzi itself. Huzi ??, when he meets Jixian ?? through the intermediary of his student Liezi ??, exhibits the kind of emptiness that characterizes the text. This emptiness pertains to his ability to change forms as he wishes, for he is never fixed into one singular shape. He represents the adaptable and flexible behaviour which enables one to use specific schemes of valuation with parsimony, when they are adapted to the context, and never to remain fixed on one single such scheme. Jixian and Liezi are, in my interpretation, two readers of the text who come at it from different yet fixed angles. Their backgrounds and reactions while reading the text teach us the ways one can deal with that emptiness. One could try, like Jixian, to apply one’s own standards to the text, witness its resistance, and leave in frustration. Or one could, like Liezi, realize that the text’s emptiness is an invitation to leave the text behind and to discard fixed and single-minded valuation schemes. In the end, this cautionary tale aptly represents the text’s non-judgmental openness as well as its subtly subversive critique of the attitudes to learning and applying what one has learned prevalent in its timeZhuangzi ??svoje pisane like in domiselne zgodbe pogosto uporablja za ponazoritev svojih spoznanj. Trdim, da je tako celo v tolikšni meri, da eden izmed likov deluje kot nadomestek za samo besedilo Zhuangzi. Ko Huzi ?? prek svojega učenca Liezija ?? sreča Jixiana ??, predstavlja vrsto praznine, ki zaznamuje celotno besedilo. Ta praznina se kaže v Huzijevi sposobnosti, da po želji spreminja svojo obliko, saj nikoli ni omejen na eno samo, določeno podobo. Predstavlja prilagodljivo in prožno vedenje, ki nam omogoča varčno oziroma preudarno uporabo določenih vrednostnih shem, kadar so ustrezne glede na kontekst, pri čemer nikoli nismo omejeni na eno samo shemo. V tem smislu Jixian in Liezi nastopata kot dva bralca Zhuangzija, ki k besedilu pristopata z različnih, toda določenih zornih kotov. Njuno ozadje in odzivi med branjem besedila nas učijo različnih načinov soočenja s to praznino. Bralec lahko, tako kot Jixian, na besedilo poskuša aplicirati lastne kriterije, naleti na odpor in v frustraciji odneha. Lahko pa tudi, tako kot Liezi, spozna, da je praznina besedila povabilo k preseganju samega besedila in opuščanju togih, enostranskih shem vrednotenja. Navsezadnje ta opozorilna pripoved ustrezno ponazarja Zhuangzijevo neobsojajočo odprtost ter njegovo subtilno subverzivno kritiko tedanjih pristopov k učenju in uporabi pridobljenega znanjaTEXTznanstveno časopisjejournalsSlovenian National E-content AggregatorNational and University Library of SloveniaUniverza v Ljubljani, Filozofska fakulteta