Zhuangzi and modern chinese literature liu jianmei provides the first systematic study of the impact of the zhuangzi on the modern chinese cultural and literary scenes uncovers new sources on modern chinese intellectuals reinterpretation and appropriation of zhuangzi. This is a powerful account of how the ruin and resurrection of zhuangzi in modern chinas literary history corresponds to the rise and fall of modern chinese individuality the book highlights two central philosophical themes of zhuangzi the absolute spiritual freedom as presented in the chapter free and easy wandering and the rejection of absolute and fixed views on right and wrong as seen in the chapter on the equality of things it argues that the twentieth century . The first english language study of its kind liu jianmeis zhuangzi and modern chinese literature is an impressive and ambitious work that investigates as well as situates zhuangzis thought within the formation of chinese literary modernity liu traces the rises and falls of zhuangzi in the twentieth and twenty first centuries as manifested in the works of an array of intellectuals and writers thereby demonstrating the enduring influence of zhuangzi on modern chinas literary and . The first english language study of its kind liu jianmeis zhuangzi and modern chinese literature is an impressive and ambitious work that investigates as well as situates zhuangzis thought within the formation of chinese literary modernity liu traces the rises and falls of zhuangzi in the twentieth and twenty first centuries as manifested in the works of an array of intellectuals and writers thereby demonstrating the enduring influence of zhuangzi on modern chinas