And yet, there must be some difference between Zhuangzi and the butterfly! It is what we call the transformation of things.

The Butterfly Dream was written in the 4th century BC by the Chinese ascetic and philosopher Zhuangzi, the founder of Taoism along with his predecessor Laozi. This small text, playful and literary, unplanned and characteristically sarcastic, reflects the complete relativity in Zhuangzi’s philosophy: is it he who dreams of the butterfly or is the butterfly dreaming of him? This seems to matter little in the end, because the Tao for Zhuangzi is everywhere, defined only by its nature, and life is simply the constant transformation of things themselves; therefore, true understanding cannot be the product of any explanation – a view that later significantly influenced both Chinese Buddhism and the Zen school.

Zhuangzi (or Zhuangzi, meaning “Master Zhuang”, 369-286 BC) lived in a time of great flourishing of Chinese philosophy and distinguished himself by expanding and developing the principles of Taoism established by his mythical predecessor, Laozi. What we know about him primarily comes from his eponymous work, the famous Zhuangzi, a collection of parables, anecdotes, and allegories consisting of 33 chapters (today it is believed that only the seven “Inner Chapters” were written by him) and teaching the Way (that is, the Tao) in harmony with nature and the flow of things, away from the sterility of logical schemes, conventional education, and “civilization.”