Skill and Mastery

Philosophical Stories from the Zhuangzi

By: Karyn Lai (Editor), Wai Wai Chiu (Editor)

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eText | 12 July 2019 | Edition Number 1

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Skill and Mastery: Philosophical Stories from the Zhuangzi presents an illuminating analysis of skill stories from the Zhuangzi, a 4th century BCE Daoist text. In this intriguing text that subverts conventional norms and pursuits, ordinary activities such as swimming, cicada-catching and wheelmaking are executed with such remarkable efficacy and spontaneity that they seem like magical feats. An international team of scholars explores these stories in their philosophical, historical and political contexts. Their analyses’ highlight the stories’underlying conceptions of agency, character and cultivation; and relevance to contemporary debates on human action and experience. The result is a valuable collection, opening up new lines of inquiry in comparative East-West philosophical debates on skill, cultivation and mastery, as well as cross-disciplinary debates in psychology, cognitive science and philosophy.

Industry Reviews

The essays assembled in this outstanding and unusually well-integrated volume all address the role played by “skill” across many chapters of the Zhuangzi, drawing both on evocative stories and on more explicit theorizing. Collectively, the chapters establish a new state-of-the-art understanding of this central theme, relevant not just to China scholars but also to all students of performance, embodied knowing, and the cultivation of good lives.