You have a valid point. However,
If an organized way of doing the study is not established then the thread will be all over the place and it would be next to impossible to make sure that the chapters are being considered properly.
My thought were to start with chapter one, break the chapter down into the various concepts that are discussed in it, for example: Chapter 1, Section 1, etc., with each section somehow titled.
I think that we will be able to find and discuss all the concepts in the Chuang Tzu this way and it will be much easier for us to have constructive discussions of the various concepts.
The only formality I would like to see is how each section of each chapter is intially posted in thread opening post.
I think we have done really well with the TTC study and I would like to see The Chuang Tzu handled in a similar manner.
I remain open for suggestions but if we are going to do this it would be nice if we did it in a manner where anyone coming to the board any time in the future will be able to find the concepts they are interested in and further expand the discussion of the concept if they wish to do so.
Also presenting the work in a Chapter, Section format will make it easier for anyone to cross-reference the opening post with other translations.
There will be no moderator for this sub-forum except for the board's moderators so it will be up to us to keep the threads consistent as well as the format for all of the threads.
Please let me know what you think of these comments I just made.
I like your ideas MH. If we're going to dedicate a sub-forum to the Zhuang Zi, I think it would make sense to approach it in a more organized and methodical fashion for study purposes.
The chapters in the Chuang Tzu document are very tedious. I think we should start with describing his personality and what was his general philosophy from what we have already known about him. Maybe we can cite his chapters, individually, to substantiate our notions about him. I think Chapter One is a good place to start to see what was in his mind from his mentioning about the Peng bird and the Kun fish.
My opinion differs on this. None of us know anything about Zhuang Zi's personality. All we can do is make assumptions and reach conclusions based on our personal interpretation and understanding of his works. To me, it would make much more sense to actually start digging into his works and reach our own conclusions as our study progresses rather than have others bias us with their opinions before we even start the study. I have no objection to a concise introduction and we can also consider a topic about Zhuang Zi as a historical person and discuss our opinions of him there. But I would advise letting the work speak for itself, at least in the beginning.
Just my opinion.
I'm beginning to regret having asked for suggestions. Hehehe. Not really but all the stuff rumbling around in my head is making me dizzy.
Well, you know that the Peng and Kun is the first paragraph of the first chapter.
I included a brief summary of Chuang Tzu's philosophy in the introduction to my series titled "Taoist Philosophy".
A link to that could be used unless you want to write a summary of his philosophy and title the thread in the Chuang Tzu sub-forum "Introduction to Chuang Tzu's philosophy".
But I guess you are right in that we should have some form of introduction before we start posting excerpts from the chapters.
LOL - I remember thinking exactly the same thing way back when I started the book club
LIke I mentioned above, a topic to discuss Zhuang Zi would work as a place to introduce him and discuss historical knowledge of him, but I'd like to see us develop our own ideas through our study of his work, rather than be too distracted by what others think of his philosophy.
PS I've always liked Thomas Merton's translations as well
Edited by steve, 10 October 2011 - 03:58 PM.
