Jwanji

One of the most popular philosophical works of Chinese classics from the 3rd century BC

In the list of the 18 best books of foreign literature in 2019 according to PEN.Ukraine. Our publication is the first Ukrainian translation of the philosophical heritage of Ancient China, because until 2019, no Ukrainian translations of Laozi's "Taodejin" or the works of Confucius were published.

The thirty-three chapters contain parables, reflections, stories, anecdotes, retellings of ancient chronicles and records of mystical insights. But despite the thematic diversity, they are all united by the theme of human dignity and the search for the meaning of life.

"Zhuangzi" is one of the main primary sources for the study of classical Chinese philosophy. As the prominent historian of Chinese philosophy Feng Yu Lan said, "without this work it is impossible to understand Chinese culture." Although later "Zhuangzi" will become, together with "Daodejin", the canonical book of Taoism, without it it is impossible to imagine neither Buddhism nor Confucianism as we know them today.

It is not surprising that "Zhuangzi" became a table book for many generations of poets and artists - from Li Bai and Du Fu, well-known to the Ukrainian reader, to the no less outstanding Su Shi and Lu You. Western artists did not ignore it either. It influenced the German philosophers Martin Buber and Martin Heidegger, it was admired by the beatniks Jack Kerouac and Alan Ginsberg, and the titled science fiction authors Ursula Le Guin and Ted Chiang. And even in Ukrainian culture, despite the lack of translation, we find allusions and references to "Dzhvandza" in the "spyhacks" of Mykola Lukash and the poems of Oleg Lyshega, the letters of Vasyl Stus and the poems of Volodymyr Tsybulko.

Despite its roots in the Far Eastern realities, this work is neither hermetic nor ethnocentric. Its images and parables, which have fascinated the inhabitants of China, Japan and Korea for two and a half thousand years, will undoubtedly find a response in the heart of the Ukrainian reader.