Zhuangzi believed in a very unique form of relativism. Relativism is a theory, especially in ethics or aesthetics, that conceptions of truth and moral values are not absolute but are relative to the persons or groups holding them. Thusly, the morals and aesthetics of a human are far different from the morals and aesthetics of a fish. In his famous example, he talks of how we find two particular people very beautiful, a fish apon seeing them flees into the depths, the birds fly away, and the animals scatter into the forest. In fairy tales we tell stories of beauty that transcends this relativism. Think about snow white and her harem of animals birds etc. A being so pure that her beauty was recognized by all. Alas, no such creature exists.
Zhuangzi was one of the foundation blocks of Daoism. He speaks of the Dao, or 'the way', at length in his book. The ironic part is that he is a firm believer that the Dao cannot be described using words, since words are a logical construct and thusly relativistic, whereas 'the way' is transcendent of relativism. He believes the way can only be reached through meditation, and the shutting down of the mind. To live the way, one must seal off what makes us human, and view the world through what he calls the vital breath. Then and only then can one cultivate the self.
It is interesting to me that there are entire religions devoted to getting outside of the human condition. It's an idea that seems futile, but shows so much promise. For example, when in your life are you completely incapable of thought? Go ahead and try to silence your thoughts right now...I double dog dare you. Can you do it? Didn't think so, There is at least one time in your life that a complete lack of thought occurs that I know of. Orgasm. This is for a purely chemical reason, your brain is flooded with endorphins and thought becomes impossible. AND IT FEELS GREAT! So if meditation can achieve a similar goal, I'm all for it :) The other times I hear people talk about being non-thinking is with athletes that are "in the zone". Often times you will here the best athletes say after a great performance, I don't know how I did that, I was just relaxed, or I was on another level today...etc. etc. We've all been there hopefully, with something that we do. Anyways, that's enough about shutting off the brain, back to Zhuangzi.
I think Zhuangzi is certainly on to something with beauty being relative. However, it's interesting to note the advances mathmatics has made into the realm of beauty. For example, the golden ratio is 1:1.618 or some such number (too lazy to google). It is a ratio that appears throughout nature and is symbolic of beauty. Babies amongst all species have enlarged facial features. A trait that naturally draws an individual to care for it. Furthermore, symetry is a universally accepted (at a visceral level) form of beauty. Studies have been done proving that babies of many species will stare longer at symetrical faces than asymetrical ones. Morals have similar characteristics. For example, the incest taboo spreads across many species (granted not all). This argument certainly doesn't render Zhuangzi's arguments moot, but I do believe the above caviats should be considered when discussing whether knowledge is truly relative.
It has been said that Zhuangzi was the first Anarchist. This is because he believed in withdrawling from the social construct and focusing on individual cultivation. The world will govern itself without our help he would say. In a way, he is correct. Remember the immortal words of the joker, "introduce a little ANARCHY, upset the established ORDER, and everything becomes Chaos..."? Well it turns out, the entropy of an 'ungoverned body' is not without order. Entropy, afterall, occurs within a 'governed system' and can only do so much. For example, take my room. Messy as it seems, there is an order to it still. Clothes are on the floor, pillows on the bed, sheets on the mattress, all fixtures that left to the whims of entropy would remain (despite what my mom would say). I could walk in and out of my room, sleep on my bed, or dance around naked, and at the end of the day, the clothes would still be on the floor and not on the ceiling. In a governed system such as Earth, entropy moves things towards their position of least potential energy, not least order. The question is, is this order superior to the some other order. Zhuangzi does not answer this from what I've seen. He mocks the efforts of people whom organize and do work upon the system because he knows their order will not last, but he doesn't say why natural order is better. For is there not something positive to the ant that comes from constructing an ant hill? Or is the Ant merely a sentient being not concerned enough with its self cultivation. I'm not so sure. Zhuangzi reminded me of Martin Heidegger who labeled human beings Da-sein, or that which is concerned with its being. In his later years Heidegger became obsessed with poetry and prose much like Zhuangzi. To me it seems both men struggled within in the confines of logical language. They turned to artistic language to illustrate concepts which were seemingly indescribable. In the end, I think Zhuangzi was an enlightened soul....relatively.
