Musings of a Chinese Mystic: Selections from the Philosophy of Chuang Tzu: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Musings of a Chinese Mystic: Selections from the Philosophy of Chuang Tzu, credited to Lionel Giles; Zhuangzi, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of Musings of a Chinese Mystic: Selections from the Philosophy of Chuang Tzu by Lionel Giles; Zhuangzi. (Translated by Herbert Allen Giles.) Read in English by Scotty Smith. If Lao Tzu then had revolted against the growing artificiality of life in his day, a return to nature must have seemed doubly imperative to his disciple Chuang Tzu, who flourished more than a couple of centuries later, when the bugbear of civilisation had steadily advanced. With chagrin he saw that Lao Tzu's teaching had never obtained any firm hold on the masses, still less on the rulers of China, whereas the star of Confucius was unmistakably in the ascendant. Within his own recollection the propagation of Confucian ethics had received a powerful impetus from Mencius, the second of China's orthodox sages. Now Chuang Tzu was imbued to the core with the principles of pure Taoism, as handed down by Lao Tzu. He might more fitly be dubbed "the Tao-saturated man" than Spinoza "the God-intoxicated." Tao in its various phases pervaded his inmost being and was reflected in all his thought. He was therefore eminently qualified to revive his Master's ringing protest against the materialistic tendencies of the time. - Summary by Lionel Giles

Recording facts

• Recording title: Musings of a Chinese Mystic: Selections from the Philosophy of Chuang Tzu
• Author credits: Lionel Giles; Zhuangzi
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 14
• Listed recording duration: 2:27:47

Catalogue topics

• spirituality
• taoism
• China

Track guide

1. 01 - Introduction, Part 1 — 22:08
2. 02 - Introduction, Part 2 — 18:37
3. 03 - The Doctrine of Relativity — 7:15
4. 04 - The Identity of Contraries — 8:54
5. 05 - Illusions — 4:00
6. 06 - The Mysterious Immanence of Tao — 12:39
7. 07 - The Hidden Spring — 9:21
8. 08 - Non-Interference with Nature — 3:28
9. 09 - Passive Virtue — 11:15
10. 10 - Self-Adaptation to Externals — 6:44
11. 11 - Immortality of the Soul — 5:21
12. 12 - The Sage, or Perfect Man — 9:35
13. 13 - Random Gleanings — 22:57
14. 14 - Personal Anecdotes — 5:33

Listen to this recording

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.