A Taste into Chinese Classics — Chuang Chou Dreamt of Being a Butterfly
Original Text from “Chuang Tzu: On Leveling All Things”
“Once upon a time, I, Chuang Chou, dreamt I was a butterfly, flitting and fluttering around, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Chou. Suddenly I woke up, and there I was, veritably myself again. But I didn’t know if I was a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming it was a man, Chuang Chou. Between Chuang Chou and a butterfly there must be some distinction! [But in a dream, Chuang Chou and butterfly can make some kind of transformation.] This is called the Transformation of Things.＂
This is a classic and famous story in “Chuang Tzu”. One day Chuang Chou (Name of Chuang Tzu) dreamt he was a butterfly, freely flitting and fluttering everywhere. He was so pleased that he forgot himself as Chuang Chou. Suddenly he woke up from his dream, he realized that he is Chuang Chou instead of a butterfly. He reviewed this occurrence and pondered if he was a man dreaming of being a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming of being a man, Chuang Chou. The butterfly in the dream could be real, and Chuang Chou in reality could be a dream. Chuang Tzu used this fable to tell us that there may be some distinction between human beings and butterflies, but the difference between reality and unreality is vague. This chapter, “On Levelling All Things”, emphasises equality between all things which is an ultimate goal in human societies.
However, in everyday life, there are inequalities and transitory standards surrounding us. Even so, Chuang Tzu’ thoughts are not hollow and unpractical. He pointed out a “perspective of relativity” on life, by which we cannot only think outside the box of the “binary opposition”, such as true/false, good/evil, beauty and ugliness. “Chuang Chou dreamt of being a butterfly” is a demonstration of how he thought outside the box. He did it by transforming the location of the subject and object, meaning objectifying the subject. We can better realize it with the concept of psychology — loss of self-consciousness.
Self-consciousness is often the root of negative emotions like anxiety, fear, and depression, because “Self” is the biggest enemy in our life. When we mentioned the term of “Self”, we frequently link it to self-limiting, self-censorship and self-criticism but rarely link it to positive use of terms. Many research papers found out that when we fully concentrate on doing something and have the “flow experience”, we lose the self-consciousness at the same time. How does it feel? Like you’re a fish swimming and yet you forget you are swimming at the same time; you play an instrument so fluently, that the instrument is just like your fingers. When you are in a state of “loss of self-consciousness”, you are in a state of freedom, like a butterfly, this is what Chuang Tzu called the “Transformation of Things”. Where there is no distinction between Chuang Chou and butterfly in the freedom, there is no differentiation between unreality and reality.
