Abstract

This is the main handout for my “Zhuangzi Month” public talk, Sept 26/27, 2025, hosted by the Division of Humanities at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Fāng Yǐzhì’s (方以智, 1611–1671) Yàodì Páo Zhuāng 藥地炮莊 (ca. 1663; “Monk Yàodì Concocts a Zhuāngzǐ”) is an exceptionally complex text. The present talk introduces one of the most distinctive essays contained within Yàodì Páo Zhuāng, an early work of “fan fiction” entitled Huìzǐ yǔ Zhuāngzǐ shū 惠子與莊子書 (“A Letter from Huìzǐ to Zhuāngzǐ”), in which Huìzǐ writes to Zhuāngzǐ from beyond the grave to complain about how he is depicted in the Zhuāngzǐ, among other concerns. This work of “fan fiction”, modeled on Zhāng Zìliè’s (張自烈; 1597–1673) Yǔ gǔrén shū 與古人書 “Letters to the Ancients”, is known as one of the Lúshān èr shū 廬山二書 “Two Writings from Lúshān” finished in 1652. The other of these “two writings”, which shall be discussed en passant, is the complex Xiàng Zǐqī yǔ Guō Zǐxuán shū 向子期與郭子玄書 (“A Letter from Xiàng Zǐqī [Xiàng Xiù (向秀; ca. 227–272)] to Guō Zǐxuán [i.e., Guō Xiàng (郭象; ca. 252–312)]”). This talk will argue that Fāng Yǐzhì’s use of this “fan fiction” format is not merely a literary novelty, but a sophisticated philosophical method for re-engaging and resolving long-standing interpretive problems in Zhuāngzǐ studies.