ZHUANGZI SPEAKS: The Music of Nature ...

ZHUANGZI SPEAKS: The Music of Nature by Tsai Chih Chung, translated from the Chinese by Brian Bruya (Princeton University Press: $9.95 original paperback). This cartoon interpretation of the writings of the Taoist sage has already sold over 156,000 copies in artist’s native Taiwan. Cartoons may seem an odd vehicle for ancient Chinese philosophy, but Chung’s crisp little line drawings continue the Chinese tradition of captioned artwork. The original text is composed of parables, rather than didactic prose, which lend themselves to illustration: In one fable, Wang Ni evokes the different habits and diets of animals to explain the subjectivity of knowledge, concluding, “If you mistake what is relative for something certain, you have strayed far from the ultimate Dao.” Chung’s engaging book suggests that drawings are no less appropriate than words to describe the ineffable essence of the Tao.