or Chuang-tzu
born с 369, Meng, China
died 286 BCE
Most significant early Chinese interpreter of Daoism and the purported author of the Daoist classic that bears his name.
A minor official and a contemporary of Mencius , he drew on the sayings of Laozi but took a broader perspective. He taught that enlightenment comes from the realization that everything is one, the dao , but that the dao has no limitations or demarcations and whatever can be known or said of the dao is not the dao . He held that things should be allowed to follow their own course and that no situation should be valued over any other.