What Zhuang Zhou Has to Say about the Bird Village

Minh-Hoang Nguyen

25-09-2025

Created by Wix AI

One day, Zhuang Zhou drops by the Bird Village. His genius has been known all over this universe, and most successful Daoist practicing birds are excited to gain something from his wisdom. And Zhuang, as we all know him well, has very few words to say.

The birds are reasonable and do not expect much. A few quotable lines are enough to make their village attain genuine longevity!

Luckily, for Zhuang, this village is intriguing as it looks quirky, poetic, messy, and talkative, all at once. Enjoying his liquor, Zhuang leaves a few lines for those overly excited birds.

First, for birds immersed in all sorts of disputes, over millennia, making too much noise, Zhuang teaches:

“Birds don’t argue about the sky. They fly.” 

So true, this bird village needs to think over...

Next, for the fruitless searches for ultimate wisdom that usually result in absurdity, Zhuang suggests:

“Wise is the one who forgets what wisdom is supposed to look like.” 

All birds quietly listen to the words, admiring them all and regretting that the sentence could have been a little longer...

And, suddenly, Zhuang’s suggestion becomes a little too mathematical for those clever birds:

“Weirdness is not a flaw. It’s a frequency.” 

 Apparently, the wise Kingfisher understands a little bit. It sounds like the great Zhuang does not dislike his village’s eccentricity, but rather celebrates it as a form of attunement!

Zhuang even adds more nuances to this mathematical proposition by noting  down a contrast:

“The village is quiet because the stories are loud.”

If not Zhuang, who else can suggest that silence can be a whole lot more than information and imagination?

And then:

“Wild is not chaos. Wild is rhythm unmeasured.” 

Clearly, reading these last lines makes every single bird fully trust that Zhuang is playing the role of a theoretical physicist, who is ready to reframe wildness as a deeper kind of order, regardless of the entropic level. Such a genius, the great Master Zhuang. His words serve to be the new way to open doors to deeper thought.

Of course, Kingfisher manages to use all his power to receive the final remark before Zhuang leaves. Of course, the whole village is curious, too. They want to know how the Universe Wise advises the Village Wise!

Zhuang throws a very short comment and disappears:

“Kingfisher does not explain. He just is.”

The whole bird village then plunges into never-ending arguments and disputes about its meaning. And Kingfisher himself tries really hard to avoid taking part in any debate. That’s why Kingfisher appears to be practicing meditation for the rest of his life.

References

[1] Zhuang Zhou. (1964). Zhuangzi.

[2] Vuong QH. (2024). Wild Wise Weird. https://books.google.com/books?id=N10jEQAAQBAJ