Zhuangzi and Wild Wise Weird: Differences and Similarities

Minh-Hoang Nguyen

25-09-2025

Zhuangzi Dreaming of a Butterfly. Lu Zhi (–1576)

At first glance, Wild Wise Weird [1] appears to bear little resemblance to Zhuangzi [2]. Yet, upon closer inspection, the two works share striking similarities. I see three main points of convergence:

First similarity: Both works’ stories initially present information in ways that guide the reader’s imagination toward particular scenarios, shaped by their prior biases, values, beliefs, and experiences. Yet, they suddenly make the reader realize that those imagined scenarios are not correct. The arrival of new information reveals the fuller picture, prompting a reordering of what was previously known. This reconfiguration leads to a different understanding—or leaves the reader momentarily stunned at the story’s conclusion, only grasping its meaning upon reflection through meta-cognition.

Second similarity: Both adopt a monistic perspective, treating all things as interconnected. Apparent opposites are shown to be relative—dependent on the type of information and how it interacts with other information, including that residing in the reader’s own mind.

Third similarity: Because this monistic perspective is highly abstract and limited by human cognition—which tends toward dualistic thinking to conserve energy—the stories combine fictional elements with concrete contexts. Contexts provide readers with familiar anchors for comprehension, while the fictional aspects generate new informational nodes and interactions that would otherwise remain obscured by biases, values, beliefs, or personal experience. This interplay reveals the essence of problems and underlying real patterns. It is this third similarity that endows both works with their transcendent spirit, echoing Laozi’s words [3]:

“The tao that can be told

is not the eternal Tao

The name that can be named

is not the eternal Name.”

Yet, precisely within this third similarity lie their key differences. First, the contexts diverge sharply: the two works were written over two millennia apart. Zhuangzi emerged from the cultural, social, and ecological infosphere of ancient China, whereas Wild Wise Weird arises from the Vietnamese context. Second, their fictional styles differ. The Zhuangzi employs a vast imaginative range—including humans, animals, and cosmic beings—whereas Wild Wise Weird grounds its narratives in the world of birds and their village. Third, both works seek to reveal the essence of problems and the real patterns underlying them through the constraints of language. Yet some of these essences and patterns have inevitably shifted over the span of two millennia. As a result, the issues that Wild Wise Weird and Zhuangzi attempt to uncover are at once overlapping and distinct.

References

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

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

[3] Laozi. (1868). Tao Te Ching.