Heart-fasting, forgetting, and using the heart like a mirror: applied emptiness in the Zhuangzi

Abstract

Previous research has identified three roles attributed to empty, vacant, or blank psychological states in the early Daoist anthology Zhuangzi. Such “psychological emptiness” is variously treated as instrumental to efficacious action, as an intrinsically valuable component of a good life, and as a core feature of the radical ideal of the perfected agent who wholly merges with nature. The present paper applies Foucault’s analytical framework of ethical relations to examine the role of emptiness in the ascetic element in Zhuangist thought—what Foucault calls the “ethical work.” For Foucault, “ethical work” comprises the “technologies of the self” by which agents subject themselves to norms and transform themselves into ethical adepts. The paper proposes that psychological emptiness is a core feature of a broadly Zhuangist conception of ethical work. It then explores four questions: (1) What exactly are the “technologies of the self” by which different parts of the Zhuangzi propose to undertake “ethical work”? (2) By what processes or mechanisms do these technologies purport to function? (3) What are their supposed psychological effects or results? (4) How do these effects have the instrumental and normative consequences claimed for them? The Zhuangzi’s own analogy of “using the heart like a mirror” proves helpful in articulating various Zhuangist views on these questions. The paper will include both a descriptive reconstruction and a preliminary critical evaluation of these views.