One day once upon a time, Zhuang Zhou dreamed that he had become a butterfly, a fluttering butterfly. He was so happy and relaxed that he didn't know he was Zhuang Zhou. After a while, the dream woke up, but it was Zhuang Zhou who was lying stiffly in bed. I don't know whether Zhuang Zhou dreamed and became a butterfly or the butterfly dreamed and became Zhuang Zhou. It seems that the Great Dao is sometimes transformed into a Zhuangzhou and sometimes transformed into a butterfly.
Through the description and discussion of the butterfly's transformation into a butterfly in his sleep and the butterfly's reformation into himself after waking up from his dream, Zhuang Zi puts forward the idea that it is impossible for human beings to distinguish exactly between the real and the unreal and the materialization of life and death. It shows a kind of human attitude that life is like a dream. Although everything in the world is changing, it is only the materialization of the Tao, and Zhuang Zi thinks that the best way to achieve the unity of heaven and man is to "materialize".
Zhuangzi believes that if people can break the boundaries of life and death, things and I, there is no way to not be happy. It is written in a light and ethereal style, with simple and clear words and philosophical content, and is often quoted by philosophers and literary scholars.
The Qing dynasty Zhang Chao said, "Zhuangzhou dream for the butterfly, Zhuangzhou's fortunate; butterfly dream for Zhuangzhou, butterfly's unfortunate." Isn't it? Zhuangzhou into a butterfly, from the hustle and bustle, complexity, pain in life to the free, free, happy, is Zhuangzhou's great fortune; while the butterfly dream of Zhuangzhou, from the realm of freedom into the depressing life, I'm afraid it is the butterfly's sadness.
Chuang Zi will be transformed into a butterfly, the butterfly fluttering, soaring everywhere, not subject to the limitations of space; it is free, not subject to the urgency of time; drifting yet flying, no stereotypes of the constraints, there is no precepts of the heavy pressure. At the same time, the butterfly is free in the sunshine, air, flowers and orchards, which symbolizes that life is as active as a butterfly in a wonderful world, and that it can absorb and choose itself freely among the warm sunshine, fresh air, beautiful flowers and fragrant orchards, and such a free and easy life is really enviable.
We often say that "life is like a dream", and think that life is really short and fluctuating, and how many joyful things, to the end of the bubble. At this time, we are always accustomed to use "dream" to express their inner feelings, can not help but be full of sadness, but in Zhuangzi's heart is not the slightest such feeling. Zhuang Zi's artistic mind will be the existence of human beings and their living space, to be infinitely embellished. Therefore, the universe is like a big garden, and life is enjoyed in this beautiful scenery like butterflies fluttering among the flowers. Therefore, what emerged in Zhuangzi's mind was a beautiful dream.
In fact, when the human spacecraft stepped into the space, in the infinite vastness of the starry sky, only to realize that Zhuang Zhou's dream of the butterfly is the future of the real life of mankind. Humans in the infinite universe using scientific and technological revolution, will realize the real freedom, will turn the human "butterfly dream" into reality, we will be free to soar in the sky, will be in the universe this big garden like butterflies generally dance. The "butterfly dream" can not only show the face of the future society, but also can be transformed into a state of another space for human beings.
Many unreal things may be real, and real things may be unreal. Just like life, from nothing to something, from something to nothing. For the pitch-black space after death, it can be confusing and fearful. But in Zhuangzi's view, death and life are entirely a relative phenomenon of illusion. It is only that the form comes up from the earth and goes back to the soil and transforms into a butterfly again.
In the beginning of man, there was no form, and the process of change, the formation, dissolution, and transformation of form, is really not enough to be sad. After death can be transformed into a butterfly, like the materialization of the Zhuangzi, vivid and fly, it is happy! When you are so happy that you forget your form, you still don't know that you are Zhuangzi! Zhuangzi has been the antithesis of life and death in the "materialization" of the harmony.
I remember when I was very young, I read the story of "Zhuangzhou dreaming of butterflies", and I thought that Zhuangzhou was too imaginative, so that the life of the wings of the dream, so that the life of a strange light. I had a "butterfly dream" at that time. Unfortunately, as I grew older, everything in my dreams became so realistic that they were just an extension of our depressing, bitter real life. After the middle age, even the dream lacks novelty and imagination.
In fact, many times, we will doubt whether we are dreaming, or in reality. The ancients also left a lot of allusions and idioms about dreams, such as the yellow sorghum a dream, like a dream, a dream, a dream, etc. These idioms, in fact, all indicate that the dream is not a dream. These idioms, in fact, show that people in many cases, it is difficult to distinguish between dreams and reality. In the dream we will always think that this is the real life. And we think that we are living in reality, may also be just a dream of the Creator, we may just live in the virtual world, maybe it is just a game world.
Whether our life is virtual or real, we can perceive the present, live in the present, and think independently. So for every one of us, life, or the world, real or virtual, we should return to their own hearts, grasp the moment, live every minute and every second, which is the meaning of life, which is the meaning of the existence of the world.