Empathy in the Zhuangzi

Abstract This article investigates elements of empathy in the Zhuangzi 莊子. It outlines four prominent aspects of current scholarship on empathy: different types of empathy, the other-centeredness of empathy, empathy as a process and the role empathy plays in responsiveness to others, and interaction between empathy and other capacities. Based on materials from the Zhuangzi that involve elements of empathy, I delegate them respectively to these four areas. While the Zhuangzi does not invent any specific term for an exclusive designation of the meaning of empathy, I attempt to show that the Zhuangzi does explore the phenomena of empathy to a great extent. It characterizes unique features of empathy, such as other-centeredness, perceptual directness, its function as listening, mirroring, qi 氣-connecting and receptivity, the issue of how to cultivate one’s empathic capacity in the everyday encounter with others, and especially how empathic capacity works closely with the Zhuangzian forgetfulness of oneself.