Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-hvd4g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-11T13:05:03.378Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Laughter in early China: The Zhuangzi and beyond

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 September 2021

Ai Yuan Open the ORCID record for Ai Yuan [Opens in a new window]
Ai Yuan*
Affiliation:
School of Humanities, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
*
[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Traditionally, in both East and West, laughter, and in particular its causes, have been studied under the category of humour. However, ideas on and practices of laughter itself have been largely ignored. This paper intends to lead readers beyond the topic of humour and focus on the act of laughter in the Zhuangzi as a starting point for the study of laughter in early China. It examines frequently ignored areas, such as how laughter draws readers into the text; how it functions to exclude people with different social value judgements; how it is used as a tool to challenge political power; how it serves rhetorical functions as a means to construct a conversation among people of different social or political status; and how it is used as an important signal and marker for a change of perspective. By examining questions such as: “What are the types of laughter?”, “What are the functions of laughter?”, and “How does laughter operate in different situations, and between different persons?” we can see a new idea of laughter in the Zhuangzi with multi-layered philosophical significance. Using the Zhuangzi as a case study, we can envision a series of well-crafted, intentional practices of laughter for various purposes throughout early Chinese texts.

Keywords

LaughterHumourZhuangziEarly China
Type
Article
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 84 , Issue 2 , June 2021 , pp. 321 - 340
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of SOAS University of London

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

This article is an interim result of the National Social Science Fund Junior Project 國家社會科學基金青年項目, under the programme name Zhuangzi mingyun guan de kua wenhua yanjiu 莊子命運觀的跨文化研究 (Program Number: 20CZX025). I am indebted to Albert Galvany, Bernhard Fuehrer, Barend ter Haar, Carine Defoort, Christoph Harbsmeier, Dirk Meyer, Jacqueline Louie, Josephine Khu, Mercedes Valmisa, Michael Schapers, Rens Krijgsman, and two reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article.

References

Allison, Robert E. 1989. Chuang-Tzu for Spiritual Transformation: An Analysis of the Inner Chapters. (SUNY series in Philosophy.) Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Baxter, William H. and Sagart, Laurent. 2014. Old Chinese: A New Reconstruction. New York: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199945375.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beard, Mary. 2015. Laughter in Ancient Rome: On Joking, Tickling and Cracking Up. (Sather Classical Lectures, vol. 71.) Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Bremmer, Jan and Roodenburg, Herman (eds). 1997. A Cultural History of Humour: From Antiquity to the Present Day. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Chafe, W. 2007. The Importance of Not Being Earnest: The Feeling Behind Laughter and Humour. (Consciousness & Emotion Book Series, vol. 3.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheng, Shude 程樹德. 2008 [1990]. Lun yu jishi 論語集釋. (Min guo shi qi jing xue cong shu, di yi ji, di 47–49 ce.) Beijing: Zhonghua shuju.Google Scholar
Chey, Jocelyn and Davis, Jessica Miller (eds). 2011. Humour in Chinese Life and Letters: Classical and Traditional Approaches. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.Google Scholar
D'Ambrosio, Paul. 2010. “From foolish laughter to foolish laughter: Zhuangzi's perspectivism leads to laughter”, in Moeller, Hans and Wohlfart, Günter (eds), Laughter in Eastern and Western Philosophies: Proceedings of the Académie du Midi, 49–62. (Welten der Philosophie 3.) Freiburg: Verlag Karl Alber.Google Scholar
Durrant, Stephen, Wai-yee, Li and Schaberg, David (trans.). 2016. Zuo Tradition, Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals. (Classics of Chinese Thought.) Washington, DC: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Freud, Sigmund (Strachey, trans. James). 1974 [1905]. Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious (Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewußten). (Standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud / transl. from the German under the general editorship of James Strachey, vol. 8.) New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Froese, Katrin. 2013. “Humour as the playful sidekick to language in the Zhuangzi”, Asian Philosophy 23/2, 137–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galvany, Albert. 2009a. “Debates on mutilation: bodily preservation and ideology in early China”, Asiatische Studien 64/1, 67–91.Google Scholar
Galvany, Albert. 2009b. “Distorting the rule of seriousness: laughter, death and friendship in the Zhuangzi”, Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 8/2, 49–59.10.1007/s11712-008-9098-1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galvany, Albert. 2012. “Sly mouths and silver tongues: the dynamics of psychological persuasion in Ancient China”, Extrême-Orient Extrême-Occident 34, 15–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gong, Kangyun 龔抗雲 (ed.). 2000. Li ji zhengyi 禮記正義. Beijing: Beijing daxue.Google Scholar
Graham, Angus Charles. 1981. The Seven Inner Chapters and Other Writings from the Book Chuang-tzŭ. London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Guan, Ziyin 關子尹. 2009. Yu mo wu chang: xunzhao dingxiang zhong de zhexue fansi 語默無常：尋找定向中的哲學反思. (Xie yi wen cong.) Beijing: Beijing daxue.Google Scholar
Guo, Qingfan 郭慶藩. 2007 [1962]. Zhuangzi jishi 莊子集釋. (Zhong guo xue shu ming zhu.) Beijing: Zhonghua shuju.Google Scholar
Halliwell, Stephen. 2008. Greek Laughter: A Study of Cultural Psychology from Homer to Early Christianity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harbsmeier, Christoph. 1989. “Humor in Ancient Chinese philosophy”, Philosophy East and West, 39/3, 289–310.10.2307/1399450CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harbsmeier, Christoph. 1990. “Confucius ridens: humor in the Analects”, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 50/1, 131–61.10.2307/2719225CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jiao, Xun 焦循. 2017 [1987]. Mengzi Zhengyi 孟子正義. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju.Google Scholar
Kallen, Horace Meyer. 1968. Liberty, Laughter and Tears: Reflections on the Relations of Comedy and Tragedy to Human Freedom. DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Keith-Spiegel, Patricia. 1972. “Early conceptions of humor: varieties and issues”, in Goldstein, Jeffrey H. and McGhee, Paul E. (eds), The Psychology of Humor: Theoretical Perspectives and Empirical Issues, 3–39. New York: Academic Press.10.1016/B978-0-12-288950-9.50007-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, Esther. 2010. “Were there ‘Inner chapters’ in the Warring States? A new examination of evidence about the Zhuangzi”, T'oung Pao 96, 299–369.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuipers, Giselinde. 2008. “The sociology of humor”, in Raskin, Victor (ed.), The Primer of Humor Research, 361–98. (Humor Research 8.) Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lau, D.C. (trans.). 2001. Tao Te Ching. Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong.Google Scholar
Liu, Xiaogan 劉笑敢. 1987. Zhuangzi zhexue jiqi yanbian 莊子哲學及其演變. (Dang dai zhongguo renwen daxi, zhexue.) Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue, 1987.Google Scholar
Liu, Xiaogan. 2009. Laozi gujin: wu zhong duikan yu xiping yinlun 老子古今: 五種對勘與析評引論 (Dang dai Zhongguo xue zhe dai biao zuo wen ku.) Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue.Google Scholar
Li, H.N. 2013. “Laughing literati: an exploration of premodern Chinese humour and its cultural context through Song Dynasty joke collections”, unpublished Masters thesis, Leiden University.Google Scholar
Lyttle, Jim 2001. “The effectiveness of humor in persuasion: the case of business ethics training”, The Journal of General Psychology 128/2, 206–16.10.1080/00221300109598908CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Milburn, Olivia. 2007. “Marked out for greatness? Perceptions of deformity and physical impairment in Ancient China”, Monumenta Serica 55, 1–22.10.1179/mon.2007.55.1.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milburn, Olivia (trans.). 2016. The Spring and Autumn Annals of Master Yan. (Sinica Leidensia 128.) Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moeller, Hans-Georg and Wohlfart, Günter (eds). 2009. Laughter in Eastern and Western Philosophies: Proceedings of the Académie du Midi. (Welten der Philosophie 3.) Freiburg: Verlag Karl Alber.Google Scholar
Moeller, Hans-Georg and D'Ambrosio, Paul J.. 2017. Genuine Pretending: On the Philosophy of the Zhuangzi. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.10.7312/moel18398CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mollgaard, Eske. 2007. An Introduction to Daoist Thought: Action, Language, and Ethics in the Zhuangzi. (Routledge Studies in Asian Religion and philosophy.) London: Routledge.10.4324/9780203944820CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monro, D.H. 1988. “Theories of humor”, in Behrens, Laurence and Rosen, Leonard J. (eds), Writing and Reading across the Curriculum, 349–55. Glenview: Scott, Foresman and Company.Google Scholar
Morreall, John. 2009. Comic Relief: A Comprehensive Philosophy of Humor. (New Directions in Aesthetics 9.) Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rea, Christopher G. 2015. The Age of Irreverence: A New History of Laughter in China. Oakland, CA: University of California Press.10.1525/9780520959590CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roth, Harold D. 1991. “Who compiled the Chuang-Tzu?”, in Rosemont, Henry (ed.), Chinese Texts and Philosophical Contexts: Essays Dedicated to Angus C. Graham, 82–128. (Critics and their Critics, 1.) La Salle, IL: Open Court Publishing.Google Scholar
Ruch, Willibald. 2008. “Psychology of humor”, in Raskin, Victor (ed.), The Primer of Humor Research, 17–100. (Humor Research 8.) Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sample, Joseph C. (trans.). 2011. “Contextualizing Lin Yutang's essay on ‘Humour’: Introduction and translation”, in Chey, Jocelyn and Davis, Jessica Milner (eds), Humour in Chinese Life and Letters: Classical and Traditional Approaches, 169–218. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.Google Scholar
Santangelo, Paolo (ed.). 2012. Laughing in Chinese. (Asia Orientale.) Rome: Aracne.Google Scholar
Schaberg, David. 2005. “Playing at critique: indirect remonstrance and the formation of Shi identity”, in Kern, Martin (ed.), Text and Ritual in Early China, 194–225. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Schultz, Thomas. 1976. “A cognitive–developmental analysis of humor”, in Chapman, Tony and Foot, Hugh (eds), Humor and Laughter: Theory, Research and Applications, 12–3. New York: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Scruton, Roger. 1986. “Laughter”, in Morreal, John (ed.), The Philosophy of Laughter and Humor, 156–71. (SUNY Series in Philosophy.) Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Smuts, Aaron. 2015. “Humor”, in Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Accessed 27 July 2018. https://www.iep.utm.edu/humor/.Google Scholar
Spencer, Herbert. 1860. “The physiology of laughter”, Macmillan's Magazine 1, 395–402.Google Scholar
Sterckx, Roel. 2002. The Animal and the Daemon in Early China. (SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture.) Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Suls, Jerry. 1972. “A two-stage model for the appreciation of jokes and cartoons: an information-processing analysis”, in Goldstein, Jeffrey H. and McGhee, Paul (eds), The Psychology of Humor: Theoretical Perspectives and Empirical Issues, 81–99. New York: Academic Press.10.1016/B978-0-12-288950-9.50010-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ter Haar, Barend. 1998. The Ritual and Mythology of the Chinese Triads. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, Shumin 王叔岷. 1978. Zhuangxue guankui 莊學管窺. Taipei: Yiwen yinshuguan.Google Scholar
Wang, David. 2005. “Zhuangzi and the obsession with being right”, History of Philosophy Quarterly 22/2, 91–107.Google Scholar
Wang, Robin R. 2009. “Can Zhuangzi make Confucians laugh? Emotions, propriety, and the role of laughter”, in Laughter in Eastern and Western Philosophies: Proceedings of the Académie du Midi, 39–48. (Welten der Philosophie, 3.) Freiburg: Verlag Karl Alber.Google Scholar
Wang, Xianqian 王先謙. 2010 [1988]. Xunzi jijie 荀子集解. (Xin bian zhu zi ji cheng.) Beijing: Zhonghua shuju.Google Scholar
Wang, Xianshen 王先慎. 2018 [1998]. Han Feizi jijie 韩非子集解 (Xin bian zhu zi ji cheng.) Beijing: Zhonghua shuju.Google Scholar
Watson, Burton (trans.). 1968. The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu. (UNESCO Collection of Representative Works. Chinese Series: Records of Civilization, Sources and Studies, 80.) New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Xu, Weiyu 許維遹. 2009. Lüshi chunqiu jishi 呂氏春秋集釋. (Xin bian zhu zi ji cheng, di yi ji.) Beijing: Zhonghua shuju.Google Scholar
Yang, Bojun 楊伯峻. 2018 [1981]. Chun qiu zuo zhuan zhu 春秋左傳注. (Zhong hua guo xue wen ku, di qi ji.) Beijing: Zhonghua shuju.Google Scholar
Yuan, Ai. 2016. “On acceptance”, Dongwu zhexue xuebao 東吳哲學學報 33, 97–121.Google Scholar
Zhang, Chunyi 張純一. 2016. Yanzi chunqiu jiaozhu 晏子春秋校注. (Zhong hua guo xue wen ku, di liu ji.) Beijing: Zhonghua shuju.Google Scholar