The Cicada and the Bird #236 (P)

Chuang Tzu's ancient wisdom translated for modern life

Dear friends of Daily Philosophy,

Welcome back! As the year is slowly coming to a close, I am thinking of where to go with this newsletter in the next, its third full year.

In 2021, the Daily Philosophy newsletter was centred around the project of exploring six philosophies of happiness over the course of the year. We talked about Aristotle, Epicurus, the Stoics, the Frankfurt School and much more. 2022 was, in comparison, less structured. We talked about the future of cities, and we started following the news with philosophical commentary on the Oscars’ slap, the war in Ukraine, new developments in AI, the new ABBA concert, the attack on Salman Rushdie, discussions on censorship and the importance of the British Queen. This year also saw the introduction of premium subscriptions, and I am very grateful to all of you who took one and contributed to the upkeep and development of the site. By the way, if you would like to contribute too, you can subscribe here:

For the next year, I’m still unsure of what kinds of articles you’d like to see in your inbox every week. Articles on the history of philosophy and classic philosophers? More articles on events that make the news? More guest articles from other authors? Or should we attempt another read-through of a classic work, like the attempt we made to read Epicurus’ Principal Doctrines? If you have an opinion on what you’d like to read, please tell me down in the comments!

And now let’s go to today’s article. It’s an excerpt from a new translation and commentary of the Daoist classic, the Zhuangzi, by Australian writer Christopher Tricker. I’d be particularly interested in your comments if you have knowledge of the book and I’m sure that the author would also be grateful for feedback on his translation and commentary.

Let’s go!

The Cook and the Ox

A book excerpt by Christopher Tricker