Zhuangzi’s ancient fable about the personal and the political | Aeon Essays

Zhuangzi thought Confucians were like frogs trapped in a well, unable to perceive the limitlessness of the sea

There is a well-known story in the Zhuangzi, the ‘Fable of a Frog in the Well’. It is a conversation between a well frog and a sea turtle. The frog brags about its own comfortable abode and way of life in a caved-in well to a visiting sea turtle. When the turtle describes for the frog what the sea is like, the frog is completely dumbfounded, not knowing what to make of the turtle’s description. This is a tale about the limited world of the well for the frog in contrast with the limitless world of the sea for the turtle. If the Allegory of the Cave in Plato’s Republic has shaped Western…

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