| Summary: | In this chapter, Dirk Meyer presents a detailed analysis of the “Qiushui” (Autumn floods) chapter of the Zhuangzi. By analysing the literary form of argument, this study casts light on the strategies through which persuasion is invoked on the level of text composition. Although much of the Zhuangzi dates probably from the time of the Warring States period, the composition of the chapters in their current form is a result of Guo Xiang’s 郭象 (d. 312 AD) editorial activity, through which he established a text much in line with his personal vision of the Zhuangzi. Meyer takes this as his starting point of analysis for the “Qiushui” and, as a working hypothesis, looks at the chapter as a whole to investigate its strategies of argumentative persuasion. It appears that the “Qiushui” as a consistent unit, according to Meyer, formulates a coherent vision that manifests an attempt to bridge the gap between a philosophy of praxis and the attempt to communicate philosophical insight through the literary patterns of text composition. The literary patterns of the text transform the “Qiushui” into a text-performance in the sense that, when read, it makes the text recipient act out philosophical insight simply by virtue of reciting the text. The “Qiushui” therefore manifests an attempt to express the unsayable through form. The text as a whole formulates a claim to truth without ever claiming the truth in explicit terms. With the “Qiushui,” Guo Xiang translates the prominent theme of skill in the Zhuangzi into a philosophical essay where the text itself becomes a most skilful praxis of the dao. In his analysis of the “Qiushui,” Meyer carries out a detailed investigation into the literary form of the argument both on the level of the micro and macro structure of composition. One might be tempted to read the “Qiushui” as a collection of mutually unrelated stories, but Meyer’s analysis, like De Reu’s, casts light on the literary strategies by which the different stories in the “Qiushui” are mutually interconnected in a coherent whole where a consistent vision is presented. This is much in line with argument-based texts from the Warring States period where some contain quite an elaborate architecture of text composition. Excavated texts such as the “Zhong xin zhi dao,” “Qiong da yi shi” or the “Wu xing” from tomb Guodian One represent this well. However, unlike a text such as the “Zhong xin zhi dao” in which each unit is given a necessary place, the “Qiushui” entertains a much more organic form of text composition. The different units in this text rather float one into the other, much in line with the overall vision of the text. The literary form of text composition therefore reduplicates the initial metaphor of the text, and Meyer feels confident in concluding that the formal composition in fact expresses the argument of the text on the literary level.
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