The Lieh Tzu is the one of the less known Taoist classics, yet perhaps the most accessable and enjoyable one. It's a collection of 111 stories said to be by the noted scholar Leih-Tzu around the fourth century BCE. (Who's it really by? Who knows? And who cares?)

The stories cover a variety of topics, such as choosing what is important, how to lead a group of people, archery, choosing ones targets well, Confucius, why one chooses to be a Taoist, and much more.

My favorite quote is "Enlightenment is a very normal experience, attainable by everyone. Therefore, there is nothing mysterious or secretive about it."

A simply wonderful, tranquil book that is enjoyable to read and contemplate.

...of the Taoist classic fables, all of which can be read as simple stories or wells of wisdom. I particularly like the tales of the Yellow Emperor.

This book, unlike the more well known works by Lao-Tse and Chuang-Tse, is mostly made up of stories, and is very well suited to children. I read my library's copy, and I wish I could buy a copy to keep for myself, and for my children someday. It is an immensely comforting and wise text we owe to Lieh-Tse, a Taoist master who lived about two centuries after Lao-Tse.

A superb book. Lieh Tzu's philosophy is much closer to Lao Tzu and the Buddhists, than the rebellious Chuang Tzu. This book has everything: discussions about the Tao, spiritual well beingness, universe, physics, robotics, acid-trips, hedonism, Chinese hippies, insanity, and Confucian downfall...all in 200BC.

My favorite chapter is "King Mu of Chou" which is a psychedelic mushroom trip. And what gave it away was the "echoes" and landscape and colors that the king halucinated. McKenna explained similar symptoms in his: The Invisible Landscape.

There is also so some weird alien link to this ancient text. Previously I had read that the Yellow Emperor might have been an alien. Lieh Tzu confirms this when he mentions the robot andriod who acted like a human, but was a working machine inside. This is weird. Remember that the time when this book was written is approx 200 BC.

Another interesting character is Yang Chu, your typical hippy who finds no pleasure except in good looking women, clothing and food. Totally not agreeing with orthodox Taoist thought, but never the less every bit relevant. I love his story about the two brothers who preferred getting drunk and having orgies rather than ruling a country.

This book is perhaps the link between the 60s movement and Taoism.

THE BOOK OF LIEH-TZU : A Classic of the Tao. Translated by A. C. Graham. 192 pp. New York : Columbia University Press, 1990. ISBN 0-231-07237-6 (pbk.)

A. C. Graham tells us, in his informative Introduction to the present book, that Taoism, which attained maturity in the 3rd century B.C., is "the greatest philosophical tradition of China after Confucianism." Modern scholars are inclined to think that its three key texts were composed in the following order : 1. the Chuang-tzu; 2. the Tao Te Ching (or the Lao-tzu); 3. the Lieh-tzu. The latter, which is the least well-known in the West, is "a collection of stories, sayings and brief essays grouped in eight chapters, each loosely organized around a single theme" (p.1) :

1. Heaven's Gifts (reconciliation with death); 2. The Yellow Emperor (the Taoist principle of action); 3. King Mu of Chou (the idea that life is a dream); 4. Confucius (the futility of the Confucian faith in knowledge); 5. The Questions of T'ang (the universe is infinite in space and time); 6. Endeavour and Destiny; 7. Yang Chu (a chapter on Hedonism "so unlike the rest ... that it must be the work of another hand"); 8. Explaining Conjunctions (the effect of chance conjunctions of events).

Just why the Lieh-tzu isn't so well known I don't know, since it can at times be every bit as sublime as the Lao-tzu, and every bit as joyous and funny as the Chuang-tzu, while the true spirit of Tao is present throughout (except perhaps in the spurious seventh chapter). Since it's also, in some ways, a more approachable text, it would make a good entry point for newcomers to philosophical Taoism.

Graham is one of the West's greatest sinologists and his translation reads very well indeed. I often get the feeling from Graham, however, that he is prevented from fully appreciating the sublimity and what to me is the self-evident truth of philosophical Taoism because he remains trapped in a Western mindset that blinds him to these.

On the one hand he is prepared to concede that "Taoism coincides with the scientific world-view at just those points where the latter most disturbs Westerners rooted in the Christian tradition - the littleness of man in a vast universe; the inhuman Tao which all things follow, without purpose and indifferent to human [desires]; the transience of life; the impossibility of knowing what comes after death; unending change in which the possibility of progress is not even conceived; the relativity of values; [etc.]" (p,13).

On the other hand Graham tells us that : "The Taoist ... cannot be a 'philosopher' in the Western sense, establishing his case by rational argument; he can only guide us in the direction of the Way by aphorisms, poetry, and parable. The talents he needs are those of an artist and not of a thinker" (p.11).

What Graham fails to note is that NO philosopher has ever "established his case by rational argument" because, as is proved every day, rational argument leads only to further rational argument and can never lead to truth. The Taoist would see Graham's "rational argument" as a futile and _excessive_ use of reason, in contrast to his more _reasonable_ use of reason, but to suggest, as Graham does, that because of this the Taoist is not a real "thinker" seems simply a piece of Western ethnocentrism, though Graham's blind spot prevents him from realizing this.

Graham's Introduction, apart from misleading the reader on this essential point, is a fine piece of writing, and his translation is up to his usual high standards. Those who are new to Taoism will probably find it far easier to read and considerably more illuminating than much of what passes for 'philosophy' in the modern world, while those who already know their Chuang-tzu and Lao-tzu will no doubt find it quite enjoyable too. As the third important classic of philosophical Taoism, it becomes a valuable text we would be unwise to overlook.

the "liehtzu" is the least known of the three most important texts of ancient taoist philosophy (the other two being the "tao te ching" and the "chuangtzu") and easily the most accessible. the "liehtzu" doesn't display much of the rambling riddles of the "chuangtzu" and lacks the beautiful, oblique poetry of the "tao te ching," instead choosing to illustrate taoist thought by means of parables and stories. easily the best and most readable guide to a rather slippery philosophy, expertly translated by the always reliable a.c. graham. it's lovely, inspirational, and i've worn my copy thin.