Zhuangzi

Zhuang Zhou, known as Zhuangzi, was born about 369 BC in Meng in the state of Song, during the Warring States period. He once served as a minor official in charge of a lacquer garden, lived all his life in poverty and made sandals for a living. When King Wei of Chu heard of his wisdom and sent envoys with rich gifts to make him chief minister, he laughed and said he would rather be a turtle dragging its tail in the mud than be kept in honour in a temple. After Laozi he is the most important thinker of Daoism, and the two are named together as 'Lao-Zhuang'. His writing, fantastic in imagination and boundless in its flow, is counted the finest literature among the early Chinese philosophers.