Zhuangzi was a fourth-century BC Chinese philosopher whose book is the funniest of the Daoist classics — full of useless trees, incompetent sages, and a butterfly dream that leaves the dreamer unsure which of them is real. Against Confucian earnestness he argued for spontaneity, scale-shifting perspective and a deep suspicion of fixed categories. He reportedly turned down high office on the grounds that he would rather drag his tail in the mud.
