For the last few years, I have been learning about The Zhuangzi. It is traditionally regarded as a seminal text from the Daoist tradition alongside the Tao Te Ching.
The Zhuangzi is is a historical text that was possibly written by Zhuangzi himself around 400 B.C. It has been commented or interpreted by others through time.
My interest in Zhuangzi started when exploring the rise of the profilicity phenomena which has been identified and proposed by the authors Hans Moeller and Daniel D'Ambrosio (2021), and which I included in my book about ritual and systems thinking.
I became interested in the idea that, in our modern societies, we have to develop and maintain profiles in our different interactions with people. This was contrary to what I thought up to that point: that we need to have a consistent identity, something to do with our inner values.
During my writing of the book about ritual and systems thinking, I started realising that I had been driven too much by my own upbringing. To have a sincere, authentic identity. To be consistent with a set of values, and try my best to live up to them. It has also taken me several years to identify which values I had maintained. One of them for example is loyalty. In the ritual book, I reflect it when I talk about my rituals to ensure that I belonged to a team of very competent individuals.
Hans Moeller himself had written about Daoism before (2004), identifying allegories in both The Zhangzi and Tao Te King texts that they consider very important to help us deal with our complex world. Moeller has joined efforts with D'Ambrosio and later on (2017) where they study and explain in more detail the art of "genuine pretending", an attitude of acceptance, spontaneity, and easiness to help us with our dealings. They also use the Zhuanzi's translations and included commentaries from Zyporyn (2009) in their work.
As an attitude (am sure there are better terms for it), genuine pretending embeds humour and satirism in both the allegories that Moeller and D'Ambrosio bring forth from the Zhuangzi (and others). In a nutshell, it is about not commiting oneself too much to fixed identities in situation, or if doing so, accepting that these identities are contingent and temporary. So ironically we are to try our best when assuming such identities (or roles), knowing that we are to move on from them.
In my rituals book, I narrate how I showed my loyalty during meetings and when interacting with technology vendors and users. I upheld the strategy of our organization. I also did not put colleagues on the spot. But through time, something changed in my projects. I was the one on the spot. Some colleagues challenged (sometimes with good reason) my competence in public. This made me rethink how I needed to approach work. I then fought back. I spoke out more often and loudly. And then I left after a while, seeking other career prospects.
Perhaps I stopped pretending. Am very thankful though to people I worked with. I learned a bit about what happens in work meetings.
Hans Moeller has found strong similarities between genuine pretenting and the work of the systems author Niklas Luhmann. Although Luhmann would regard human agency as the wrong essential component of social systems (it is more about communication than agency), genuine pretending can lead us to acknowledge that our identities are (not) determined to some extent by the communication demands of such systems (for example the economy, law, the market). We are, if possible then to engage in communications by treating them as second order observations, in other words observing and being aware of how others observe (us).
The market for example is based on what others say about it. The law continusly decides what is legal or not based on what others (judges, rulings, previous laws) have observed. Nowadays, our social media profiles communications are composed by what other people say about them (i.e. comments, likes). Therefore, our identities, our profiles can and need to be regarded as being formed by observations. They are constituted when we engaged in communications with 'peers' (other and usually more visible, powerful or influential profiles).
We are, somehow to detach ourselves from what we think we 'are' in our dealings with communities. This is because, according to Daoism and the Zhuangzi, we will never fully aprehend what goes on, and it does not matter!. There is no point in staying attached to identities that somehow we think are part of such reality. We are just to assume identities temporarily. And protect ourselves from what they ask of us if they ask us for too much.
Hundun
Genuine pretending can embrace many of the allegories of the Zhuangzi to help us humurously recognise issues about our identities in situations. Moeller (2004) and Moeller and D'Ambrosio (2021) bring forth several of these allegories. They range from short paragraphs to more extensive ones, from long narratives to phrases that end with a 'pun' or unexpected twist.
In allegories, the characters are named intentionally to resemble identities that Confucionism regarded as venerable, with (powerful) roles that establish distance between participants. The narratives then provide conversations and interactions that challenge the prevailing tatus quo or the norms whilst still operating within them.
One of my favourite allegories/ narrative is that of Hundun (Zhuangzi, chapter 7). In it, and according to Moeller (2015), a powerful 'emperor' dies after being identified by others as very benevolent. A brief text is as follows:
The emperor of the South Sea was called Shu [Brief]; the emperor of the North Sea was called Hu [Sudden]; and the emperor of the central region was called Hundun [Chaos]. From time to time, Shu and Hu came together for a meeting in the territory of Hundun, and Hundun treated them very generously. Shu and Hu discussed how they could repay his kindness. “All men,” they said, “have seven openings so they can see, hear, eat, and breathe. But Hundun alone doesn’t have any. Let’s trying boring him some!”
Every day they bored another hole, and on the seventh day Hundun died.
For Moeller (2015), this short passage confirms the dangers of overidentifying oneself with a role, an identity or a way of thinking and acting. Through time, the 'emperor' Hundun fails to protect 'itself' from such an overidentification. Those that contribute to 'kill him' (the other emperors) think that they are helping him become more 'human', in other words someone with a clear and dependable identity.
'Hundun' is not an emperor per se. It represents also the 'Dao' that which cannot be named, the force that moves everything. Why should we then 'tame' it, instead of letting it flow through us? In other words, why we should tame ourselves to fixed, 'humanly' recognised identities? Why should we stay so 'loyal' to them?
Community work
Back to the present. After recently finishing two of my 'research' projects (you can read about them in previous blog posts) I have attempted to continue them. And somehow I have begun to succeed.
I am in contact with community managers at my university and beyond. I have also begun to involve some of my students from my course on creativity and problem solving (2025-2026). We have had several meetings and are trying to better understand a complex situation. I keep showing up, offering ideas and support. All of this is voluntary work.
What has transpired so far is that at times I find challenging myself about why I want to continue. I experience frustration or dissatisfaction, as things take time to get off the ground, other people do not show up for meetings or them and I are simply too busy.
With the Zhuanzi in mind, am now trying to be more careful about my loyalty and commitment. I have asked myself:
- Is this project or idea what is needed?
- Why?
- What do I want to achieve?
And perhaps more importantly:
- What is my identity here, is it too fixed?
On this last question, perhaps I am becoming one of the 'emperors' that is trying to help Hundun, by identifying myself with this identity, and by also 'forcing' things, trying be loyal, and grateful.
Zhuangzi and Hundun would remind us that at the end, we are not who we think we are, at least not in the eyes of others. We observe and are being observed, things often move quickly, and we also move on. With the best of intentions, we can only smile about how things pan out.
