Not all Chinese philosophers were concerned with ethics or society. The most famous figure on the other side is the Epicurus of China, The Yáng Zhū.
While it forms Book 7 of the canonical Daost text Lièzǐ (列子), it is so different to the rest of that work that James Legge, the first English translator, refused to include it in his Lieh Tzu, viewing it as "negative Daoism" or a pleasure-seeking leftover from a prior, less spiritual age.
While the dominant voices of early Chinese thought urged public virtue, ritual discipline, or universal love, Yáng Zhū argues that the best life is a modest one of sensory enjoyment and personal contentment, grounded in the pure and unimpeded expression of your inborn nature. Fame, wealth, and even longevity are distractions from the obvious good stuff: good food, music, comfort, and inner ease. He celebrates a quiet hedonism of sufficiency, a philosophy that scandalised Confucian moralists and provoked Mèngzǐ to complain that "the words of Yang Zhu and Mozi fill the empire."
Anton Forke (1867–1944), the German sinologist and author, translated the chapter into English under the title Yang Chu's Garden of Pleasure in 1912.
The little volume presented Yang Chu's thought as a genuine Chinese counterpart to Epicureanism - a philosophy devoted to hedonism via the careful cultivation of a life free from anxiety and unnecessary desire.
Discover a gentler strain of Daoist thought - one that finds the meaning of life in a well‑tuned lute, a cup of wine, and the freedom to be oneself.
