SuaveG – The Gentle Path

Chinese mythology, folktales, and literature

true nature

  • Cultivating the Inner Life - The Art of Nourishing Life

    •

    This commentary on Zhuangzi ‑ Gengsang Chu explores nourishing inner life. Through Gengsang Chu and Nan Rong Chu’s dialogue, it advocates infant‑like simplicity, transcending inner‑outer fetters to align with the Dao.

  • Chapter 31. The Fisherman (Yu Fu)

    •

    This page explores The Fisherman from Zhuangzi. A wise fisherman criticizes Confucius for exhausting himself pursuing ritual and righteousness. Advocating “valuing authenticity”, he stresses inner sincerity over hollow conventions, as Confucius humbly receives his Daoist teaching.

  • Why the Urge to Fix Everyone Might Be the Real Problem

    •

    This commentary on Zhuangzi ‑ Ma Ti uses Bo Le’s horse‑taming metaphor. It criticizes forced conformity by sages’ rituals‑virtues, and praises primitive simplicity where beings thrive freely without artificial reshaping.

  • Chapter 9. Horses’ Hooves (Ma Ti)

    •

    This Zhuangzi ‑ Mati excerpt uses Bo Le’s horse‑taming fable. It blames sages’ imposed rituals and virtues for ruining innate nature, and praises the ancient Age of Perfect Virtue of plain, unconstrained simplicity.

  • Why Forced Goodness Can Wreck Your Life

    •

    This commentary on Zhuangzi ‑ Pianmu critiques forced performative morality. Using metaphors like duck‑crane legs and lost‑sheep parable, it warns against sacrificing one’s true nature for external social or moral standards.

  • The Analects – Chapter 17.16

    •

    Confucius laments moral decay: ancient people’s flaws held genuine integrity, yet modern counterparts twist arrogance, pride and foolishness into dissoluteness, rage and deceit. He values sincere nature over cunning hypocrisy amid collapsed rituals.

  • Caigentan 102. The radiance of authenticity

    •

    When a piece of writing reaches the acme of perfection, it is not because it contains some miraculous ingredient, but because it is written in exactly the right way.

  • Caigentan 9. Introspective Alchemy

    •

    In the still of the night, when a man sits alone in meditation, the first thing that happens is that his inordinate desires disappear, and his true self holds sway.