Editing Liezi (section)

==Contents==
The eight ''Liezi'' chapters are shown below (with translations of titles adapted from {{harvnb|Graham|1990}}).

{| class="wikitable"
|-
| Chapter || [[Chinese language|Chinese]]
| [[Pinyin]] || Translation
|-
| 1 || {{lang|zh|天瑞}} || Tian Rui || Heaven's Gifts
|-
| height="25" | 2 || {{lang|zh|黃帝}} || Huang Di || The Yellow Emperor
|-
| 3 || {{lang|zh|周穆王}} || Zhou Mu Wang || King Mu of Zhou
|-
| 4 || {{lang|zh|仲尼}} || Zhong Ni || Confucius
|-
| 5 || {{lang|zh|湯問}} || Tang Wen || The Questions of Tang
|-
| 6 || {{lang|zh|力命}} || Li Ming || Endeavor and Destiny
|-
| 7 || {{lang|zh|楊朱}} || Yang Zhu || Yang Zhu
|-
| 8 || {{lang|zh|說符}} || Shuo Fu || Explaining Conjunctions
|}

Most ''Liezi'' chapters are named after famous figures in [[Chinese mythology]] and history. Either sage rulers like the [[Yellow Emperor]] (supposedly r. 2698?–2599? BCE), [[Tang of Shang|King Tang of Shang]] (r. 1617?–1588? BCE), and [[King Mu of Zhou]] (r. 1023?–983? BCE); or philosophers like [[Confucius]] (551–479 BCE) and [[Yang Zhu]] (fl. ca. 350 BCE).

The ''Liezi'' is generally considered to be the most practical of the major Taoist works, compared to the poetic narrative of Laozi and the philosophical writings of Zhuangzi. Although the ''Liezi'' has not been extensively published in the West, some passages are well known. For example, Gengsangzi ({{lang|zh|庚桑子}}) gives this description of Taoist pure experience:
<blockquote> My body is in accord with my mind, my mind with my energies, my energies with my spirit, my spirit with Nothing. Whenever the minutest existing thing or the faintest sound affects me, whether it is far away beyond the eight borderlands, or close at hand between my eyebrows and eyelashes, I am bound to know it. However, I do not know whether I perceived it with the seven holes in my head and my four limbs, or knew it through my heart and belly and internal organs. It is simply self-knowledge.<ref>{{harvnb|Graham|1990|pp=77–78}}; compare ''Zhuangzi'' chap. 23.</ref></blockquote>
Compare the ''Zhuangzi'' saying, "The Perfect Man uses his mind like a mirror—going after nothing, welcoming nothing, responding but not storing. Therefore he can win out over things and not hurt himself."<ref>{{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040813040642/http://users.compaqnet.be/cn111132/chuang-tzu/7.htm |title=Chapter Seven}}, tr. Watson </ref>