It is no secret that the Daoist philosopher Zhuangzi [1] is one of my absolute favorites. I have introduced him before through some of his stories [2] and my own visual responses to them. Today, I want to share a story I consider one of his core teachings: The Death’s-Head.
The story speaks for itself and needs no further explanation. However, to keep things interesting for readers who are already familiar with the story, I am including a few of my older graphics, related to this topic. I did not create these out of a morbid fascination. Most of us occasionally think about death and, above all, what happens to us afterward. I handle the Daoist perspective quite well, and no one has illustrated it better than the great Zhuangzi.
The Death’s-Head
Zhuangzi was traveling to Chu when he came across an empty, bleached skull at the side of the road. He tapped it with his riding crop and asked, “Did you end up here because of greed and bad choices? Were you a defeated soldier? Did you bring shame to your family, or did you simply die of cold and hunger?”
Receiving no answer, Zhuangzi used the skull as a pillow and went to sleep.
In the middle of the night, the skull appeared to him in a dream. “You talk like a philosopher,” the skull said. “But all your words only point to the burdens of the living. In death, there are no rulers and no subjects. There are no changing seasons. We simply rest, as eternal as heaven and earth. Not even a king on his throne has more happiness than this.”
Zhuangzi did not believe it. “If I could ask the God of Fate to give you back your body, flesh, and bones, and return you to your hometown and your family, would you want that?”
The skull frowned deeply and replied, “Why would I give up a joy greater than a king’s just to suffer the troubles of human life all over again?”
footnotes:
1] Zhuang Zhou, honorifically often known as Zhuangzi was an influential Chinese philosopher who lived around the 4th century BCE during the Warring States period, a period of great development in Chinese philosophy, the Hundred Schools of Thought. He is credited with writing—in part or in whole—a work known by his name, the Zhuangzi, which is one of two foundational texts of Taoism, alongside the Tao Te Ching.
[2] Most of all: https://zettl.blog/2022/10/daoist-talks-i/ and: https://zettl.blog/2023/12/wu-wei/
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