New rabbit hole unlocked! Thanks. I have linked the article below for future deep dives into this text. I love Taoist thought and this comment was well timed to prompt a revisit.

Zhuangzi - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

[–] Hegar@fedia.io 4 points 1 week ago

https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Chuang_Tz%C5%AD_(Giles)/Chapter_1

The text itself is a really easy and fun read. Even a couple thousand years later in translation, the inner chapters are hilarious, nonstop brilliance and plenty of the outer chapters are thought provoking. It got me through the pandemic.

Though it would go on to become foundational for Daoism, I'm skeptical that it was ever intended to be part of a larger tradition.

Have you read Neither Lord Nor Subject, by Bao Jingyen? It clearly and passionately makes an eco-anarchist critique of authority from a daoist angle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs23tDAaEho