Episode 24: Robber Zhi—Honor Among Thieves?

With a big assist from our guest, Stephen C. Walker, we discuss a highly unusual philosophical dialogue in classical Chinese literature, the "Robber Zhi Dialogue" (from the Miscellaneous Chapters of the Zhuangzi). This shocking story shows Confucius attempting to convince the story's anti-hero (Robber Zhi) to give up his vicious ways. By the end of the story, Confucius emerges as the more naive and inauthentic of the two characters, and moral exemplars in general are called into question. Are purveyors of morality also robbers themselves?

Stephen C. Walker's research page

Many thanks to The Hong Kong Ethics Lab for sponsoring this podcast series.

Want to continue the discussion? Need links to some of the sources mentioned? Go to the support page for this episode on Warp, Weft, and Way.

We thank Lena Li (LI La 李拉 ) for her expert editing and sound engineering. We also thank the blog Warp, Weft & Way for hosting the discussion for this episode.

Co-hosts:
Richard Kim's website
Justin Tiwald's website

Chapters

• 0:00 Part I -- Introduction
• 0:22 • Preview of today's dialogue: an anti-hero lectures Confucius
• 2:23 Part II -- The Robber Zhi Dialogue
• 2:27 • Introducing our guest: Stephen C. Walker
• 4:15 • Short summary of the whole dialogue
• 6:28 • Section 1: Confucius Talks with Robber Zhi’s Brother
• 10:25 • Section 2: Confucius Meets Robber Zhi
• 17:37 • Section 3: Robber Zhi Describes the Golden Age or State of Nature
• 22:09 • Section 4: Robber Zhi on the Decline
• 33:58 • Section 5: Robber Zhi Does Philosophy
• 51:07 • Section 6: Confucius Retreats
• 56:02 • The back-to-nature ("Yangist") reading of the dialogue
• 1:06:11 • Is Robber Zhi suggesting that moralists recruit others to a kind of pyramid scheme?
• 1:09:34 • What it means to take Robber Zhi's views seriously, on Walker's reading