Chuang Tzu or Zhuangzi?
Chuang Tzu’s name isn’t really Chuang Tzu. It’s 莊子.
To render 莊子 into English-like words we have to use roman-alphabet letters (a, b, c) to represent a phonetic pronunciation of 莊 子. This process is called romanisation.
There have been many different systems for romanising Chinese sinographs. Each system has its pros and cons, but let’s note how no system is, or ever could be, inherently better than any other. A romanised word, be it ‘Chuang Tzu’, or ‘Zhuangzi’, or any other combination of letters, is not, and is not even close to being, the original Chinese: 莊子. Because of this it doesn’t matter which system we use. Whatever system we choose, the only thing to recommend it over another will be that we just happen to prefer it, for whatever reasons, and that it is a system that other people in the community are using.
The most widely used system in the English-speaking community in the twentieth century was Wade-Giles, according to which 莊子 is rendered ‘Chuang Tzu’. In the 1950s, however, China adopted the Pinyin system, according to which 莊子 is rendered ‘Zhuangzi’, and over the last few decades this has become the almost universally-used system in the English-speaking world, all but replacing Wade-Giles.
So, why use the out-of-date Wade-Giles spelling (‘Chuang Tzu’) instead of the current, almost universally-used Pinyin spelling (‘Zhuangzi’)? Because whereas the printed words ‘Chuang Tzu’ are rounded, warm, and convey a sense of Eastern antiquity, ‘Zhuangzi’ is a harsh neon-lit nightmare of futuristic zeds.
Given that Pinyin (‘Zhuangzi’) is the official romanisation system of China, and the United Nations, and Stanford University, and—Ah, it is inevitable, I know, that ‘Chuang Tzu’ will die out and become completely replaced by ‘Zhuangzi’. But, and call it what you will—I’m holding on to ‘Chuang Tzu’.
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