Tool Usage and Self-Carving in the Zhuangzi : A Heideggerian Perspective

This paper argues that the Chinese character wo 我, usually translated as “I” or “self,” contains a tool metaphor (a hand holding a dagger-axe) that reveals selfhood as constituted through tool-using activities. Drawing on Heidegger’s philosophy of technology, the author contends that the wo-self, like Dasein, is embedded in social roles and tool-bearing practices. By analyzing skill stories in the Zhuangzi alongside references to rectifying tools, the paper proposes that the tool metaphor can either reinforce inherited circumstances and social roles (ming 名/命) or provide a means to cut through them. The author further argues that self-forgetting in skilled activities arises not from absorption in action alone but through dialogical attunement to non-human presence.

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Abstract

This paper examines tool-usage in the Zhuangzi through the lens of Heidegger’s philosophy of technology. Drawing on the ideography of wo 我 – commonly translated as “I” or “self”– I interpret wo as constitutive through its doings, particularly via the use of tools or equipment. The character wo 我 is derived from the radical for “hand” 手holding a dagger-axe 戈, which I address as a broader metaphor for tools. I argue that wo-self, like Heidegger’s Dasein, is situated within social roles and tool-bearing activities. By exploring the textual appearances of rectifying tools alongside the skill stories, I suggest that the tool metaphor embedded within wo-self can either reinforce inherited circumstances and social roles (ming 名/命), or serve as a means to cut through them. I further argue that self-forgetting in skilled activities arises not from absorption in action per se, but through dialogical attunement to non-human presence.