Q0409

“Heaven and earth were born together with me, and the myriad things…” — Zhuangzi (Zhuangzi, Discussion on Making All Things…)

Verified English quotation. Primary source: Zhuangzi, Discussion on Making All Things Equal. Theme: equality.

English

Heaven and earth were born together with me, and the myriad things and I are one.
Thinker Zhuangzi
School Daoism
Source Zhuangzi, Discussion on Making All Things Equal
Theme Equality
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source and attribution

The archive attributes this English wording to Zhuangzi, Discussion on Making All Things Equal and files it under Daoism. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

About Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi (Zhuang Zhou, c. 369–c.

Interpretation

This belongs to Zhuangzi's "equalising" discussion, where he argues that the distinctions people treat as fixed — this versus that, right versus wrong — depend on the standpoint from which they are drawn. His claim is not that all views are equally true but that each is conditioned by a perspective, so treating one's own as final is a mistake about what kind of thing a judgement is. The equality is of status as perspectives, not of merit.

Why it matters

It is a remedy for a specific failure: the confidence that comes from never having seen the question from the other side.

Concepts in this quote

Equality
Equality appears in this archive as a live philosophical concern—not a slogan. These verified English passages show how thinkers treat equality as a problem of judgment, practice, or explanation.
Freedom
Freedom is among the most searched and most contested themes in philosophy: what it is to choose, to be responsible, and to live without illegitimate constraint.

How to cite this quotation

APA: Zhuangzi. (n.d.). Heaven and earth were born together with me, and the myriad things and I are one. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0409

MLA: Zhuangzi. “Heaven and earth were born together with me,….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0409.

Chicago: Zhuangzi. “Heaven and earth were born together with me,….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0409.

Frequently asked questions

What is the source of the quotation “Heaven and earth were born together with me,…”?

The passage is attributed to Zhuangzi, Zhuangzi, Discussion on Making All Things Equal. The archive attributes this English wording to Zhuangzi, Discussion on Making All Things Equal and files it under Daoism. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

What does Zhuangzi mean by equality?

Across 4 recurring voices here (notably Mary Wollstonecraft and John Locke), equality is framed through Feminist Philosophy and British Empiricism. Some passages define equality; others warn how it fails; still others relocate it inside habit, community, or language. This passage enters that discussion through equality, freedom.

Same thinker

More from Zhuangzi

  1. Therefore it is said: The consummate person has no self; the spiritual person has no merit; the sage has no name.
  2. My life has a limit, but knowledge has none. To pursue the limitless with the limited is perilous!
  3. When the springs dry up and fish are stranded together on land, they moisten one another with dampness and wet one another with foam — but better to forget one another in the rivers and lakes.
  4. Once Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly…He did not know whether Zhou had dreamed he was a butterfly, or a butterfly was dreaming it was Zhou.
  5. Relying on the heavenly pattern, I strike into the large gaps, guide through the large openings, and follow what is inherently so.

All quotations by Zhuangzi

Same theme

More on equality

  1. From the Son of Heaven down to the common people, all alike take the cultivation of the person as the root.
  2. I do not wish them to have power over men; but over themselves.
  3. The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it…Reason…teaches all mankind…that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.
  4. Once Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly…He did not know whether Zhou had dreamed he was a butterfly, or a butterfly was dreaming it was Zhou.
  5. Good sense is the best distributed thing in the world.

Browse the equality theme