Q0500

“When the Peng bird migrates to the southern darkness, the waters are…” — Zhuangzi (Zhuangzi, Free and Easy Wandering)

Verified English quotation. Primary source: Zhuangzi, Free and Easy Wandering. Theme: freedom.

English

When the Peng bird migrates to the southern darkness, the waters are shaken for three thousand li, and it rises on a whirlwind ninety thousand li high.
Thinker Zhuangzi
School Daoism
Source Zhuangzi, Free and Easy Wandering
Theme Freedom
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source and attribution

The archive attributes this English wording to Zhuangzi, Free and Easy Wandering 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.

How to read this passage

Philosophers distinguish several ideas under the single word freedom. Negative freedom emphasizes non-interference; positive freedom emphasizes the capacity to act according to reasons, virtue, or authentic desire. This passage enters that discussion through freedom.

Concepts in this quote

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.). When the Peng bird migrates to the southern darkness, the waters are shaken for three thousand li, and it rises on a whirlwind ninety thousand li high. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0500

MLA: Zhuangzi. “When the Peng bird migrates to the southern….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0500.

Chicago: Zhuangzi. “When the Peng bird migrates to the southern….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0500.

Frequently asked questions

What is the source of the quotation “When the Peng bird migrates to the southern…”?

The passage is attributed to Zhuangzi, Zhuangzi, Free and Easy Wandering. The archive attributes this English wording to Zhuangzi, Free and Easy Wandering 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 freedom?

Philosophers distinguish several ideas under the single word freedom. Negative freedom emphasizes non-interference; positive freedom emphasizes the capacity to act according to reasons, virtue, or authentic desire. This passage enters that discussion through freedom.

Explore Zhuangzi on 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 freedom

  1. Extreme freedom seems to change into nothing but extreme slavery.
  2. Of things, some are in our power, and some are not.
  3. It is not things that disturb people, but their judgments about things.
  4. He who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave.
  5. If you are distressed by anything external, it is not the thing itself that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it.

Browse the freedom theme