most thinkers on this site tried to get people out of the fog. zhuangzi is here because he looked at the fog and asked: who told you it was a problem?
of the man himself we know nearly nothing — a clerk, maybe, in a lacquer garden in the state of song, in the violence of warring-states china; the only ancient biography is a historian's brief note written centuries later. what survives is the book: thirty-three chapters, of which the first seven ('inner chapters') are traditionally his own, the rest added by followers. everything he 'says' is a translation — burton watson's and james legge's are the ones quoted here.
three scenes carry the whole idea. the butterfly (chapter 2): he dreamt he was a butterfly, 'fluttering about, simply happy', with no idea zhou existed. he woke as zhou — and couldn't tell whether he was zhou who had dreamt the butterfly, or a butterfly now dreaming zhou. the text does not resolve it. it names the uncertainty 'the transformation of things' and moves on. not-knowing which self you are, presented as a punchline instead of a crisis.
the tree (chapters 1 and 4): his friend huizi complains that his big tree is so gnarled no carpenter will touch it — useless. zhuangzi: plant it where there's nothing, wander around it, sleep under it. 'if there's no use for it, what hardship could ever befall it?' the oak the carpenter ignores says its useless wood is exactly why it grew old. if your life doesn't fit the standard use — if you're off every path anyone drew for you — that may be what's keeping you alive.
the turtle (chapter 17, and the old historian tells it too): the king of chu sends two officials to offer zhuangzi the chief ministership — the clearest, most prestigious path his world had. he's fishing. he asks the officials about the sacred tortoise kept dead and honoured in the temple: would it rather be venerated, or alive dragging its tail in the mud? alive, they admit. in james legge's translation: 'i will keep on drawing my tail after me through the mud.' he turns down the map itself. honest notes: dates traditional, biography basically legend, the turtle story sits in the later chapters — and any 'zhuangzi quote' without a translator's name attached is suspect; the internet has invented plenty.