庄子故里辨

On the Identification of Zhuangzi's Hometown

关于庄子故里问题的考辨和讨论,迄今已出现了五种比较有影响的说法,即山东东明说、曹县说,河南民权说、商丘说,安徽蒙城说。这五种说法在地图上标识出来,可形成一个南北狭长地带,庄子一生活动踪迹大致不出此狭长地带,其故里亦必在其中。对这五种说法做进一步比较,可发现各种直接证据和间接证据都更多地支持东明说。因此,山东东明作为庄子的故里,可能更接近历史的真实。

Around the identification of Zhuangzi＇s hometown, up to today scholars have been in disagreement with one another, And five places have been assumed to be Zhuangzis hometown： Dongming County and Caoxian County in Shandong Province, Minquan County and Shangqiu City in He＇nan Province, and Mengcheng County in Anhui Province. These five places are situated in a north- south slip in which Zhuangzi gradually established himself as a great thinker. Therefore, one of the above places must be his hometown. A further comparison of the five assumptions, directly and indirectly, attests to a large extent the assumption of Dongming as Zhuangzi＇s hometown. Therefore, to identify Dongming as Zhuangzi＇s hometown may be more true to historical facts.