Criticism and Alternatives of Shamanic Politics in Yingdiwang of Zhuangzi - Focusing on the phrase “爲其妻爨, 食豕如食”

This paper analyzes the background and political implications of the story of Liezi(列子) in Yingdiwang(應帝王) of Zhuangzi(莊子) based on the fact that Zhuangzi critically viewed the political participation of fortune tellers from the politics of priests during the Jiaguwen period to the Spring and Autumn Warring States period. Discussing politics with food and animals is one of the main political language patterns at the time, and the phrase “爲其妻爨, 食豕如食” was an expression of the political philosophy of Taoism. Since the ancient times, politicians of fortune teller-cooker status have directly conducted food politics, so the Zhuangzi was able to portray the ideal of ‘無爲之治’ and a motherly clan society that escaped from the shamanic politics of the time through the daily subjects of wife and food. Cooking to his wife reminds him of the Matri-clan society, which is ‘至德之世’, and at the same time, he criticized the systematic shamanism under the name of a huge state and ancestral rites, which is solidifying into the patriarchal society, and this message is made even more evident in the later “食豕如食人”. At that time, animal sacrifice was the main medium in ancestral rites and politics were closely related. Zhuangzi warns that ancestral rites and animal sacrifices systematized with the phrase “食豕如食人” are used to form and maintain a state in the patriarchal society. By expressing that he feeds pigs like humans by Liezi, Zhuangzi tried to present the image of life in Utopia without interference from the huge state through ancestral rites and harm. In addition, since raising pigs in the Warring States era was only possible with a leisurely life, he expressed that feed pig into human food, symbolizing economic abundance. Therefore, the phrase “爲其妻爨, 食豕如食人” is no different from depicting Utopia such as the Matri-clan society, not a huge country like Laozi(老子)'s ‘小國寡民’.