Here’s the mapping of Bennett’s key concepts to 齊物論 images and parables — so they speak across time and style, but keep their philosophical core.
1.
Actant
→ 莊子之「秋水」裡的河伯與海若
- Bennett: An actant is any entity—human, animal, object, process—that has the capacity to act or produce effects.
- Zhuangzi: In the Autumn Floods chapter, the River God (河伯) meets the Sea God (海若) and realizes that even a mighty river is but a small actant in a larger flow. Each “thing” acts, but within a network of others that transform it.
- Resonance: Both refuse the human monopoly on agency; the river, the sea, the tides are as much “actors” as a person is.
2.
Assemblage
→ 「莊周夢蝶」的生死夢境
- Bennett: Assemblages are ad-hoc groupings of diverse elements—human and nonhuman—that together produce effects.
- Zhuangzi: The butterfly dream collapses distinctions between human and insect, dream and waking. The “I” is part of a transient assemblage of perceptions, bodily states, and cosmic rhythms.
- Resonance: Identity is not fixed essence but a momentary configuration in a web of relations; agency comes from the whole configuration, not an isolated subject.
3.
Thing-Power
→ 「天地有大美而不言」
- Bennett: Thing-power is the intrinsic vitality and allure of matter—the way things exceed their utility to us and have their own expressive force.
- Zhuangzi: The idea that “Heaven and Earth have great beauty but do not speak” (天地有大美而不言) captures this—rocks, wind, and cicadas possess a presence and eloquence beyond human language.
- Resonance: The vitality of things is not granted by humans but is inherent; the wise respond by attuning to this silent eloquence.
4.
Political-Ethical Inflection
→ 「庖丁解牛」的順勢之道
- Bennett: Recognizing matter’s vitality should reorient politics toward a more careful, responsive stewardship.
- Zhuangzi: The butcher Ding’s effortless cutting follows the grain and gaps of the ox—an ethics of non-coercion, working with the inherent structure of the world.
- Resonance: Both advocate aligning with the patterns and potentials of matter rather than forcing it into human schemes.
If you want, I can turn this into a two-page visual spread for your S11 Critical Psychotherapy notes, where the left page has Bennett’s concepts, the right page has Zhuangzi’s scenes, and in the middle runs a “resonance line” that connects them with brief aphorisms. This could make it feel like an illustrated philosophical bridge.
