The tireless cartoonist

The translator of the series, Bruya is a professor of philosophy at Eastern Michigan University and has known Tsai personally for 30 years. Tsai says he was impressed with Bruya's knowledge and understanding of classical Chinese literature, and Bruya praised Tsai's "brilliant combination of wit and wisdom", citing this as the reason he fell in love with his books.

In his writing, Tsai "translated the classical language into contemporary Chinese so that the average reader could understand it," Bruya writes in his introduction to Zhuangzi.

"In Zhuangzi, stories are used to illustrate particular points, and are embedded in larger contexts. C. C.pulls the story out, illustrates it in a series of panels, and then sums up the moral of the story in the final balloon."

Tsai is well-known for drawing from the original context and traditional commentaries to create summaries that make the text relevant to contemporary readers.

"As with his other adaptations, the advantage that C. C.'s versions of the classics have over regular, text-only editions is the visual dimension that brings the reader directly into the world of the ancients," Bruya writes.

Contact the writer at zhangkun@chinadaily.com.cn