This dissertation offers a hermeneutic reading of the Zhuangzi , with special attention paid to its historical development from its inception through to the Wei-Jin period. Several lines of interpretation are undertaken using existing scholarship to place the text more resolutely in history. Following the historical investigation, the dissertation focuses on an original reading of the Tang dynasty work, "Phonetic and Explanatory Notes on the Classics" (Jingdian Shiwen) by Lu Deming (ca. 550-630). The methodology employed is as follows: section one is concerned with textual dating and division; section two with commentatorship; section three is a translation and analysis of Lu Deming's phonetic and explanatory glosses to the "Qiwulun" chapter of the Zhuangzi. Through this study, the reader shall gain a clearer historical understanding of the text and a linguistic rendering that holds true to the original intention of the text.