Harmony as a Normative Ideal in Zhuangist Thought

The word hé 和—often interpreted as “harmony”—has a pivotal normative role in several prominent pericopes of the Zhuāngzǐ dealing with how best to follow dào, especially in interaction with others.1 Just what is this role, and why is it expressed by the term hé 和? I’ll try to answer these questions by first surveying the content of hé 和 as used across the classical Chinese literature, then giving an interpretation of its use in Zhuāngzǐ writings, and finally offering a hypothesis about why the term was adopted to express a Zhuangist normative ideal.