An early ethical egoist alternative to Mohist and Confucian thought, Yang Zhu's surviving ideas appear primarily in the Chinese texts Huainanzi, Lüshi Chunqiu, Mengzi, and possibly the Liezi and Zhuangzi.
The philosophies attributed to Yang Zhu, as presented in the Liezi, clash with the primarily Daoist influence of the rest of the work.
Of particular note is his recognition of self-preservation (weiwo 為我), which has led him to be credited with "the discovery of the body".
[3] In comparison with other Chinese philosophical giants, Yang Zhu has recently faded into relative obscurity, but his influence in his own time was so widespread that Mencius described his philosophies along with the antithetical ideas of Mozi as "floods and wild animals that ravage the land".
"[5] Mencius criticized Yang Zhu as one "who would not pluck a hair from his body to benefit the world."
Although his detractors present him as a hedonist, Epicurean, and egoist, Yang Zhu was, according to contemporary sources, an early Daoist teacher identified with a new philosophical trend toward naturalism as the best means of preserving life in a decadent and turbulent world.
Pain and sickness, sorrow and suffering, death (of relatives) and worry and fear take almost half of the rest.
Being alone ourselves, we pay great care to what our ears hear and what our eyes see, and are much concerned with what is right or wrong for our bodies and minds.
Death is as natural as life, Yang Zhu felt, and therefore should be viewed with neither fear nor awe.