若果個體生命沒有受到某種不可克服的外部宰制力量的扼壓，並時時面臨滅身之災，也如果沒有不得不與處身的外部世界發生嚴重的衝撞，並被拋擲於日常生活的底層或邊緣，那麼，個體意識的覺醒將是很難想像的。換言之，個體的獨立與其意識的覺醒，實質上是個體精神在困境，甚至是絕境中突圍的結果。從這個意義上而言，處於亂世的莊子以個體整全生命的保存為目的，從現實個體的生命困境出發，走上了探求人生的道路。他從「形」與「神」兩個向度觀照個體，以期求存於人世而不為之傷、不為之刑的具體方式和獨立姿態，最終選擇以非政治化的生存方式逍遙於人間世。本文即旨在探討莊子人生哲學中的「保形」和「存神」兩大主題，並探尋其「保形存神」思想的由來、處理什麼問題與獨特的內涵，及實現的途徑，以期在貌似莊子的養生思想中，瞭解隱於其下對個體生命的關懷與安頓，及為現代人對生命的本身、價值和精神理想的意義，開闢更廣闊的視域。

If an individual's life is unable to overcome the oppression from the power which comes from the outside world; and often confront the calamity of death; and also has no choice to be conflict with the mundane world which he lives in; and is casted to the bottom or the edge of his daily life then, it will be inconceivable to awaken any individual's consciousness. In other words, the independence and the awakening of the individual's consciousness is in fact the result of the individual's spirit who breaks through the dilemma even the impasse. From this point of view, Zhuangzi who lived in the troubled times aimed at conserving the whole life of an individual. He headed for exploring the way of life through the difficult environment of the individual's life. He contemplated what body and spirit will be like in order to shape some concrete method and independent posture which will conserve his life to avoid getting hurt and be put to torture so he chose a depoliticized way of living and did as he pleased in the world eventually. The paper just aims at probing two themes about ＂protect body and preserve spirit＂ of Zhuangzi's philosophy of life, and attempts to investigate the origin, the problem that Zhuangzi would like to tackle, the inimitable connotation, and the way of crystallization of its thought. Above all, we can understand how he care and settle for the individual' life in his thought of cultivation, and to open a broader horizon for the moderns who really concern with the value of life and the meaning of spiritual ideal.