戰國士人需要應對的一個核心議題是，如何免於來自權力主體的侮辱。相對於儒家對道德主體性的高揚，以莊子為代表的早期道家特別關注「道德」判斷知識的有效性問題，以為任何知識均具有一「屬己」性，非是「正知」。為此，莊子給出「無己」之「自我」技術，以脫逸既有之「評價系統」，從而規避權力機制對「知識主體」的戕害。

To gentlemen in Warring states,it is a key issue how to escape of disgrace from the king.Compared with Confucianism advocating moral subjectivity, Chuang Tzǔ held that each moral knowledge or judgement has a self identity and it isn't evident So, to guarantee the indepmental status of gentlemen, Chuang Tzǔ developed a skill of cultivation negating oneself to escape from the system of evaluation.