有生必有死，是人類共同的命運。死亡的現象可以觀察，但死亡的真相卻是永遠無解，因此人類害怕死亡。可是，死亡畢竟是一項事實，對它有所詮釋，才能讓人明白如何面對死亡。原始人類集體創作神話來解釋死亡謎團，透過「變形」此一律則，產生「生命一體化」的信念。莊子繼承「生命一體化」的信念，從「變形」概念發展出「氣」的觀念，藉此說明他對於死亡的態度。

That life comes with death is the fate common to all human beings. One can observe the phenomenon of death but never understand its reality, which explains why humans have such a great fear of death. Death is a brutal fact but only with an adequate interpretation of it can we face up to death. Early humans employed collective myth-making to explain the riddle of death and create belief in the ＂solidarity of life＂. Chuang-tzu accepted such a belief and, through his concept of ＂metamorphosis＂, developed, in addition, the idea of ＂qi＂ to illustrate his attitude towards death.