In my thesis, I study the practices of cultivation presented in the Zhuangzi. By practices of cultivation, I mean essentially practices of human cultivation, that is to say, practices through which humans transform humans. My main argument is that the Zhuangzi critiques a specific model of cultivation: the scholar-official's model of cultivation. In ancient China, the status of scholar-officials, or shi 士 , depended largely on their capacity to become these cultivated individuals whose knowledge and values made them useful servants of the state. Their culture became particularly important during the Warring States period, a period of intense inter-state competition, as an instrument used by rulers to reinforce their power. The Warring States period corresponds to the development in ancient China of the state as a form of political organization, and scholar-officials played a central role in this phenomenon. The Zhuangzi critiques the scholar-official's model of cultivation because the scholar- official's knowledge and values played an instrumental role in the development of the oppressive and violent politics of the Warring States. Furthermore, the Zhuangzi operates not only as a critique of scholar-official's model of cultivation, but also promotes alternative practices of cultivation. In my thesis, I present these practices of cultivation as essentially addressed to scholar-officials. The aim of these practices of cultivation promoted in the Zhuangzi is actually to 'de-cultivate' scholar-officials in order to emancipate them from the knowledge and values that had made them instruments in the service of the Warring States. To approach this topic, 1 use as a theoretical framework the work of three Western philosophers: Peter Sloterdijk, Michel Foucault, and Pierre Hadot. These philosophers all have studied, from different perspectives, practices of cultivation. Sloterdijk, in You Mus/ Change Your Life, has developed the outline of an original project: the development of ascetology, the theory of the exercising life. Michel Foucault, in Discipline and Punish, has developed the notion of disciplinary society that interestingly articulates practices of cultivation and political power. Finally, Pierre Hadot has studied in detail the practices of cultivation of the ancient Western philosophers, practices he called "spiritual exercises". These three 'ascetologists' provide useful conceptual tools for studying the practices of cultivation in the Zhuangzi.