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This document is downloaded from DR‑NTU (https://dr.ntu.edu.sg) Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Freedom as self‑realization : Zide in the Neo‑Daoist Philosophy of Guo Xiang Tan, Christine Abigail Lee 2020 Tan, C. A. L. (2020). Freedom as self‑realization : Zide in the Neo‑Daoist Philosophy of Guo Xiang. Doctoral thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/148932 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/148932 https://doi.org/10.32657/10356/148932 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution‑NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY‑NC 4.0). Downloaded on 02 Oct 2021 06:23:04 SGT Freedom as Self-Realization: Zide in the Neo-Daoist Philosophy of Guo Xiang TAN CHRISTINE ABIGAIL L. SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES 2020 Freedom as Self-Realization: Zide in the Neo-Daoist Philosophy of Guo Xiang TAN CHRISTINE ABIGAIL L. School of Humanities A thesis submitted to the Nanyang Technological University in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2020 Statement of Originality I certify that all work submitted for this thesis is my original work. I declare that no other person's work has been used without due acknowledgement. Except where it is clearly stated that I have used some of this material elsewhere, this work has not been presented by me for assessment in any other institution or University. I certify that the data collected for this project are authentic and the investigations were conducted in accordance with the ethics policies and integrity standards of Nanyang Technological University and that the research data are presented honestly and without prejudice. Date: 3 August 2020 Name of student: Tan Christine Abigail Lee Signature of student: Supervisor Declaration Statement I have reviewed the content of this thesis and to the best of my knowledge, it does not contain plagiarised materials. The presentation style is also consistent with what is expected of the degree awarded. To the best of my knowledge, the research and writing are those of the candidate except as acknowledged in the Author Attribution Statement. I confirm that the investigations were conducted in accordance with the ethics policies and integrity standards of Nanyang Technological University and that the research data are presented honestly and without prejudice. Date: 6 August 2020 Name of Supervisor: Prof Li Chenyang Signature of Supervisor: Authorship Attribution Statement This thesis does not contain any materials from papers published in peer-reviewed journals or from papers accepted at conferences in which I am listed as an author. Date: 3 August 2020 Name of student: Tan Christine Abigail Lee Signature of student: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Writing this work has been a tortuous journey, both intellectually and emotionally. However, it is safe to say that the past four years, in its peaks and valleys, have been the most fulfilling years of my life. The journey would not have been possible without the collective support and mentorship of several people, to whom I owe my utmost gratitude. Above all, I want to thank my supervisor, Professor Alan K.L. Chan, for the gift of his mentorship not only in writing this dissertation but in other professional and personal matters. It has been a true honor to have worked under his authoritative guidance, which he has generously given me despite his own demanding schedule. I will be eternally grateful for the depth of his wisdom, the height of his patience, and breadth of his magnanimity. It is in large part owing to his expertise and careful examination that I owe the completion of this work. I am thankful to Professor Li Chenyang for taking over as my supervisor in the late stages of the dissertation, but also for his unending support in my work and life as a PhD student. In a true Confucian sense, his fatherly guidance and myriad of helpful advice have been integral to my growth as an academic; I will forever be grateful for the opportunity of having worked with such a scholar. Professor Brook Ziporyn, who has written the only book on Guo Xiang available in English, has been a primal force in the formation of this work. I am thankful for the many piercing philosophical insights that he has offered for the improvement of my work. Moreover, his words of encouragement have been a source of perseverance for me during times when I felt that my arguments were nothing but leaps in the dark. Many other professors, in varying degrees and times, were helpful to the formation of the ideas found here. First is Dr. Dimitris Apostolopoulos, who has been kind enough to join my committee at a later stage than others, but who has been patient enough to understand the material and offer his valuable critiques. His perspective has made me consider important questions which I could not have foreseen. Professor Dennis Schilling has been extremely generous with his insights during the several times we have met, to discuss my ideas with me as well as go over earlier drafts of my papers, which have been significant to the development of my ideas here. I cannot thank him enough for showing the amount of enthusiasm that he has on my work, even when he had no responsibility to do so. Dr. Winnie Sung, Professors Karyn Lai, and Jeeloo Liu, have all provided comments on my work at different points in time as well, and I would like to thank them for taking the time to provide helpful suggestions that have been incorporated in this work. Moreover, I am grateful to Professor Richard Lynn, who has kindly given me his translation of Guo Xiang’s commentary to the Cook’s passage, ahead of the release of his book which renders the Zhuangzi and the full Guo Xiang commentaries in English. My Master's supervisor, Professor Alfredo Co, has also been a constant source of support as an intellectual mentor to me. I would like to thank him for his enthusiasm and encouragement towards my research, and for always inspiring me to have at least an ounce of the intellectual rigor that he consistently demonstrates. I am also indebted to my friends who have provided me their support, both intellectual and emotional. Eran Ranatunge has patiently discussed my ideas with me, reading large chunks of the dissertation and helping make passages which are highly abstract appear more intelligible. Many of our conversations served as a sounding board for the concepts I discuss here; I am thankful for his selflessness. I also benefitted from stimulating discussions with Mark Cabural and Kelly Agra who, in spite of our distance, never failed to be available for philosophical engagement. Furthermore, it has been a pleasure to have met and interacted with my NTU Philosophy cohort, Zhang Lili, Hu Jianping, Alice Simionato, Alexa Nord-Bronzyk, and Jacob Bender. We are not a big community, but our discussions have nevertheless been intellectually robust, and for this, I am thankful and proud. My time at NTU has truly been a gift, and it would not have been possible without the financial support that NTU has charitably given me. The university’s Research Scholarship grant has allowed me to write without i worrying about financial burdens, and the grants for conferences that the school has provided allowed me to exchange ideas with the people that were influential to this work. More than this, NTU has provided me with an environment that was conducive to my intellectual growth—an environment where I had the advantage of attending multiple conferences and seminars that allowed me to interact with like-minded scholars. NTU’s staff also deserve credit for their top-notch work: from the library staff who went out of their way to acquire materials necessary for this work, to administrative staff at the Graduate Education Office—Ivy, Christina, and Qiao En—who have made bureaucracy and paperwork, necessary for the completion of this work, a breeze. Finally, I dedicate this dissertation to my mother who, despite her traditional and most practicable upbringing, has lovingly allowed for the circumstances to favorably nurture a daughter’s quixotic pursuit of an unconventional academic life. Tan Christine Abigail L. August 2020 Singapore iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................................................................... i TABLE OF CONTENTS ....................................................................................................................................... iii SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................................................... v INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................................................... 1 A Brief History of the Free-will Problem and its Theological Foundations ............................................................... 5 Problem of Freedom in Classical Chinese Philosophy ............................................................................................ 14 Guo Xiang and the Age of Philosophical Amalgamation ........................................................................................ 26 Historical and Ontological Foundations ............................................................................................................................................... 29 Criticisms against Guo Xiang ..............................................................................................................................................................