The Experience of Knowing: Illusion and Illumination in the Zhuangzi and the Platform Sūtra
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1 the 4 Discourses of the Dao: Zhuangzi Meets Lacan Shunyamurti
The 4 Discourses of the Dao: Zhuangzi Meets Lacan Shunyamurti speaks: So tonight, let’s explore more deeply: how does a Taoist sage deal with the end of the world? And how does one relate to those who are either in denial or wanting to resist or trying to prematurely bring about a new age before the end of this one? The Taoist understands the order of things and what must be eliminated and cleansed before a new creation can take place, but that must happen microcosmically within the sage’s mind and heart. So in Song 5, that was sung very beautifully by the Daughters of Nothingness, Lao Tzu says: “For the Tao to function fully, both heaven and earth must separate from duality.” This is a very subtle point: heaven and earth seem to be two, but they’re not, they’re only one. So we have to understand the difference between a distinction and a duality. In the same way we can see two sides of a coin as actually being one: nirvana, samsara—heaven and earth—must be realized as a single whole. The sage doesn’t simply leave the world and enter into the transcendent Nothingness and have nothing to do with the samsara, but acts in the samsara, seeing it as nirvana, realizing its perfection, and not being fooled by the apparent events that are occurring in the simulation, but understanding their true significance. So heaven and earth are indifferent to each other because each is nondifferent from the One. The transcendent One is also the immanent One, but that One from which the world and the transcendent derive is present in each. -
Is Freedom in Necessity Or in Happiness? Guo Xiang's and Lin Xiyi's Controversial Readings of Zhuangzi's »Free Rambling«
Is Freedom in Necessity or in Happiness? Guo Xiang’s and Lin Xiyi’s Controversial Readings of Zhuangzi’s »Free Rambling« David Machek The opening of Zhuangzi 莊子1 is subject of a long and ongoing controversy in both Chinese and Western interpretive tradition.2 The most debated issue in this discussion is the nature of relationship between big things, as represented by a huge Peng bird, and small things, as embodied by a cicada and dove. This paper will work with two traditional Chinese commentaries on Zhuangzi that represent the earliest articulations of two opposing perspectives on this relationship, charting the battlefield for later interpreters.3 Since this study will confine itself solely to the commentaries on the first 1 As tradition has it, the author of Zhuangzi is the philosopher Zhuangzi who lived in the fourth century B.C. Today, scholars generally agree that the received and the only extant version of the text in the edition of Guo Xiang consists of several textual layers written in different times by different authors. For a detailed overview and discussion of the history of the text, see David Chai, Early Zhuangzi Commentaries (München: Verlag Dr. Müller, 2008). Nonetheless, the authorship of the first chapter is ascribed to Zhuangzi himself. 2 The most recent discussion of the controversy, as well as a critique of Guo Xiang’s reading was presented by Lian Xinda, »Zhuangzi the Poet: Re-Reading the Peng Bird Image«, Dao 8 (2009), 233– 254. The present study is much indebted to Lian Xinda’s article and endorses a great deal of his conclusions. -
Zhuangzi, Mysticism, and the Rejection of Distinctions
SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS Number 100 February, 2000 Zhuangzi, Mysticism, and the Rejection of Distinctions by Wayne Alt Victor H. Mair, Editor Sino-Platonic Papers Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305 USA [email protected] www.sino-platonic.org SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS FOUNDED 1986 Editor-in-Chief VICTOR H. MAIR Associate Editors PAULA ROBERTS MARK SWOFFORD ISSN 2157-9679 (print) 2157-9687 (online) SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS is an occasional series dedicated to making available to specialists and the interested public the results of research that, because of its unconventional or controversial nature, might otherwise go unpublished. The editor-in-chief actively encourages younger, not yet well established, scholars and independent authors to submit manuscripts for consideration. Contributions in any of the major scholarly languages of the world, including romanized modern standard Mandarin (MSM) and Japanese, are acceptable. In special circumstances, papers written in one of the Sinitic topolects (fangyan) may be considered for publication. Although the chief focus of Sino-Platonic Papers is on the intercultural relations of China with other peoples, challenging and creative studies on a wide variety of philological subjects will be entertained. This series is not the place for safe, sober, and stodgy presentations. Sino- Platonic Papers prefers lively work that, while taking reasonable risks to advance the field, capitalizes on brilliant new insights into the development of civilization. Submissions are regularly sent out to be refereed, and extensive editorial suggestions for revision may be offered. Sino-Platonic Papers emphasizes substance over form. We do, however, strongly recommend that prospective authors consult our style guidelines at www.sino-platonic.org/stylesheet.doc. -
Zhuangzi, Perspectives, and Greater Knowledge*
Zhuangzi, perspectives, and greater knowledge* Donald Sturgeon PhD candidate, University of Hong Kong Although the text of the Zhuangzi1 seems to present many prima facie skeptical arguments, there has been much debate as to the nature of its skeptical stance, and even whether or not its stance is substantively skeptical at all.2 Chad Hansen and Chris Fraser have argued that the Zhuangzi does take a substantively skeptical position, but that this position is more nuanced than simply holding skepticism about the possibility of all knowledge.3 This paper will attempt to build upon Chris Fraser’s proposal that the Zhuangzi is skeptical about our ability to know a privileged class of ultimately correct ways of drawing distinctions (果是 guo shi and 果非 guo fei), but does not question our ability to know how to distinguish things in an ordinary, provisional and commonsense sense. I will attempt to engage with both sides of the debate, by firstly accepting that the Zhuangzi takes a substantive skeptical stance, but also arguing that in doing so the text also provides a positive account of how to improve our epistemic position – an account which * Forthcoming in Philosophy East and West 65:3. 1 This paper will focus on knowledge and skepticism in the anthology known as the Zhuangzi, beginning with ideas presented most clearly in the Qiwulun chapter, but will also consider how these ideas cohere with those presented elsewhere in the anthology – including in passages that may be later additions to the text by one or more distinct authors or editors. Even where this is so, it still seems useful to ask how – if at all – these ideas fit together, and why they might have been collected together in such an anthology. -
Painting Outside the Lines: How Daoism Shaped
PAINTING OUTSIDE THE LINES: HOW DAOISM SHAPED CONCEPTIONS OF ARTISTIC EXCELLENCE IN MEDIEVAL CHINA, 800–1200 A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN RELIGION (ASIAN) AUGUST 2012 By Aaron Reich Thesis Committee: Poul Andersen, Chairperson James Frankel Kate Lingley Acknowledgements Though the work on this thesis was largely carried out between 2010–2012, my interest in the religious aspects of Chinese painting began several years prior. In the fall of 2007, my mentor Professor Poul Andersen introduced me to his research into the inspirational relationship between Daoist ritual and religious painting in the case of Wu Daozi, the most esteemed Tang dynasty painter of religious art. Taken by a newfound fascination with this topic, I began to explore the pioneering translations of Chinese painting texts for a graduate seminar on ritual theory, and in them I found a world of potential material ripe for analysis within the framework of religious studies. I devoted the following two years to intensive Chinese language study in Taiwan, where I had the fortuitous opportunity to make frequent visits to view the paintings on exhibit at the National Palace Museum in Taipei. Once I had acquired the ability to work through primary sources, I returned to Honolulu to continue my study of literary Chinese and begin my exploration into the texts that ultimately led to the central discoveries within this thesis. This work would not have been possible without the sincere care and unwavering support of the many individuals who helped me bring it to fruition. -
Selections from the Zhuangzi: Chapter 3, "The Secret of Caring for Life"
Primary Source Document with Questions (DBQs) S E L E C T I O N F R O M T H E Z H U A N G Z I : C H A P T E R 3 , “ T H E S E C R E T O F C A R I N G F O R L I F E ” Introduction Zhuangzi (also called Zhuang Zhou) was an historically verifiable man who lived somewhere around 360-280 BCE. The long book that bears his name is a combination of material that represents his own thinking and of other writings incorporated by various compilers and editors. Like Confucius, Mencius, Han Fei and others, Zhuangzi lived during the time when the kings of the Zhou dynasty had little real power and the kingdom had disintegrated into feudal states that were constantly at war with each other in shifting patterns of alliances and enmities. During the Warring States period (480-221 BCE), Zhuangzi and Laozi were not considered to be part of a single school of thought. Zhuangzi is more concerned with escaping from the world; Laozi, with cunning ways of ruling it. During the Han dynasty, both works’ concern with the Dao (the “Way” of Heaven) and their mystical understanding of that term inspired historians to lump them together under the single category of “Daoism.” The name stuck. Zhuangzi and Laozi are now forever linked as the two great progenitors of Daoist philosophy and religion. Selected Document Excerpt with Questions From Sources of Chinese Tradition, compiled by Wm. Theodore de Bary and Irene Bloom, 2nd ed., vol. -
Wittgenstein, Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu: the Art of Circumlocution
Asian Philosophy Vol. 17, No. 1, March 2007, pp. 97–108 Wittgenstein, Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu: The Art of Circumlocution Robert Elliott Allinson Where Western philosophy ends, with the limits of language, marks the beginning of Eastern philosophy. The Tao de jing of Laozi begins with the limitations of language and then proceeds from that as a starting point. On the other hand, the limitation of language marks the end of Wittgenstein’s cogitations. In contrast to Wittgenstein, who thought that one should remain silent about that which cannot be put into words, the message of the Zhuangzi is that one can speak about that which cannot put into words but the speech will be strange and indirect. Through the focus on the monstrous character, No-Lips in the Zhuangzi, this paper argues that a key message of the Zhuangzi is that the art of transcending language in the Zhuangzi is through the use of crippled speech. The metaphor of crippled speech, speech which is actually unheard, illustrates that philosophical truths cannot be put into words but can be indirectly signified through the art of stretching language beyond its normal contours. This allows Eastern philosophy, through the philosophy of the Zhuangzi to transcend the limits of language. The ending of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus is well known. Wovon mann kann nicht sprechen, darauf er muss schweigen. That of which man cannot speak, of that he should be silent. This marks the end of 20th century Western philosophy. Western philosophy can only go as far as the limits of language, not beyond. -
The Philosophy of Zhuangzi and the Commentatorial Tradition of Guo Xiang
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ZHUANGZI AND THE COMMENTATORIAL TRADITION OF GUO XIANG Desislava Damyanova Guo Xiang (also known as Kuo Hsiang or Zixuan) is the author of the most important commentary on Zhuangzi – one of the classical Daoist texts.1 He is also known as the person who implemented the current arrangement of thirty-three chapters divided into inner, outer and miscellaneous sections. Although Guo’s initial aim might have been to elucidate the ideas in the original text, his commentary on Zhuangzi represents a substantial philosophical achievement compared to the core text. It contains many original ideas and we shall examine the textual issues on which he is commenting in a try to get a deeper insight into their meaning. Guo Xiang2 practiced his philosophical pursuits this way – within the framework of the Daoist classic – and his manner has served as a blueprint for the later Neo-Confucian synthesis of the Chinese thought. 1 There is some controversy in the recent years over the true authorship of Guo’s commentary - the earliest source, the Jin Shu (Standard History of the Jin Dynasty), accuses Guo Xiang of plagiarizing all but two chapters of the commentary from Xiang Xiu (d. 300 CE, writing a generation earlier). “Current scholarship, while acknowledging that Guo made use of Xiang Xiu’s work and other earlier commentaries, still credits Guo as the principal author. The evidence for this recognition falls into three main areas. Firstly, the most innovative philosophical features in the commentary do not correspond with those in other works by Xiang Xiu. Secondly, in the early twentieth century, a postface to the commentary was discovered which details the work Guo carried out and finally, various linguistic analyses and references in other works suggest that Guo is the principal author.” <http://www.iep.utm.edu/guoxiang/>10.10.2012 2 Actually very little is known about the life of Guo Xiang: he lived in a time of great political upheaval and his own career was one of consistent and significant success. -
Ziran: Authenticity Or Authority?
religions Article Ziran: Authenticity or Authority? Misha Tadd Institute of Philosophy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 5 Jianguo Inner St., Dongcheng District, Beijing 100022, China; [email protected] Received: 26 December 2018; Accepted: 14 March 2019; Published: 18 March 2019 Abstract: This essay explores the core Daoist concept of ziran (commonly translated as spontaneity, naturalness, or self-so) and its relationship to authenticity and authority. Modern scholarship has often followed the interpretation of Guo Xiang (d. 312) in taking ziran as spontaneous individual authenticity completely unreliant on any external authority. This form of Daoism emphasizes natural transformations and egalitarian society. Here, the author draws on Heshanggong’s Commentary on the Daodejing to reveal a drastically dissimilar ziran conception based on the authority of the transcendent Way. The logic of this contrasting view of classical Daoism results not only in a vision of hierarchical society, but one where the ultimate state of human ziran becomes immortality. Expanding our sense of the Daodejing, this cosmology of authority helps unearths greater continuity of the text with Daoism’s later religious forms. Keywords: Heshanggong; Guo Xiang; ziran; authenticity; authority; transcendence; hierarchy; immortality 1. Introduction Ziran stands as one of the key pillars of Daoist philosophy, and, following the immensely influential theory of Guo Xiang (d. 312), has, in modern times, mostly been viewed as the spontaneous and natural “authenticity” -
A Reconstruction of Zhuangzi's Philosophy on Transcendence
religions Article The Big and the Great: A Reconstruction of Zhuangzi’s Philosophy on Transcendence Limei Jiang Center of Value & Culture, School of Philosophy, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; [email protected] Received: 29 November 2018; Accepted: 25 December 2018; Published: 4 January 2019 Abstract: This essay attempts to demonstrate the logic of Zhuangzi in his different attitudes toward “debate on big and small” by bringing into discussion the two versions of translation in the English languages, which provide a new approach to analyze the difference in the controversial commentaries on Zhuangzi. This essay points out that the ideal of “free and easy wandering” is a type of positive pleasure. By means of rational thinking and imagination, one’s searching for the external values is turned into the internal pursuit for wisdom in the transformation of things. Zhuangzi’s theory of transcendence not only provides the subject with multi-perspectives, but also substitutes the self-identity with self-value. Through the interaction between self-awareness and self-reaction, the subject can be unified with the great Dao through purposive activities. However, Guo Xiang’s commentary cancels the necessity of self-cultivation and negates the purposefulness of the subject, which underestimates the value of Zhuangzi’s construction of transcendence. Keywords: positive pleasure; purposiveness; self-awareness; self-reflection; no-self 1. Introduction The “debate on big and small” (xiaoda zhi bian小'K¨) was raised in the first chapter, Free and Easy Wandering (xiaoyaoyou逍e8), of the Zhuangzi. It is also discussed in other chapters such as On Making Things Fit Together (qiwulunPiº) and Autumn Waters (qiushuiË4). -
The Human and the Inhuman: Ethics and Religion in the Zhuangzi
bs_bs_banner ERIC S. NELSON THE HUMAN AND THE INHUMAN: ETHICS AND RELIGION IN THE ZHUANGZI Abstract One critique of the early Daoist texts associated with Laozi and Zhuangzi is that they neglect the human and lack a proper sense of ethical personhood in maintaining the primacy of an impersonal dehumanizing “way.” This article offers a reconsideration of the appropriateness of such negative evaluations by exploring whether and to what extent the ethical sensibility unfolded in the Zhuangzi is aporetic, naturalistic, and/or religious. As an ethos of cultivating life and free and easy wandering by performatively enacting openness and responsiveness to things in an immanent this-worldly context, the Zhuangzi is oriented toward the relational attunement of disposition and practice rather than toward metaphysics or religion in a transcendent sense. It consequently suggests an immanent anarchic ethics without principles while neither forgetting nor reifying the sacred and the mundane in its playful illumination of the biospiritual dynamics of cultivating life. I. INTRODUCTION One reading of the texts associated with the names Laozi 老子 and Zhuangzi 莊子 is that they ignore the properly human and ethical in upholding the supremacy of an indifferent,1 impersonal, and fatalis- tic dao.2 Such concerns are formulated in the “Confucian” (ru 儒) tradition, for example by Xunzi 荀子, and remain prominent among both contemporary religious and secular personalist critics of early Daoism who argue that it lacks an appropriate conception of ethical personhood and moral agency. Early Daoist language appears paradoxically both impersonal and individualistic in how it depicts the sage as differentiated from ERIC S. -
Time in Daoist Practice
Time in Daoist Practice Cultivation and Calculation edited by Livia Kohn Three Pines Press www.threepinespress.com © 2021 by Three Pines Press All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America This edition is printed on acid-free paper that meets the American National Standard Institute Z39.48 Standard. Distributed in the United States by Three Pines Press. Cover Art: “Measuring Flow: Clock over Yin-Yang.” Design by Breant Cochran. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Kohn, Livia, 1956- editor. Title: Time in Daoist practice : cultivation and calculation / edited by Livia Kohn. Description: St Petersburg : Three Pines Press, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2021011151 | ISBN 9781931483490 (acid-free paper) Subjects: LCSH: Time--Religious aspects--Taoism. Classification: LCC BL1942.85.T56 T56 2021 | DDC 299.5/142--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021011151 Contents Introduction Livia Kohn Daoist Practice and the Importance of Time 1 Setting the Theme Hervé Louchouarn Dao Defines Time and Health 17 Part One: Planetary Time Nataša Vampelj Suhadolnik Defining Time: The Codes of Yin-Yang in Han Murals 39 Bede Benjamin