Zhuangzi And The Becoming Of Nothingness

Zhuangzi And The Becoming Of Nothingness Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle version is available to download in english. Read online anytime anywhere directly from your device. Click on the download button below to get a free pdf file of Zhuangzi And The Becoming Of Nothingness book. This book definitely worth reading, it is an incredibly well-written.

Zhuangzi and the Becoming of Nothingness

Author : David Chai
Publisher : SUNY Press
Page : 218 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2019-01-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781438472676

Get Book

Zhuangzi and the Becoming of Nothingness by David Chai Pdf

Explores the cosmological and metaphysical thought in the Zhuangzi from the perspective of nothingness. Zhuangzi and the Becoming of Nothingness offers a radical rereading of the Daoist classic Zhuangzi by bringing to light the role of nothingness in grounding the cosmological and metaphysical aspects of its thought. Through a careful analysis of the text and its appended commentaries, David Chai reveals not only how nothingness physically enriches the myriad things of the world, but also why the Zhuangzi prefers nothingness over being as a means to expound the authentic way of Dao. Chai weaves together Dao, nothingness, and being in order to reassess the nature and significance of Daoist philosophy, both within its own historical milieu and for modern readers interested in applying the principles of Daoism to their own lived experiences. Chai concludes that nothingness is neither a nihilistic force nor an existential threat; instead, it is a vital component of Dao’s creative power and the life-praxis of the sage. “Chai provides an elaborate philosophical meontological interpretation of the ontology/cosmology found in the Zhuangzi and the implications for existential practice. It’s a close, careful, but in many respects quite original reading of the classic that contributes significantly to the field of philosophical Daoist studies.” — Geir Sigurðsson, author of Confucian Propriety and Ritual Learning: A Philosophical Interpretation

Essays on Skepticism, Relativism, and Ethics in the Zhuangzi

Author : Paul Kjellberg,Philip J. Ivanhoe
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Page : 268 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 1996-04-11
Category : History
ISBN : 9781438409214

Get Book

Essays on Skepticism, Relativism, and Ethics in the Zhuangzi by Paul Kjellberg,Philip J. Ivanhoe Pdf

The Chinese philosophical text Zhuangzi, written in part by a man named Zhuangzi in late fourth century B.C.E. China, is gaining recognition as one of the classics of world literature. Writing in beautiful prose and poetry, Zhuangzi mixes humor with relentless logic in attacking claims to knowledge about the world, particularly evaluative knowledge of what is good and bad or right and wrong. His arguments seem to admit of no escape. And yet where does that leave us? Zhuangzi himself clearly does not think that our situation is utterly hopeless, since at the very least he must have some reason for thinking we are better off aware of our ignorance. This book addresses the question of how Zhuangzi manages to sustain a positive moral vision in the face of his seemingly sweeping skepticism. Zhuangzi is compared to the Greek philosophers Plato and Sextus Empiricus in order to pinpoint more exactly what he doubts and why. Also examined is Zhuangzi's views on language and the role that language plays in shaping the reality we perceive. The authors test the application of Zhuangzi's ideas to contemporary debates in critical theory and to issues in moral philosophical thought such as the establishment of equal worth and the implications of ethical relativism. They also explore the religious and spiritual dimensions of the text and clarify the relation between Zhuangzi and Buddhism.

Hiding the World in the World

Author : Scott Cook
Publisher : SUNY Press
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2003-09-25
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0791458652

Get Book

Hiding the World in the World by Scott Cook Pdf

Presents wide-ranging and up-to-date interpretations of the Zhuangzi, the Daoist classic and one of the most elusive works ever written.

Zhuangzi's Critique of the Confucians

Author : Kim-chong Chong
Publisher : SUNY Press
Page : 212 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2016-10-24
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781438462851

Get Book

Zhuangzi's Critique of the Confucians by Kim-chong Chong Pdf

Looks at the Daoist Zhuangzi’s critique of Confucianism. The Daoist Zhuangzi has often been read as a mystical philosopher. But there is another tradition, beginning with the Han dynasty historian Sima Qian, which sees him as a critic of the Confucians. Kim-chong Chong analyzes the Inner Chapters of the Zhuangzi, demonstrating how Zhuangzi criticized the pre-Qin Confucians through metaphorical inversion and parody. This is indicated by the subtitle, “Blinded by the Human,” which is an inversion of the Confucian philosopher Xunzi’s remark that Zhuangzi was “blinded by heaven and did not know the human.” Chong compares Zhuangzi’s Daoist thought to Confucianism, as exemplified by Confucius, Mencius, and Xunzi. By analyzing and comparing the different implications of concepts such as “heaven,” “heart-mind,” and “transformation,” Chong shows how Zhuangzi can be said to provide the resources for a more pluralistic and liberal philosophy than the Confucians.

The Penumbra Unbound

Author : Brook Ziporyn
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Page : 197 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2012-02-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780791487167

Get Book

The Penumbra Unbound by Brook Ziporyn Pdf

The Penumbra Unbound is the first English language book-length study of the Neo-Taoist thinker Guo Xiang (d. 312 C.E.), commentator on the classic Taoist text, the Zhuangzi. The author explores Guo's philosophy of freedom and spontaneity, explains its coherence and importance, and shows its influence on later Chinese philosophy, particularly Chan Buddhism. The implications of his thought on freedom versus determinism are also considered in comparison to several positions advanced in the history of Western philosophy, notably those of Spinoza, Kant, Schopenhauer, Fichte, and Hegel. Guo's thought reinterprets the classical pronouncements about the Tao so that it in no way signifies any kind of metaphysical absolute underlying appearances, but rather means literally "nothing." This absence of anything beyond appearances is the first premise in Guo's development of a theory of radical freedom, one in which all phenomenal things are "self-so," creating and transforming themselves without depending on any justification beyond their own temporary being.

Wandering at Ease in the Zhuangzi

Author : Roger T. Ames
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Page : 252 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2016-02-24
Category : History
ISBN : 9780791494714

Get Book

Wandering at Ease in the Zhuangzi by Roger T. Ames Pdf

Chinese philosophy specialists examine the Zhuangzi, a third century B.C.E. Daoist classic, in this collection of interpretive essays. The Zhuangzi is a celebration of human creativity—its language is lucid and opaque; its images are darkly brilliant; its ideas are seriously playful. Without question, it is one of the most challenging achievements of human literary culture. Thematically, the Zhuangzi offers diverse insights into how to develop an appropriate and productive attitude to one's life in this world. Resourced over the centuries by Chinese artists and intellectuals alike, this text has provoked a commentarial tradition that rivals any masterpiece of world literature. Wandering at Ease in the Zhuangzi continues the interpretive tradition as Western scholars shed light on selected passages from the difficult text, offering the needed mediation between available translations of the Zhuangzi and the reader's process of understanding. Taken as a whole, this anthology is a primer on how to read the Zhuangzi.

Nothingness and Emptiness

Author : Steven W. Laycock
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Page : 234 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2012-02-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780791490969

Get Book

Nothingness and Emptiness by Steven W. Laycock Pdf

This sustained and distinctively Buddhist challenge to the ontology of Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness resolves the incoherence implicit in the Sartrean conception of nothingness by opening to a Buddhist vision of emptiness. Rooted in the insights of Madhyamika dialectic and an articulated meditative (zen) phenomenology, Nothingness and Emptiness uncovers and examines the assumptions that sustain Sartre's early phenomenological ontology and questions his theoretical elaboration of consciousness as "nothingness." Laycock demonstrates that, in addition to a "relative" nothingness (the for-itself) defined against the positivity and plenitude of the in-itself, Sartre's ontology requires, but also repudiates, a conception of "absolute" nothingness (the Buddhist "emptiness"), and is thus, as it stands, logically unstable, perhaps incoherent. The author is not simply critical; he reveals the junctures at which Sartrean ontology appeals for a Buddhist conception of emptiness and offers the needed supplement.

The Paradox of Being

Author : Poul Andersen
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 370 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2021-03-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781684171040

Get Book

The Paradox of Being by Poul Andersen Pdf

The question of truth has never been more urgent than today, when the distortion of facts and the imposition of pseudo-realities in the service of the powerful have become the order of the day. In The Paradox of Being Poul Andersen addresses the concept of truth in Chinese Daoist philosophy and ritual. His approach is unapologetically universalist, and the book may be read as a call for a new way of studying Chinese culture, one that does not shy away from approaching “the other” in terms of an engagement with “our own” philosophical heritage. The basic Chinese word for truth is zhen, which means both true and real, and it bypasses the separation of the two ideas insisted on in much of the Western philosophical tradition. Through wide-ranging research into Daoist ritual, both in history and as it survives in the present day, Andersen shows that the concept of true reality that informs this tradition posits being as a paradox anchored in the inexistent Way (Dao). The preferred way of life suggested by this insight consists in seeking to be an exception to ordinary norms and rules of behavior which nonetheless engages what is common to us all.

Wandering on the Way

Author : Tzu Chuang
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
Page : 462 pages
File Size : 48,7 Mb
Release : 2000-04-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 082482038X

Get Book

Wandering on the Way by Tzu Chuang Pdf

In this vivid, contemporary translation, Victor Mair captures the quintessential life and spirit of Chuang Tzu while remaining faithful to the original text.

Fiction and Philosophy in the Zhuangzi

Author : Romain Graziani
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 216 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2021-01-14
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781350124332

Get Book

Fiction and Philosophy in the Zhuangzi by Romain Graziani Pdf

Brimming with mythical imagination, poetic sallies, and often ferociously witty remarks, the Zhuangzi is one of China's greatest literary and philosophical masterpieces. Yet the complexities of this classical text can make it a challenging read. This English translation leads you confidently through the comic scenes and virtuoso writing style, introducing all the little stories Zhuangzi invented and unpicking its philosophical insights through close commentaries and helpful asides. Romain Graziani opens up the text as never before, showing how Zhuangzi uses the stories as an answer to Mencius's conception of sacrifice and self-cultivation, restoring the critical interplay with Confucius' Analects, and guiding you through the themes of the animal world, sacrifice, political violence, meditation, illness, and death. In Graziani's translation, the co-founder of Taoism emerges as a remarkable thinker: a dedicated disparager of moral virtues who stubbornly resists any form of allegiance to social norms and the only Warring States figure to improvise with the darkest irony on the weaknesses of men and their docile subservience to the unquestioned authority of language. For anyone coming to Chinese philosophy or the Zhuangzi for the first time, this introduction and translation is a must-read, one that reminds us of the importance of thinking beyond our limited, everyday perspectives.

Dao Companion to Xuanxue 玄學 (Neo-Daoism)

Author : David Chai
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 523 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2020-09-29
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9783030492281

Get Book

Dao Companion to Xuanxue 玄學 (Neo-Daoism) by David Chai Pdf

This comprehensive volume surveys an important but neglected period of Chinese intellectual history: Xuanxue (Neo-Daoism). It provides a holistic approach to the philosophical and religious traits of this movement via the concepts of non-being, being, and oneness. Thinkers and texts on the periphery of Xuanxue are also examined to show readers that Xuanxue did not arise in a vacuum but is the result of a long and continuous evolution of ideas from pre-Qin Daoism. The 25 chapters of this work survey the major philosophical figures and arguments of Xuanxue, a movement from the Wei-Jin dynastic period (220-420 CE) of early-medieval China. It also examines texts and figures from the late-Han dynasty whose influence on Xuanxue has yet to be made explicitly clear. In order to fully capture the multifaceted nature of this movement, the contributors brilliantly highlight its more socially-oriented characteristics. Overall, this volume presents an unrivaled picture of this exciting period. It details a portrait of intellectual and cultural vitality that rivals, if not surpasses, what was achieved during the Warring States period. Readers of the Yijing, Daodejing, and Zhuangzi will feel right at home with the themes and arguments presented herein, while students and those coming to Xuanxue for the first time will acquire a wealth of knowledge.

Nothingness in Asian Philosophy

Author : JeeLoo Liu,Douglas Berger
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 355 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2014-06-13
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781317683841

Get Book

Nothingness in Asian Philosophy by JeeLoo Liu,Douglas Berger Pdf

A variety of crucial and still most relevant ideas about nothingness or emptiness have gained profound philosophical prominence in the history and development of a number of South and East Asian traditions—including in Buddhism, Daoism, Neo-Confucianism, Hinduism, Korean philosophy, and the Japanese Kyoto School. These traditions share the insight that in order to explain both the great mysteries and mundane facts about our experience, ideas of "nothingness" must play a primary role. This collection of essays brings together the work of twenty of the world’s prominent scholars of Hindu, Buddhist, Daoist, Neo-Confucian, Japanese and Korean thought to illuminate fascinating philosophical conceptualizations of "nothingness" in both classical and modern Asian traditions. The unique collection offers new work from accomplished scholars and provides a coherent, panoramic view of the most significant ways that "nothingness" plays crucial roles in Asian philosophy. It includes both traditional and contemporary formulations, sometimes putting Asian traditions into dialogue with one another and sometimes with classical and modern Western thought. The result is a book of immense value for students and researchers in Asian and comparative philosophy.

Linguistic Strategies in Daoist Zhuangzi and Chan Buddhism

Author : Youru Wang
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 302 pages
File Size : 48,7 Mb
Release : 2003-12-08
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9781134429769

Get Book

Linguistic Strategies in Daoist Zhuangzi and Chan Buddhism by Youru Wang Pdf

As the first systematic attempt to probe the linguistic strategies of Daoist Zhuangzi and Chan Buddhism, this book investigates three areas: deconstructive strategy, liminology of language, and indirect communication. It bases these investigations on the critical examination of original texts, placing them strictly within soteriological contexts. Whilst focusing on language use, the study also reveals some important truths about these two traditions and challenges many conventional understandings of them. Responding to recent critiques of Daoist and Chan Buddhist thought, it brings these two traditions into a constructive dialogue with contemporary philosophical reflection. It discovers Zhuangzian and Chan perspectives and sheds light on issues such as the relationship between philosophy and non-philosophy, de-reification of words, relativising the limit of language, structure of indirect communication, and use of paradox, tautology and poetic language.

Genuine Pretending

Author : Hans-Georg Moeller,Paul J. D'Ambrosio
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 244 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2017-10-17
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780231545266

Get Book

Genuine Pretending by Hans-Georg Moeller,Paul J. D'Ambrosio Pdf

Genuine Pretending is an innovative and comprehensive new reading of the Zhuangzi that highlights the critical and therapeutic functions of satire and humor. Hans-Georg Moeller and Paul J. D’Ambrosio show how this Daoist classic, contrary to contemporary philosophical readings, distances itself from the pursuit of authenticity and subverts the dominant Confucianism of its time through satirical allegories and ironical reflections. With humor and parody, the Zhuangzi exposes the Confucian demand to commit to socially constructed norms as pretense and hypocrisy. The Confucian pursuit of sincerity establishes exemplary models that one is supposed to emulate. In contrast, the Zhuangzi parodies such venerated representations of wisdom and deconstructs the very notion of sagehood. Instead, it urges a playful, skillful, and unattached engagement with socially mandated duties and obligations. The Zhuangzi expounds the Daoist art of what Moeller and D’Ambrosio call “genuine pretending”: the paradoxical skill of not only surviving but thriving by enacting social roles without being tricked into submitting to them or letting them define one’s identity. A provocative rereading of a Chinese philosophical classic, Genuine Pretending also suggests the value of a Daoist outlook today as a way of seeking existential sanity in an age of mass media’s paradoxical quest for originality.

The Wisdom of Zhuang Zi on Daoism

Author : Zhuangzi
Publisher : Peter Lang
Page : 462 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : Foreign Language Study
ISBN : 1433100789

Get Book

The Wisdom of Zhuang Zi on Daoism by Zhuangzi Pdf

Throughout the years there have been several editions of Zhuang Zi's book with significant differences in certain parts of the text. Not every word in the book came from Zhuang Zi's pen. Contributions were made by his disciples and there have been many changes to the original text: errors in hand copying the text, in mistaking notations for text, and in outright forgery throughout centuries. Chen Guying's 1976 edition of the book, an eclectic study of all the editions that identifies probable forgeries, is used as the text reference in the present translation.