The complex and long genesis of the Daodejing is widely known. Whether it was originally composed by a single author, the legendary Laozi, or whether it emerged over time as a sort of collective ...anthology ancient sayings, the text underwent countless changes made by copyists and commentators over the centuries, and the Daodejing extensively published today is clearly something different from its first (and second) versions. For this reason, as well as for the nature of Chinese thought itself, it seems inappropriate to search for a philosophical “system” in the Daodejing. Nonetheless, the text can shed light on the view of nature permeating classical China. The paper will focus on three issues. The first is the ontological non-individualization of the Dao, which is the counterpart to the epistemological individualization of the human and social world. The second is the kind of metaphysics that can frame these features: a metaphysics of diachronic events, processes, and emergences, rather than a synchronic metaphysics of objects, substances, and monadic properties. The third, finally, is the fragmenting power of language, which through naming and knowledge creates that individualization that splits the undivided unity of the Dao.
This article interprets the kula system through the lens of the Laozi, a Chinese classic of the 6th century BCE. Laozi's ideas regarding “esteeming goods,” “non‐accumulation,” and “small realms with ...few people” allow us to understand why kula shells and names are precious but impossible to accumulate and how kula serves to keep societies small and peaceful with its subtle practice of organizations, technologies, and calendars. Through exemplary “elders” who esteem goods hard to accumulate, the kula operates as a void system close to the spontaneous order idealized by Laozi, who promoted the ideal of the non‐accumulative Sage. Epistemologically, the article continues the anthropological tradition of perspectivist comparison by proposing a Sinic interpretation, a version of multi‐universalism that does not intend to invalidate the existing universalism but seeks to transcend the view of a singular western universalism and multiple non‐Western exceptionalisms.
Résumé
Cet article interprète le système kula au prisme de Laozi, un classique chinois du 6ème siècle avant notre ère. Les idées de Laozi concernant “estime des biens”, “non‐accumulation” et “petits royaumes avec peu d'habitants” nous permettent de comprendre pourquoi les coquilles et les noms du kula sont précieux mais impossibles à accumuler et comment le kula sert à maintenir des sociétés petites et pacifiques grâce à sa pratique subtile des organisations, des technologies et des calendriers. A travers des “anciens” exemplaires qui estiment les biens difficiles à accumuler, le kula fonctionne comme un système vide proche de l'ordre spontané idéalisé par Laozi, qui promouvait l'idéal du Sage non accumulateur. Sur le plan épistémologique, cet article poursuit la tradition anthropologique de la comparaison perspectiviste en proposant une interprétation sinique, une version du multi‐universalisme qui n'a pas l'intention d'invalider l'universalisme existant mais cherche à transcender la vision d'un universalisme occidental singulier et celle de multiples exceptionnalismes non‐occidentaux. Laozi, kula, paradigme du don, perspectivisme sinique
Resumen
Este artículo interpreta el sistema kula a través de los lentes de Laozi, un clásico chino del siglo VI AEC. Las ideas de Laozi acerca de “estimar los bienes”, “no acumulación” y “esferas pequeñas con pocas personas” nos permite entender por qué las conchas kula y los nombres son preciosos pero imposibles de acumular, y cómo Kula sirve para mantener las sociedades pequeñas y pacíficas con su práctica sutil de organizaciones, tecnologías y calendarios. A través de los “mayores” ejemplares quienes estiman los bienes difíciles de acumular, el Kula opera como un sistema nulo cercano al orden espontáneo idealizado por Laozi, quien promovió el ideal del Sage no acumulativo. Epistemológicamente, el artículo continúa la tradición antropológica de la comparación perspectivista al proponer una interpretación Sinic, una versión de multiuniversalismos que no intenta invalidar el existente universalismo, pero busca trascender la visión del universalismo occidental singular y múltiples excepcionalismos no occidentales. Laozi, kula, paradigma de regalos, perspectivismo Sinic
A third-century Chinese author remarked that Buddhist scriptures and the Laozi were similar in some ways and different in others. The aim of this article is to address the question of what led the ...Chinese to perceive similarities between the literature of the two traditions. It identifies and contrasts passages from both literatures, examining how they resemble each other mainly on the following three points: the body as a source of suffering, handling desires, and the virtue of compassion. The article demonstrates that the two literatures may convey apparently similar messages on these three points while, at the same time, being different in scale and depth of their treatment, as well as their importance within their respective traditions.
Taiyi 太一, the void and dark central region of the celestial sphere, carries symbolic implications that resonate with the essence of ultimate reality in the philosophical framework of the Laozi 老子. It ...assumes a metaphorical representation of the ultimate reality and its movement pattern, serving as the axis from which the fundamental concepts and principal branches of this philosophy unfurl. The concept of Taiyi exerts a profound and far-reaching impact on the philosophical discourse of the Laozi. It assumes the mantle of a signifier for the ultimate reality within the philosophical framework of the Laozi, while its dynamic motion patterns imbue the cosmological principles of this philosophy. On a pragmatic level, Taiyi unveils profound and nuanced insights into human nature and the epistemology expounded by the Laozi.
In light of the recently published Western Han period bamboo-slip Laozi, now in the collection of Peking University, this paper explores several paradoxes in the textual development of the Laozi. ...Specifically, it presents two examples suggesting that since the wording in the Laozi was originally intended to be ambiguous and paradoxical, during the transmission of the text, the compilers or commentators modified some of the paradoxes to make better sense. Eventually those modifications came to replace the original text. In the first part of this article examines certain contrasting differences in Chapter Eight from the Beida Laozi, the Mawangdui Laozi, and the received Laozi. The second part, I examine certain other contrasting differences from these same versions from Chapter Twenty-Four are discussed. This paper argues that these differences among the various versions are not the product of transcribal error; rather, they are the result of compilers or commentators who revised these passages against their earliest versions in order to make the meaning clearer and more explicit.
Decoding Dao Rainey, Lee Dian
2014/01/01, 2013, 2014, 2013-12-16, 2013-12-11
eBook
Written by a leading authority on Chinese philosophy, Decoding Dao uniquely focuses on the core texts in Daoist philosophy, providing readers with a user- friendly introduction that unravels the ...complexities of these seminal volumes. * Offers a detailed introduction to the core texts in Daoist philosophy, the Dao De Jing and the Zhuangzi, two of the most widely read – and most challenging – texts in China's long literary history * Covers the three main ways the texts can be read: as religious, mystical, and philosophical works * Explores their historical context, origins, authorship, and the reasons these seminal texts came into being, along with the key terms and approaches they take * Examines the core philosophical arguments made in the texts, as well as the many ways in which they have been interpreted, both in China itself and in the West * Provides readers with anunrivalled insight into the multifaceted philosophy of Daoism – and the principles underlying much of Chinese culture – informed by the very latest academic scholarship
The Laozi is a well-loved and oft-translated ancient text, whose popularity with interpreters and translators seems to have hardly ebbed in over two thousand years. This is attested in part by the ...number of bamboo and silk manuscript versions of the text unearthed in recent years from the Warring States (475–221 b.c.e.) and Western Han (221–206 b.c.e.), such that few transmitted Chinese texts have so many corresponding manuscript versions. The Laozi's popularity and relative abundance have also made the text instrumental in shaping theoretical approaches to book formation in early Chinese manuscript culture. In particular, the Laozi has been central to the study of how books were assembled out of pre-existent, stable, coherent molecules of text, or zhang 章 (chapters). Emerging from a case study of Laozi chapter 13, in which interpretive problems of the written commentarial tradition are shown to be continuous with those in manuscript culture, this article re-examines the theory of molecular coherence in the Laozi's formation, showing ultimately that the textual and rhetorical patterns by which zhang cohere internally are created by the same forces that deposit zhang in proximity to one another. Moving from the molecular to organismic level, the article also examines the use of conjoining phrases in Peking University's Laozi manuscript to demonstrate how editors, compilers, and interpreters may sacrifice coherence at one level of organization to achieve perfection at another.
Turner as a Daoist Sage Dockstader, Jason
Journal of aesthetics and phenomenology,
07/2020, Letnik:
7, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
In this paper, I provide a cross-cultural comparison between the life and work of the English land- and seascape painter, J.M.W. Turner, and the conception of aesthetic experience and artisanship ...found in classical Chinese Daoism. I argue that Turner exhibits certain key features of the Daoist sage. By developing some recent interpretations of his life and work, I claim that Turner, especially in his later seascapes, exhibited an approach to aesthetic experience that involves the artist's total absorption into and identification with the natural process with which he is concerned. Next, I show how the Daoist approach to aesthetics and artisanship similarly focuses on the artist's capacity to identify with the power and source of the world they aim to aesthetically experience. The central motif in both certain of Turner's later work and the Daoist approach to aesthetic creativity is the figure of the vortex. By becoming the center of a natural vortex, and even the vortex that is nature itself, the Turnerian and Daoist artist experiences and embodies the wisdom of accessing and identifying with nature's omnipotence. Such wisdom is thus expressed in the artwork by emphasizing the fundamental dynamism and vagueness of all things. I conclude by claiming that if one reads Turner as a Daoist sage, then a novel model for the aesthetic experience and appreciation of nature can be offered. I call this "the identification model" and recommend it being slotted into our taxonomy of contemporary options within environmental aesthetics.
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