The concept of time in Laozi’s philosophy is more complicated than it appears. Its complexity stems from the fact that there are two distinct concepts of time: the temporality of empirical things, ...which is constructed as a finitely continuous temporal succession that is perceptible, and the temporality of the shapeless dao 道, which is conceived of as a transcendental and infinitely continuous temporal succession that is imperceptible. Referring to the excavated Laozi texts, we find that most of the heng 恆 characters were replaced by the character chang 常 in the transmitted versions of the text. In addition, inspired by the excavated text Hengxian 恆先, the concept of heng in Spring and Autumn period philosophy has become an important subject of study. These two factors collectively lay a thought-provoking foundation for understanding Laozi’s ideas about the continuous, large-scale temporal eternality of dao. This article argues that both the daoheng 道恆 and hengdao 恆道 are used in the Laozi to describe the temporality of dao but that the latter has long been forgotten and overlooked by modern scholars. In the compound word hengdao, the character heng is a noun that acts as an attribute; whereas in the compound word hengdao, the character heng is a noun that acts as the predicate. This article argues that Laozi introduced the theory of “dao is eternal” (dao yongheng 道永恆) as evidenced by the use of heng and several time concepts such as “it seems to have even preceded the first ancestors” (xiangdi zhi xian 象帝之先), “the spirit of the valley never dies” (gushen busi谷神不死), “he who lives out his days has had a long life” (si er buwang 死而不亡), “the way … by which one lives to see many days” (changsheng jiushi 長生久視). The temporality of material things originates from the temporality of dao. Moreover, things can possess and expand their own time if they act in accordance with the universal law of dao.
In his Notes on the Laozi, Yan Fu constructs a new and unique theory of Dao that incorporates ideas from both Chinese and Western philosophies. Yan’s Dao is a unity of the physical and the ...metaphysical. It not only inherits the characteristics of Dao in the Laozi, as the origin and destination of all things, but also adds materiality by being equated to Aether. Yan further draws on the principles of calculus to bridge the physical and metaphysical sides of Dao. However, his infusion of evolution into his Dao conception is incompatible with the cycles of reversion that are the characteristic motion of Laozi’s Dao and this leads to internal contradictions in Yan Fu’s vision. When applied to realpolitik, the principles of void and non-being expounded in Yan’s theory of Dao become embodied in democracy. It can be said that democracy is the ultimate result of applying this new theory of Dao to politics.
Walking an unexplored path, Huiwen Helen Zhang contextualizes Kafka's pithy and cryptic parable, “Wish, to Become Indian” in his transplantation of Daoist philosophy—an astonishing cross‐cultural ...enigma that Zhang terms “Kafka's Dao”—and parses it through a micro‐level approach that Zhang terms “transreading.” Contextualizing “Wish, to Become Indian” in Kafka's dialogue with ancient Chinese philosophers such as Laozi, Liezi, and Zhuangzi enables the reader to comprehend a series of otherwise incomprehensible puzzles. Zhang's scrutiny of Kafka's Dao shows how, through creative writing, Kafka not only penetrates esoteric Daoist classics, but also furthers their spirit in a way that transcends Richard Wilhelm, the pioneer European Sinologist. Transreading “Wish, to Become Indian” illuminates nuances that otherwise might have been overlooked. Wordplay, punctuational oddity, syntactic complexity, lyric density, and the curiously interlaced tenses and cases are all part of the idiosyncratic delivery of Kafka's message. Integrating the four activities of transreading—lento reading demanded and enhanced by cultural hermeneutics, creative writing required and inspired by poetic translation—unravels Kafka's riddle as a historical‐cultural phenomenon.
This article offers an interpretation of the concept of 'zheng 正' (correct, proper, straight) as it appears in Daodejing and Zhuangzi. My aim is to reveal and develop the contributions that the ...Daoist classics make to the traditional meaning of this key cosmological, epistemological, and ethical concept. While Laozi in some passages throws the meaning and existence of zheng into question, in other passages it appears to have an exalted role in the sagely life. Similarly, Zhuangzi rejects zheng where it carries connotations of artificial rigidity, but embraces the zheng that aligns with nature's dynamism. Focus on this concept gives us an entry into broader themes in Daoist literature, and reveals zheng as an ideal of nature, knowledge, and normativity.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Many scholars view translations of the Chinese classics as inevitably lacking fidelity to the “original,” asserting language difference as a fundamental impediment to cross-cultural understanding. ...The present study disputes this viewpoint by employing the perspective of Global Laozegetics. This notion affirms a fundamental continuity between the native Laozi or Daodejing commentarial tradition and its corresponding foreign translation tradition. Specifically, I will investigate a range of interpretations of the term ziran found in Laozi Chapter 25, including 16 traditional and modern Chinese readings and 67 translations in 26 languages. My broad investigation of this narrow topic will reveal a rich historical development of interpretation and translation, highlight the philosophical ramifications of different exegetical choices, deepen our understanding of the core Daoist concept ziran, and assist in confirming the basic premise of Global Laozegetics that language, even the original language of Chinese, is secondary to interpretive strategy when engaging with classical works.
Se analiza y compara el concepto de dao en los tres comentarios más influyentes del Laozi, y, en particular, cómo las distintas lecturas del dao en los tres textos se relacionan con diferentes épocas ...históricas, tradiciones, objetivos y autores de los comentarios. Por ejemplo, la tradición de la escuela Huang-Lao, con su interés en teorías cosmológicas y prácticas de autocultivo, impregna el comentario Heshang gong y su visión del dao como principio cósmico accesible y cognoscible. Por otra parte, en el Xiang Er, la institución religiosa de los Maestros Celestiales plasma el Laozi como texto sagrado y el dao como una divinidad con preceptos claros e inteligibles. A su vez, la relativa libertad interpretativa de Wang Bi, desprovista de influencias exegéticas ortodoxas, junto con la búsqueda de una coherencia interna en el texto, genera un comentario totalmente distinto de la tradición interpretativa anterior. El Laozi se convierte en manual de sabiduría que revela el dao como fundamento lógico del mundo.
The essay analyzes and compares the concept of Dao in the three most influential commentaries of the Laozi. In particular, it explores how different readings of Dao within the texts relate to different historical periods, traditions, goals, and authors of the commentaries. For example, the tradition of the Huang-Lao school, with its interest in cosmological theories and self-cultivation, permeates the Heshang gong commentary and its vision of Dao as an accessible and knowable cosmic principle. On the other hand, in the Xiang Er, the religious institution of the Celestial Masters, approaches the Laozi as a sacred text, and Dao as a divinity with its clear and intelligible precepts. Finally, the relative interpretative freedom of Wang Bi, devoid of orthodox exegetical influences, together with the search for internal coherence of the text, generates a totally different commentary from the earlier exegetical tradition. The Laozi becomes a manual of wisdom that reveals the Dao as the logical foundation of the world.
The question of the authorship of the Daodejing, otherwise known as the Laozi, is a hotly contested debate, and one’s stance on the existence and role of the author can have potential implications ...for one’s interpretation of the text. This paper explores how notions of authorship of a text influence, often unconsciously, a reader’s interpretation such that the possible meaning generated within that text becomes limited, reduced, or terminated. Three hermeneutic frameworks, Authorial intentionalism, reader-oriented readings, and intention of the text, are problematized, revealing both how they contribute to the production of meaning, but more importantly how a lack of critical awareness of one’s own hermeneutic stance regarding authorship might terminate potential significance. These hermeneutic frameworks are applied to the work of contemporary scholars and translators of the Laozi in order to assess how implicit notions of authorship contribute to strengths and weaknesses in interpretations of the Laozi as it regards the production of meaning and significance. Being critical in nature, this paper is meant only to reveal how the reader’s unreflexive engagement with their attitude toward authorship can lead to problematic results in interpretation and translation of any work in general and the Laozi in particular.
This contribution argues that Bohr's notion of complementarity can be traced back to the Laozi which he would have read. In Chinese philosophy, polar contrasts such as yin and yang are not regarded ...as mutually exclusive; they are co-present, existing as a harmonious Whole. Such a conception of metaphysics and logic stood Bohr in good stead for characterising quantum phenomena which are at once both wave and particle. His notion of complementarity bears witness to the possibility of communication and understanding between two different philosophical approaches and scientific traditions-this account adds to Lloyd's concept of semantic stretch.
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