Aspiration, according to Agnes Callard, is the long-term process of learning new values. Confucian self- cultivation as presented in the Analects is also aimed at the reorientation of one’s values, so that instead of being guided by pleasure, comfort, or profit, we become devoted to learning, ritual, and caring for others. According to the text, this process is a long and arduous one that involves a lifelong commitment as well as a total reorganization of one’s daily pursuits. Yet for both (...) Callard and the early Confucians a puzzle arises: how does one aspire toward values that one currently lacks at every level? In this paper, I look at some resources within the Analects for responding to this puzzle. (shrink)

The Western tradition of metaphysics has been criticized by Chung-ying Cheng on the grounds that it does not have any fruitful bearing on practice. This judgement, however, depends on a concept of metaphysics that Gadamer overturns with a Pythagorean-Platonic ontology. When this side of his philosophy is developed in tandem with Cheng’s onto-generative hermeneutics, in particular its doctrine of harmonization, new possibilities for self-understanding in relation to the grounds of existence are charted: The event of Being emerges from the reciprocity (...) of rhythm in a dialogue self-similar to the rhythms of nature grasped by Cheng in terms of yin and yang. This consolidates a cross-fertilization between Cheng and Gadamer on the trans-historical foundations of hermeneutics. (shrink)

The Western tradition of metaphysics has been criticized by Chung-ying Cheng on the grounds that it does not have any fruitful bearing on practice. This judgement, however, depends on a concept of metaphysics that Gadamer overturns with a Pythagorean-Platonic ontology. When this side of his philosophy is developed in tandem with Cheng’s onto-generative hermeneutics, in particular its doctrine of harmonization, new possibilities for self-understanding in relation to the grounds of existence are charted: The event of Being emerges from the reciprocity (...) of rhythm in a dialogue self-similar to the rhythms of nature grasped by Cheng in terms of yin and yang. This consolidates a cross-fertilization between Cheng and Gadamer on the trans-historical foundations of hermeneutics. (shrink)

As a philosophical scholar of phenomenology, literature, art, and philosophy of the social sciences and humanities, John O’Neill’s (1933–2022) writings are translated into Chinese. As a sociological translator of Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908–1961), O’Neill’s five phenomenal bodies culminate in the communicative body as an intermingling of material and spiritual relations. I distill by own version of three phenomenal bodies that I call the East Asian communicative body. This essay traces the communicative body through horizontal and vertical phenomenology on the way to (...) Merleau-Ponty’s brief interaction with Chinese philosophy. (shrink)

This paper provides a translation of the first twenty-five cases of the gongan collection, Tongxuan’s 100 Questions (Tongxuan Baiwen《玄百問》), which features terse responses to Tongxuan’s queries proffered by Wansong Xingxiu along with verse comments added by his main disciple Linquan Conglun. The conciseness expressed by leading Caodong school thinkers at the dawn of the Yuan period creates a minimalist discourse replete with paradox, indirection, and deceptively artless depictions of nature to disclose a pragmatist view of realization that seeks to situate (...) Chan as the basis for the three teachings of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. (shrink)

This article explores the Chan/Zen Buddhist elements in Cixin Liu’s Three Body science fiction trilogy, particularly through the character of Luo Ji 羅輯. By exploring these references, the provocative moral and political philosophy articulated in the books can be better understood. Ultimately, I argue that Liu presents a modified version of Chan/Zen as the philosophy best fit for confronting a hostile universe.

If Chinese Philosophy is to be viewed as Contemporary Philosophy, we must address the explicit and implicit biases our philosophical colleagues harbor about “legitimate” philosophy. An apt analogy involves the challenge posed to the European taxonomy of species by the “discovery” of the platypus. Now recognized as a distinct species of mammal (monotreme), the platypus was initially denounced as a hoax, then grudgingly accepted as a “primitive” evolutionary dead end. Using Daoist philosophy as an example, this essay offers a pedagogical (...) strategy for shifting from the Fixed Mind’s adulation of “the [Western] Canon” to the Growth Mind receptive to Daoism’s philosophical resources. (shrink)

This article is intended to seek adequate answers for such questions as whether or not Chinese philosophy and Western philosophy can be meaningfully interactive, and why it is so important for the new concept of “philosophical China” to be reconstructed in the contexts of the world’s philosophy, through the perspectives of the Journal of Chinese Philosophy that was established by Chung-ying Cheng in 1973. Contextualising the “new enterprise” in the academic world of the 1970s, I will highlight the significance the (...) Journal demonstrated for enriching the diversified paradigm of philosophical discourses, and the important role it has since played in promoting the worldwide studies of Chinese philosophy, comparative philosophy and cross-philosophical dialogue. I will also examine how China and the West were philosophically bridged up step by step through the painstaking efforts by Chung-ying Cheng and a great number of distinguished scholars, and how Chinese philosophy has been gradually taken into the mainstream academic discourses of the world. (shrink)

This paper explores Martin Buber’s dialogical philosophy and its influence on Lu Nan’s 呂楠 photography. By comparing Lu Nan’s trilogy, which documents marginalized communities in China, with Tyagan Miller’s Covenant: Scenes from an African American Church, the study examines how Buber’s I-Thou concept shapes their practices. It highlights their efforts to transcend the subjectivity-objectivity divide in photography, as suggested by Susan Sontag. Through the “Dialogical Aperture” framework, this research provides insights into the ethical and aesthetic dimensions of documentary photography, proposing (...) Buber’s philosophy as a pathway to more authentic representations of reality. (shrink)