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Abstract
‘Practical Contextualism’ is a multifaceted concept which, I will argue, permeates various ancient Chinese texts. The central focus of practical contextualism is to be aware of, and sensitive to, the contextual environment or situation, including the relationships involved in those contexts. On an individual level, this has important implications for one’s daily engagement with others and the world. On a socio-political level, this is essential to creating and implementing well-functioning social and political institutions and policies. Practical contextualism means, among other things, that one must be prepared for possible changes that might occur in these contexts, and calls for the fostering of optimal and timely responses and solutions. In this light, the cultivation of the self is an arduous process whereby one develops epistemic cognition and skills in order to be able to detect and deal with exigent situations.
This thesis studies four pre-Qin Chinese texts: the Yi Jing (易經), the Han Fei Zi (韓非子), the Zhuang Zi (莊子), and the Analects (論語). Each of these arguably exemplifies the particular tradition or practical field it represents, and has received extensive and long-term scholarly attention. The current study unveils practical contextualism as a common theme that exists in the four texts, but with different philosophical emphases. The Yi Jing is one of the earliest texts abundant with contextual and practical ideas that are not necessarily limited to any particular philosophical discipline. In the Han Fei Zi, practical contextualism constitutes an overt theme in political discourse. The Zhuang Zi is ideal for examining practical contextualism in Chinese epistemology. The Analects explores how practical contextualism is played out in human societies.
The current study proposes a theoretical framework to describe ‘practical contextualism’, which does not appear specifically in ancient Chinese texts, and has yet to be studied systematically. The framework identifies six distinctive dimensions of contextualism and four different types of practice. It could serve as a viable interpretive framework for reading other Chinese philosophical texts on their own terms.