Abstract

The Guiguzi, or The Master of Ghost Valley, is unique in that it connects and develops a yinyang cosmology with an elaborate system of applied "interpersonal psychology." Not only is the text a general handbook of strategic thought, but it is also specifically a comprehensive manual of persuasion---comprehensive because it offers a doctrine of persuasion in the context of an encompassing world-view. ;This dissertation consists of a philological and philosophical exploration of the Guiguzi, based upon a detailed contextual study which reveals a classical Chinese cosmological framework. Within the Guiguzi text psychological activities are played out by implementing techniques of "ingressive persuasion" grounded in the continuous processions of yin and yang. The expression "ingressive persuasion" conveys one of the text's main teachings, namely, "going inside" another and deliberately building a rapport with that other based on cosmological, neurolinguistic, and emotional resonances, as well as praxiological understanding. In this sense, ingressive persuasion is both a self-reflective and environment-reflective process. At the heart of this persuasion is the Chinese concept of qing: an idea which includes both human "emotional-psychological affects and states," as well as "world-psychological affects and 'realities.'"