Book
Zhang. D.(2005) Key Concepts in Chinese Philosophy. Foreign Languages Press: Beijing
Sorry....prob not a coherent summary -- just typing some stuff i underlined in the book.
some is rewritten - but mostly is directly quoted from the above book.
Classical Chinese philosophical concepts can be placed in 3 groups
1. natural philosophy
2. anthropology
3. epistemology (the origin of knowledge)
In Chinese philosophy these three categories are strongly linked to
1. they way of heaven
2. the way of man
3. the method of study
The origin of chinese culture lie far back. Even before the oracle bones (1350-1100) there was a long history. The oracle bones pre-date the emergence of philosophy. They mark what could be called a philosophical "prehistory". This book looks at the ancient meanings of the words.
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CATEGORIES
Aristotle described a system of categories.
Ancient Chinese philosophy lacks a system of categories.
The Zhuangzi refers to quantity (liang) and time (shi), as Aristotle does, but there is very little further discussion of terms:
"The quantity of things is endless; time is without end; kinds without fixed norms; ending and beginning never return to the same old place"
(Zhaungzi 17, Autumn Floods, line 15)
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what categories should be included in the complete system of ancient chinese philosophyical categories?
first - the difference between 'concept' and 'category'
concept category
universally existent express universal relations, unity of existence, universal laws
name: "thing", "horse" common used concepts CANNOT be called categories (moon, mountain)
idea created by a philosopher
some are categories/some are not
to be continued
WANG SHOUREN
"outside the mind there is no thing; outside the mind there is no principle"
In the pre-Qin period Confucians, Mohists, Daoists and Logicians had their own set of categories.
post-Qin - Mohists and Logician disappeared.
Wei Jin period. newly arrived Buddhism new categories emerged which derived from Indian Buddhism.
These categories are mostly foreign terms that have been translated into Chinese and aare not as influential
as Daoist and Confucian ideas.
Throughout history Chinese philosophical categories have a common themes and systems. Those are the Confucianism and Doaism, abstruse learning and the school of principle.
1. HEAVEN AND MAN
heaven was 'having will and intentions'
2. BEING AND BEINGLESSNESS
beingless is the opposite of being
being is to be taken for advantages
beingless is being taken for use
being is generated by beinglessness
3. SUBSTANCE AND FUNCTION
substance is a product of thought, form and body
function:
function is the mysterious use superimposed on form and stuff.......
soul and consciousness are the function of an animal. form and body are their substance.
(book of changes)
4. QI
1. gaseous substance
2.everything that does not depend on human consciousness 'matter'
3. any phenonmenon, including spiritual phenonmenon
The concept of qi is very close yet very distant to the Western concept of matter. The Western concept is modeled on solids the existence of matter like an atom or a seed.
The ancient Chinese concept of qi is based on moving, gaseous substances that should be understood as the unity of waves and points. The Chinese concept of qi lacks the traditional Western mechanistic interpretation of matter.
Instead, it has a chaotic nature. In short qi is an important philosophical categorie.
5. PRINCIPLE
original meaning "li" to carve jade. later it was to refer to the veins in the jade. later to the norms in which things move.
' the principle in which things are as they are"
' the principle by which things ought to be'
implies a natural or moral norm
6. THE WAY AND THE VESSEL
"the way" all abstract rules
vessel all concrete things
7. MIND AND THINGS
Buddhism: 'all is mind'
denies the reality of the objective world
Wang Shouren: outside the mind there are no things
8. FORM AND SPIRIT
Buddhism: the spirit cannot be extinguished
9. NUMINOUS TRANSFORMATION
"the unfathomable in yin-yang is what is called the numinous"
the mysteriousness of the myriad of things
imperceptible change
10. INTEGRITY
ones words match reality, that speak and action are one.
GREEK EXHIBITION (CURRENTLY ON AT THE CAPITAL MUSEUM BEIJING)
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