The Mutual Cultivation of Self and Things by Yang Guorong, Hans-Georg Moeller - Ebook | Scribd

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The Mutual Cultivation of Self and Things: A Contemporary Chinese Philosophy of the Meaning of Being


By Yang Guorong and Hans-Georg Moeller
582 pages
18 hours

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Description


Yang Guorong is one of the most prominent Chinese philosophers working today and is best known for using the full range of Chinese philosophical resources in connection with the thought of Kant, Hegel, Marx, and Heidegger. In The Mutual Cultivation of Self and Things, Yang grapples with the philosophical problem of how the complexly interwoven nature of things and being relates to human nature, values, affairs, and facts, and ultimately creates a world of meaning. Yang outlines how humans might live more fully integrated lives on philosophical, religious, cultural, aesthetic, and material planes. This first English translation introduces current, influential work from China to readers worldwide.

한스 게오르그 묄러 : 네이버 블로그 Confucian “Negative Ethics” for a Global World?-Why Not?!

한스 게오르그 묄러 : 네이버 블로그


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2013. 11. 29. 16:28
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 The Philosophy of the Daodejing

Hans-Georg Moeller






For centuries, the ancient Chinese philosophical text the Daodejing (Tao Te Ching) has fascinated and frustrated its readers. While it offers a wealth of rich philosophical insights concerning the cultivation of one's body and attaining one's proper place within nature and the cosmos, its teachings and structure can be enigmatic and obscure.

Hans-Georg Moeller presents a clear and coherent description and analysis of this vaguely understood Chinese classic. He explores the recurring images and ideas that shape the work and offers a variety of useful approaches to understanding and appreciating this canonical text. Moeller expounds on the core philosophical issues addressed in the Daodejing, clarifying such crucial concepts as Yin and Yang and Dao and De. He explains its teachings on a variety of subjects, including sexuality, ethics, desire, cosmology, human nature, the emotions, time, death, and the death penalty. The Daodejing also offers a distinctive ideal of social order and political leadership and presents a philosophy of war and peace.

An illuminating exploration, The Daodejing is an interesting foil to the philosophical outlook of Western humanism and contains surprising parallels between its teachings and nontraditional contemporary philosophies.About the Author

Hans-Georg Moeller is associate professor of philosophy at Brock University in St. Catharines, Canada. He is the author of three other books on Daoism, including Daoism Explained: From the Dream of the Butterfly to the Fishnet Allegory.


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INTERVIEW WITH HANS-GEORG MOELLER, AUTHOR OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE DAODEJING

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS


In The Philosophy of the Daodejing Hans-Georg Moeller presents a clear and coherent description and analysis of this vaguely understood Chinese classic. In this interview he compares it to other religious texts and discusses different ways or reading and interpreting the text.

Q: When it comes to weighty philosophical works, how does the Daodejing rate?

Hans-Georg Moeller: It can be compared with the Bible, the Koran, Plato's works, etc.—it's definitely up there—it is a source of "ancient wisdom" and, moreover, a key to understanding Chinese civilization and culture today. As a "world classic" its relevance is, however, not limited to a specific time and place—it addresses topics that are of global importance. The Daodejing allows, for instance, for astonishingly fresh perspectives on perennial "existential" issues such as life and death, sex, and human emotions, but also on such "hot" social topics as war, the death penalty, and even the new media such as the Internet.


Q: This seems pretty broad.

HGM: That's because it is. The main stratagem advocated in the Daodejing is the maxim of wu wei or non-interference. This means that by active intervention one normally causes more unforeseeable problems than one initially intended to solve. The situation in Iraq is an obvious example. An "activist" approach to government, policies, and war, leads to an expenditure of energies and resources and weakens rather than strengthens the position of the aggressor. It is far better to deal with threats and emerging disorder by evasion and concentration of one's own strengths and energies.

Q: So this seems like the Daodejing would support isolationism?

HGM: Well, the term "isolationism" is probably too negative. The Daodejing presents a political scenario in which small communities live peacefully side by side without any intention to interfere in their neighbor's affairs. That seems not to be so different from the cosmopolitan ideal that the country I live in, Canada, likes to have of itself. First and foremost, the Daodejing is a book on preserving peace, social order, and sustainable success. This can be applied not only to politics and war, but also to other social and personal issues. It advises the leader to let things evolve "naturally" rather than attempting to force them. In personal life, for instance regarding sexual and emotional activity, it is concerned with how to preserve one's energies and to stay healthy. A healthy lifestyle is one that avoids friction—both physically and mentally. Being the chair of a university department, I came to appreciate how difficult and important a task it is. I personally like the line about the problem of deeming things "fortunate" or "unfortunate" in chapter 58 of the Daodejing. A Daoist story about "the old man at the fort" (that I discuss in my book) explains this very well: A man loses his horse and people say: "Oh, how unlucky you are." He says: "I don't know if this is unlucky or not." Later the horse comes back with a whole herd of fine horses and people say: "Oh, how lucky you are." He says "I don't know if this is lucky or not" and a few days later his son breaks his legs when falling off of one of the new horses. The story goes on with an additional twist. In fact, we all too easily get excited and lose our emotional calm simply because we prematurely judge things to be fortunate or unfortunate—and vainly try to act on them rather then letting things run their "natural" course.

Q: The Daodejing seems quite exotic when you compare it to some of our "Western" sensibilities.

HGM: Sometimes, I feel like there is hardly anything exotic anymore in our globalized world, but the Daodejing introduces valuable alternatives to "Western" modes of thinking that are becoming increasingly relevant in a "postmodern" and "post-colonial" society. The Daodejing does not resist globalization. In fact, when a "postmodernist" turns towards plurality and away from being concerned with "essences," that is quite Daoist in nature. Daoism does not advocate a specific belief or ideology and is quite adaptable to any culture, time, or activity. It is certainly non-fundamentalist in nature and thus more suitable to a globalized world than any exclusive religion or missionary political belief.

Q: How does Daoism differ from Western religions?

HGM: The Daodejing is not concerned with anything "beyond" or "transcendent" such as a God or "absolute" values such as truth, the good, etc. Unlike many Western philosophies and religions, Chinese philosophy and Daoism were not so much concerned with finding out what was "true" but with finding out how to act effectively and efficiently so that order in society can be established and that one can lead a healthy and content life. Daoism is thoroughly "this-worldly." There is no external creator or force, the world is rather a self-generating and self-regenerating (autopoietic) process. For the Daodejing, the world is an ongoing process of reproduction—and it does not ask the question if the chicken or the egg came first. This is perhaps the most striking "metaphysical" difference between Daoism and dominating Western philosophies and religions. Another difference is the value it ascribes to the human species. Christianity, for instance, believes that the human being is the crown of creation and was created as the image of God. In a secularized form, the Enlightenment has preserved the humanist essence of Christianity: it is commonly held that human beings have an ultimate value in themselves, have free will, and can creatively shape a humane society and the world. The Daodejing, however, sees the human world as embedded in a larger nature or cosmos and does not single out some specific human nature. In this respect, it is quite similar to contemporary "deep ecology." Humans are not essentially different from everything else that comes into being and perishes. Daoism looks at ethics, politics, and even sexuality from a non-anthropocentric perspective. There are no specific human values. Good is rather that which preserves life and not only human life but all life: plants and animals, and everything else included. The most important aspect of social order is that it does not disturb the natural order. Even sexuality is free of any specific human values (like "love," "sin," "satisfaction," or "erotics"). It is rather the way of nature—and by no means only of humans—to procreate itself. The Daodejing is also opposed to the dominating political view that government can or should be "by, of, and for the people." The presently living people are only a relatively minor factor in the world as a whole. A good government should also take into account those who have no voice or vote: children and future generations, for instance, and all the non-human forms of life. From a Daoist perspective, democracy, as it is presently practiced, is by no means an all-inclusive form of government. The contemporary American philosopher Richard Rorty makes a not so un-Daoist point when he advocates an expansion of solidarity that extends beyond those who presently have voting rights. It is now often held that we live in a post-humanist world. If so, then the non-humanism of Daoism gains a new and astonishing relevance in our times. China, the place where the Daodejing comes from, is a fascinating country and in many respects an alternative to Western civilization. It has undergone an incredible development and is the newly emerging world power. Just as China has immensely gained in political and economic relevance so will its philosophies gain in intellectual relevance. The age of "Westernization" may be followed by an age of "Chinaization"—and Daoism may be well part of this.

Q: Is that so? What kind of changes should we be expecting?

HGM: For starters, humans are not at the center of the world. The Daodejing confronts us with a non-humanist view of the world, particularly when it comes to ethics, politics, and nature. It is often in striking opposition to commonly held beliefs in the West about ourselves and the world. Perhaps our humanist values are too good to be true. Perhaps our humanist ethics of "intervention" does actually more harm than good. Perhaps our self-aggrandizing notions of "democratic" politics do not correspond to the facts. Perhaps our human-centered view of nature prevents us from adequately living with it. These are things that we would have to consider and should probably be considering right now.

Q: Then, we should all go out and pick up a copy of the Daodejing?

HGM: Yes, but you should pick up a copy of my book as well. The Daodejing is read a lot and often translated, but seldom understood. It remains "mysterious" to many readers because it consists of very dense and terse poetry. This poetic and cryptic style is reminiscent of divination formulae, proverbs, riddles, and religious and philosophical aphorisms. One needs to understand Chinese culture and philosophy to put it into context and make sense of it. My book makes the Daodejing accessible and relates it to current social and philosophical issues. When the Daodejing says, for instance "It is upon bad luck that good luck depends. It is on good luck that bad luck depends." Who knows where it ends? Then, it helps a lot if you put these lines in the context of the story of "the old man and the fort" that I mentioned before. This in turn allows you to read the short saying as a defense of equanimity and to connect it with problems in life that everyone faces even today. Another reason why the Daodejing is difficult to read on its own is its complicated history. It was compiled from traditional oral sources over a long period of time, and it doesn't have an identifiable time and place of origin or an identifiable author. It is, in a sense, a "hypertext" like the Internet because many non-identifiable people or sources contributed to it, it changed continuously, and it was not written in a linear, sequential manner; therefore, one needs a different reading strategy, a different hermeneutics than with "normal" books.

Q: How do you unlock the Daodejing?

HGM: I go into the imagery of the book (the root, the wheel, water, etc.) and explain their philosophical significance. The image of the wheel, for instance, consisting of the "full" spokes circling around an "empty" hub, illustrates how a scenario works best, namely when it is organized around an inactive, non-interfering center. On the basis of this image you can decipher many other images, such as the bellows, the valley, etc. which are also based on central emptiness and surrounding fullness. I treat the images that connect the chapters of the book like "links" that connect the websites of the Internet. One cannot really make sense of the Daodejing if one reads it chapter by chapter, one after the other, from beginning to end. Now that we have the Internet we are getting more used to "non-traditional" ways of reading. As with the Internet, when reading the Daodejing, one has to be flexible and to be able to jump from "site to site," i.e. from image to image, from metaphor to metaphor. This is a new approach and I show in my book how the lines and verses of the Daodejing are interconnected and often closely related in meaning. In this way, I read the book as a philosophical treatise on how to do things well and be successful in politics, in personal life, and in living within nature.

 

 

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Daodejing: The New, Highly Readable Translation of the Life-Changing Ancient Scripture Formerly Known as the Tao... by Laozi and Hans-Georg Moeller (May 28, 2007)

 

 

• #GT-N7000

Rediscovering the Roots of Chinese Thought: Laozi's Philosophy Chen, Guying, D’Ambrosio, Paul,

Rediscovering the Roots of Chinese Thought: Laozi's Philosophy (Contemporary Chinese Scholarship in Daoist Studies): Chen, Guying, D’Ambrosio, Paul, D’Ambrosio, Paul: 9781931483612: Amazon.com: Books

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Rediscovering the Roots of Chinese Thought: Laozi's Philosophy (Contemporary Chinese Scholarship in Daoist Studies) 

Paperback – January 31, 2015

by Guying Chen (Author), Paul D’Ambrosio (Translator)

3.4 out of 5 stars    3 ratings

Rediscovering the Roots of Chinese Thought: Laozi’s Philosophy is an English translation of one of the most influential Chinese texts on Daoism of the past century, written by Guying Chen, one of China’s foremost scholars of Daoist thought and the author of annotated classical commentaries that serve as standard resources in many Chinese universities.

This book offers a unique discussion of the Laozi, arguing―in contrast to standard Western scholarship―that the text goes back to a single author and identifying him as an older contemporary, and even teacher, of Confucius. This places the Confucian Analects after the Laozi and makes the text the most fundamental work of ancient Chinese thought.

Chen explores these debates regarding these points, providing evidence based on materials excavated from Mawangdui and Guodian. His book is fascinating documentation of contemporary Chinese arguments and debates previously unavailable in English. It is nothing less than a complete revision of the history of Chinese thought with Daoism as its major focus.

150 pages

January 31, 2015

Editorial Reviews

Review

This book provides invaluable insight into the thought and scholarship of one of the most original and influential contemporary Chinese Daoist philosophers. Chen's reflections on the history of the Daode jing and the ideas expressed in this foundational classic are simply fascinating.

Paul D'Ambrosio's elegant translation is both faithful to the original and philosophically acute. The book is a precious resource for Western readers interested in Daoist thought and the cultural history of China which will massively to broaden their understanding of how the Daoist classic came about and what it means to contemporary Chinese thinkers. --Hans-Georg Moeller, University of Macau

This translation makes available for the first time to an English reading audience the groundbreaking work of one of contemporary China's leading voices in the study of early Daoism. Rediscovering the Roots of Chinese Thought pushes back hard against the current trend of scholarly opinion claiming that Laozi never lived and that he did not write the Daode jing.

Masterfully arguing that that these views are no longer tenable, Chen acknowledges Laozi as the first philosopher of the Chinese tradition and situates the Daode jing at the very origins of Chinese philosophy, a force that motivated and inspired all other Chinese schools of thought. The fundamentally changes the way we read the Daode jing. It challenges us reconsider the entire history of Chinese thought. The book is a must for anybody interested in Daoism and Chinese philosophy. It its impact will be felt for a long time to come. --Thomas Michael, Boston University

About the Author

CHEN Guying was born in Fujian province in 1935. He received his degree in philosophy from National Taiwan University, where he taught for most of his life. In the 1980s, he returned to live part time on the mainland, where he still teaches at Peking University, Center for Daoist Studies. The author of numerous works on Daoist thought, often in comparison with Western philosophy, Chen is among the most influential living scholars of Chinese thought. Still vibrantly active, he runs various conferences and academic projects, forever stimulating new ventures and contributing to the wider appreciation and deeper understanding of Daoist thinking.

Product details

Publisher : Three Pines Press; First edition (January 31, 2015)

Language : English

Paperback : 150 pages

Customer Reviews: 3.4 out of 5 stars    3 ratings

Customer reviews

3.4 out of 5 stars

Top reviews from the United States

T. Coonen

4.0 out of 5 stars Daoism sans Buddhism

Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2015

Verified Purchase

This is a good book. It is terribly edited, looks like they ran it through a spell check and printed it. You get “in” for “on,” “of” for “off,” etc. It’s usually easy to know what was meant, a couple times the meaning is lost. The info and arguments, however, are clearly presented and important. In the Usa, daoism is not so available as it appears, most translations are by Buddhists and have a Buddhist slant, often so much so whatever might have been “the original” cannot be determined under all the added, and much later, Buddhist interpretation. If you are a Buddhist, that’s fine, I guess. If you are not a Buddhist the complications can be misplaced or extraneous and the simplicity at the core of daoism can get buried (and usually does) under all the interpretive add-ons. Chen Guying's book avoids all that, and religion, and several not-quite-congruous complications by doing his best to precede them.

4 people found this helpful

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John C. Marshell Jr.

4.0 out of 5 stars Laozi Corrected

Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2016

When I was an undergraduate, I wrote a paper on Daoism. 

In the early 1980's, the Daoist listings in my alma mater's library largely consisted of a singular open ended shelf. I recall reading philosophical works by Creel, Kaltenmark, Feng Youlan, and a deep and profitable engagement with Paul Lin's translation of the "Tao Te Ching." Daoist alchemy and meditation was a subject shrouded in mystery and limited to reading Carl Jung's "Secrets of the Golden Flower" and Charles Luk's "Taoist Yoga." Daoism's founder, Laozi, equally mysterious, a person of dubious historicity, often relegated to the realm of myth, a composite figure created from a multi-authored text bearing his name. In the United States, Daoism was the poor cousin to the dominant Confucian and Buddhist traditions. Scholarship on the subject was rare and irregular, even Henri Maspero's "Taoism and Chinese Religion," published posthumously, did not appear in English until 1981.

Happily, all that has changed. There is now a plethora of books and articles on the subject, an increasing number of translations, and a growing number of Daoist temples in the United States. It is hard to keep up with all the material. This book, a translation of noted scholar Chen Guying's research on Laozi, is a part of that growth and should capture the attention of anyone interested in the subject of Daoism.

What Chen seeks to do in this book is remove the murky mystery around Laozi. He seeks to make Laozi a concrete historical figure, and in my opinion, does a very good job of presenting Laozi as not simply an historical reality but also the earliest philosopher in Chinese history. He makes his case rather well, detailing the mistakes Chinese philosophers made in treating the subject (Feng Youlan suffers mightily here) and bolstering his argument with an analysis of the Guodian Cave finds of 1993. There is a close analysis of the Daoist texts as well as an analysis of Daoist polemics with the Confucian tradition. And his investigation is not limited to the literary and philological, but includes an interesting historical and sociological consideration of cultural differences between the state of Chu (Laozi's home) and the state of Lu (Confucius' home). Laozi seems to come alive within the pages of the book. He is no longer a mythological sage inaccurately dated in the Warring States period battling with Confucius' successors, but a predecessor and colleague of Confucius in the Spring and Autumn period.

Chen's analysis creates a very different view of Laozi. The traditional depiction of a reclusive mystic with an antinomian disposition is replaced by an atheistic, dialectical moralist with a distaste for political corruption, who supports his philosophy with China's first cohesive theories of cosmology and ontology. His differences with Confucius are markedly reduced to epistemological concerns. In Chen's reading, Laozi's cultivation of the person occurs from the inside out, while Confucius works from the outside in. Both sages rebel against the problems of their time, but from different perspectives, looking to the Zhou Dynasty as a golden strife free age to support their positions: Laozi preferring metaphysical solutions, and Confucius structuring social networks built upon ethical relations. The polemics usually associated between the two men are the result of later misreadings and argumentative reworkings of texts, an historical development revealed through the Guodian finds. Chen sees the two sages as genuine and authentic men engaged in philosophical discourse and the depiction is enlightening.

I would encourage anyone with an interest in Chinese philosophy or religion to read this book. I docked my review one star due to the numerous printing and editing errors, but an alert reader can bridge the problems and enjoy this book.

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2 people found this helpful

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Casey S.

2.0 out of 5 stars Unfortunate Bias Ruins Scholarship

Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2015

This book has a bit of stellar information and a handful of great insights, which is what [barely] raises the rating above 1-star. However, it approaches things from a very particular perspective that Laozi was a real person who was the singular author of an original Daodejing (Tao Te Ching). It also notably places the person and text as an immediate predecessor of Rujia (Confucianism) and Confucius as a pupil of Laozi (Lao Tzu). While this is a traditional position, this book is presented as a scholarly text. It is the equivalent of a conservative Catholic publishing a book about the historicity of Jesus and the continuity of his thought with later Western secular and orthodox religious institutions, exactly in line with the religious and ideological biases of conservative Catholicism, framed as an academic study.

This is a soapbox for a particular viewpoint. It is interesting to read for that reason and the fascinating information it cites. The book is a great tool for understanding the viewpoint that Laozi (Lao Tzu) was a real person who was the real author of the Daodejing (Tao Te Ching), but it is inherently flawed as a work of scholarship.

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