Zhuangzi and the Becoming of Nothingness
... 'being'). Be that as it may, the third possibility (a pair of sentences in the above quotation) needs further clarification, since it is two-pronged: [3] Because they are not-being, although they have being, they have not-being; because they are not-nothing, although they have nothing, they have not-nothing. ...
... However, [4] everything has being as a result of not-being, as a result of not-nothing. [3] Because they are notbeing, although they have being, they have not-being; because they are not-nothing, although they have nothing, they have not-nothing. ...
Sengzhao (c.374–414) was a Chinese Neo-Daoist who converted to Mahāyāna Buddhism, and few people doubt his influence on Chinese Buddhist philosophy. In this article, provided his Neo-Daoism (xuanxue) and Madhyamaka Buddhism, I will present how Sengzhao featured a symbolic meaning of ‘void’ (śūnya) as rooted originally in Daoism. The Daoist contradictions, in particular between ‘being’ (you) and ‘nothing [non-being]’ (wu), are essential to the development of his doctrine of ‘no ultimate void’ (不真空論, Buzhenkonglun). To understand what Sengzhao meant by ‘void’, which is in denial about the ultimate reality, I broach a notion of nihil (‘nothing’ but also ‘no value’) that bears on his discursive practice. In this light, I formulate a Daoist argument for contradictions and ECN (ex contradictione nihil—nothing follows from contradictions) from Laozi’s Daodejing. Furthermore, I elaborate on Sengzhao’s defence of ECN in his Buzhenkonglun. Reconstructing his negative approach to contradictions within the scope of the four-valued expressions (catuṣkoṭi) in the Madhyamaka tradition from Nāgārjuna, I consider a likely objection that a fifth value such as the ineffable may be inferred as void. Instead of subsuming the ineffable value under his discourse, I finally endorse Sengzhao’s purpose of linguistic and conventional approximation to the ultimate reality as silence. As such, I conclude the significance of void in Sengzhao’s denials via contradictions (ECN), i.e. an early philosophical peak of Chinese Buddhism from Daoism.
... By examining the Dao cosmology through Chapter 25 of the Daodejing, there are remarkable conceptual parallels between: § The Dao is a substrate where all things arise, an ontological field of infinite potentiality (Chai, 2019), akin to the higher dimension (though limiting) Heim's X7 and beyond, In contrast to the mathematically defined higher-dimensional structures in Heim's Unified Field Theory, the Dao is boundless, infinite in scope, and transcendent of any formal constraints (Cheng, 2003). It represents the fundamental principle that encompasses and interconnects all manifestations of existence, material and immaterial while remaining formless and non-localized (Kohn, 2016). ...
This study examines the convergence of Heim's Unified Field Theory (UFT) with Buddhist and Dao metaphysical frameworks, proposing a multidimensional paradigm in which information, rather than matter, forms the basis of reality. While Western scientific traditions have largely relied on reductionist and mechanistic approaches to reality, Eastern philosophies, particularly Dao and Buddhism, have long emphasized an interconnected, dynamic continuum of existence. Heim's model of higher-dimensional structures (X5-X12) offers a compelling bridge between these perspectives, suggesting that reality is governed by an underlying informational field that mediates the emergence of structured form and conscious experience. Heim's higher-dimensional framework aligns with Buddhist and Dao, reflecting their foundational concepts of interdependence and non-duality. Heim's notion that distinctions collapse at the highest dimension parallels Buddhist dependent origination (緣起, pratītyasamutpāda) and emptiness (空, śūnyatā), which assert that all phenomena lack intrinsic existence and arise contingently. Similarly, Dao's wuji (無極, Ultimate Void) corresponds to Heim's X12, the undifferentiated informational substrate from which structured reality emerges. Heim's X5 and X6 function as energetic regulators that mediate the transformation of undifferentiated potential into structured materialization, paralleling the Dao's concept of taiji (太極, Supreme Polarity) arising from wuji (無極, Ultimate Void) as the foundational process of cosmic differentiation. This synthesis suggests that Heim's model provides a scientific articulation of ancient Eastern cosmologies, where reality is shaped by the dynamic interplay of information, energy, and form. This synthesis has implications for quantum cognition, bioenergetics, and contemplative sciences. By exploring ālaya-vijñāna (阿賴耶識, "storehouse consciousness") as a vibrational repository encoding karmic imprints, the study proposes new frameworks for cognitive transformation and energy-based interventions. Heim's theory further aligns with Buddhist perspectives on consciousness as a structured informational field, suggesting that higher dimensions regulate fluctuations in the lower realms of perception and material reality. This study's findings contribute theoretically and practically by expanding the interdisciplinary dialogue between Eastern contemplative traditions and modern physics. By integrating qi (氣) dynamics with Heim's control dimensions and reinterpreting Buddhist Dharmadhātu (法界, Dharma Realm of Non-Duality) as an ultimate informational continuum, this research informs both scientific and practical applications. By synthesizing these perspectives, this paper extends Heim's framework beyond its original formulation, positioning it as a bridge between Western theoretical physics and Eastern metaphysical traditions. The contribution of this study lies in its interdisciplinary approach, which offers a more holistic understanding of multidimensional reality, consciousness, and the mechanisms underlying the emergence of form and perception. This re-interpretation challenges existing reductionist paradigms and paves the way for new research directions that integrate quantum biology, neuroenergetics, bioelectromagnetism, quantum cognition and consciousness studies and higher-dimensional physics into a unified model of existence.
... However, harmony in the Zhuangzi has not garnered adequate attention. Only a few articles have been dedicated to it, mainly focusing on harmonizing right and wrong (Moeller 2021;Ziporyn 2021) and harmonizing with Dao (Chai 2019;Cook 2003). Harmony in the Zhuangzi 3 , despite not yet receiving adequate attention, plays an essential role. ...
This paper adopts a post-comparative approach to explore the concept of harmony in the Zhuangzi, moving beyond traditional comparative frameworks. It examines how Zhuangzian harmony offers a solution to the potential risks of domination that harmony may pose to individual freedom. It first challenges Chenyang Li’s distinction between Confucian “active harmony” (主动和谐) and Daoist “passive harmony” (被动和谐), arguing that the “passive” label fails to capture the characteristic of Zhuangzian harmony. Instead, Zhuangzian harmony is better understood as “responsive harmony” (随动和谐), a unique form of harmony that is neither passive nor merely the opposite of Confucian active harmony. Responsive harmony shares similarities with active harmony, yet it offers distinct features that address certain challenges to harmony, such as the risk of domination, which Confucian harmony may not fully resolve. This perspective provides a fresh philosophical resource from Daoism for addressing contemporary concerns about harmony in ethical contexts.
... For more, seeChai (2019). ...
For Martin Buber, a person participates in two kinds of relationship: the I-Thou and the I-It. In the case of the former, the wholeness of being is employed resulting in genuine dialogue, while the latter objectifies things and is thus devoid of anything genuine. Among the influences on Buber’s thought, that of Daoism has not gone unnoticed by scholars of comparative philosophy. This paper will contribute to said discourse by examining Buber’s concept of the interhuman and its employment of the following themes: oneness and the genuine person, non-deliberate action (wuwei) and the in-between, and genuine dialogue as a turning towards being. What our analysis will show is that Buber’s interhuman philosophy bears witness to the transcendence of words by bringing to life the silence from which they arise and recede, attuning participants in genuine dialogue to the spiritual resonance between themselves and the primal Thou, while elevating their faith in human life in the process. The interhuman was seen by Buber as a viable solution for the societal ills of his time and it remains so half a century after his passing.
"Hajdegerov daoistički obrt." Almanah Instituta Konfucije 29-30 (2024): 90-111.
The concept of anticipation, on the one hand, has received a considerable treatment in classical phenomenology, particularly in Husserl. The Zhuangzi, on the other hand, has not been explored with the help of Husserl’s concept of anticipation. Broadly construed, anticipation, due to its association with robust proclivity to seeing and conjuring up possibilities issuing from a phenomenon, shall have no place in the Zhuangzi. Against such backdrop, I argue that—albeit the Zhuangzi does not develop an explicit discourse on anticipation—a delimited form of anticipation (‘d-anticipation’), that is, one which is inspired by Husserl’s concept of anticipation evident in his genetic phenomenology, can work in concert with the thoughts articulated in the Zhuangzi. I demonstrate this via examining death, desire, and freedom evident in the Zhuangzi. That ‘d-anticipation’ can work in concert with the thoughts articulated in the Zhuangzi can be apprehended in a variety of ways. Firstly, it can be seen in our natural response to death and the way in which we handle desires. Secondly, it points to Zhuangzi’s reductionistic manner of appreciating the richness of reality. Thirdly, it offers a way in which we can live life according to our nature. Fourthly, it points to an exercise of freedom which opens up the possibility of transcending conventional standards. Fifthly, it is inherently constitutive of the process of comportment with the Dao. Finally, it is in essence constitutive of a phenomenon or circumstance. In setting out to demonstrate these contentions, I seek to show that ‘d-anticipation’ can fill in a lacuna brought about by the negative appraisal of anticipation in the Zhuangzi and can assume a pivotal role in one’s comportment with the Dao.
Given wuwei 無為 describes the life praxis of the sage and statecraft of the enlightened ruler while also denoting the comportment of the Dao 道—an alternating state of quiet dormancy and creative activity—are the standard translations of wuwei as “nonaction” or “effortless action” up to the task? They are not, it will be argued, in that they fail to convey the true profundity of wuwei. The objective of this essay is twofold: to show that wuwei is better understood as “abiding harmony” than nonaction, and to demonstrate this via a close reading of the Lüshi Chunqiu 呂氏春秋 (Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals) which makes wuwei the epicenter of its doctrine of “the Dao of the ruler.” Indeed, the Lüshi Chunqiu’s unique application of wuwei lies not only in its borrowing of Daoist and Legalist norms, but in having the ruler meet the following prerequisites: be without knowledge, keep the senses and heart-mind pure, be reliant on others, follow Yin 陰 and Yang 陽, and study the course of heaven and earth to know the ways of humanity. There is, therefore, more to wuwei than meets the eye.
The German philosopher Martin Heidegger is one of the few Western thinkers who take a serious interest in the Chinese tradition of Daoism—he once tried to translate the canonical text Daodejing into German with the help of a Chinese scholar. Even though his attempt at translation did not succeed, his congenial reading of Laozi and Zhuangzi has been viewed as a creative appropriation of a philosophical school from another cultural tradition. Drawing upon current discussions in Heidegger research, this article will address Heidegger’s interpretation of some key concepts of Daoism, including ‘emptiness’, ‘uselessness’, and ‘nothingness’. This will show the extent to which Daoist thinking provides a new possibility for understanding Heidegger’s later philosophy, especially the question of Being.KeywordsDaoismBeingMetaphysicsUselessness
Heidegger and Dao: Things, Nothingness, Freedom (introduction, front, back matter): In this innovative contribution, Eric S. Nelson offers a contextualized and systematic exploration of the Chinese sources and German language interpretations that shaped Heidegger's engagement with Daoism and his thinking of the thing, nothingness, and the freedom of releasement (Gelassenheit). Encompassing forgotten and recently published historical sources, including Heidegger's Daoist and Buddhist-related reflections in his lectures and notebooks, Nelson presents a critical intercultural reinterpretation of Heidegger's philosophical journey.
Nelson analyzes the intersections and differences between the Daodejing, the Zhuangzi, and Heidegger's philosophy and the linguistic and conceptual shifts in Heidegger's thinking that correlate with his encounters and interactions with Daoist, Buddhist, and East Asian texts and interlocutors. He thereby traces hints for encountering things and environments anew, models for intercultural hermeneutics, and ways of reimagining the thing, nothingness, and freedom with and beyond Heidegger's thought.
This work elucidates the thing, the mystery, and freedom in Heidegger and Daoism in Part I and Heidegger's thinking of nothingness, emptiness, and the clearing in relation to Daoist and Buddhist philosophy in Part II. In each part, Nelson unfolds a fresh perspective for thinking further with Heidegger and East Asian philosophies in relation to the contemporary existential and environmental situation for the sake of nourishing life amidst damaged life.
In the present article a new case will be made for the philosophical and religious merit of the Xiang’er commentary to the Laozi. Throughout the text there is a normative emphasis on reaching sagehood and the levels of obedience and cultivation that this entails. The Xiang’er prescribes a preparatory morality that readies Daoist practitioners for the eventual return to the Dao from which everything sprang. While this creates a temporary equilibrium in which commoners are held in check by a matrix of morality, this is but a stepping stone towards the ultimate dismantling of the edifice of human consciousness and the cosmic return to the Dao, as of yet the prerogative of sages. This creates a grim religious worldview in which humans are tasked with muting the clamour of the species in order to restore the original calm and stillness of the cosmic Dao.
Democratic deliberation has an inherent tension between self-government and good government. It grants democratic politics a legitimacy which depends on its responsiveness to the collective opinion of the members of a political community, while it also seeks good decisions, the justification of which adheres to an ideal of right action beyond the opinion of the majority. In this regard, Philip Pettit proposes liberty as non-domination as a regulative ideal that guides democratic deliberation for self-government without jettisoning the ideal of good government. His republican theory of democratic deliberation is worthy of our consideration in the sense that without endorsing either any pre-existing commonality in a society or a set of inalienable individual rights, it successfully justifies the imposition of external premises in democratic deliberation. However, his theory of democratic deliberation still falls prey to charges of having an anti-self-government tendency, particularly when civil contention between individuals or groups is driven by contrasting views of liberty as non-domination. Based on this observation, in this paper, supplementing his consequentialism with the Daoist practices of becoming 'nothingness', I will suggest the ethics of 'difference' as an additional regulative principle that helps better steer democratic deliberation toward the premise of liberty as non-domination.
This chapter examines the sculptural aesthetics of Johann Herder and Chinese Daoism. Herder’s thesis that sculpture presents “forms in which the living soul animates the entire body” might have changed the way Europeans viewed the plastic arts, but Daoism had already discovered this “truth” two millennia earlier. What is common to both Herder and Daoism is the argument that sight inherently falls short when it comes to knowing the possibility of human experience. As sight lacks the tactile sensation of touch, and sculpture is an artform created by the hands, it falls to spirit to convey what our eyes cannot feel and our hands cannot see. What the sculptor shapes is thus not the human imagination but the spirit of Nature, a shaping that in reality never departs from the hidden ground of the soul.
This chapter explores the concept of emotion in the Zhuangzi and why our dependency on it is a barrier to attaining oneness with the Dao. Arguing against previous interpretations of the emotionless state of the sage as an example of Chinese Stoicism or loss of self-agency, this chapter will demonstrate how following the sage’s example of “no-emotion” allows us to wander in all that is untouched by debates over the properness of individual feelings and emotional rationalizations. Thus, when the sage abides by the life-giving principle of the Dao, he partakes in its life-giving emotion; however, as the Dao is formless, silent, and empty, this life-giving emotion is rendered as non-emotion which is why the sage is said to be without emotion.
Guest Editors’ Introduction 175
Chih-yu Shih and Lang Kao
SECTION 1: ENGAGEMENT
Combining Contradictions: 183
Jewish Contributions to the Chinese Revolution
Yitzhak Shichor
The Propagation of Japanese Buddhism in China, 1910-40s: 213
Japan as the Guardian of East Asian “Traditions”
Shin Kawashima translated by George Remisovsky
The Russian Ecclesiastical Missions (1715-1864) to Peking 231
and their Influence on China Studies in Russia
Alexei D. Voskressenski
True Catholic and Authentic Chinese: 257
The Theologico-Political Polemic in China
Wing Kwan Anselm Lam
SECTION 2: SELF-FULFILLMENT
Beyond China’s Threat: The Contextual Theology of the 279
Presbyterian Church in Taiwan
Chih-yu Shih and Samantha Wan-Yu Tseng
Heidegger’s Legacy for Comparative Philosophy and the Laozi 299
Thomas Michael
Healing Practices Regenerate Local Knowledge: 319
The Revival of Mongolian Shamanism in China’s Inner Mongolia
Saijirahu Buyanchugla
SECTION 3: SCHOLARSHIP
Sinitic Languages in the English Periodical Press of 19th Century 347
China: Focus on The Chinese Repository and The China Review
Luisa M. Paternicò
A Review on Huiru Movement and Key Terms of 371
Traditional Chinese Thought Used in Wang Daiyu’s Work
Ertuğrul Ceylan
A Reflection on the Development of Buddhist Psychology in China 393
Kai Chung Joe Poon
To advance our understanding of both the Book of Zhuāngzǐ 莊子 (c. fourth to third century BCE) and Qián Mù 錢穆 (1895–1990)’s Zhuāngzǐ studies 莊學, I aim to squarely face one of the more obscure passages in the former with recourse to an explanation from the latter. The passage in question is that from the second chapter beginning with the claim ‘there is a beginning’ (有始也者) and culminating with the claim that ‘there has not yet begun to be a “there has not yet begun to be nothing”’ (有未始有夫未始有無也者). I hope to show that Qián offers a compelling and novel interpretation of this difficult passage worthy of our consideration.
In their disputes on names (concepts) and actualities, the classical scholars from the pre-Qin and the early Han era still proceeded from the realist understanding of reality as objective external world or external form of things. In Xuanxue discourses of the Wei-Jin period, however, we encounter studies dealing with the inherent structural patterns of meaning. Its members modified the ancient disputes on the relation between names (concepts) and actualities into investigations of the relation between language and meaning or intention. In doing so, Xuanxue theoreticians created and developed an entirely new philosophical discipline. This was one of the most important theoretical shifts in the history of traditional Chinese thought. The present chapter will show how and why the Xuanxue treatises on the relation between language and meaning represent the basis of the specific Chinese structural semantics.
“Dispelling Self-Interest” is yet another example of Ji Kang calling attention to the shortcomings of Confucian thinking when held against the light of Daoism. Just as his essay “On Nourishing Life” argued that physical longevity and spiritual integrity could only be had after one has mastered self-cultivation via tranquility and stillness, “Dispelling Self-Interest” makes a similar argument in the context of morality. To lack self-concern in matters of right and wrong is to follow one’s heart without exhausting it and in this way, the self is forgotten and the naturalness of Dao attained. In understanding and acting in accordance with the nature of Dao, the sage remains free of blame in that he commits no wrong. Cherishing the harmonizing oneness of Dao is, therefore, to be without self-concern and when one lacks concern for the rightness or wrongness of one’s thoughts and actions, one becomes devoid of self-interest. In addition to unpacking Ji Kang’s theory of dispelling self-interest, this chapter will also discuss why the majority of people are incapable of doing so, succumbing to the very desires that stymie the actualization of life’s potential.
Based on the analysis of Zhuangzi (especially the inner chapters), this paper attempts to illustrate the positive aspects of Zhuangzi’s idea concerning contented acceptance of fate (anming 安命), which is completely different from a fatalistic viewpoint. Through probing into the meaning of some important ideas and their interrelationships, such as the Dao, virtue, nature, and fate, this paper indicates the essentials of anming: first, the prerequisite that makes anming toward life possible is what Zhuangzi calls ‘clarity (ming 命)’. Second, the passive aspect that anming expresses is ‘bearing/suffering’, referring to a facticity that one must accept according to internal and external limits. Third, the positive aspect of anming, referring to the concept of enabling man with his own limits to be at peace with worldly things, is what Zhuangzi calls ‘following along (Shun 順)’. Anming reveals its true positivity by willingly ‘following along’ the nature of all things, just like Cook Ting’s knife, seemingly passive yet active, playing with ease in spaces according to the natural makeup of oxen. This positivity will definitely shed light on education toward catastrophes or disasters, helping people contentedly accept the natures and limits of their own and of things, and finding with flexibility the best way in dealing with misfortune in life.
Heidegger’s “Evening Conversation: In a Prisoner of War Camp in Russia, between a Younger and an Older Man” (1945), one of three dialogues composed by Heidegger after the defeat of National Socialist Germany published in Country Path Conversations ( Feldweg-Gespräche ) explores the being-historical situation and fate of the German people by turning to the early Daoist text of the Zhuangzi . My article traces how Heidegger interprets fundamental concepts from the Zhuangzi , mediated by way of Richard Wilhelm’s translation Das wahre Buch vom südlichen Blütenland (1912), such as naturalness, letting/releasement ( Gelassenheit / wuwei ), the unnecessary ( wuyong zhi wei yong ) and the useless ( wuyong zhi yong ) in the context of his hermeneutical and political situation. I consider to what extent this dialogue, along with his other discussions of the Zhuangzi and intensive engagement with the Daodejing from 1943 to 1950, constitute a “Daoist turn” in Heidegger’s thinking that helped shape his Postwar thought.
(pre-publication draft version): The philosophy of Wang Bi 王弼 (226-249) was articulated in his commentaries on the Analects (Lunyu 論語), the Daodejing 道德經, and the Yijing 易經 (Classic of Changes). His Daodejing and Yijing commentaries shaped the reception and hermeneutics of these texts while his commentary on the Analects survived only in a fragmentary condition. Despite his prioritization of Confucius (Kongzi 孔子) as the ultimate paradigmatic figure of the sage, Wang's works offer a syncretist Daoist, or "neo-Daost" mysterious learning (xuanxue 玄學), reasons for this priority. This reconstructed Daoist notion of nothingness (wu無) functions as a key concept that informs his readings of the classics and his depiction of the relationship between language, imagination, and reflection. Wang interpreted the Yijing as a dynamic medium for reflecting on and interpreting nature, society, and one's own situation. This chapter elucidates Wang Bi's commentaries, focusing particularly on the relation between words (yan言), images (xiang 象), meanings (yi 意), and the forgetting (wang 忘) of words, images, and ideas in the context of Wang’s interpretation of responsiveness from nothingness. Nothingness cannot be thematically grasped as a thing or something, and it resists being treated as a determinate idea or propositional said. It is irreducible to words, images, and ideas. Its primordiality is disclosed and enacted in practices of emptying, forgetting, and letting go.
Table of Contents, Introduction, and Bibliography of Levinas, Adorno, and the Ethics of the Material Other (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2020)
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