scholarly journals Beyond Murderous Dialectics

Asian Studies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabian HEUBEL
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Philosophy ◽  
Socialist Revolution ◽  
Dialectical Thinking ◽  
Mou Zongsan ◽  
Chinese Characteristics ◽  
Book Of Changes ◽  
Paradoxical Thinking ◽  
The One ◽  
The Ancient Chinese ◽  
Contemporary Chinese

This essay has been inspired by the writings of the contemporary Neo-Confucian philosopher Mou Zongsan and the German sinologist Wolfgang Bauer. It assumes that the power of Mao Zedong’s thought sprung from its ability to systematically subordinate the transformative philosophy of the classical Book of Changes to the Marxist model of revolutionary class struggle. If dialectical thinking requires thought to think against itself and thereby be able to continuously change itself from the inside, Mao seems to have been a master of dialectical thinking. One of the intellectual impulses for the Great Cultural Revolution was the radically unsentimental judgement that, in order for the socialist revolution to succeed, it was necessary to erase the ancient Chinese legacy of paradoxical thinking, and that this was a precondition of the possibility of Mao’s Sino-Marxist discourse. But the enormous power that Mao’s thought derived from the tension between revolutionary heroism and transformative flexibility revealed itself as self-destructive. Mao tried to fight against the failure of his revolutionary vision and the possibility that the wisdom of paradoxical thinking and the classical heritage of China could, finally, gain the upper hand in the ongoing struggle for modernization. From this perspective, this essay touches upon a contradiction, which can be understood as the principle contradiction of contemporary Chinese philosophy: the contradiction between the defence of Sino-Marxism as the ideological foundation of a “socialism with Chinese characteristics” on the one hand, and the renaissance of traditional culture and classical learning on the other, which entails a powerful challenge to this very foundation.

Dao

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David L. Hall ◽  
Roger T. Ames
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Philosophy ◽  
Cultural Factor ◽  
Specific Character ◽  
The World ◽  
Book Of Changes ◽  
The Many ◽  
The One ◽  
The Way

Dao, conventionally translated ‘the Way’, is probably the most pervasive and widely recognized idea in Chinese philosophy. The specific character of Chinese philosophy arises because a dominant cultural factor in the tradition, now and then, has been the priority of process and change over form and stasis, a privileging of cosmology over metaphysics. That the Yijing (Book of Changes) is first among the Chinese Classics in every sense bears witness to the priority of cosmological questions – how, or in what way (dao) should the world hang together? – over metaphysical and ontological questions – what is the reality behind appearance, the Being behind the beings, the One behind the many, the true behind the false? The contrast lies in finding a way rather than seeking the truth.

scholarly journals The origins of modern cross-cultural European interpretations of Chinese philosophy. New thoughts on China in the work of G. W. Leibniz

Human Affairs ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 146-163
Author(s):  
Břetislav Horyna
Keyword(s):  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Chinese Philosophy ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Christian Mission ◽  
Institutional Economic ◽  
The World ◽  
European Philosophy ◽  
The One ◽  
Historical Contribution ◽  
Mutual Agreement

AbstractLeibniz was not the one to discover China, as far as Western culture was concerned. His historical contribution lies in the fact he presented Europe and China as two distinct ways of contemplating the world, as fully comparable and resulting in types of societies at the same high institutional, economic, technological, political and moral level. In this sense he saw China as the “Europe of the Orient” and as such susceptible to investigation by the same tools of natural philosophy which Leibniz knew from the environs of European scholarship. He was the first representative of the classical school of European philosophy to knowingly reject Eurocentrism. Leibniz followed the intentions of learned missionaries in his understanding of the Christian mission as a cultural and civilisational task, a search for mutual agreement and connections, in favour of a reciprocal understanding.

Tendenzen zur Affixderivation im Verbalbereich des modernen Chinesisch?

1989 ◽  
Vol 42 (5) ◽  
pp. 630-637
Author(s):  
Helga Beutel
Keyword(s):  
Word Formation ◽  
Progressive Form ◽  
The One ◽  
Contemporary Chinese ◽  
Causative Verbs

Summary In the word formation of verbs in contemporary Chinese (putonghua) there are some one- syllable verbal morphemes that are attached to two-syllable (two-morpheme) verbs as a third syllable repeating synonymously tho meaning the two-syllable verbs already have. In this function the one-syllable verbal morphemes show properties of both compounds and derivations and represent a productive pattern of word formation forming semantically and syntactically uniform three-syllable verbs. In this connection we propose to treat verbs like dào “to say” that transform causative verba dicendi into non-causative verba dicondi and verbs like yŏu “to have, to exist” that substitute the function of the “aspect-suffix” zhe (“progressive form”) of verbs of existence as frequent constituents (“häufige Konstituenten”). Finally we suggest to treat huà “to change” as a quasi-suffix that transforms verbs, nouns, and adjectives into a certain subclass of causative verbs.

The Heart Admonition of the Ancient Chinese Classic Shujing: An Episode from History of Its Interpretation in the West and Russia

2021 ◽  
pp. 194-208
Author(s):  
Lidiya V. Stezhenskaya ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Russian Translation ◽  
Chinese Philosophy ◽  
Chinese People ◽  
The West ◽  
Chinese Thought ◽  
Chinese Studies ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Ancient Chinese ◽  
Chinese Classic ◽  
Better Than

Autochthonous traditional Chinese thought in its most developed form could be found in the philosophy of Neo-Confucianism, which continues to be a sig­nificant factor in the modern national consciousness of the Chinese people. At the same time, the pre-emptive attention of Western Sinology and Russian Chinese studies to early Confucianism does not fully take into account the Neo-Confucian interpretation of the ancient Chinese classics. Russian and Western translations of the so-called Sixteen-Word Heart Admonition (Shi liu zi xin chuan), a passage from Chapter III “Da Yu mo” (Councel of Yu the Great) of the ancient Chinese classic The Book of Historical Documents (Shujing) by A. Gaubil, N.Ya. Bichurin, D.P. Sivillov, W.H. Medhurst, J. Legge, S. Couvreur, and W.G. Old demonstrate the gradual assimilation of its Neo-Confucian inter­pretation by Western and Russian translators. Archimandrite Daniil (Dmitry P. Sivillov), in his unpublished Russian translation of Shujing of the early 1840s, adopted this interpretation earlier and understood it better than the others. It is assumed that rejection of the Manchu language mediation and peruse of the con­temporary Neo-Confucian commentaries played the key role in his success. The importance of Neo-Confucian hermeneutics research for the studies of tradi­tional Chinese philosophy, including ancient Chinese classics, is emphasized. The text of the previously unpublished Shujing Chapter III Da Yu mo Russian transla­tion by archimandrite Daniil is attached.

Diplomatic Doctrine and Style with Chinese Characteristics

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 370-380
Author(s):  
Chas W. Freeman
Keyword(s):  
Political Leadership ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Chinese Revolution ◽  
Chinese Characteristics ◽  
And Control ◽  
Chinese Diplomacy ◽  
Contemporary Chinese ◽  
The Way

Summary Chinese diplomatic style is the product of many influences. It is rooted in 2,000 years of history but also reflects changes resulting from the Chinese Revolution and the dramatic expansion of its wealth, power, status and interests ongoing today. Much is made of the hierarchical tradition in China’s diplomatic thinking and its resistance to Western diplomatic norms. However, these provide unreliable guides for contemporary Chinese diplomacy. While ‘face’, in terms of the respect of others remains an important consideration, Chinese diplomacy is influenced by upholding its understanding of the principles of sovereignty, non-intervention and self-determination. It is also influenced by the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s conceptions of how political leadership and control are exercised and maintained. These concerns manifest themselves in the way Chinese diplomatic style has avoided force, favoured ambiguity and operated with a clear, but creatively interpreted, distinction between non-negotiable core principles and more flexible concrete arrangements.

scholarly journals SACRIFICE VS. SUSTENANCE: FOOD AS A BURIAL GOOD IN LATE PRE-IMPERIAL AND EARLY IMPERIAL CHINESE TOMBS AND ITS RELATION FUNERARY RITES

Early China ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 179-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Armin Selbitschka
Keyword(s):  
Human Beings ◽  
Close Attention ◽  
Burial Practices ◽  
Funerary Rituals ◽  
Imperial China ◽  
Food And Drink ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
Funerary Rites ◽  
The One ◽  
The Ancient Chinese

AbstractOne of the medical manuscripts recovered from Tomb No. 3 at Mawangdui (dated 186 b.c.e.) states that, “When a person is born there are two things that need not to be learned: the first is to breathe and the second is to eat.” Of course it is true that all healthy newborn human beings possess the reflexes to breathe and eat. Yet, the implications of death should have been just as obvious to the ancient Chinese. Once the human brain ceases to function, there is no longer a biological need for oxygen and nourishment. Nevertheless, a large number of people in late pre-imperial and early imperial China insisted on burying food and drink with the dead. Most modern commentators take the deposition of food and drink as burial goods to be a rather trite phenomenon that warrants little reflection. To their minds both kinds of deposits were either intended to sustain the spirit of the deceased in the hereafter or simply a sacrifice to the spirit of the deceased. Yet, a closer look at the archaeological evidence suggests otherwise. By tracking the exact location of food and drink containers in late pre-imperial and early imperial tombs and by comprehensively analyzing inscriptions on such vessels in addition to finds of actual food, the article demonstrates that reality was more complicated than this simple either/or dichotomy. Some tombs indicate that the idea of continued sustenance coincided with occasional sacrifices. Moreover, this article will introduce evidence of a third kind of sacrifice that, so far, has gone unnoticed by scholarship. Such data confirms that sacrifices to spirits other than the one of the deceased sometimes were also part of funerary rituals. By paying close attention to food and drink as burial goods the article will put forth a more nuanced understanding of early Chinese burial practices and associated notions of the afterlife.

A Propos De Ta Sa Fuqin Si-Le

1987 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-257
Author(s):  
Robert Iljic
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Proper Noun ◽  
Intransitive Verb ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Accepted Standard ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One ◽  
Contemporary Chinese

The sentences of the type above mentioned are characterized, on the one hand, by the cooccurrence of bă with an intransitive verb, on the other hand, by the classifier ge following bă and introducing a noun relative to a unique referent. This type of sentence, quoted by most major contemporary Chinese grammars, and to be traced in baihuà texts, doesn't seem, nowadays, to pertain any longer to a universally accepted standard. This paper demonstrates that in these sentences, as in all bă constructions, bă actually marks a patient (even if the latter may be the subject-of an intransitive verb); besides, given its position before bă, a certain agentivity is always conferred to a noun in topic position, even if this agentivity, taken to its far end, boils down to the only desire of having been able to do something to prevent a given event (a point in case: the death of a father); finally, the function of ge before a proper noun or a noun semantically determined as unique, which can be found in some other sentences, isn't to count, that is, to indicate a quantity. but to emphasize the qualitative value of the noun (the father insofar as he is a father), the effect being to underline the value (price) that the speaker attaches to a given person or thing, hence the modal connotation ascribed to such sentences.

scholarly journals The Perspective of Overcoming Nihilism in Heidegger’s Dialogue with Jünger

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tautvydas Vėželis
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Dialectical Thinking ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
History Of ◽  
Metaphysical Tradition ◽  
The One ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
European Civilization

This article examines the problem of overcoming nihilism in Heidegger’s dialogue with Jünger. It is suggested that nihilism is manifested in various forms and is the deep logic of the whole history of European civilization. One of the main aims of this paper is to outline the relationship of nihilism and Nothing in Heidegger’s dispute with Jünger, viewing how Heidegger distinguishes his approach from Jünger’s point of view. Heidegger, on the one hand, treats nihilism as consummation of the Western metaphysical tradition, on the other hand, identifies Nothing itself as the shadow of Being, which cannot be overcome in the traditional dialectical thinking manner.

The Effect of Driving Method and Crank Arrangements on the Performance of a Reconstructed Ancient Chinese Wooden Horse Carriage

2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fu-Chen Chen ◽  
Meng-Hui Hsu ◽  
Hong-Sen Yan
Keyword(s):  
Phase Angle ◽  
Transmission Efficiency ◽  
The Future ◽  
The One ◽  
The Ancient Chinese ◽  
Driving Torque

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of driving method and crank arrangements on the performance of a reconstructed ancient Chinese wooden horse carriage. The results demonstrate better transmission efficiency when the driving torque of wooden horse carriage acts on the crank shaft. The analysis of crank arrangements shows that the phase angle between front and rear legs on the same side should be 0 deg or 90 deg and the one between the legs on the different sides should be 180 deg. These results are beneficial to the future reconstruction of the ancient Chinese wooden horse carriage.

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