An Interpretation of the Relationship between Man and Nature in Wei Jins’ Metaphysics: Based on the Confucian Ethical Code of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove and Nature

“Nature” and “the Confucian ethical code” are two of Wei Jins’ most important metaphysics. The ethical restrictions of “the Confucian ethical code” and the conflict of free development lie behind this pair of diametrically opposed philosophical conceptions. The Seven Sages proposed the concept of “transcending the realities and embracing our nature,” which was strongly influenced by Lao-Tze and Chuang-tzu. They advocated for the tremendous liberation of man’s nature, as well as a new explanation for man’s relationship with nature: human nature is also nature, enlightening future generations to maintain a harmonious relationship with nature.

Chuang Tzu’s selflessness: mind-state and the cultural semiotics of jingshen

The cognitive paradigm of symbols in ancient Chinese philosophy is quite distinct from that of Western semiotic circles. Chuang Tzu, one of the most influential ancient Chinese philosophers, concentrates his study on exploring the state of the subject’s selflessness and establishes his own cognitive paradigm of jingshen. This paper uses his statements of “I lost myself” and “The Perfect Man uses his mind like a mirror” in The adjustment of controversies of The Chuang Tzu, to investigate the ideal selfless mind-state and selflessness. It attempts to transfer the relationship between subject and object in symbolic cognition into the connection of intersubjectivity to construct jingshen’s cognitive paradigm of releasing symbolic meaning. The task of this research is to overcome the limitation created by the subject–object relation and finally to be “the Perfect Man” who can know the Dao.

La didáctica y el paradigma del techo de cristal. una mirada desde el enfoque radical e inclusivo de la educación

La Didáctica es un centro de la Pedagogía. Pero la Pedagogía está descentrada, porque está desenraizada. Por tanto, el centro de la Didáctica no es el centro de la formación plena, comprendida como fenómeno. Hay un abismo entre el fenómeno y el conocimiento del fenómeno. Cuando, con sed, se bebe de una vasija de oro, el agua en su hueco es el centro. Si la mirada se engarza al recipiente y no al seno y al agua, será que se es idiota. Dice Zhuang zi (1999), un maestro de la Didáctica basada en la conciencia, que: “La nasa sirve para coger peces; cogido el pez, olvídate de la nasa”. Pero una nasa abierta no es útil: demasiado hueco desapercibido. También observa que “Reconocerse idiota es ya no ser muy idiota; reconocer el propio error es no estar ya en gran error. El gran error es el que nunca se llega a entender. La gran idiotez es la que dura toda la vida sin esclarecerla” (Chuang tzu, 1977). El tiempo se acumula, tiempo sin reacción esencial de la Didáctica. Continuar el camino, fortalecerse, desarrollarse, no caerse… no equivalen, necesariamente, a marchar bien o a favorecer a los demás. De hecho, “los errores pueden ser consecuencia de haber pensado bien” (Saramago, 2000). Esto ocurre cuando, pudiendo haber aciertos miopes, no hay conciencia suficiente. La clave para la Didáctica no es el pensamiento, sino la conciencia. Para Zhuang zi (1999): “¡El no conocer es conocer! ¡Y el conocer es no conocer! ¿Quién conoce el conocimiento que consiste en no conocer?”. El centro de la formación no está en el pensar, en el conocimiento, el saber, la competencia, sino en el no saber, en la conciencia, en el autoconocimiento (esencial) y en la meditación. De lo anterior se deduce un posible tránsito evolutivo: de una Didáctica vigente, fundamentada en la enseñanza y el aprendizaje, a una Didáctica emergente y ancestral, basada en la conciencia de todos y en una educación plena. Sostenemos que esta “otra nueva educación” (Herrán, 1993, 1996), podría contar con una Didáctica así. El objetivo de este ensayo es mostrarlo y compartirlo.

Menjadi Bahagia di Jalan Dao (道): Kebahagiaan Sejati menurut Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi, 莊子)

In the last decade, scientists in almost all disciplines often elaborate happiness using interdisciplinary approaches, metodologies, and measurements, both quantitative and qualitative. Beside scientific approaches, one can also explore this topic from the viewpoint of speculative and phenomenological thinking. This viewpoint describes the experiences of happiness by realising empirical and rational knowledge as well as esoteric consciousness of reality as such. It is Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi), whose thoughts elaborate cognitive and intuitive sides of human mind, who offers a philosophy in order to bring forward an awareness of reality as itself. Chuang Tzu argues for a realisation of conjunction of both cognitive and intuitive capabilities of human mind, as well as its rational and mystical sides. The realisation of both natural capabilities brings about conditions for modern people’s experience of happiness.

The Pervasiveness of Wisdom in (Con)texts

Wisdom as a distinctive category has been challenged. This piece further challenges and opens up the geographical, ideological, and contextual contexts of sapiential texts found in various cultures with written scribal traditions. The Hebrew Bible’s Wisdom texts are primarily studied and situated in the ancient Near East and Egypt. Here, these texts are directedly placed in dialogue with authors and texts of the ancient Far East. For example: Proverbs and the Analects, Job and Buddhism, and Ecclesiastes and Chinese Philosophy (Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu). As Wisdom authors and texts hardly reference divinely sanctioned prophets or revelatory laws, the content and message with emphasis on humanity, propriety, consciousness, and jen (virtue, steadfastness, justice, affection, and righteousness) offer a fresh new breath of distinctiveness, which was pervasive in the Greco-Persian context.

Uma contribuição de Chuang-tzu ao pensamento de Heidegger: o cultivo do inútil.

O interesse de Heidegger pelo pensamento asiático é algo reconhecido pelos intérpretes da sua obra. O que se procura expor aqui é uma parte desse interesse, analisando e contextualizando a presença do Chuang-tzu onde Heidegger o traz à colação com o propósito de interpretar o sentido do inútil. Para Heidegger, o inútil designa a especificidade e o caráter próprio da filosofia e do pensamento meditativo, ao tempo que permite pensar a liberdade e a disposição humanas desde uma perspectiva não utilitarista do mundo técnico. Em Chuang-tzu, Heidegger encontrou um interlocutor privilegiado, valendo-se de suas parábolas para pensar em outro modo de realização do habitar humano que exige a necessidade de apresentar e fomentar o cultivo do inútil.

Oscar Wilde’s Reading of Zhuangzi in ‘A Chinese Sage’

In 1889 the sinologist Herbert A. Giles published his English translation Chuang Tzŭ: Mystic, Moralist, and Social Reformer. The following year, Oscar Wilde wrote his long book review ‘A Chinese Sage’. This article analyses Wilde’s review and explores how Giles’ translation influences Wilde’s understanding of Zhuangzi. The article also considers the influence of Aubrey Moore, who provided some of the notes for Giles’ translations, on Wilde’s reception of Zhuangzi. Because Wilde is neither a sinologist nor a researcher of Taoism, his interpretation of Zhuangzi in ‘A Chinese Sage’ is mediated by Giles and Moore, and might be seen as a ‘misunderstanding of a misunderstanding’. Yet the influence of Zhuangzi can still be seen in Wilde’s review, and the episode raises interesting questions about the reception of Taoism in late 19th-century Britain.