“Global Reception of the Classic Zhuangzi: Song to Ming”
Reed College, March 23-25, 2023
Workshop Abstracts
(Gray Lounge and ETC 208)
Friday, March 23, 2023:
9:00 AM – 10:30 AM
“Li Shibiao’s 李士表 Ten Essays on Zhuangzi and Liezi 莊列十論”
Richard J. Sage, Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
The Ten Essays on Zhuangzi and Liezi (Zhuang Lie shi lun 莊列十論) have long been appreciated for their philosophical depth and ingenuity. Their historical context and target audience, on the other hand, has thus far been widely ignored. Within this paper, I will present translated excerpts from several of these essays and discuss their religio-political purpose. For as valuable the Essays are on their own in regard to the reception of two of the foremost Daoist classics, their connection with the surviving contemporaneous commentaries on these cannot be ignored. Indeed, Li’s writings can well be seen as a critical response to the political instrumentalization of Daoist exegetical literature during the reign of the Song emperor Huizong 宋徽宗 (1082-1135; r. 1100-1125).
10:45 AM – 12:15 PM
“Chu Boxiu: Curator of Southern Florescence”
Mark Csikszentmihalyi, University of California, Berkeley
1:30 PM – 3:00 PM
“Synthesis and Heterogeneity: Lin Xiyi’s Interpretation of Qi wulun (Unifying All Arguments)”
Qiu Peipei, Vassar College
Among the large number of commentaries devoted to the Daoist classic Zhuangzi, Lin Xiyi’s 林希逸 Zhuangzi kouyi 莊子口譯 or Vernacular Explanations of the Zhuangzi (1258), is one of the most influential. Together with the earliest extant commentary by Guo Xiang 郭象 (252-312), Lin’s explanation of the Zhuangzi had a deep impact on the understanding of the Zhuangzi over the centuries. Unlike Guo Xiang’s commentary, which focuses on the Daoist thoughts of quiddity and spontaneity, Lin draws frequently from Confucian, Buddhist, and literary texts to interpret the Zhuangzi. Lin’s integrative approach, typical of Song scholarship, helped revitalize the Daoist classic, keeping it widely influential not only among Daoist thinkers but also among Confucian, Buddhist, and literary scholars in East Asian countries. This presentation examines Zhuangzi kouyi’s synthesis through selected passages from Lin Xiyi’s annotations of Qi wulun 齊物論. It provides the translations of Lin’s annotations as well as the relevant texts of the Zhuangzi and shows how Lin’s heterogeneous commentary informs a different understanding of the Daoist classic.
3:30 PM – 5:00 PM
“The Impact of the Zhuang zi on Early Song Neo Confucian Thought: A Study of Zhang Zai and Shao Yong’s Ideas of Movement, Things and Matter”
Dennis Schilling, Renmin University
The purpose of this study is to examine how ideas from the Zhuāng zǐ enter the philosophical framework of Neo Confucian scholars in early Sòng period, and which significance Neo Confucian philosophy implies for our reading of Zhuāng zǐ today. The study is selective in its presentation of texts and ideas and does not purport to provide a comprehensive picture of the influence of the Zhuāng zǐ on Neo Confucian philosophy. Essentially, I will limit my investigation to three themes: 1. the qì theory as a means of explaining cosmic transformation and determining the place of the individual in that transformation; 2. the perspective of the individual as an appropriate approach to a world composed of individual entities that have different determinations and tendencies but are of equal ground or value; 3. the idea of responsive action with the world while detached from worldly affairs. We find these three themes in texts by various authors, all of whom are among the paradigmatic figures of early Sòng dào xué. However, the three themes differ in their significance and impact on later Confucian thought. Zhāng Zài’s theory of qì became something like a general conceptual scheme for describing the processes of reality. However, the concepts closest to the Zhuāng zǐ, namely the fragile and transient state of individual existence in the qì transformation, are rather rarely cited by later Confucians. Shào Yōng’s approach of viewing the world from the perspective of things was further developed in early Qīng philosophy by Fāng Yǐzhì, but forms a side path in Neo Confucian thought. Although Zhū Xī favored other approaches to moral cultivation, Chéng Hào’s description of a dynamic detachment from the world became a familiar text for many generations and had a major influence on Míng Confucian thinkers. In the present paper, I would like to discuss how the aforementioned philosophical themes which take their departure from passages of the Zhuāng zǐ, in turn influence our reading of the Zhuāng zǐ today.
Saturday, March 24, 2023:
9:00 AM – 10:30 AM
“Zhuang Zi’s Ritual Discourse: Its Recurrence in Late Imperial Daoist Manuals”
Mark Meulenbeld, University of Hong Kong
10:45 AM – 12:15 PM
“Zhuangzi at Play: Li Zhi’s 李贄 Dissecting the Zhuangzi (Zhuangzi jie)”
Pauline Lee, Saint Louis University
In The Ambiguity of Play (1997), Brian Sutton-Smith in his pioneering work catalogues play into types and argues that in common is that play protects or creates variability in behavior and thought, thus improving one’s chances in the process of natural selection. Do the views of play in Confucius’ Analects, or the early Daoist classic the Zhuangzi, or in the writings of the great 12th century Confucian Zhu Xi, or the 16th century iconoclast Li Zhi fall within these categories, or not? Are there even views of play in these works? If so, could studying these views alter and enrich our understanding of play, and even how we live? The focus of my presentation will be exploring one view of play in the Zhuangzi, which I will describe as a sort of virtue and not merely in one part of life but a good in all or much of life. A significant portion of my discussion will be on “pivot” images, and in our readings I have included Li Zhi’s commentaries on references in the Zhuangzi to the “Pivot of the Dao” 道樞 and “Nature’s Potter’s Wheel” 天鈞 (Chapter Two), along with two selections from Li’s commentaries on the first chapter of the Zhuangzi. In concluding, I compare play as envisioned in the Zhuangzi to that articulated by one contemporary philosopher, C. Thi Nguyen. A difference in views of the self, what we might imagine as Zhuangzi’s spinning toy top in contrast to Nguyen’s moving chess piece, has important implications for our contemporary daily lives. Study of the Zhuangzi, I will suggest, imaginatively expands our repertoire of play theories, and enriches and supports humans, not as homo economicus strategizing for, picking up, and setting down certain ends, in short, viewing play as useful as a means and honing our abilities to freely choose, but instead, envisions humans as homo ludens where all (or much) of ordinary life might be play.
1:00 PM – 2:30 PM
“Cheng Yining’s Commentary and Sub-commentary to the True Classic of Southern Splendor”
Jean Angles, École Pratique des Hautes Études
The late-Ming Daoist literati Cheng Yining 程以寧 authored the Nanhua zhenjing zhushu 南華真經註疏, a neidan interpretation of the Zhuangzi. According to this work, underneath Master Zhuang’s words lie alchemical instructions that Cheng, as a commentator and alchemist adept, has to reveal, thus transforming the classic into a soteriological work aimed at providing readers with a path to transcendence. In this intervention, I will focus on Cheng’s interpretation of the first chapter, which plays a pivotal role in his commentary and is representative of his various exegetical strategies. Cheng believes that this chapter encapsulates the entire alchemical process, dividing “xiaoyao you” into three parts that represent the transformation of essence into breath, breath into spirit, and spirit into void. He extracts several alchemical instructions from the original text. For instance, Cheng reads Kun’s transformation into Peng as a metaphor for the alchemical process of the “River Chariot.” He interprets other parts of the chapter as defenses of true alchemical practice. Moreover, Cheng’s perspective on alchemy as the sole path leading to transcendence and his conception of sainthood and transcendence are also presented.
2:45 PM – 4:15 PM
“Things That Remained to Be Said: Su Shi (1037-1101 on the Zhuangzi”
Lo Yuet Keung, National University of Singapore
In his early years Su Shi 蘇軾 (1037-1101) said that upon reading the Zhuangzi, he realized that it had expressed what he entertained in his mind but could not articulate himself. This, however, does not mean that Zhuangzi had covered everything that the young poet-thinker could and would have said. As it turned out, Su’s philosophy of life would evolve alongside with his tumultuous political and personal odyssey. It is well known that Zhuangzi’s philosophy permeated in much of his writings in various genres throughout his entire life, including his famous essay in commemoration of the first-ever shrine dedicated to Zhuangzi. Though Su did not write a commentary to the Daoist classic, he did leave us with running remarks on a section (as it would be called the “Guangchengzi 廣成子 Section”) in the “Zai you” 在宥 (Chapter 11), in which the Yellow Emperor sought counsel with Master Guangcheng on the governance of all-under-Heaven. Yet, Su’s interest in this section evidently laid in self-cultivation instead; specifically, he was keen in understanding the intimate relationship between self and other. Indeed, toward his waning years, he continued to be preoccupied with fathoming the very nature of self and concluded that self transcends beyond duality as well as good and evil, a summation alluded to in his brief commentary on the “Guangchengzi Section”. This paper will analyze the commentary with a full translation and shows how Su Shi’s understanding of self evolved over time in his exiled life.
Sunday, March 25, 2023:
9:00 AM – 10:30 AM
“Unfaithful Variation: Zhuangzi Tests His Wife Narratives in Three Xiqu Genres”
Josh Stenberg, University of Sydney
“Zhuangzi Tests his Wife” tales are shared across late imperial fiction, drama, and storytelling forms and are only remotely connected to Zhuangzi as a philosophical figure. In standard versions, Zhuangzi witnesses a widow fanning a grave, since she had promised not to remarry before the grave was dry. Struck by this fickleness, Zhuangzi fakes his own death in order to test his wife's constancy. To this purpose, he transforms a butterfly into a messenger—it is this scene in a contemporary kunqu version from the Jiangsu troupe that I have provided as reading. The wife is easily won over and ultimately even offers Zhuangzi's coffin to be split open in order that the new suitor may feast on Zhuangzi's brain—this twist in particular has often laid the story open to charges of misogyny. On stage and screen, the narratives have survived into the modern and contemporary eras, often in rather changed forms—besides the kunqu version, this presentation will also consider recent jingju and yueju versions.
10:45 AM – 12:15 PM
“Hanshan Deqing’s Reading of the Zhuangzi’s Evening Out Things (Qiwulun) as a Dhāraṇī”
Tobias Benedikt Zürn, Reed College
Hanshan Deqing 憨山德清 (1546–1623), an eminent Buddhist monk from the Ming 明 Dynasty (1368–1644), wrote the first Buddhist commentary on a full section of the Zhuangzi, called Commentary to the Zhuangzi’s Inner Chapters or Zhuangzi neipian Hanshan zhu 莊子內篇憨山注. In this presentation, I focus on Hanshan’s interpretation of the Zhuangzi’s 莊子 “Discourse of Merging [All] Things” (“Qiwulun” 齊物論). As we will see, the famous Chan Buddhist monk read the entire second chapter as an elaborate dhāraṇī (zongchi 總持). He develops the idea that Master Zhuang had hidden various practices of forgetful meditation (wang 忘) behind the Daoist classic’s bedazzling language. In fact, he claimed that the text contains an entire meditative program (gongfu 功夫) that aims at dismantling and breaking (po 破) the reader’s ego(s) leading to her/his realization of a non-dual vision of the universe. Within his syncretic reading that connects Buddhist and Daoist practices and terminology, the ““Butterfly Dream”” takes on a central role. It functions as the final step in a tripartite sequence of meditations—as a text of practice that may help practitioners transcend the Great Dream (dameng 大夢) and the world of saṃsāra.
2:00 PM – 3:30 PM
“Chan, the Changes, and the Chuci: Textual Communities and Syncretic Reading in Fang Yizhi’s Yaodi Boils Down the Zhuang[zi] (Yaodi pao Zhuang)”
Jesse Chapman, University of California, Los Angeles
This presentation examines how two intersecting textual communities, represented in Fang Yizhi’s 方以智 (1611–1671) commentary Yaodi pao Zhuang (ca. 1660), read the Zhuangzi during the Ming-Qing transition. Prior to the fall of the Ming, Fang was a prominent intellectual, hailing from a family with a long tradition of scholarship on the Changes classic. After the fall, like many Ming loyalists, Fang joined a Buddhist monastic community. Building on his family’s scholarship, Fang characterizes the seven “Inner Chapters” of the Zhuangzi as an extended commentary on the Qian hexagram of the Changes, arguing that the Zhuangzi uses language, just as the Changes uses numbers and images, to show the unity between seemingly opposed cosmic forces. Fang likewise examines the opposing and complementary aspects of Zhuangzi and Qu Yuan 屈原 (ca. 347–ca. 277 BCE), figures whom his Chan master, Juelang Daosheng 覺浪道盛 (1592–1659), held as models for divergent ways of confronting a chaotic and corrupt world. Where Qu Yuan sacrificed himself, Zhuangzi survived, but disengaged from political life. Drawing on work from both his family tradition and his monastic community, Fang treats the Zhuangzi as a text that aids in the resolution of binary oppositions that lead to painful attachments and the harmful notion of the self.
2:45 PM – 4:15 PM
Discussion of Presentations and Concluding Remarks
Alia Goehr, University of Chicago