Chinese Metaphysics and its Problems

The first English-language contributory volume on Chinese metaphysics, covering all major traditions from pre-Qin to the modern period.

Chenyang Li (Edited by), Franklin Perkins (Edited by)

9781107093508, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 April 2015

254 pages, 7 b/w illus. 3 tables
23.7 x 16 x 2.1 cm, 0.52 kg

'As the publisher's blurb states, this is 'the first English-language anthology devoted to Chinese metaphysics'. With its twelve meaty chapters and a helpful introduction it is an extremely solid and welcome addition to the rapidly growing body of literature on comparative philosophy … Anyone with an interest in Chinese or comparative philosophy, with or without prior exposure to the Chinese side, will learn much from it.' Joseph A. Adler, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

This volume of new essays is the first English-language anthology devoted to Chinese metaphysics. The essays explore the key themes of Chinese philosophy, from pre-Qin to modern times, starting with important concepts such as yin-yang and qi and taking the reader through the major periods in Chinese thought - from the Classical period, through Chinese Buddhism and Neo-Confucianism, into the twentieth-century philosophy of Xiong Shili. They explore the major traditions within Chinese philosophy, including Daoism and Mohism, and a broad range of metaphysical topics, including monism, theories of individuation, and the relationship between reality and falsehood. The volume will be a valuable resource for upper-level students and scholars of metaphysics, Chinese philosophy, or comparative philosophy, and with its rich insights into the ethical, social and political dimensions of Chinese society, it will also interest students of Asian studies and Chinese intellectual history.

Introduction Chenyang Li and Franklin Perkins
1. Yinyang narrative of reality: Chinese metaphysical thinking Robin R. Wang
2. In defense of Chinese qi-naturalism JeeLoo Liu
3. What is a thing (wu ?)? The problem of individuation in early Chinese metaphysics Franklin Perkins
4. The Mohist conception of reality Chris Fraser
5. Reading the Zhongyong 'metaphysically' Roger T. Ames
6. Logos and Dao: conceptions of reality in Heraclitus and Laozi Jiyuan Yu
7. Constructions of reality: metaphysics in the ritual traditions of classical China Michael Puett
8. Concepts of reality in Chinese Mah?y?na Buddhism Hans-Rudolf Kantor
9. Being and events: Huayan Buddhism's concept of event and Whitehead's ontological principle Vincent Shen
10. Harmony as substance: Zhang Zai's metaphysics of polar relations Brook Ziporyn
11. A lexicography of Zhu Xi's metaphysics John Berthrong
12. Xiong Shili's understanding of the relationship between the ontological and the phenomenal John Makeham
Works cited
Index.

Subject Areas: Black & Asian studies [JFSL3], Confucianism [HRKN1], Oriental religions [HRKN], Buddhism [HRE], Philosophy: epistemology & theory of knowledge [HPK], Philosophy: metaphysics & ontology [HPJ], Oriental & Indian philosophy [HPDF], Non-Western philosophy [HPD], Western philosophy, from c 1900 - [HPCF], Philosophy [HP]