The Laozi and the Cosmogonic Turn in Classical Chinese Philosophy

In the past several decades, our understanding of the Laozi has been revolutionized by the discovery of new textual materials. While research has focused on various manuscript copies, the discovery of other cosmogonic texts dated to the late fourth century BC indicate that the Laozi was not as uniqu...

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Main Author: Perkins, Franklin
Other Authors: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2017
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/83772
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/42807
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-837722020-03-07T12:10:38Z The Laozi and the Cosmogonic Turn in Classical Chinese Philosophy Perkins, Franklin School of Humanities and Social Sciences Laozi Cosmogony In the past several decades, our understanding of the Laozi has been revolutionized by the discovery of new textual materials. While research has focused on various manuscript copies, the discovery of other cosmogonic texts dated to the late fourth century BC indicate that the Laozi was not as unique as it once seemed. Taken together, these texts show a radical shift in philosophical orientation occurring by the late 4th century BC, a change toward concerns with cosmogony and accounts of human beings as merely one part of the natural world. The goal of this paper is to analyze the various elements of this shift, using the Taiyi Sheng Shui 太一生水 (Great One Generates Water), Hengxian 恆先 (Constancy First), and Fan Wu Liu Xing 凡物流形 (All Things Flow into Form), along with the Laozi bamboo strips found at Guodian. The first section examines the commonalities between the various cosmogonies; the second places cosmogony in the context of other distinctive concerns that the texts share, turning toward the implications of the cosmogonies for human action. The final section examines one of the fundamental points on which the texts disagree. Accepted version 2017-07-05T06:54:13Z 2019-12-06T15:31:44Z 2017-07-05T06:54:13Z 2019-12-06T15:31:44Z 2016 Journal Article Perkins, F. (2016). The Laozi and the Cosmogonic Turn in Classical Chinese Philosophy. Frontiers of Philosophy in China, 11(2), 185-205. 1673-3436 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/83772 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/42807 10.3868/s030-005-016-0015-9 en Frontiers of Philosophy in China © 2016 Higher Education Press and Brill Academic Publishers. This is the author created version of a work that has been peer reviewed and accepted for publication by Frontiers of Philosophy in China, Higher Education Press and Brill Academic Publishers. It incorporates referee’s comments but changes resulting from the publishing process, such as copyediting, structural formatting, may not be reflected in this document. The published version is available at: [https://doi.org/10.3868/s030-005-016-0015-9]. 28 p. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
country Singapore
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Laozi
Cosmogony
spellingShingle Laozi
Cosmogony
Perkins, Franklin
The Laozi and the Cosmogonic Turn in Classical Chinese Philosophy
description In the past several decades, our understanding of the Laozi has been revolutionized by the discovery of new textual materials. While research has focused on various manuscript copies, the discovery of other cosmogonic texts dated to the late fourth century BC indicate that the Laozi was not as unique as it once seemed. Taken together, these texts show a radical shift in philosophical orientation occurring by the late 4th century BC, a change toward concerns with cosmogony and accounts of human beings as merely one part of the natural world. The goal of this paper is to analyze the various elements of this shift, using the Taiyi Sheng Shui 太一生水 (Great One Generates Water), Hengxian 恆先 (Constancy First), and Fan Wu Liu Xing 凡物流形 (All Things Flow into Form), along with the Laozi bamboo strips found at Guodian. The first section examines the commonalities between the various cosmogonies; the second places cosmogony in the context of other distinctive concerns that the texts share, turning toward the implications of the cosmogonies for human action. The final section examines one of the fundamental points on which the texts disagree.
author2 School of Humanities and Social Sciences
author_facet School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Perkins, Franklin
format Article
author Perkins, Franklin
author_sort Perkins, Franklin
title The Laozi and the Cosmogonic Turn in Classical Chinese Philosophy
title_short The Laozi and the Cosmogonic Turn in Classical Chinese Philosophy
title_full The Laozi and the Cosmogonic Turn in Classical Chinese Philosophy
title_fullStr The Laozi and the Cosmogonic Turn in Classical Chinese Philosophy
title_full_unstemmed The Laozi and the Cosmogonic Turn in Classical Chinese Philosophy
title_sort laozi and the cosmogonic turn in classical chinese philosophy
publishDate 2017
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/83772
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/42807
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