"Body" and "Practice": A Study on Various Types of the Confucian Concept of Body in the Ming Dynasty
Date Issued
2010
Date
2010
Author(s)
Huang, Chi-Li
Abstract
Based on the researches and the documents relative to Confucianism in the Ming Dynasty, I refer to “ideal type”, “phenomenology of body”, and “archaeology of knowledge” as a theoretical structure, indicating four major types of the concept of body in the Ming Dynasty, which are “Meditation and Nature Type” of Chen Xian-Zhang’s system, “Liang-chih Type” of Wang Yang-Ming’s system, “Nei-dan (inner alchemy) Conscience Type” of Wang Ji’s system, and “Nihility and Painful Body Type” of Li Zhi’s system.
“Meditation and Nature Type”: Chen Xian-Zhang demonstrated that body communicates with “Tao”. It’s not only silent, but vital. Under “Tao” Xian-Zhang’s concept of body reveals the ontological structure as Tao–mind–Qi-shape. The order of “Tao” goes with the dignity of body. Xian-Zhang named this mystery “clue” or “clue of the good”, which are the origin and the guideline of morality. Xian-Zhang constructed the Confucian body practice on the basis of Nei-dan Theory, setting up the form and the method of the Ming Dynasty Confucian meditation. In the process of the meditation, and the breath adjustment, the desire is purified, and the body is filled with “Qi”, breaking through the limit set by “shape” and “mind”. At that moment, there is no difference among “shape”, “Qi”, and “mind”, and the transformation between body and mind is immediately completed. The practician also proves “ontology” through “body”. In conclusion, by the means of meditation, Xian-Zhang reached “nature” full of Tao through body practice.
“Liang- chih Type”: Wang Yang-Ming invented this type. It is the Ming Dynasty Confucian main concept of body, in which the personal body’s structure as “Lii=mind-consciousness-shape” exists under the hypothesis of “Shin Jyi Lii”. This structure can be regarded as the mental description under the consensus of the classical “Qi” body, even it looks different from the prototype of the traditional Confucian concept of body: “mind-Qi-shape”. The practice always relative to this type is consciousness, which is one of the key idea of the teachings of Liang-chih. The main characteristic of Yang-Ming’s type is specially to approach the body in the aspects of mentality and consciousness. On the basis of personal body, Yang-Ming devised “the unity of all species” vision, which is the type of universal body. From this viewpoint, he affirmed the Confucianists’ responsibility for other people and other things. The mentioned frameworks as “flesh-mind identity” and “the unity of all species” stabilize and detail such traditional Confucian theory as “inner saint” and “outer king”. Yang-Ming’s scholarship and achievement is the obvious canon for this framework.
“Nei-Dan (inner alchemy) Conscience Type”: This type can be thought as the subtype of “Liang-chih Type”, even it’s filled with the metaphor of “Dan”. It consists of dual structure of body. One is “Lii= mind-consciousness-shape” originally existing in “Liang-chih Type”, expanding Yang-Ming’s “body-mind” thought (the mind is on the inside of the body) through “flesh-mind identity” of the mental intensions. It reveals the aspect of the spiritualization of body. Another structure: “mind-breath-flesh”, based on “Dan”, supposes that the noumenon of the conscience itself can appear all the time by breath adjustment, meditation, and sleeping practice. Always this type of body is metaphorically considered the three legged vessel of “Dan”, or “phon-yeh“(a type of ancient Chinese flute). This one reveals the aspect of the materialization of body”. From the angle of thoughts history, this type reflects the trend from conscience to “Qi”. Within “Shin Jyi Lii”, mind, body, conscience and “Qi” are interweaved to be the complicated network, and then the according practices such as “Yi Nin Chih Fan”, “meditation”, and “singing” are displayed. This framework con be the fundamental of “experience” for the viewpoint “To preserve health is to preserve virtue”, and vice versa. Wang Ji’s thought is a philosophy of body on morality, while Yang-Ming’s “Liang- chih” is a kind of philosophy of consciousness on morality.
“Nihility and Painful Body Type” of Li Zhi: This is the most particular type, which can be regarded as the additional one for the concept of body of “Hsin-shu” (philosophy of mind). It originates from one’s body experience, combining Ming Dynasty Confucianists’ thinking about life and death with part of theory of Buddhism. The type concentrates on body’s dark side rather than its structure. Body, related with pain, darkness, death, and impossibility of being freed, is composed of various negative factors. The interpretation of “nihility, pain=body” was developing by regarding the helplessness which human beings occasionally and temporarily think about as all of body. As body is nil, there is no specific path for the practice of this type. Li Zhi resolved the “pain” of “body”, and also confirmed the “nihility” of “body” through the presentation of “practice” in embroidered-uniformed guard’s prison in Yenching, which was a great achievement. The particular meaning of this type for the Confucian concept of body in Ming Dynasty is a temporal disregard of the relationship between “Lii” and “Qi”, the issue of Hsin Hsing, the noumenon, and the practice in the traditional Neo-Confucianism. On the contrary, it directly touches the core problem: life and death.
In this dissertation readers can notice various different concepts of body constructed by the Confucianists in the Ming Dynasty through several “practices” in bodily experience. This evident tendency to experience is the important characteristic of Confucianism in the Ming Dynasty. Under the traditional theory of “hsin”, though distinct body and living experiences lead to different body and mind structure, the mentioned four types of the concept of body still can be connected with each other in contrast with Chu Hsi’s thought.
After interpreting these four types of the Confucian concept of body, we confirm that the path from “noumenon” to “mind”, “body”, as well as the one from “experience” to “practice” is the main clues to the thought of the Ming Dynasty Confucianists. The “idealbild” of the above four types of pictures with brightness, darkness, vividness, and quietness is the unabridged myth of witnessing “Tao”, coincidentally revealing the Ming Dynasty Confucianists’ desire to understand the “noumenon”.
Subjects
Ming Confucianism
concept of body
Chen Xian-Zhang
Wang Yang-Ming
Wang Ji
Li Zhi
SDGs
Type
thesis
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