The Practice of Mind and The Kingcraft in Pre-Qin Daoism: Focusing on Laozi, Zhuangzi, and The Four Articles of Guanzi
Date Issued
2008
Date
2008
Author(s)
Chen, Pei-Chun
Abstract
In the category structure of Daoism in Pre-Qin period, “Dao” is the highest existence, and it includes the whole ternary structure of heaven, earth, and humankind. Pre-Qin Daoists figured out that “Dao” is the foundation of humanity and civilization, and comprehended the thinking principle— “All the endeavor of human beings should follow the way of Heaven.” Basing on the foundation and following the principle, they tried to construct new theories of the model of humanity and civilization. In the process of returning to “Dao” and starting over from “Dao”, human beings are undoubtedly the subjects who practice “Dao” in this course. The various ways of the understanding about human beings make differences in thinking ways, argumentations, and value orientations. t is mind (xin) that plays the main and key role in a person’s body (shen). Mind represents the consciousness of the subject, and body is the first object which is different but undivided to mind. The mind-body relationship, including mind-shape (xing) relationship, is the prototype of all relationship between self and other. This dissertation tries to justify that the divergent opinions of “outer king” (wai wang) way in Huand-Lao Daoism and “inner sage” (nei sheng) way in Zhuangzi Daoism after Laozi resulted from the different understanding of the body theory and the mind-body/shape relationship.“The way of inner sage and outer king” is an original idea in Zhuangzi, it has great influence on Chinese Philosophy. However, it appears only once in Pre-Qin texts, it didn’t have philosophies’ attention then. The Practice of mind (xin su) and the kingcraft (zhu su) are more popular and relevant ideas to inner sage and outer king in that period. The former manifests that, during the process of practicing inner sage, mind is the subject which tries to comprehend the metaphysical “Dao” by returning to oneself through governing one’s body (implies oneself); the latter announces that, during the process of practicing outer king, king is the subject which attempts to govern a nation by starting from oneself through governing one’s body. “Practice of mind” and “kingcraft” are interrelated, and they both correlate with the method of understanding and presenting “Dao” in Daoism.his dissertation reveals the analogy among the mind-body relationship, the practice of mind, and the kingcraft. The mind-body relationship is not only the prototype of all relationship between self and other, but also influences all the arguments concerned with the interactions between self and other; and further, the interpretations of ternary structure. Hence this dissertation takes The Practice of Mind and The Kingcraft in Pre-Qin Daoism as a main subject, focusing on Laozi, Zhuangzi, and the Four Articles of Guanzi, and attempts to analyze and demonstrate how Daoists’ thinking developed and transformed on the basis of “Dao” in Pre-Qin period.ven if the discussions about the body theory and the mind-body relationship are not explicit enough in Laozi, we can still reveal the dual formulation in it— inwardly the practice of mind and outwardly the kingcraft. Thorough the intermediary of the Sage (sheng ren), the latter is based on the former, and they are interrelated. The implicit thought of the body theory and the mind-body relationship, and the dual formulization in Laozi give ideological extension space to the following Daoists.rom mind-governance to body-governance to nation-governance, from the practice of mind to the kingcraft, with different points of view from which mind considers body/shape construct various theories of mind-body/shape relationship, the practice of mind, the kingcraft, and the ternary structure further more. Both Zhuangzi school and Jixia Huang-Lao school regarded mind as the ruler of one’s body, thus, doctrines about how mind considers shape led to the divergence of their thougt.huangzi school declared that shape is always transforming, so they regarded mind-shape relationship as outer-transforming and inner-maintaining (wai hua er nei bu hua). They would like to deconstruct the alienation of the mind-body/shape relationship, and melted the contrariety between mind and body/shape in the end. Hence they turned their thought inward into the practice of mind, and regarded outward kingcraft unnecessarily. They reflected on the specific meaning of life, and revealed the significance of living a free and easy wandering (Xiao Yao You) life with “Dao.” Their arguments are more metaphysical.Jixia Huang-Lao school absorbed the theories of other schools on the basis of the mentioned foundation and principle. They believed that mind and shape co-construct a living body organically, and argued that shape is supposed to be maintaining and stable. They preferred to balance the relationship between mind and body/shape,based on the hypothesis of “mind is the ruler of body”. So they tried to connect the theories of the practice of mind and the kingcraft, and illustrated the consistency between them. Their arguments are more realistic and socialized.ith this thread of thought, this dissertation justifies that Huang-Lao Daoism is the direct line of instruction of Laozi. And this is why Ma-Tan Si regarded Huang-Lao school as School of Daoism in On the Pith of the Six Schools (lun liu jia yao zhi).
Subjects
Laozi
Zhuangzi
the four articles of Guanzi
Practice of Mind (Xin Su)
Kingcraft (Zhu Su)
Dao-Things Relationship
Body Theory
Mind-Body Relationship
Sage (Shen Ren)
Authentic Person (Zhen Ren)
Non-Action (Wu Wei)
Free and Easy Wandering (Xiao Yao You)
Qi
Fine Qi (Jing Qi)
Type
thesis
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Loading...
Name
ntu-97-D90124003-1.pdf
Size
23.53 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum
(MD5):5d8ddf046ebd84e3391a96d65b3f822d