The Being and Becoming of the Medicine Tree: A Study of Fang I-Chih’s Commentary on Chuang-Tzu
Date Issued
2016
Date
2016
Author(s)
Chen, Kuei-Hung
Abstract
This thesis focuses on Yao-Ti P’ao Chuang, Fang I-Chih’s masterful commentary on Chuang-Tzu. Particular attention is given to two issues: what motivates Fang I-Chih to write the commentary and what he hopes to achieve with it. The first chapter begins with a brief discussion of Fang I-Chih’s life and works. An overview of Yao-Ti P’ao Chuang then follows, examining its main themes and editions. Against this background, I situate my thesis in the current literature and outline the major claims. The second chapter considers the title of the commentary: what does “Yao-Ti P’ao Chuang” mean? I shall argue that Fang I-Chih’s ambitions behind the work are already visible in this title – Chuang-Tzu (“Chuang”) is taken to be a kind of medicine and interpreted in a way analogous to medicine refinement (“P’ao”), in order to make this world, as it were, a land of medicine trees (“Yao-Ti”). In the third chapter, I discuss the central concept in Yao-Ti P’ao Chuang: the medicine tree. A case will be made that the image of medicine tree is invoked to characterize the natural state of health in human beings. The state is represented in Fang I-Chih’s commentary by the symbol “∴”, which transcribes i-kāra, the Sanskrit vowel sound of “I”. The symbol is chosen because of its characteristic syntactical features, features that help the reader to visualize the way things are in the state of health. With this symbol, Fang I-Chih intends to illustrate how the natural state makes possible the transition between ordinary, mystic and integrative forms of perception. The fourth chapter provides an analysis of Fang I-Chih’s interpretative method in writing the commentary: that of medicine refinement. To this end, I first consider the overall organization of Yao-Ti P’ao Chuang. Then I examine the relevant paragraphs and discuss Fang I-Chih’s hermeneutics. As will become clear, his method encourages the reader to engage Chuang-Tzu as he does, coming to terms with their own experiences in light of it. It is hoped that by doing so, the medicine tree that has always been in the reader would be revealed to them. The fifth chapter concludes the study, summarizing the preceding analyses and anticipating future research. Given the motivations of this thesis, it is titled The Being and Becoming of the Medicine Tree. For it aims to make clear the twofold overarching concern in Yao-Ti P’ao Chuang: how each of us both is, and becomes, the medicine tree.
Subjects
Fang I-Chih
Chuang-Tzu
I-Yu
Tung-Hsi Chun
Chou-I Shih-Lun
SDGs
Type
thesis
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