Beyond the Troubled Water of Shifei

Jaap Van Brakel, Lin Ma

Description

In recent decades, a growing concern in studies in Chinese intellectual history is that Chinese classics have been forced into systems of classification prevalent in Western philosophy and thus imperceptibly transformed into examples that echo Western philosophy. Lin Ma and Jaap van Brakel offer a methodology to counter this approach, and illustrate their method by carrying out a transcultural inquiry into the complexities involved in understanding shi and fei and their cognate phrases in the Warring States texts, the Zhuangzi in particular. The authors discuss important features of Zhuangzi's stance with regard to language-meaning, knowledge-doubt, questioning, equalizing, and his well-known deconstruction of the discourse in ancient China on shifei. Ma and van Brakel suggest that shi and fei apply to both descriptive and prescriptive languages and do not presuppose any fact/value dichotomy, and thus cannot be translated as either true/false or right/wrong. Instead, shi and fei can be grasped in terms of a pre-philosophical notion of fitting. Ma and van Brakel also highlight Zhuangzi's idea of "walking-two-roads" as the most significant component of his stance. In addition, they argue that all of Zhuangzi's positive recommendations are presented in a language whose meaning is not fixed and that every stance he is committed to remains subject to fundamental questioning as a way of life.
Acknowledgments
Note on Referencing
Introduction

1. Preliminaries
Necessary Preconditions of Interpretation
Against the Ideal Language Assumption
Underdetermination of Meaning and Interpretation
Would “On Its Own Terms” Be Possible?

Part I. The Troubled Water of Shifei

2. Projection of Truth onto Classical Chinese Language
The Harbsmeier–Hansen Dispute
Looking for the “Is True” Predicate in Classical Chinese
Conceptual Embedment of Shi 是 and Its Congeners
Transcendental Pretense in Projecting “Theories of Truth”
The Later Mohist Canons

3. Competing Translations of Shifei 是非

4. Variations of the Meaning of Shi
Shi as a Demonstrative
Shi as Meaning both “This” and “Right”
Modifiers of Shi

5. Dissolution of Dichotomies of Fact/Value and Reason/Emotion
Are There Dichotomies in Classical Chinese?
Fact/Value Dichotomy in Western Philosophy

6. Rightness and Fitting
Nelson Goodman on Rightness and Fitting
Setting up the Quasi-universal of Yi 宜 and Fitting

7. Shi and Its Opposites and Modifiers in the Qiwulun 齊物論
Non-English Translations of Shifei
Bi/Ci (彼/此) and Shi/Fei
Shibushi 是不是, Ranburan 然不然, Kebuke 可不可
Qing 情 and Shifei
Modifiers of Shi in the Qiwulun
Graham’s Contrasting between Yinshi 因是 and Weishi 為是
Translations of Yinbi 因彼, Weishi, and Yinshi

Part II. From Disputation to Walking-Two-Roads in the Zhuangzi

8. Is Zhuangzi a Relativist or a Skeptic?
Zhuangzi and Relativism
Relativities versus Relativism
Hansen and Graham’s Relativistic Interpretations of the Zhuangzi
Zhi 知 and Skepticism

9. Zhuangzi’s Stance
Stance Instead of Perspective or Set of Beliefs
No Fixed Meanings (Weiding 未定)
Walking-Two-Roads (Liangxing 兩行)
Doubt and Rhetorical Questions
Buqi Erqi 不齊而齊: Achieving Equality by Leaving Things Uneven

10. Afterthoughts
Do the Ruists and Mohists Really Disagree?
Is Zhuangzi’s Stance Amoral?

Appendix
The Zhuangzi—Key Notions
Zhuangzi’s Text(s): What Are the Authentic Chapters?
The Big (Da 大) and the Small (Xiao 小): Early Interpretations and Disagreements
The Qi 齊 and Lun 論 of Wu 物
The Sages
Dao道, Tian 天, and “the One”
Ziran 自然 and Hundun 渾沌
Wuwei 无為 and Wuyong 无用

Notes
Works Cited
Name Index
Subject Index

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie générale
• Philosophy

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 21 mai 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438474847
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 11 Mo

Extrait

Beyond the Troubled Water of Shifei
SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture

Roger T. Ames, editor
Beyond the Troubled Water of Shifei
From Disputation to Walking-Two-Roads in the Zhuangzi
Lin Ma and Jaap van Brakel
Work on this book is supported by the Chinese Fund for the Humanities and Social Sciences, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, and the Research Funds of Renmin University of China. 18WZX010
项目名称 : 从比较哲学的角度探究先秦思想中的 “ 是非 ”
Cover art: Lu Zhi (1496–1576). Zhuangzi Dreaming of a Butterfly . Ming dynasty, mid-sixteenth century.
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2019 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ma, Lin, 1970– author. | Brakel, J. van (Jaap), author.
Title: Beyond the troubled water of Shifei : from disputation to walking-two-roads in the Zhuangzi / Lin Ma and Jaap van Brakel.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, 2019. | Series: SUNY series in Chinese philosophy and culture | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018036000 | ISBN 9781438474830 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438474847 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Zhuangzi. | Methodology. | Philosophy, Comparative.
Classification: LCC BL1900.C576 M29 2019 | DDC 299.5/1482—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018036000
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Photogragh taken by Ma Lin in Kunming, Yunnan, China. Text on top reads: Renjian youjing 人間幽境 “A place of tranquility in the human world.” Calligraphy by Yang Shen 楊慎 (1488–1559, Ming dynasty), who resided in Yunnan for thirty years.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Note on Referencing
Introduction
1 Preliminaries
Necessary Preconditions of Interpretation
Against the Ideal Language Assumption
Underdetermination of Meaning and Interpretation
Would “On Its Own Terms” Be Possible?
Part I The Troubled Water of Shifei
2 Projection of Truth onto Classical Chinese Language
The Harbsmeier–Hansen Dispute
Looking for the “Is True” Predicate in Classical Chinese
Conceptual Embedment of Shi 是 and Its Congeners
Transcendental Pretense in Projecting “Theories of Truth”
The Later Mohist Canons
3 Competing Translations of Shifei 是非
4 Variations of the Meaning of Shi
Shi as a Demonstrative
Shi as Meaning both “This” and “Right”
Modifiers of Shi
5 Dissolution of Dichotomies of Fact/Value and Reason/Emotion
Are There Dichotomies in Classical Chinese?
Fact/Value Dichotomy in Western Philosophy
6 Rightness and Fitting
Nelson Goodman on Rightness and Fitting
Setting up the Quasi-universal of Yi 宜 and Fitting
7 Shi and Its Opposites and Modifiers in the Qiwulun 齊物論
Non-English Translations of Shifei
Bi/Ci ( 彼 / 此 ) and Shi/Fei
Shibushi 是不是 , Ranburan 然不然 , Kebuke 可不可
Qing 情 and Shifei
Modifiers of Shi in the Qiwulun
Graham’s Contrasting between Yinshi 因是 and Weishi 為是
Translations of Yinbi 因彼 , Weishi , and Yinshi
Part II From Disputation to Walking-Two-Roads in the Zhuangzi
8 Is Zhuangzi a Relativist or a Skeptic?
Zhuangzi and Relativism
Relativities versus Relativism
Hansen and Graham’s Relativistic Interpretations of the Zhuangzi
Zhi 知 and Skepticism
9 Zhuangzi’s Stance
Stance Instead of Perspective or Set of Beliefs
No Fixed Meanings ( Weiding 未定 )
Walking-Two-Roads ( Liangxing 兩行 )
Doubt and Rhetorical Questions
Buqi Erqi 不齊而齊 : Achieving Equality by Leaving Things Uneven
10 Afterthoughts
Do the Ruists and Mohists Really Disagree?
Is Zhuangzi’s Stance Amoral?
Appendix
The Zhuangzi —Key Notions
Zhuangzi’s Text(s): What Are the Authentic Chapters?
The Big ( Da 大 ) and the Small ( Xiao 小 ): Early Interpretations and Disagreements
The Qi 齊 and Lun 論 of Wu 物
The Sages
Dao 道 , Tian 天 , and “the One”
Ziran 自然 and Hundun 渾沌
Wuwei 无為 and Wuyong 无用
Notes
Works Cited
Name Index
Subject Index
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their patience in reading an earlier draft of the manuscript and for providing numerous comments that have helped improve the text. We also thank our acquisitions editor at SUNY Press, Christopher Ahn, for helpful suggestions concerning the organization of the book. We are grateful to Professor Roger Ames for his continuous support for our work.
Note on Referencing
This book consists of ten chapters and some subsidiaries in an appendix. There are about forty sections, which are numbered by adding letters a, b, c, … to the chapter number (but this letter is not used in the title of the section). The symbol “§” (plural: §§) followed by a number and a letter is used to refer to sections, for example, “§7c” refers to the third section of chapter 7 . The sections in the appendix are numbered as §A1, §A2, §A3, …
Author-Year Reference System
In this book, sources are usually referred to in accordance with the author-year system, except that we do not always mention the year of publication if there is only one entry under the author’s name in the list of works cited. Chinese, Japanese, and Korean authors are referred to by last name followed by given name(s); other authors only by last name. Subsequent references to the same work of the same author in the same continuous text only give the page number in parentheses. In appropriate cases, a work is listed under the year of initial publication. Then the publication year of the edition consulted is given after the name of the publisher in the list of works cited. In a few cases, a text is available only on the internet (as indicated in the list of works cited); hence, no pagination is available. This applies to Hansen (2015), Sturgeon (2014), and Ziporyn (2009b), in particular. Similarly, a reference to a database on the internet does not include a year of publication. The following three abbreviations are used for the databases most often referred to:
• CTP ( Chinese Text Project , http://ctext.org/ );
• TLS ( Thesaurus Linguae Sericae , http://tls.uni-hd.de/ ); (Harbsmeier and Jiang Shaoyu 2013);
• Ricci ( Le Grand Dictionnaire Ricci de la langue chinoise [Ricci 2001]), also referred to as the Grand Ricci. http://chinesereferenceshelf.brillonline.com (Le Grand Ricci Online).
The dictionaries we have consulted include, for classical Chinese: CTP, Ricci, TLS, Erya 爾雅 , Shuowen jiezi 說文解字 , and Kangxi zidian 康熙字典 ; for modern Chinese: Wenlin ; for Dutch: van Dale ; for English: Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster ; for French: Larousse and Ricci ; for German: Langenscheidt and Wahrig . They are not mentioned in the list of works cited, as there are many different editions.
The following abbreviations are used for the publications of A. C. Graham: G89 for Graham (1989); G91 for Graham (1991); G59 for Graham (1959), G60 for Graham (1960), that is, his translation of the Liezi ; G78 for Graham (1978), that is, his translation of the later Mohist Canons ; and for various renditions of the Zhuangzi : G69 for Graham (1969/70), G81 for Graham (1981), and G82 for Graham (1982).
Chinese Characters
On first occurrence in each chapter, Chinese words or phrases in the main text are given in pinyin (without tone marks), followed by traditional Chinese character(s). When the pinyin corresponds to only one character in a particular chapter, the character is given only on first occurrence. If two or more characters with the same pinyin appear in the same chapter, the character is included on each occasion. For longer citations no pinyin is given. Names of classical Chinese scholars are given in pinyin , followed by traditional characters. The Index may indicate more places where the use and meaning of a particular Chinese character is elucidated.
In other scholar’s translations, we may substitute a word in pinyin to replace the corresponding English word.
“Chinese characters (words, concepts)” refers to Chinese texts of the classical period, here defined as dated from 500 BCE to 100 CE (roughly corresponding to the Warring States Period, often dated from 475 BCE to 221 BCE). Throughout this book, when we only write shi , it refers to shi 是 ; if not, we add the relevant character other than 是 . In classical Chinese, most words were monosyllabic, and there was a close correspondence between characters and words. However, Chinese characters lack inflection; there is no conjugation or other modifications of a “word,” which alone may serve as verb, noun, adverb, and so on. The number of different “particles” (function words, “empty words,” 虚詞 xuci ) is much larger than in English and they partly resolve issues such as lack of inflection.
Quasi-Universals
Revisable quasi-universals are working hypotheses that connect conceptual schemes from a limited number of traditions (§1a). 1 We refer to them with the following conventions. In constructions such as { zhi 知 ⇔ know(ing)}, “⇔” indicates a relation of family resemblance (“is similar to”). An alternative construction is to write the quasi-universal as zhi /know(ing). We assume that an English word occurring in a quasi-universal includes all kinds of inflections of the word. For example know includes knowledge, knows, known, knew, knowing, know-how, know about, know that, know of it, and so on. However, zhi /understand(ing) would be a different quasi-universal and zhi /understand–know is again different.
References to Chinese Texts
For references to Chinese texts, we follow the sequence number