The Contemplative Foundations of Classical Daoism

Harold D. Roth

Description

In The Contemplative Foundations of Classical Daoism, Harold D. Roth explores the origins and nature of the Daoist tradition, arguing that its creators and innovators were not abstract philosophers but, rather, mystics engaged in self-exploration and self-cultivation, which in turn provided the insights embodied in such famed works as the Daodejing and Zhuangzi. In this compilation of essays and chapters representing nearly thirty years of scholarship, Roth examines the historical and intellectual origins of Daoism and demonstrates how this distinctive philosophy emerged directly from practices that were essentially contemplative in nature.

In the first part of the book, Roth applies text-critical methods to derive the hidden contemplative dimensions of classical Daoism. In the second part, he applies a "contemplative hermeneutic" to explore the relationship between contemplative practices and classical Daoist philosophy and, in so doing, brings early Daoist writings into conversation with contemporary contemplative studies. To this he adds an introduction in which he reflects on the arc and influence on the field of early Chinese thought of this rich vein of scholarship and an afterword in which he applies both interpretive methods to the vexing question of the authorship of the Inner Chapters of the Zhuangzi. The Contemplative Foundations of Classical Daoism brings to fruition the cumulative investigations and observations of a leading figure in the emerging field of contemplative studies as they pertain to a core component of early Chinese thought.
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Permissions

Introduction

Part I: Contemplative Foundations and Textual Methods

1. Psychology and Self-Cultivation in Early Daoistic Thought

2. Who Compiled the Zhuangzi 莊子?

3. Redaction Criticism and the Early History of Daoism

4. Evidence for Stages of Meditation in Early Daoism

5. The Yellow Emperor's Guru: A Narrative Analysis from Zhuangzi 莊子 11

6. Revisiting Angus C. Graham's Scholarship on the Zhuangzi 莊子

7. Daoist Inner Cultivation Thought and the Textual Structure of the Huainanzi 淮南子

Part II: Contemplative Foundations and Philosophical Contexts

8. The Laozi 老子 in the Context of Early Daoist Mystical Praxis

9. Bimodal Mystical Experience in the "Qi wu lun" 齊物論 of Zhuangzi 莊子

10. Nature and Self-Cultivation in Huainanzi's 淮南子 "Yuan Dao" 原道 (Originating in the Way)

11. The Classical Daoist Concept of Li 理 (Pattern) and Early Chinese Cosmology

12. Cognitive Attunement in the Zhuangzi 莊子

13. Against Cognitive Imperialism: A Call for a Non-Ethnocentric Approach to Cognitive Science and Religious Studies

Afterword: The "Contemplative Hermeneutic" and the Problem of Zhuangzi's Inner Chapters

Notes
Appendix 1: The Chapters of the Zhuangzi
Appendix 2: The Chapters of the Huainanzi
Index

Sujets

• China
• History of Asia
• Taoism
• East Asian religions

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 mai 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438482729
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 16 Mo

Extrait

The Contemplative Foundations of Classical Daoism
SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture

Roger T. Ames, editor
The Contemplative Foundations of Classical Daoism
Harold D. Roth
Cover art: Butterfly Dream of Zhuangzi
Japan, 19th century
Hanging scroll; paste resist on silk
Image and mount: 60 × 14 9 / 16 in. (152.4 × 36.99 cm)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Promised Gift of Robert T. Singer in honor of Lynda Resnick, Lenore and Richard Wayne, and Prof. Harold D. Roth
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2021 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
Name: Roth, Harold D., author.
Title: The contemplative foundations of classical Daoism / Harold D. Roth, author.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2021] | Series: SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: ISBN 9781438482712 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438482729 (ebook)
Further information is available at the Library of Congress.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To My Teachers And My Students
指窮於為薪，火傳也，不知其盡也。
Though we can merely point to what seems to be its fuel, the fire passes on, and we do not know where it ends.
Zhuangzi Chapter 3: “Mastery in Nurturing Vitality” (Yang sheng zhu 養生主 )
Contents
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Permissions
Introduction
Part I Contemplative Foundations and Textual Methods
Chapter 1 Psychology and Self-Cultivation in Early Daoistic Thought
Chapter 2 Who Compiled the Zhuangzi 莊子 ?
Chapter 3 Redaction Criticism and the Early History of Daoism
Chapter 4 Evidence for Stages of Meditation in Early Daoism
Chapter 5 The Yellow Emperor’s Guru: A Narrative Analysis from Zhuangzi 莊子 11
Chapter 6 Revisiting Angus C. Graham’s Scholarship on the Zhuangzi 莊子
Chapter 7 Daoist Inner Cultivation Thought and the Textual Structure of the Huainanzi 淮南子
Part II Contemplative Foundations and Philosophical Contexts
Chapter 8 The Laozi 老子 in the Context of Early Daoist Mystical Praxis
Chapter 9 Bimodal Mystical Experience in the “Qi wu lun” 齊物論 of Zhuangzi 莊子
Chapter 10 Nature and Self-Cultivation in Huainanzi ’s 淮南子 “Yuan Dao” 原道 (Originating in the Way)
Chapter 11 The Classical Daoist Concept of Li 理 (Pattern) and Early Chinese Cosmology
Chapter 12 Cognitive Attunement in the Zhuangzi 莊子
Chapter 13 Against Cognitive Imperialism: A Call for a Non-Ethnocentric Approach to Cognitive Science and Religious Studies
Afterword The “Contemplative Hermeneutic” and the Problem of Zhuangzi ’s Inner Chapters
Notes
Appendix 1: The Chapters of the Zhuangzi
Appendix 2: The Chapters of the Huainanzi
Index
Tables 2.1 The Technical Terminology of the Syncretists 2.2 Zhuangzi “Inner Chapter Titles” as Phrases in the Huainanzi 2.3 “Textual Shuffling” in Zhuangzi 12 3.1 The Structure and Topics of Neiye; “Xinshu, xia” Parallels 3.2 The Structure and Topics of “Xinshu, xia”; Neiye Parallels 3.3 Rhetorical Emendation in “Xinshu, xia” 3.4 Transposition in “Xinshu, xia” 3.5.1 Semantic Recontextualization in “Xinshu, xia” Part 1 3.5.2 Semantic Recontextualization in “Xinshu, xia” Part 2 3.6 Linking Passages in “Xinshu, xia” 3.7 Framing in “Xinshu, xia” 4.1 Comparative Table of Early Daoist Meditation Stages 6.1 Syncretic Daoist Technical Terms in the Lüshi chun qiu 6.2 Shared Narratives in Zhuangzi 28 and the Lüshi chun qiu 7.1 A Summary of Inner Cultivation Ideas 7.2 Distribution and Frequency of Key Inner Cultivation Terms in the Huainanzi 7.3 Inner Cultivation Ideas in the “Root Passages” 7.4 Nesting Root-Branch Textual Structures in the Huainanzi
Acknowledgments
The generation of the idea for this collection came out of a conversation I had with Roger Ames following the Daoist Studies conference at Boston University in late May, 2014. After a panel I organized on the Zhuangzi he suggested that I consider making a collection of the most important articles and chapters I had published on classical Daoism and its contemplative foundations.
This seemed like a daunting task at the time because all of these publications were in a very divergent collection of sources and published over a considerable length of time, at that point almost a quarter century. If it was not for the dedicated work of my former graduate student, Dr. Larson DiFiori, this definitely could not have been accomplished. Larson, much better skilled in the various computing advances of the 21st century than I, was able to scan each publication and convert those that had the older Wade-Giles romanization system to the more recent pinyin system. He then did important editing on the sources themselves that provided a strong foundation for what was finally entered into this volume. He also continued to be a support even down to these very last few days of editing and writing, giving me invaluable feedback on the new “Afterword” I wrote for the collection. I am deeply in his debt.
Samuel Goldstein, my current ABD student, did very important editing work in the autumn of 2020 making sure there was a consistency in the use of pinyin romanization and Chinese characters throughout the entire work and contributing important last minute edits that have proven extremely valuable. Roy Porat was also very helpful in his urging me to consider once again the problem of Zhuangzi’s Inner Chapters and through his many conversations with me and challenges to my perspectives on so many related things. I wish to thank Roy and my graduate students in seminars the last two academic years on the Huainanzi and Zhuangzi , Christopher Yang, Tali Hershkovitz, Avery Morrow, Patrick Magoffin, and undergraduate Cameron McCartin for our endlessly interesting textual readings and discussions, even with the Covid shutdown.
There is nothing worse than laying yourself out completely for your best possible lecture only to discover half your students dozing, surfing the internet, yawning incessantly, etc. Not to say this has never happened here, but Brown University has provided me with an endless source of interesting, engaged, and progressive students in discussion with whom I have been able to develop and further develop the ideas contained in this volume. This has included over the decades my wonderful graduate students Aaron Stalnaker, Jung Lee, Jud Murray, Matt Duperon, Larson DiFiori, Adrien Stoloff, and Sherry Pan, as well as their more recent confreres.
It goes without saying that many of the ideas in these pages were developed in discussion with my mentors and friends Tu Weiming, Fritz Mote, Charles Lachman, Greg Schopen, Wayne Schlepp, Raymond Zhu, Barney Twiss, Angus Graham, Paul Thompson, Sarah Allan, Srinivas Reddy, my “partner in crime” for over three decades, Anne Heyrman-Hart, and my incredible Huainanzi “teammates” Andy Meyer, Sarah Queen, John S. Major, Jud Murray and Mike Puett. And a special thanks to my friend Louis Komjathy, with whom I shared many an intense conversation about classical Daoism and about Contemplative Studies, and to my “contemplative sister,” Judith Simmer-Brown who has been a great source of wisdom and guidance. I would also like to thank the entire SUNY Press editing, production, and marketing teams including Chris Ahn, Laura Tendler, Anne Valentine, and especially Diane Ganeles for their professional work on this book. I reserve a special thanks for Press Co-Director James Peltz for his guidance and patience on this project and for Anne Holmes for her wonderfully thorough Index.
Finally, without my wonderful sons Zach and Gus, now young men of whom I am very proud, and the support of my life partner for over three decades, Elisabeth Baldwin Taylor, I would not have had the luxury of being able to think through many of the issues I have raised, researched, and written about in the current volume. Together, my family has enabled me to discover and—in the words of Zhuangzi 4—“sing my native note.” I will forever be in their debt.
Permissions
The author gratefully acknowledges permission to reprint the following material:
“Psychology and Self-Cultivation in Early Taoistic Thought.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 51, no. 2 (December 1991): 599–650. Reprinted with permission.
“Who Compiled the Chuang Tzu ?” In Chinese Texts and Philosophical Contexts: Essays Dedicated to Angus C. Graham , edited by Henry Rosemont Jr., 79–128. LaSalle, IL: Open Court Press, 1991. Reprinted with permission.
“Redaction Criticism and the Early History of Taoism.” Early China 19 (1994) 1–46. Copyright © Cambridge University Press. Reprinted with permission.
“Evidence for Stages of Meditation in Early Taoism.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 60, no. 2 (June 1997): 295–314. Copyright © Cambridge University Press. Reprinted with permission.
“The Yellow Emperor’s Guru: A Narrative Analysis from Chuang Tzu 11.” Taoist Resources 7, no. 1 (April 1997): 43–60. Copyright © Johns Hopkins University Press. Reprinted with permission.
“Daoist Inner Cultivation Thought and the Textual Structure of the Huaina