Hiding the World in the World: Uneven Discourses on the Zhuangzi

by Scott Cook

Overview

A literary and philosophical masterpiece of its age, and yet one of the most puzzling and elusive texts ever written, the Zhuangzi has been continuously reinterpreted. Here the age-old hermeneutic project of reading the Zhuangzi is brought up to the present with new essays addressing an array of interrelated topics from a variety of perspectives. These include how the work stands in relation to such issues as mystical experience, "skeptical" and "relativist" attitudes, individual value, ethical orientation, folk psychologies and popular beliefs, and rhetorical logic and structure. By providing ten "uneven" perspectives on such matters, this volume contributes to the ongoing discourse on Zhuangzi's philosophy by placing it within our present interpretive context and pushing that context to new limits.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780791458662
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	09/25/2003
Series:	SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	327
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Scott Cook is Associate Professor of Chinese at Grinnell College.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

A Note on Conventions

Introduction
Scott Cook

1. Bimodal Mystical Experience in the "Qiwulun" Chapter of the Zhuangzi
Harold D. Roth

2. How Many Are the Ten Thousand Things and I? Relativism, Mysticism, and the Privileging of Oneness in the "Inner Chapters"
Brook Ziporyn

3. Harmony and Cacophony in the Panpipes of Heaven
Scott Cook

4. From "Merging the Body with the Mind" to "Wandering in Unitary Qi ": A Discussion of Zhuangzi's Realm of the True Man and Its Corporeal Basis
Rur-Bin Yang

5. Guru or Skeptic? Relativistic Skepticism in the Zhuangzi
Chad Hansen

6. Aporetics Ethics in the Zhuangzi
Dan Lusthaus

7. Reflex and Reflectivity: Wuwei in the Zhuangzi
Alan Fox

8. A Mind-Body Problem in the Zhuangzi?
Paul Rakita Goldin

9. "Nothing Can Overcome Heaven": The Notion of Spirit in the Zhuangzi
Michael J. Puett

10. Transforming the Dao: A Critique of A. C. Graham's Translation of the Inner Chapters of the Zhuangzi
Shuen-Fu Lin

References to Works on the Zhuangzi

List of Contributors

Index of Zhuangzi Citations

Index

Editorial Reviews

"Scott Cook has done an excellent job of putting together a first-rate anthology of current research on the Zhuangzi. This is a scholarly collection that is also enjoyable and entertaining to read. It contains insights that, I would hope, will inspire new directions of research in the study of Zhuangzi's philosophy."

From the Publisher