Language, Ontology, and Political Philosophy in China: Wang Bi's Scholarly Exploration of the Dark (Xuanxue)

Explores the thought of Wang Bi, the third-century Chinese philosopher who made brilliant, innovative contributions in an era when traditional intellectual institutions and orthodoxies had collapsed.

With the collapse of the Han dynasty in 220 C.E., an entire system of state and intellectual organization fell apart. The brilliant Wang Bi and his generation of young scholars grew up in a no-man's land without teachers and orthodoxy. Defying the established school divisions, they set out on a ...