Sage nature and the logic of namelessness: Reconstructing he Yan's explication of Dao

Publication Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

12-2010

Abstract

There is little question that the concept of wu 無, variously translated as “nothing,” “nonbeing,” and “negativity,” is central to the early medieval Chinese intellectual enterprise. Famously, the Jin shu 晉書 (History of the Jin dynasty [265–420]) relates that during the Zhengshi 正始 reign period (240–249) of the Wei dynasty (220–265), He Yan 何晏 (d. 249), Wang Bi 王弼 (226–249), and others established the view, on the basis of their interpretation of the Laozi 老子 and the Zhuangzi 莊子, that all beings “have their roots in wu” (以無為本).

Discipline

Asian History | Asian Studies | Philosophy

Research Areas

Integrative Research Areas

Publication

Philosophy and religion in early medieval China

Editor

Alan K. L. Chan & Lo Yuet-Keung

First Page

23

Last Page

52

ISBN

9781438431871

Identifier

10.2307/jj.18252582.4

Publisher

State University of New York Press

City or Country

New York

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.18252582.4

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