Searching for the Way: Theories of Knowledge in pre-Modern and Modern China

Searching for the Way
	Contents
	Acknowledgements
	Introduction: Epistemology and its colonies — On the cultural conditioning of cognition
	I CHINESE PHILOSOPHY AND CHINESE EPISTEMOLOGY— UNCOVERING A HIDDEN RELATIONSHIP
		1. Epistemology in traditional Chinese thought—General characteristics
		2. Specific features of classical Chinese epistemology
			2.1 Basic categories: From names (ming) and actualities (shi) to knowledge (zhi) and action (xing)
			2.2. Orthodox Confucianism and the early Moist School
			2.3. Neglecting linguistic positivism: From Laozi to Xunzi
			2.4 Analytical approaches: The Nomenalist and the Neo-Moist schools
			2.5 Zhuangzi’s egalitarian epistemology
		3. Later conceptual developments
			3.1 Subjective and objective knowledge
			3.2. Ultimate knowledge (zhizhi) and the exploration (gewu) of things
			3.3 The concept li as the main principle of comprehension
			3.4 The split in Neo-Confucianism during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644)
	II THE DECLINE OF TRADITION—DESPOTISM AND THE ESCAPE INTO INWARDNESS
		4. The School of Mind (Xinxue)
			4.1 In the footsteps of Lu Jiuyuan Subd (1139-1193)
		5. Wang Shouren (Wang Yangming, 1472-1S29)
			5.1 Life and work
			5.2 Theory of knowledge
		6. Later developments in the School of Mind: Gradualist epistemology (xiushen) and the epistemology of instant enlightenment (1igen)
		7. The fusion of Confucianism and Chan Buddhism: Qian Dehong (1496-1574) and Wang Ji (1498-1583)
		8. The Folk Confucian and the Chan Buddhist enfant terrible: Wang Gen (1483-1540) and Li Zhi 25 (1527-1602)
		9. The materialistic opposition of the Academy of the Eastern Forest (RAN)
		10. Gu Xiancheng BA & (1550-1612) and Gao Panlong (1562-1626)
		11. The rise of the last dynasty (Qing 1644-1911) and reactions against Manchurian domination
		12. Materialist epistemology of the nationalist Wang Fuzhi (1619-1692)
			12.1 Life and political background
			12.2. Ontological suppositions
			12.3 Methods of comprehension
			12.4 The subject (neng) and object (suo) of cognition
			12.5 Knowledge (zhi) and action (xing)
		13. New methodologies and the first introduction of Western thought
		14. The progressivism of Confucian fundamentalism: The School of Practical Learning (Xizhai) or the School of the Adherents of the Han Dynasty
		15. The pragmatism of recognition: Yan Yuan (1635-1704) and Li Gong (1659-1746)
		16. The conception of reality through its illumination: Dai Zhen Sijz (1724-1777)
			16.1 Life and general contribution of Dai Zhen’s work
			16.2 The further development of new methodological approaches
			16.3 External reality and mind
			16.4 Interpretations of traditional epistemological concepts
			16.5 The illumination (zhao) of reality as the basis of recognition
	III. CHINESE MODERNITY—THE ERA OF SPIRITUAL AND POLITICAL TRANSITIONS
		17. Toward modernity: From the Opium Wars (Yapian zhanzheng) to the end of the monarchy (1840-1911)
			17.1 The Hundred Days’ Reform (Bairi weixin): Kang Youwei (1858-1927), Liang Qichao (1873-1929) and Tan Sitong (1865-1898)
			17.2 Political theories
			17.3 Evolution and the idea of progress
			17.4. Epistemology
			17.5 The triumph of reason in knowledge and beauty: Yan Fu (1854-1921) and Wang Guowei (1877-1927)
		18. The period of the First (1912-1949) and the Second Republic (from 1949 to the present)
		19. The main philosophical currents in the twentieth century and their chief representatives
			19.1 The enlightenment of the new pragmatism: Hu Shi (1891-1962)
			19.2 The “Communist” renewal of Confucianism: Feng Youlan (1895-1990)
			19.3 The challenges of dialectical materialism: Zhang Dainian (1909-2004)
			19.4 Post-Marxist aesthetics: Li Zehou (1930- )
			19.5 Modern Confucianism (Xinruxue) in Taiwan: Mou Zongsan (1909-1995)
		20. New approaches in modern Chinese epistemology: Xiong Shili (1885-1968) and the synthesis of qualitative (xingzhi) and quantitative (liangzhi) understanding
			20.1 The dynamics of self-education: From Buddhism to Modern Confucianism
			20.2 The synthesis of essence (ti) and function (yong)
			20.3 From habituated and original mind (xixin, benxin) to quantitative and qualitative understanding (liangzhi xingzhi)
			20.4 Science and intuition
			20.5 Return to the dialectics of ethics and epistemology: The inner sage and the external ruler (neisheng waiwang)
		21. Zhang Dongsun’s (1886-1973) plural epistemology (duoyuan renshilun)
			21.1 The path taken by an opponent and its tragic conclusion
			21.2 The critique of dialectical materialism
			21.3 Panstructuralism (Fanjiagouzhuyi)
			21.4 Plurality of cognition
			21.5 Language and logic: Problems of comprehension and transmission
			21.6 The universality and cultural conditionality of epistemology
		22. Epistemology through the lens of the relation between Dao and the truth: Jin Yuelin 44% #k (1895-1984)
			22.1 Life and work: Influences and fields
			22.2 The Way (dao), potential (neng) and form (shi)
			22.3 The theory of knowledge
		23. The epistemology of Chinese “Marxism”: Feng Qi’s (1915-1995) transformation of knowledge into wisdom
			23.1 Life and work
			23.2 The meaning of “expanded epistemology” (guangyi renshilun)
			23.3 The multilayered order of the external world and the method of dialectical logic
			23.4 The recognition and cultivation of a free personality
			23.5 Cognitive distinctions and the new holism of wisdom
		24. Traditional epistemology as a bridge to new ideologies: From He Lin (1902-1992) to Sun Yat-sen FA AIL (1866-1925) and Mao Zedong (1893-1976)
		25. Searching for new pathways to the third millennium: Xia Zhentao (1934), Hu Jun (1951) and Zhang Yaonan (1963)
		26. Contemporary Chinese epistemology: Between old and new understandings
			26.1 Linking ontology and epistemology
			26.2 Syntheses of methods and disciplines
			26.3 Relation as the core of cognition
	Notes
	Bibliography
	Index