Two Notions of Freedom in Classical Chinese Thought: The Concept of Hua 化 in the Zhuangzi and the Xunzi

Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 10 (4):463-486 (2011)
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Abstract

This essay is an attempt to sketch out two contrasting notions of freedom in the Zhuangzi and the Xunzi . I argue that to understand the classical Chinese formulations of freedom we should look at the concept of hua 化 (transformation or to transform). It is a kind of freedom that highlights the moral and/or spiritual transformation of the self and its entailments on the connection between the self and various domains of relationality. The Zhuangzian hua is the transformation of the self in such a way that the self becomes supremely attuned to the complexity of the world and can thus navigate various domains of relationality with extraordinary grace, ease, and efficacy. The Xunzian hua is the transformation of the self so that the self can extend its relationality to include the entire world and transform it from a raw and uncouth world to a civilized one through ritual practices

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Tao Jiang
Rutgers - New Brunswick

References found in this work

A source book in Chinese philosophy.Wing-Tsit Chan - 1963 - Princeton, N.J.,: Princeton University Press. Edited by Wing-Tsit Chan.
Confucius--the secular as sacred.Herbert Fingarette - 1972 - New York,: Harper & Row.
"The Tenuous Self: Wu-wei in the Zhuangzi.Edward Gilman Slingerland - 2003 - In Effortless action : Wu-wei as conceptual metaphor and spiritual ideal in early China. New York:
Confucius: The Secular as Sacred.Herbert Fingarette - 1974 - Religious Studies 10 (2):245-246.

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