EACS-2016. Book of Abstracts

Philosophy 21st Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies 110 Kantor Hans-Rudolf (Huafan University) “Contemplation Suspending Correlative Dependency” (juedai guan 絕待觀 ) According to Tiantai Buddhist Thought Key words: Intellectual Intuition, Tiantai Buddhism, Mou Zongsan, Contemplation, Soteriology Of those traditional sources which have inspired the work of the modern Chinese philosopher Mou Zongsan 牟宗三 (1909–1995), the lengthy texts composed by the masters of the Tiantai school ( 天台宗 ) in Chinese Buddhism during the Sui and Tang dynasties are particularly relevant. His work Chinese Philosophy and Intel- lectual Intuition (Zhongguo zhexue yu zhide zhijue 中國哲學與智的直覺 ) draws upon and quotes from the two famous Tiantai classics (1) The Great Calming and Contemplation (Mohe zhiguan 摩訶止觀 ) and (2) The Meaning of the Dark in the Lotus sūtra of the Subtle Dharma (Miaofa lianhua xuan yi 妙法蓮華經玄 義 ) to design and adumbrate a comprehensive concept of “intellectual intuition” that also takes many Western and other Chinese sources into account. However, apart from Mou Zongsan’s interpretation, use, and adop- tion of traditional Tiantai thought, these two Buddhist texts themselves provide a series of accounts related to the philosophical topic of “intuition.” A central concept of this school, for instance, is that of “contemplation” (guan 觀 ) which is the Chinese translation of the Sanskrit compound “vipaśyanā” derived from the prefix vi and the verbal root paś (=to see), and often translated as insight. In the Mohe zhiguan, Zhiyi 智顗 (538–597), the principal founder of that Buddhist school, develops the Tiantai term “contemplation suspending correla- tive dependency” (juedai guan) which accounts for the ultimate form of insight and reaches beyond any form of conceptualization. Another Tiantai term for this is also called “inconceivable realm” (bukesiyi jing 不 可 思 議 境 ). Most importantly, these terms express an unsurpassable level of accomplishment and virtuosity in dealing with contingency and performing dynamic adaptation to ever changing circumstances. Hence, Tiantai “contemplation” accounts for a dynamics of practice and insight, which evades conceptualization, and thus can only be fully realized in form of intuition. The present paper intends to elucidate the epistemological and soteriological implication of the Tiantai term “contemplation” and also tries to shed a critical light on Mou Zongsan’s incorporation of Tiantai thought into his concept of “intellectual intuition.” Liu Siyu (Beijing Normal University) Self-cultivation and Aesthetics in Zhu Xi’s Philosophy Key words: self-cultivation, Zhu Xi, poetry, aesthetics, heart-mind The paper investigates the philosophical meanings of Zhu Xi’s poetry within his theory of cultivating the human heart-mind. By comparing the two major shifts in the development of Zhu Xi’s thought, namely the two so-called “realizations of equilibrium and harmony” (zhong he zhi wu 中和之悟 ), it appears that all the adjustments in his thought were linked to the method of self-cultivation. While he considered cultivation methods, the problem of how to deal with personal sensations and the concomitant aesthetical space came to his attention. Different attitudes towards this problem caused Zhu Xi to critique Su Shi, which again helps to better understand Zhu Xi’s incorporation of aesthetics into his cultivation theory and the function of poetry in his thought. For Zhu Xi, poetry is a concrete representation of the process of unifying people’s inner heart-mind and rules of the outer world and human society, all of which are believed by the Neo-Confucians to share the same heavenly endowed moral principle. This process is mentioned as the philosophical agenda of “unifying inner and outer” (he nei wai 合內外 ), or in some cases, “unification of man and nature” (tian ren he yi 天人合一 ). Poetry is to help to realize the linkage between Neo-Confucian ideal being and actual experience. Nevertheless, this is such a grand, long-lasting and sophisticated project that Zhu Xi was not able to allege accomplishment of this task. This is because in practice, their ideal vision of unification and interpenetration of the dual categories like subject and object, inner and outer, feelings and rationality, human desire and morality are not easy to achieve. And it becomes even more difficult when it involves an explanation of people’s heart-mind that is subtle, mysterious, and sometimes beyond what words can express. In a rationalized theory that aims to be as much reasonable and practical as possible, people’s perceptions and feelings were the biggest problem confronting Neo-Confucian thinkers when talking about self-cultivation. Zhu Xi’s conviction that man