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The Classical Daoist Concept of LI 理 (Pattern) and Early Chinese Cosmology
- Harold D. Roth 羅浩
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- Journal:
- Early China / Volume 35 / 2013
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 08 August 2014, pp. 157-183
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- 2013
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This study traces the origins and development of the concept of Li 理 (Pattern) in early Chinese Cosmology, locating its foundation in the root metaphor derived from the natural lines or veins along which a block of jade can be split by a skilled artisan. From this relatively concrete image, li comes to eventually represent in Daoist cosmology the more abstract quality of the natural patterns or structures within the universe along which all phenomena move and interact with one another without the interference of human beings. After examining how early Confucian works emphasize the more abstract and derivative qualities of order and structure, we see that the likely Yangist authors in the Lüshi chunqiu return to the original metaphor of veins in jade but, instead, apply this to the veins through which the qi circulates through the human body.
We then see how this metaphor is expanded beyond the human body in the classical Daoist texts to come to represent the natural guidelines both within all phenomena and those that guide their movements within the cosmos. Within phenomena these include such varied things as the structures for the generation and expression of emotions within human beings as well as the natural lines along which the butcher's chopper passes in order to cleave oxen. In Daoist inner cultivation literature it is these patterns with which sages accord so that their spontaneous actions are completely in harmony with the greater forces of the cosmos. Only after long practice of the apophatic contemplative methods that include concentrating on one breathing and emptying out the normal contents of consciousness can the sage be able to accomplish this goal of “taking no action yet leaving nothing undone.” Thus the concept of li as these natural guidelines comes to serve as an explanation for why this classical Daoist dictum is effective in the world.
Finally, the Huainanzi contains the most sophisticated and sustained usages of the concept of li as the natural patterns and guidelines in the cosmos arguing that complying with them is the key to a genuinely contented life.
Contributors
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- Edited by Daniel Patte, Vanderbilt University, Tennessee
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- The Cambridge Dictionary of Christianity
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- 05 August 2012
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- 20 September 2010, pp xi-xliv
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Evidence for stages of meditation in early Taoism
- Harold D. Roth
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- Journal:
- Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies / Volume 60 / Issue 2 / June 1997
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 05 February 2009, pp. 295-314
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- June 1997
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The role of some form of breathing meditation in most of the world's great mystical traditions has long been known, but few have seen much evidence for this in early Taoism. By ‘early Taoism’ I mean the formative stages of the tradition, from its mysterious origins to the completion of the Huai-nan-Tzu (139 B.C.). Perhaps scholars have seen so little evidence of meditative practice in early Taoism because they have tended to focus almost exclusively on its famous foundational works, Lao-Tzu and Chuang-Tzu and have, furthermore, tended to treat them as works of abstract philosophy. In my research I have been particularly interested in the experiential basis of the philosophy found in the Lao-Tzu and the Chuang-Tzu and in a variety of other related texts that have hitherto been generally overlooked as sources for early Taoism. In order to clarify the context for the present investigation of meditative stages, I would like to present briefly the most relevant hypotheses from this research:
Redaction Criticism and the Early History of Taoism
- Harold D. Roth
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- Journal:
- Early China / Volume 19 / 1994
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 26 March 2015, pp. 1-46
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- 1994
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This study employs the critical methodology called “redaction criticism” originally developed in New Testament studies, for the analysis of the relationship between two important but overlooked sources of early Taoist thought: the Kuan Tzu essays entitled Nei-yeh and Hsin-shu, hsia. Although the relationship between these essays has long been the subject of controversy, the author concludes that Hsin-shu, hsia (written ca. 200 B.C.) is a deliberate abridgement, rearrangement, and restatement of Nei-yeh (written ca. 330 B.C.) that demonstrates a different ideological viewpoint.
Whereas Nei-yeh is a collection of twenty-two mostly rhymed stanzas devoted to the practice of guided breathing meditation, its cosmological significance and its physiological, psychological, and spiritual effects, Hsin-shu, hsia is a work of mixed prose and verse that is expressly concerned with the political benefits of such “inner cultivation” practices. In other words, it sees them as techniques for rulership.
This new ideological position is significant. Based upon previous research by the author and on the work of other scholars, the author hypothesizes that there were three distinct, but related, aspects of early Taoism: the Individualist, the Primitivist, and the Syncretist. According to this categorization, Nei-yeh is an Individualist text and Hsin-shu, hsia is Syncretist The deliberate rearrangement and emendation of Nei-yeh by the Hsin-shu, hsia author argues for the position that Syncretist Taoism is a direct descendant of Individualist Taoism — perhaps even its lineal descendant.