Results 21 to 30 of about 309 (177)

“Within the Gates of the Master, Is There Any Such Thing as a Prime Minister?” A Space without Frames in the Zhuangzi

On_Culture
In chapter five of the Daoist classic Zhuangzi, we find the story of an altercation between Shen Tujia and Zichan in the halls of their master Bohun Wuren [engl. Uncle Dim Nobody/Non-Human].
Ludwig Drosch
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A Philosophy of Moderation: The “Center” as an Interpretive Key to the Lao–Zhuang Texts

Religions, 2023
The “center” is a key concept in early Chinese philosophy. While readings of the Laozi 老子 and Zhuangzi 莊子 often rely on concepts of “nature” and the “natural”, this article proposes the “center” as an interpretive key that informs discussion of ...
Rory O’Neill, Riccardo Peruzzi
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Embodied Hermeneutics and the Challenge of Intercultural Understanding: Insights from Chinese Traditions

The Heythrop Journal, Volume 67, Issue 3, Page 289-300, May 2026.
Abstract Efforts to understand unfamiliar philosophical and religious traditions are often constrained by hermeneutical limitations rooted in the dominance of Western conceptual frameworks. This paper advances embodied hermeneutics as a general model for intercultural understanding—one that grounds interpretation in lived and material expressions of ...
Victoria S. Harrison
wiley   +1 more source

The Big and the Great: A Reconstruction of Zhuangzi’s Philosophy on Transcendence

Religions, 2019
This essay attempts to demonstrate the logic of Zhuangzi in his different attitudes toward “debate on big and small” by bringing into discussion the two versions of translation in the English languages, which provide a new approach to analyze
Limei Jiang
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Studying the Zhuangzi: An Institutional Approach

Philosophy Compass, Volume 21, Issue 3, May/June 2026.
ABSTRACT Comparative political philosophy has recently grown in prominence, but most attention focuses on Confucians such as Confucius, Mencius, and Xunzi. Daoists, particularly Zhuangzi, have long been neglected. This paper proposes an “institutional approach” to Zhuangzi's philosophy, examining what institutions can create a social environment that ...
Baldwin Wong
wiley   +1 more source

Anecdotes and thought experiments in Zhuangzi and Western philosophy

Rivista di Estetica, 2019
In seeking the truth, philosophers have long used fiction and counterfactual scenarios to raise and answer questions, to foster dialogue or give a commentary on some facet of life.
Monica Link
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Chinese Utopianism: A Historical Overview

Religion Compass, Volume 20, Issue 3, May/June 2026.
ABSTRACT This article surveys the historical development of Chinese utopianism and its relationship to broader debates in the field of utopian studies. While early scholarship often dismissed utopianism as a uniquely Western tradition, subsequent research has demonstrated that discourses related to the creation of an ideal society occupied a central ...
Ori Tavor
wiley   +1 more source

Tracing the source of nurturing life: a hermeneutic interpretation of Zhuangzi’s “Essence of Nurturing Life”

Humanities & Social Sciences Communications
This study addresses a critical gap in Daoist scholarship by revisiting the concept of “nurturing life” (養生) in Zhuangzi: Essence of Nurturing Life, an idea often reduced to either medical pragmatism or mystical abstraction in contemporary ...
Wei Gu, Hua Cai
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Re‐spiritualising geographies of subjectivity through Daoism

Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Volume 51, Issue 1, March 2026.
Short Abstract Drawing on Daoist philosophy, this intervention provides an alternative account of spiritual selfhood that harmonises disconnections between subjectivity and the Universe around the lived body. It invokes a cosmological selfhood through re‐spiritualising the bodily geographies of subjectivity.
Yu‐Shan Tseng
wiley   +1 more source

Nothing Rather than Something: A Zhuangzian Reappraisal of Nihilism

Journal of Religious Ethics, Volume 53, Issue 4, Page 483-502, December 2025.
ABSTRACT Nihilism comes from the Latin nihil, meaning “nothing.” It is the belief that nothing inherently governs existence: no values, principles, or ultimate meaning. Many philosophers treat this as an existential crisis: If there is no meaning to our lives and actions, why bother? This work challenges the assumption that nihilism is terrifying.
Christine Abigail L. Tan
wiley   +1 more source