Beyond Oneness and Difference: Li and Coherence in Chinese Buddhist Thought and Its Antecedents(SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture)

Continues the author's inquiry into the development of the Chinese philosophical concept Li, concluding in Song and Ming dynasty Neo-Confucianism.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Introduction: Li and Coherence: Recap of Ironies of Oneness and Difference and Terminological Clarifications 1. Li as a Fundamental Category in Chinese Thought Needham and Organic Pattern Hansen and the Mass Noun Hypothesis Graham and the Absent Copula and Correlative Thinking Peterson and Coherence Hall and Ames and the Focus/Field 2. The Advent of Li, Ironic and Non-Ironic Li and "Greatest Coherence" in the Xunzi "Heavenly Principle" ( tianli) Ironic and Non-Ironic in the "Inner Chapters" of the Zhuangzi and "The Record of Music" Li in the "Wings" to the Zhouyi Li and Centrality in Dong Zhongshu (179-104 BCE) 3. The Development of Li in Ironic Texts Li and Non-Ironic Coherence in the Later Parts of Zhuangzi: Integrating the Non-Ironic First Type: Li and Dao Both Non-Ironic Second Type: Dao Ironic, Li Non-Ironic Third Type: Dao and Li Both Ironic Integrating Types Two and Three 4. The Advent of Li as a Technical Philosophical Term Toward the Ironic: Li in the Pre-Ironic Daoism of the Guanzi Li Defined: The Later Two-and-a-half Chapters of the Guanzi The Hanfeizi Commentary on Laozi: Li as Division and the Yielding Dao Cosmological Dao and Its Li in the Huainanzi 5. Li as the Convergence of Coherence and Incoherence in Wang Bi and Guo Xiang Subjective Perspectivism in Wang Bi: The Advent of Ti and Yong as Ironic Structure Applications of the Multiplicity of Li in Wang's Laozi Commentary Convergence of Coherence and Incoherence in Guo Xiang: Li as "Just the Way It Is," as Limit, and as Vanishing Convergence Unintelligible Coherence: Vanishing and Merging into Things Ironic Li as Non-Ironic Li in Guo Xiang 6. Beyond One and Many: Li in Tianti and Huayan Buddhism How Emptiness Became Li Tianti on Truth, Threefold Li in Early Tiantai: Center as Convertibility of Determinate and Indeterminate Appearance and Reality in Huayan and Tiantai Existance and Nonexistence in Tiantai and Huayan Wave and Water in Huayan: "Beyond" Li Wave, Water, and Mud in Tiantai: Inherent Entailment as Omniavailability Summary of Difference between Tiantai and Huayan, and the Irony of Coherence in the Tiantai and Huayan Classifications of Teachings 7. Mind, Omnipresence, and Coherence in Tiantai and Huayan The Pure Mind and the Deluded Mind in Huayan Thought Mind and the Nature in Tiantai Thought The Three Thousand Lis and the Three Thousand Events Conclusion: The Vertex of the Vortex Epilogue: Toward Li in Neo-Confucianism Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Brook Ziporyn is Professor of Chinese Philosophy, Religion, and Comparative Thought at the University of Chicago Divinity School. He is the author of several books, including The Penumbra Unbound: The Neo-Taoist Philosophy of Guo Xiang and Ironies of Oneness and Difference: Coherence in Early Chinese Thought; Prolegomena to the Study of Li, both also published by SUNY Press.

Review :
"...Ziporyn's two volumes on 'oneness and difference' represent a well-argued and highly sophisticated attempt at understanding Chinese metaphysics on its own terms ... I recommend these two volumes unconditionally to the reader." - Kai Marchal, Philosophy East & West "...constitute[s] the first comprehensive attempt in any Western language to explore the meaning and history of the difficult term li prior to the Song period ... Ziporyn displays a tremendous knowledge of difficult philosophical texts such as the commentaries to Daoist classics by Wang Bi and Guo Xiang as well as primary texts and commentaries of the Buddhist Tiantai and Huayan traditions." - Monumenta Serica