•  5
    The Way of Awareness in Daoist Philosophy
    Philosophical Quarterly. forthcoming.
  •  10
    Wuwei in the Lüshi Chunqiu
    Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 22 (3): 437-455. 2023.
    Given wuwei 無為 describes the life praxis of the sage and statecraft of the enlightened ruler while also denoting the comportment of the Dao 道—an alternating state of quiet dormancy and creative activity—are the standard translations of wuwei as “nonaction” or “effortless action” up to the task? They are not, it will be argued, in that they fail to convey the true profundity of wuwei. The objective of this essay is twofold: to show that wuwei is better understood as “abiding harmony” than nonacti…Read more
  •  67
    Musical naturalism in the thought of Ji Kang
    Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 8 (2): 151-171. 2009.
    Wei-Jin period is characterized by neo-Daoism ( xuanxue 玄學), and J I Kang lived in the midst of this philosophical exploration. Adopting the naturalism of the Zhuangzi , J i Kang expressed his socio-political concerns through the medium of music, which was previously regarded as having moral bearing and rectitude. Denying such rectitude became central for J i Kang, who claimed that music was incapable of possessing human emotion, releasing it from the chains of Confucian ritualism. His investiga…Read more
  •  90
  •  3
    This chapter examines the sculptural aesthetics of Johann Herder and Chinese Daoism. Herder’s thesis that sculpture presents “forms in which the living soul animates the entire body” might have changed the way Europeans viewed the plastic arts, but Daoism had already discovered this “truth” two millennia earlier. What is common to both Herder and Daoism is the argument that sight inherently falls short when it comes to knowing the possibility of human experience. As sight lacks the tactile sensa…Read more
  •  8
    Philosophical Influences of Mao Zedong, written by Robert E. Allinson
    Journal of Chinese Philosophy 49 (4): 424-426. 2022.
  •  1
    Zhuangzi and the becoming of nothingness
    State University of New York Press. 2019.
    Explores the cosmological and metaphysical thought in the Zhuangzi from the perspective of nothingness. Zhuangzi and the Becoming of Nothingness offers a radical rereading of the Daoist classic Zhuangzi by bringing to light the role of nothingness in grounding the cosmological and metaphysical aspects of its thought. Through a careful analysis of the text and its appended commentaries, David Chai reveals not only how nothingness physically enriches the myriad things of the world, but also why th…Read more
  •  7
    Daoist resonances in Heidegger: exploring a forgotten debt (edited book)
    Bloomsbury Academic. 2022.
    East Asian imagery resonates throughout Martin Heidegger's writings. In this exploration of the connections between Daoism and his thought, an international team of scholars consider why the Daodejing and Zhuangzi were texts he returned to repeatedly and the extent Heidegger adhered to Daoism's core doctrines. They discuss how Daoist thought provided him with a new perspective, equipping him with images, concepts, and meanings that enabled him to continue his questioning of the nature of being. …Read more
  •  1
    Nature and Dao in Huanglao Boshu
    In Hiroshi Abe, Matthias Fritsch & Mario Wenning (eds.), Environmental Philosophy and East Asia: Nature, Time, Responsibility, Routledge. 2022.
  • Dao compainon to Xuanxue (edited book)
  •  5
    This is the first English-language book on the philosophy of Ji Kang. Moreover, it offers the first systematic treatment of his philosophy, thus filling a significant gap in English-language scholarship on early medieval Chinese literature and philosophy. David Chai brings to light Ji Kang's Neo-Daoist heritage and explores the themes in his writings that were derived from classical Daoism, most notably the need for humanity to return to a more harmonious co-existence with Nature to further our …Read more
  •  14
    Shitao and the Enlightening Experience of Painting
    Dialogue and Universalism 31 (3): 93-112. 2021.
    Having reached its zenith in the Song dynasty, Chinese landscape painting in the dynasties that followed became highly formulaic as artists simply copied the old masters to perfect their skills. This orthodox approach was not accepted by everyone however; some painters criticized it, arguing it was better to learn the ideas behind the techniques of the old masters than to blindly copy them. Shitao was one such critic and his Manual on Painting exemplifies his desire to disassociate himself from …Read more
  •  3
    Daoism and the Meontological Imagination
    Social Imaginaries 5 (2): 59-73. 2019.
    Of the things needing to be forgotten if we are to partake in the oneness of Dao, language is perhaps the hardest. Since the purpose of words is to delimit things, words create an artificial division between things and their image qua form. While humanity views images as distinct entities, Dao leaves them in their jumbled collectivity; while humanity feels compelled to act upon our thoughts and feelings, Dao remains silent and empty. This leads to the following question: Will modelling ourselves…Read more
  •  25
    Daoist Encounters with Phenomenology (edited book)
    Bloomsbury. 2020.
  •  20
    Paul Tillich, Zhuangzi, and the Creational Role of Nonbeing
    Philosophy East and West 69 (2): 337-356. 2019.
    For Paul Tillich, the age-old question "Why is there something and not nothing?"1 is easily answerable: there is something because thought begins with being. However, being alone is insufficient to explain the causal root of reality; the world exists, Tillich says, in a dialectical relationship with nonbeing. This nonbeing is not the absolute Nothing out of which God creates things ex nihilo; on the contrary, it is a relative form of non-being that threatens to eradicate the finite being of thin…Read more
  •  26
    Eric Nelson's Chinese and Buddhist Philosophy in Early Twentieth-Century German Thought opens with the following: "The work before you is an interpretive journey through the historical reception of Chinese and Buddhist philosophy in modern German thought, focusing in particular--albeit not exclusively--on the early twentieth century. Its intent is to describe and analyze the intertextual nexus of intersecting sources for the sake of elucidating implications and critical models for intercultural …Read more
  •  21
    Rethinking the Daoist Concept of Nature
    Journal of Chinese Philosophy 43 (3-4): 259-274. 2016.
    Recent years have seen an increased turning to the “wisdom of the East” when addressing issues on the environment. The risk of misappropriating its tenets in order to make them conform to the Western system is extremely high however. This paper will lay bare the early texts of Daoism so as to disprove claims that Nature is mystical, antithetical to technology, and subservient to human consciousness. It shall argue that Nature not only arises from a non-anthropocentric source in Dao but that this…Read more
  • Dao Companion to Neo-Daoism (Xuanxue) (edited book)
    Springer. forthcoming.
  •  29
    Zhuangzi and Musical Apophasis
    Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 16 (3): 355-370. 2017.
    Whether music is a catalyst for virtuous or licentious behavior, decadent or sparse thoughts, there is no doubting its importance to human civilization; but what of the sounds of Nature? For the Daoist philosopher Zhuangzi 莊子, the sounds of Nature are the epitome of what humanity calls music. Neither contrived nor laden with predispositions, they reflect the unity of things in Dao 道. Focusing on the xianchi 咸池 story in Chapter 14 of the Zhuangzi, this article argues that the true value of music …Read more
  •  11
    Ji Kang on Nourishing Life
    Frontiers of Philosophy in China 12 (1): 38-53. 2017.
    Ji Kang’s “An Essay on Nourishing Life” has, for much of its history, been overshadowed by his more famous work “Sound is without Grief or Joy.” Be that as it may, “An Essay on Nourishing Life” is also an important text in that it delves into the interdependence of the heart-mind, spirit, and vital breath, and into how harmony between them is the key to ensuring physical longevity. In addition to investigating this aspect of his thought, this paper will also discuss Ji Kang’s attention to the vi…Read more
  •  24
    Wandering beneath Sacred Canopies: Robert C. Neville's Systematic Theology
    Philosophy East and West 67 (1): 267-273. 2017.
    Robert Neville’s three-volume set, Philosophical Theology, is a work of considerable physical heft and remarkable intellectual scope, a magnum opus that redefines how we understand religion and its place in the interconnected world of today: “Religion is human engagement of ultimacy expressed in cognitive articulations, existential responses to ultimacy that give ultimate definition to the individual and community, and patterns of life and ritual in the face of ultimacy”. This new definition is …Read more
  •  15
    T.C. Kline and Justin Tiwald, eds., Ritual and Religion in the Xunzi (review)
    Frontiers of Philosophy in China 11 (2): 320-323. 2016.
  •  144
    Meontological Generativity: A Daoist Reading of the Thing
    Philosophy East and West 64 (2): 303-318. 2014.
    This paper relocates the philosophical discourse on the Thing (das Ding) to the world of classical Daoism. In doing so, it explores the bond between the One, the Thing and its signifier before discussing how the Thing unveils itself to the world while receiving the gift of nothingness from Dao. It furthermore contends that the two most prominent discussions of the Thing in the Western tradition--those by Heidegger and Lacan--while philosophically valuable in their own right, fail to provide the …Read more
  •  61
    Daoism and Wu
    Philosophy Compass 9 (10): 663-671. 2014.
    This paper introduces the concept of nothingness as used in classical Daoist philosophy, building upon contemporary scholarship by offering a uniquely phenomenological reading of the term. It will be argued that the Chinese word wu bears upon two planes of reality concurrently: as ontological nothingness and as ontic nonbeing. Presenting wu in this dyadic manner is essential if we wish to avoid equating it with Dao itself, as many have been wont to do; rather, wu is the mystery that perpetually …Read more
  •  86
    Martin Heidegger has made uncovering the truth of being his life’s work. He ultimately came to locate this truth at the site of the clearing (lichtung), which allowed him to sweep away the traditional formulation of the question of being and begin anew with beyng. This second beginning, as Heidegger called it, stood apart from the original in that he saw fit to cloak beyng in nothingness. This paper explores Heidegger’s use of nothingness and his claim that in order to overcome the divide betwee…Read more
  •  54
    On Pillowing One’s Skull: Zhuangzi and Heidegger on Death
    Frontiers of Philosophy in China 11 (3): 483-500. 2016.