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7Linji and William James on MortalityIn Amy Olberding & Ivanhoe Philip J. (eds.), Mortality in Traditional Chinese Thought, Suny. pp. 249-269. 2011.
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10Reply to Discussion of Origins of Moral-Political Philosophy in Early China: Contestation of Humaneness, Justice, and Personal FreedomPhilosophy East and West 73 (2): 475-485. 2023.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reply to Discussion of Origins of Moral-Political Philosophy in Early China:Contestation of Humaneness, Justice, and Personal FreedomTao Jiang (bio)I am grateful to all six commentators for their careful reading of and thoughtful engagements with my book, especially to Sungmoon Kim for spearheading this group effort. In the book, Origins of Moral-Political Philosophy in Early China: Contestation of Humaneness, Justice, and Personal F…Read more
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108Two Notions of Freedom in Classical Chinese Thought: The Concept of Hua 化 in the Zhuangzi and the XunziDao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 10 (4): 463-486. 2011.This essay is an attempt to sketch out two contrasting notions of freedom in the Zhuangzi and the Xunzi . I argue that to understand the classical Chinese formulations of freedom we should look at the concept of hua 化 (transformation or to transform). It is a kind of freedom that highlights the moral and/or spiritual transformation of the self and its entailments on the connection between the self and various domains of relationality. The Zhuangzian hua is the transformation of the self in such …Read more
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12Character Is the Way: The Path to Spiritual Freedom in the Linji LuIn Youru Wang & Sandra A. Wawrytko (eds.), Dao Companion to Chinese Buddhist Philosophy, Springer Verlag. pp. 399-415. 2017.This article hopes to accomplish two goals: first, it proposes a more effective framework for philosophers who engage in philosophical interpretations and constructions of Chan Buddhist texts, like the Linji Lu, to deal with challenges from historians when the integrity of those Chan texts as well as their authorship is called into question, so that a more robust intellectual space for the philosophical discourse on Chan classics can be carved out from the dominant historicist discourse. Accordi…Read more
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49Origins of Moral-Political Philosophy in Early China: Contestation of Humaneness, Justice, and Personal FreedomOxford University Press. 2021.This book rewrites the story of classical Chinese philosophy, which has always been considered the single most creative and vibrant chapter in the history of Chinese philosophy. Works attributed to Confucius, Mozi, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi and many others represent the very origins of moral and political thinking in China. As testimony to their enduring stature, in recent decades many Chinese intellectuals, and even leading politicians, have turned to those classics, especially…Read more
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14Isaiah Berlin’s Challenge to the Zhuangzian FreedomJournal of Chinese Philosophy 39 (5): 69-92. 2012.Isaiah Berlin is known for articulating two competing notions of freedom operative within the modern Western political philosophy, negative and positive. He provides a powerful defense of modern liberal tradition that elevates negative freedom in its attempt to preserve personal space for one’s actions and choices while regarding positive freedom as suppressive due to its potentially collective orientation. This article uses Berlin as an interlocutor to challenge Zhuangzi, known for his portraya…Read more
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49Contexts and Dialogue: Yogacara Buddhism and Modern Psychology on the Subliminal MindUniversity of Hawaii Press. 2006.Are there Buddhist conceptions of the unconscious? If so, are they more Freudian, Jungian, or something else? If not, can Buddhist conceptions be reconciled with the Freudian, Jungian, or other models? These are some of the questions that have motivated modern scholarship to approach ālayavijñāna, the storehouse consciousness, formulated in Yogācāra Buddhism as a subliminal reservoir of tendencies, habits, and future possibilities. Tao Jiang argues convincingly that such questions are inherently…Read more
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32The role of history in Chan/Zen enlightenmentDao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 4 (1): 1-14. 2004.
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89The problematic of continuity: Nishida kitarō and AristotlePhilosophy East and West 55 (3): 447-460. 2005.: This essay is an attempt to explain Nishida's logic of the predicate in its challenge to the Aristotelian object logic that is the foundation of substance metaphysics. It offers a comparative analysis of the critical issue of continuity so as to show why Nishida thinks Aristotelian logic cannot deal with the problematic of continuity of change while his own logic of the predicate can. It further explores the significance of Nishida's logic in providing the foundation for a non-substance ontolo…Read more
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13The reception and rendition of Freud in China: China's Freudian slip (edited book)Routledge. 2013.Although Freud makes only occasional, brief references to China and Chinese culture in his works, for almost a hundred years many leading Chinese intellectuals have studied and appropriated various Freudian theories. However, whilst some features of Freud’s views have been warmly embraced from the start and appreciated for their various explanatory and therapeutic values, other aspects have been vigorously criticized as implausible or inapplicable to the Chinese context. This book explores the h…Read more
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73The problematic of whole – part and the horizon of the enlightened in huayan buddhismJournal of Chinese Philosophy 28 (4). 2001.The issue of the whole–part relationship has been a contentious subject in Indian philosophical discourse since its early stages. Generally speaking, there are two leading positions concerning the nature of the whole, from which the issue of the whole–part relationship stems. First is the reductionist position, which contends that the whole is nothing more than the parts put in a certain order; hence, the part is more fundamental than the whole, since the whole can be reduced to the parts that c…Read more
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81Ālayavijñāna and the problematic of continuity in the Cheng Weishi LunJournal of Indian Philosophy 33 (3): 243-284. 2004.
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40The Problem of Authorship and the Project of Chinese Philosophy: Zhuang Zhou and the Zhuangzi between Sinology and Philosophy in the Western AcademyDao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 15 (1): 35-55. 2016.This essay looks into a particular aspect of Sinological challenge to the modern project of Chinese philosophy within the Western academy through the lens of authorship, using the Zhuangzi 莊子 as a case study. It explores philosophical implications for texts whose authorship is in doubt and develops a new heuristic model of authorship and textuality, so that a more robust intellectual space for the philosophical discourse on Chinese classics can be carved out from the dominant historicist Sinolog…Read more
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50The Imperative of Understanding: Chinese Philosophy, Comparative Philosophy, and Onto-Hermeneutics—A Tribute Volume Dedicated to Professor Chung-ying Cheng – Edited by On-cho Ng (review)Journal of Chinese Philosophy 38 (1): 151-156. 2011.
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44Isaiah Berlin's Challenge to the Zhuangzian FreedomJournal of Chinese Philosophy 39 (S1): 69-92. 2012.Isaiah Berlin is known for articulating two competing notions of freedom operative within the modern Western political philosophy, negative and positive. He provides a powerful defense of modern liberal tradition that elevates negative freedom in its attempt to preserve personal space for one's actions and choices while regarding positive freedom as suppressive due to its potentially collective orientation. This article uses Berlin as an interlocutor to challenge Zhuangzi, known for his portraya…Read more
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64Incommensurability of Two Conceptions of Reality: Dependent Origination and Emptiness in Nāgārjuna’s MMKPhilosophy East and West 64 (1): 25-48. 2014.Nāgārjuna is reconstructed in the essay as someone who challenges the way much of mainstream Western and Indian philosophical traditions deal with the tension between conceptions of ultimate and conventional reality. I argue that Nāgārjuna’s philosophical deliberation exhibits a clear recognition that conceptions of ultimate and conventional reality are, in the final analysis, incompatible and that most of the effort to reconcile the tension has resulted in sacrificing the reality of the world a…Read more
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28A buddhist history of the west: Studies in lack (review)Journal of Chinese Philosophy 31 (1). 2004.
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56A buddhist scheme for engaging modern science: The case of taixuJournal of Chinese Philosophy 29 (4). 2002.
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51Accessibility of the subliminal mind: Transcendence vs. immanenceContinental Philosophy Review 38 (3-4): 143-164. 2005.It has long been taken for granted in modern psychology that access to the unconscious is indirectly gained through the interpretation of a trained psychoanalyst, evident in theories of Freud, Jung and others. However, my essay problematizes this very indirectness of access by bringing in a Yogācāra Buddhist formulation of the subliminal mind that offers a direct access. By probing into the philosophical significance of the subliminal mind along the bias of its access, I will argue that the diff…Read more
APA Eastern Division
New Brunswick, NJ, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Chinese Philosophy |
Mahayana Buddhist Philosophy |
Areas of Interest
Chinese Philosophy |
Mahayana Buddhist Philosophy |