Amendments to Fung Yu-lan Parts II & III Flashcards
Why isn’t Xunzi’s view on human nature the logical antithesis of Mencius’s?
- Both have a different conception of “nature” (xing), and this gives rise to an apparent disagreement.
- For Mencius, our nature consists of four beginning feelings and the possibility of virtue, whereas for Xunzi, it consists in human desires and emotions. If their understanding of the concept of human nature is different, then we should not say they are in logical contradiction to each other.
- Also, in the end, they both believe that the key to manifesting true virtue is through education and self-cultivation.
Why wasn’t the School of Names flourishing at the time of Xunzi?
- Both Kung Sun Lung and Hui Shih had died by the time of Xunzi. Those diplomats well versed in the art of persuasion, in Xunzi’s time, should not be considered as essentially constituting the School of Names.
- Xunzi’s logical theories and criteria of argumentation are thus produced in facing the competing and debating situation within the Chi-Hsia school, rather than being the result of facing the challenge of the School of Names.
- He developed logic in order to promote argumentative skills and rules of debating among the competing currents of thought in the School, skills which were also necessary in order to persuade the rulers he advised that he had the most reasonable position.
How does Fung get the definition of Nirvana wrong?
Fung claims that nirvana is the “identification of the individual with the Universal Mind.” He makes it seem as if the concept of Universal Mind is shared by all Buddhist schools. However, the idea of “Universal Mind” is not clear in the philosophy of the Three Treatise School, and in the Consciousness-Only School, the term used is rather universal consciousness—the Alaya-consciousness. It is thus better to think of nirvana more generally as the cessation of all suffering and the escape from the cycle of transmigration.
Why should we characterize the School of the Middle Path as a negative dialectic?
- Fung says that the method of the School of the Middle Path (a.k.a. Three Treatise School) can be characterized as a “negative method.” However, it is better to characterize this method as a method of “negative dialectics.”
- The idea of a “negative method” seems to imply that it is one of simple denial and negation. However, this is to conceive of the method as static and to overlook the dynamic nature of the method. This dynamic nature is captured in the idea of “negative dialectics.”
- The method of negative dialectics involves the denial of all finite affirmations, rather than simple straightforward denial.
What is the point of the Theory of Double Truth?
- Fung sees the point of the Theory of Double Truth to be the denial of all one-sided truths. However, the real point is to overcome any dualism, rather than merely one-sidedness of the worldly view and the true view.
- The negative dialectics consists in first denying the dualism between yu (being) and wu (non-being), then that between two one-sided views, and finally that between the one-sided view and the middle view.
- The true middle path is thus interpreted as neither one-sided-nor-middle, to be realized in the process of negative dialectics as emptiness (kong), which is freedom from all kind of dualism constituted by sophistic discourse (i.e. merely “playful discourse”).
What is the affirmative element of Daoism?
- Fung maintains that the similarity between Buddhism and Chuang Tzu’s Daoism is that, through a process of denial, both philosophies end up at the point where “all is forgotten, including the fact that one has forgotten all.”
- However, while Buddhism is characterized solely by a constant process of denial in view of emptiness, there is an affirmative element to Chuang Tzu, since for Chuang Tzu the Dao exists and begets a myriad of things and integrates them all, though it is beyond all language.
What does Buddhism say about familial relations?
One of Fung’s criticisms of Buddhism is that it says nothing about serving one’s family and the state where lies also the wonderful Dao. However, we can find positive affirmations related to the family and the state in some Buddhist texts, one example of which is given in the Platform Sutra of Huineng, saying that: “If one’s heart is even, there is no need of obeying obligations. If one’s act is right, there is no need of practicing dyanaya. There is gratitude when one is filial and nourishing his parents; There is justice when the superior and the inferior are sympathetic one to another. When one knows how to cede to elders, there is harmony among the noble and the mean; Prajna is to be saught in one’ heart, there is no need of searching for metaphysical truth in the external world. Just to listen, to say and to cultivate one’s self in this way, the Western paradise appears in the present moment.”
What is Fung’s mistake in his categorization of the Cheng brothers?
Both Ch’eng brothers belong to philosophy of li and realism. It is misleading to say, as Fung does, that Ch’eng Hao initiated the Idealist School of Mind Only and therefore is limited to the concept of xin (mind). The reason this is a mistake is that tianli or li is also proposed by Ch’eng Hao and this has much influenced later School of Li.
How does Zhu Xi’s concept of tai chi differ from Aristotle’s concept of God?
- The Aristotelian God is not a creative God. For Aristotle, God is pure thought thinking itself, and as the ultimate of perfection, it attracts all things to move towards it. God is thus conceived as eternal and constant presence, in contrast with worldly things, which are never completely present, but are rather characterized by both presence and absence.
- In contrast, T’ai chi is creative in the sense, as Chi Hsi said, that if the world were to be destroyed, another could be created out from it.
What is the relationship between principle and sensible things for Zhu Xi?
- If “principle” is the name for the Ultimate Reality, rather than for a genus of principles, then the relationship between principle and an object can be conceived of in the Platonic sense—i.e. as a relationship of participation.
- However, if principle is used to denote a generic term, then no such Platonic relationship is possible. Rats, cats and bats are all mammals. But they are not mammals because they share a common standard, but rather, because they share certain characteristic features that are not, however, sufficient to describe each type of animal (rat, cat, bat) independently.
Why is the translation of jujing as “dwelling in respectful seriousness” better than “attentiveness of the mind”?
“Dwelling in respectful seriousness” doesn’t create a division between subject and object in the way that the former does. If we’re attentive, we must be attentive to something. But respectful seriousness doesn’t require an object in the same way, and so doesn’t introduce a dualism into this method of self-cultivation in Zhu Xi’s theory.
Why are the investigation of things (ko wu) and respectful seriousness both important to Zhu Xi’s philosophy?
- An attitude of respectful seriousness ensures that the investigation of things is not merely an intellectual exercise.
- Respectful seriousness and the investigation of things are both important, and are simply applications in different domains. The investigation of things looks into what is already expressed in the phenomenal world, while respectful seriousness considers the mind before its expression.
- Respectful seriousness is important for self-cultivation, while the investigation of things is important for extending our knowledge.
What is the real message behind the story of Wang Yang-ming and the bamboo?
- The famous story of Wang Yang-ming’s contemplation of bamboo is often used to mock Chu Hsi’s philosophy. No matter how hard Wang Yang-ming stared at the bamboo, he could not discover its principle.
- However, this story is really more an illustration of Wang Yang-ming’s misunderstanding of Chu Hsi’s “investigation of things,” rather than an illustration of the inefficacy of the latter’s views. To investigate principle through the sensible world, we must use the method of the investigation of things.
- Wang Yang-ming, however, uses meditation, which is for the investigation of the mind, not the investigation of external things, and so he misunderstands Chu Hsi.
Aside from the mathematical and astronomical knowledge introduced by the Jesuits, what other kind of knowledge was important?
Geographical knowledge; the maps drawn by Ricci are very important, because for the first time, the Chinese got to know so many countries, such as those in Europe and elsewhere, and realised that they were not the centre of the world or the middle country they had always believed themselves to be.
What are the three different origins of Daoism as a religion?
Fung claims that “the introduction of Buddhism stimulated the foundation of religious Daoism.” However, this is not correct. As we have seen, religious Daoism has multiple origins.
- It’s a response to shamanism, especially in Sichuan province, by Chang Tao-lin.
- There’s an interaction with Buddhism. This is evident from the fact that the Ling Pao (Lingbao) Scriptures were much influenced by the Buddhist Sutras.
- There’s an interaction with Confucianism. Wang Chong’s critique of Confucian ritual led to the separation of Daoist ritual with the Confucian tradition.
