Author

Publication

1997 - State University of New York Press, Albany, New York (State)

Language

English

Word Count

45,250 words, Guess

Page Count

181 pages

Identifiers

  • Open LibraryOL997625M
  • ISBN-100791433854
  • OCLC Control Number35318323
  • Library of Congress Control Number96036341
  • Goodreads3779175
and 1 more
  • LibraryThing1529256

Classifications

  • DDC181/.11
  • LCCB126 .A45 1997

Description

"This book maintains that early Chinese philosophers, whatever their philosophical school, assumed common principles informed the natural and human worlds and that one could understand the nature of man by studying the principles which govern nature. Accordingly, the natural world rather than a religious tradition provided the root metaphors of early Chinese thought. Sarah Allan examines the concrete imagery, most importantly water and plant life, which served as a model for the most fundamental concepts in Chinese philosophy including such ideas as dao, the "way," de, "virtue" or "potency," xin, the "mind/heart," xing, "nature," and qi, "vital energy." Water, with its extraordinarily rich capacity for generating imagery, provided the primary model for conceptualizing general cosmic principles while plants provided a model for the continuous sequence of generation, growth, reproduction, and death and were the basis for the Chinese understanding of the nature of man in both religion and philosophy."--BOOK JACKET.

Subjects

Series Statement

  • SUNY series in Chinese philosophy and culture

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