Language, Ontology, and Political Philosophy in China: Wang Bi's Scholarly Exploration of the Dark (Xuanxue) (SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture)

SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture

by Rudolf G. Wagner

Explores the thought of Wang Bi, the third-century Chinese philosopher who made brilliant, innovative contributions in an era when traditional intellectual institutions and orthodoxies had collapsed.

With the collapse of the Han dynasty in 220 C.E., an entire system of state and intellectual organization fell apart. The brilliant Wang Bi and his generation of young scholars grew up in a no-man's land without teachers and orthodoxy. Defying the established school divisions, they set out on a vigorous and daring new philosophical inquiry which came to be known as Xuanxue, the "Scholarly Exploration of the Dark." They found "subtle pointers" in the Laozi, the Book of Changes, and the Analects of Confucius about the inequity of language and the ensuing need to proceed by "subtle" indications that ultimately led to a philosophy of Being.

In this book, Rudolf G. Wagner shows how Wang Bi's sophisticated analysis of "subtle pointers" in the language of the Laozi developed into an ontology that served as the basis for a political philosophy of the ruler/subject relationship and a guide for the public performance of an enlightened ruler. Wang Bi's work initiated the reading of the Laozi, the Book of Changes and the Analects as philosophical texts and has had a lasting impact on Chinese philosophy.

269 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2002

About the author

Rudolf G. Wagner (3 November 1941 — 25 October 2019) was a German sinologist. He was Senior Professor at the Department of Chinese Studies at the Heidelberg University and Co-Director of the Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context: Shifting Asymmetries in Cultural Flows".

Reviews

[Paul Gibson]

A well researched, scholarly work.
This is part of a trilogy by Mr. Wagner. I've read one other so far, A Chinese Reading of the Daodejing; and he tries very hard to represent the Tao Te Ching through the eyes and commentary of Wang Bi. Mr. Wagner does an excellent job, but his scholarship is for the scholar. The reader has to be more than of average interest in the subject. Most won't be enthralled by his theories of IPS (interlocking parallel styles) and such, but I was interested to read through these formulations.
Although the entire book is about Wang Bi's scholarly exploration of Xuanxue, I was surprised to see only about four pages specifically dedicated to Xuan (the Dark or the Abstruse). The 19 pages dedicated to Dao were worth the book for me as an interpreter however.
Mr. Wagner is not trying to put his own interpretation together as he is trying to represent Wang Bi's. I think he does his honest best. Wang Bi tried very hard to found the often loose language into more concrete, foundational philosophy. Whether the philosophy was so much based upon government or whether such examples are merely examples, is debatable. As with all of us, perhaps Wang Bi's own view was more interested in government, and so shifted the entire tenor of the text. But everybody who interprets must begin with how one views before this translates into what one views. Kudos to Mr. Wagner for his hard work. Everybody who reads the Lao Tzu, Dao Te Ching owes a debt to both Wang Bi, and Rudolf Wagner has worked hard to represent it.

[Ring Chime]

Covers ground which I think is covered fairly well in other texts. I think the first book in the series is probably much more worth reading for those who are familiar with Chinese historical texts like the Laozi.

[Alex]

Really smart. Contextualizes and consolidates WB's insights on the DDJ...

[Chimezie Ogbuji]

This depth of this book is incredible