From Taoism to Einstein

Ki and Ri in Chinese and Japanese Thought. A Survey

Olof Lidin University of Copenhagen

Ki emerged first and is the thread that runs through the millennia of Chinese philosophy. Ri was added later in Sung times and, together, ki and ri became the mainstay and core of Chinese beliefs in Sun (960-1279), Ming (1279-1644) and Ch’ing (1644-1911) times. In this remarkable and inspirational study, researched over many years, the author takes the view that ki can profitably be compared with European philosophy. In China, the ki thread appears as an original ‘primal ki’ (genki), which is the source of all things and affairs. The search is for the whole. In Greece, and later in Europe, the thinking goes in the opposite direction: it searches for the exact truth in the independent units of the cosmos, the atoms, the truth being found in the part. The study has three separate but interrelated parts. Part I delineates the ki and ri philosophy as it developed in China; Part II presents Confucian study and learning in Tokugawa Japan (1600-1868); Part III finishes with conclusions about things East and West and the situation in today’s world. From Taoism to Einstein will have wide appeal to students of Eastern religion and philosophy, as well as students of East Asian history and political science, and Chinese and Japanese studies in general.

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Available: In Print

€81.00$105.00

Author:

Olof G. Lidin

Category:

Asian Studies - South East Asia

BIC2:

East Asia, Far East, Taoism

ISBN13:

9781901903782

Publication Year:

2006

Edition info:

Version:

Hardback

Publication Type:

Book

Pages, Illustrations:

240 pp.

Imprint:

Global Oriental

Language:

English

Biographical note Readership Table of contents

Biographical note

Olof Lidin, Professor Emeritus, University of Copenhagen, and former head of the university’s department of Japanese Studies, considers From Taoism to Einstein as the culmination of a life’s research and study in this field. He is also well known for his work on Ogyu Sorai, the Tokugawa Philosopher, and has published widely on the subject, including The Life of Ogyu Sorai – A Tokugawa Philosopher and Ogyu Sorai’s Journey to Kai in 1706. More recently, he published Tanegashima – The Arrival of Europe in Japan. He was President of the European Association of Japanese Studies (1982-85) and in 1996 was honoured with a Festschrift, entitled Florilegium Japonicum. Studies presented to Olof G.Lidin on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday. He continues to lecture regularly in Europe, the United States and Japan.

Readership

College/higher education

Acknowledgements and Thanks; Prologue; I. SURVEY OF THE NEO-CONFUCIAN ORTHODOXY; Introduction; 1. The Neo-Confucian Doctrine; 2. Investigation of and Knowledge of ri; 3. The Origin and Development of the ri Thought; 4. The Original ki thought; 5. How do ri and ki relate to each other?; 6. Confucius and Mencius; 7. The Development of Neo- Confucian Thought in China; 8. Chu His; 9. Wang Yang-ming; 10. Heaven and the Way; 11. Goodness or Benevolence (jen); 12. Human Nature and kokoro; 13. Taoism and Buddhism; 14. Learning and Quiet Sitting; 15. Neo-Confucian Thought in Statecraft; 16. Neo-Confucian Historical (ki) Realism; 17. Later Chinese and Japanese ri-ki Thought; II. SURVEY OF CONFUCIAN INTELLECTUALS IN TOKUGAWA JAPAN; Introduction; 1. Fujiwara Seika; 2. Matsunaga Sekigo; 3. Hayashi Razan; 4. Nakae Tôju; 5. Kumazawa Banzan; 6. Yamazaki Ansai; 7. The Historians; 8. Kaibara Ekken; 9. The Ancient School Thinkers; 10. Arai Hakuseki; 11. Muro Kyûsô; 12. Practical Studies; 13. Setchû-ha and Eighteenth-century Confucianism; 14. The Kaitokudô Scholars; 15. Kokugaku (Nativism) and Confucian Thought; 16. The Mito Thought; 17. Rational Thought; 18. The Rangaku Scholars; 19. Confucian Scholars in the late Tokugawa era; 20. Yamagata Bantô; 21. Political and Economic Thought in late Tokugawa; 22. “Open Country Compromisers”, Late Tokugawa Reformists; 23. The Meiji Era and the Twentieth Century; 24. Okada Takehiko; III CONCLUSIONS; Epilogue; Bibliography; Glossary; Index

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