| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 333-345) and index. |
| Contents |
Wu-wei as conceptual metaphor. -- At ease in virtue: Wu-wei in the Analects. -- So-of-itself: Wu-wei in the Laozi. -- New technologies of the self: Wu-wei in the "inner training" and the Mohist rejection of Wu-wei. -- Cultivating the sprouts: Wu-wei in the Mencius. -- The tenuous self: Wu-wei in the Zhuangzi. -- Straightening the warped wood: Wu-wei in the Xunzi. -- Appendix 1: The "many-Dao theory" -- Appendix 2: Textual issues concerning the Analects. -- Appendix 3: Textual issues concerning the Laozi. -- Appendix 4: Textual issues concerning the Zhuangzi. |
| Summary |
"This book presents a systematic account of the role of the personal spiritual ideal of wu-wei - literally "no doing," but better rendered as "effortless action" - in early Chinese thought. Edward Slingerland's analysis shows that wu-wei represents the most general of a set of conceptual metaphors having to do with a state of effortless ease and unself-consciousness. This concept of effortlessness, he contends, serves as a common ideal for both Daoist and Confucian thinkers. He also argues that this concept contains within itself a conceptual tension that motivates the development of early Chinese thought: the so-called paradox of wu-wei, or the question of how one can consciously "try not to try.""--BOOK JACKET. |
| Subjects (Topics) |
Philosophy, Chinese -- To 221 B.C.
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Nothing (Philosophy)
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| Bib utility control no. |
49853531 |
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