Chinese Metaphysics and its Problems

This volume of new essays is the first English-language anthology devoted to Chinese metaphysics. The essays explore the key themes of Chinese philosophy, from pre-Qin to modern times, starting with important concepts such as yin-yang and qi and taking the reader through the major periods in Chinese thought - from the Classical period, through Chinese Buddhism and Neo-Confucianism, into the twentieth-century philosophy of Xiong Shili. They explore the major traditions within Chinese philosophy, including Daoism and Mohism, and a broad range of metaphysical topics, including monism, theories of individuation, and the relationship between reality and falsehood. The volume will be a valuable resource for upper-level students and scholars of metaphysics, Chinese philosophy, or comparative philosophy, and with its rich insights into the ethical, social and political dimensions of Chinese society, it will also interest students of Asian studies and Chinese intellectual history.

Introduction Chenyang Li and Franklin Perkins; 1. Yinyang narrative of reality: Chinese metaphysical thinking Robin R. Wang; 2. In defense of Chinese qi-naturalism JeeLoo Liu; 3. What is a thing (wu 物)? The problem of individuation in early Chinese metaphysics Franklin Perkins; 4. The Mohist conception of reality Chris Fraser; 5. Reading the Zhongyong 'metaphysically' Roger T. Ames; 6. Logos and Dao: conceptions of reality in Heraclitus and Laozi Jiyuan Yu; 7. Constructions of reality: metaphysics in the ritual traditions of classical China Michael Puett; 8. Concepts of reality in Chinese Mahāyāna Buddhism Hans-Rudolf Kantor; 9. Being and events: Huayan Buddhism's concept of event and Whitehead's ontological principle Vincent Shen; 10. Harmony as substance: Zhang Zai's metaphysics of polar relations Brook Ziporyn; 11. A lexicography of Zhu Xi's metaphysics John Berthrong; 12. Xiong Shili's understanding of the relationship between the ontological and the phenomenal John Makeham; Works cited; Index.

Chenyang Li is Associate Professor of Philosophy and the Founding Director of the Philosophy program at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His publications include The Confucian Philosophy of Harmony (2013), The Tao Encounters the West: Explorations in Comparative Philosophy (1999), The East Asian Challenge for Democracy: Political Meritocracy in Comparative Perspective (edited with Daniel Bell, Cambridge, 2013), and Moral Cultivation and Confucian Character: Engaging Joel J. Kupperman (edited with Peimin Ni, 2014).
Franklin Perkins is Professor of Philosophy at DePaul University, Chicago, and Visiting Professor in Philosophy at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His publications include Leibniz and China: A Commerce of Light (Cambridge, 2004), Leibniz: A Guide for the Perplexed (2007), and Heaven and Earth Are Not Humane: The Problem of Evil in Classical Chinese Philosophy (2014).