Beyond oneness and difference: Li and coherence in Chinese Buddhist thought and its antecedents

434 Pages·2013·4.965 MB·English

by  Ziporyn, Brook

BEYOND ONENESS
AND DIFFERENCE
SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture
——————
Roger T. Ames, editor
BEYOND ONENESS
AND DIFFERENCE
Li 理 and Coherence in
Chinese Buddhist Thought and Its Antecedents
BROOK ZIPORYN
State University of New York Press
Published by
State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2013 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
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State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
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Production, Laurie Searl
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ziporyn, Brook, 1964-
Beyond oneness and difference : Li and coherence in Chinese Buddhist thought and its
antecedents / Brook Ziporyn.
pages cm. — (SUNY series in Chinese philosophy and culture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-4817-6 (alk. paper)
1. Li. 2. Philosophy, Chinese. 3. Truth—Coherence theory. I. Title.
B127.L5Z565 2013
181'.112—dc23 2012045682
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is dedicated to the memory of my grandfather,
one I. Ziporyn, immigrant, autodidact, Spinozist, and author of
Cosmo‑Retardation: A Brief Introduction To A Theory Which Shows
The Possibility Of Cosmic Function In A Continuum Devoid Of
Energy, a work that received, as far as I know, a total of one
printed review, in the journal Philosophy of Science, published by
the University of Chicago, July 1940.
Here is the entire review, consisting of a single sentence:
“The mystic use of scientific terms prevents making head or tail
of anything in this book. W. M. M.”
On second thought: this book is dedicated collectively to
I. Ziporyn and this reviewer, “W.M.M.,” in the Borgesian hope
that they have by now turned out, in the afterlife, to be two
aspects of a single soul.

CONtENtS
ACKNOwlEDgmENtS xi
INtRODUCtION
Li 理 and Coherence: Recap of IronIes of oneness and
dIfference and Terminological Clarifications 1
ChAPtER ONE
Li 理 as a Fundamental Category in Chinese Thought 21
Needham and Organic Pattern 30
Hansen and the Mass Noun Hypothesis 31
Graham and the Absent Copula and Correlative Thinking 33
Peterson and Coherence 38
Hall and Ames and the Focus/Field 40
ChAPtER twO
The Advent of Li, Ironic and Non-Ironic 49
Li as “Greatest Coherence” in the Xunzi 49
“Heavenly Principle” (天理 tianli) Ironic and Non-Ironic
in the “Inner Chapters” of the Zhuangzi and
“The Record of Music” 59
Li in the “Wings” to the Zhouyi 64
Li and Centrality in Dong Zhongshu (179–104 BCE) 68
ChAPtER thREE
The Development of Li in Ironic Texts 71
Li and Non-Ironic Coherence in the Later Parts of the
Zhuangzi: Integrating the Non-Ironic 71
First Type: Li and Dao Both Non-Ironic 72
Second Type: Dao Ironic, Li Non-Ironic 73
Third Type: Dao and Li Both Ironic 79
Integrating Types Two and Three 82
viii CONtENtS
ChAPtER FOUR
The Advent of Li as a Technical Philosophical Term 107
Toward the Ironic: Li in the Pre-Ironic Daoism of the
Guanzi 108
Li Defined: The Later Two-and-a-half Chapters of the Guanzi 118
The Hanfeizi Commentary on the Laozi: Li as Division and the
Yielding Dao 125
Cosmological Dao and Its Li in the Huainanzi 131
ChAPtER FIvE
Li as the Convergence of Coherence and Incoherence in
Wang Bi and Guo Xiang 137
Subjective Perspectivism in Wang Bi: The Advent of Ti and
Yong 體用 as Ironic Structure 149
Applications of the Multiplicity of Li in Wang’s
Laozi Commentary 155
Convergence of Coherence and Incoherence in Guo Xiang:
Li as “Just the Way It Is,” as Limit, and as
Vanishing Convergence 157
Unintelligible Coherence: Vanishing and Merging into Things 168
Ironic Li as Non-Ironic Li in Guo Xiang 170
ChAPtER SIx
Beyond One and Many: Li in Tiantai and Huayan Buddhism 185
How Emptiness Became Li 185
Tiantai on Truth, Threefold 194
Li in Early Tiantai: Center as Convertibility of Determinate
and Indeterminate 210
Appearance and Reality in Huayan and Tiantai 220
Existence and Nonexistence in Tiantai and Huayan 230
Wave and Water in Huayan: “Beyond” Li 235
Wave, Water, and Mud in Tiantai: Inherent Entailment
as Omniavailability 241
Summary of Differences between Tiantai and Huayan, and the
Irony of Coherence in the Tiantai and Huayan
Classifications of Teachings 256
ChAPtER SEvEN
Mind, Omnipresence, and Coherence in Tiantai and Huayan 261
The Pure Mind and the Deluded Mind in Huayan Thought 261
Mind and the Nature in Tiantai Thought 268
The Three Thousand Lis and the Three Thousand Events 293
CONtENtS ix
CONClUSION
The Vertex of the Vortex 307
EPIlOgUE
Toward Li in Neo-Confucianism 321
NOtES 345
BIBlIOgRAPhY 379
INDEx 389