How Yang Zhu Became a Philosopher: A Selection of Yang Zhu Scholarship in the PRC

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Notes

1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yang_Zhu [accessed April 1, 2020].

2 He Aiguo 何愛國. Xiandaixing de bentu huixiang: Jindai Yang Mo sichao yanjiu [Local echoes of modernity: A study on the modern thought trends of Yang Zhu and Mozi] (Guangzhou: Shijie tushu chuban Guangdong youxian gongsi, 2015). See also, e.g., Yu Xia 于霞, “Yang Zhu ‘wei wo’ sixiang xintan” [New exploration of Yang Zhu's ‘for oneself’ thought]. Tangdu Journal 20, no. 1 (2004): 75–79; and Xu Lihua 徐麗華, “Yang Zhu ji qi sixiang yanjiu pingyi” [Discussion of Yang Zhu and his thought]. Journal of Taiyuan Normal University (Social Science Edition) 11, no. 2 (2012): 24–26.

3 The trend to construct a Yang Zhu school 楊朱學派 dates predominantly from the Republican era. The most often used criteria are expressions such as “keep intact one’s inborn nature” 全性, “preserve the genuine” 保真, “do not allow one’s body to be ensnared by things” 不以物累形, “nurture one’s life/inborn nature” 養生/性, do not “harm” 害/傷 it, “value oneself” 貴己, and, less favorably, “for oneself” 為我. Among the most often selected chapters are Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals, 1/2 “Taking Life as Basic”, 1/3 “Valuing the Self,” 2/2 “Honoring Life,” and 21/4 “Being Attentive to Aims:” and Zhuangzi, 28 “Yielding the Throne,” 29 “Robber Zhi,” 30 “Discourse of Swords,” and 31 “Old Fisherman.” See note 7 for the reference to A. C. Graham.

4 Philosophical coherence is always a matter of degree, interpretation, and expectations. For an analysis of Yang Zhu in the Liezi, see E. Brindly, “Deconstructing ‘Hedonism’: Understanding Yang Zhu in the Liezi,” presented at the KU Leuven workshop “How to Become a Philosopher: The Many Lives of Yang Zhu 楊朱” (2019).

5 Yang Bojun 楊伯峻, Liezi jishi 列子集釋 [Collected explanations of the Liezi] (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1996 [1979]), 348. These views on the Liezi’s authenticity were collected in the third appendix (pp. 287–348), published as an article in 1956, included in this book in 1957, and revised in 1978.

6 Liang Qichao, “Lun quanli sixiang” 論權利思想 [On rights consciousness], first published in the journal Xinmin congbao 新民叢報 [The newspaper of new citizens], as the six installment of his Xinmin shuo 新民說 [Discourses on new citizens; 1999 (1902)]. See Liang Qichao quanji 梁啟超全集 [The collected works of Liang Qichao] (Beijing: Beijing Publishing House), 655–735, quoting p. 673. For Japanese scholarship preceding Liang, see M. Sato, “The Birth of the Image of ‘Egoist-Epicurian Philosopher’ Yang Zhu: The Development of Discourse of Yang Zhu during Meiji Period Japan,” presented at the KU Leuven workshop “How to Become a Philosopher: The Many Lives of Yang Zhu 楊朱” (2019).

7 A. C. Graham, Later Mohist Logic, Ethics and Science (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1978), 16. For a summary of his views on Yangism, see A. C. Graham, Disputers of the Tao: Philosophical Argument in Ancient China (La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1898), 53–64.

8 For this debate, see, e.g., C. Defoort and Ge Zhaoguang, eds., “The Legitimacy of ‘Chinese Philosophy’ Parts I, II, & III, Contemporary Chinese Thought 37, nos. 1 (2005), 2 (2005–2006), 3 (2006).

9 For more on Chen’s approach to early Chinese texts, see C. Defoort, ed., “Chen Shaoming on the Methodology of Chinese Philosophy: Experience, Imagination, Reflection,” Contemporary Chinese Thought, 48, no. 2 (2017).

10 The workshop “The Many Lives of Yang Zhu” and the current issue of Contemporary Chinese Thought were sponsored by FWO (project: G060817N). The participants were Attilio Andreini, Erica Brindley, Cao Feng, Chang Yao-cheng, Chen Shaoming, Carine Defoort, Paul Goldin, Hao Sutong, Esther Klein, Lee Ting-mien, Li Lanfen, Diana Lin, Liu Gusheng, Philippe Major, John Makeham, Thomas Radice, Masayuki Sato, Nicolas Standaert, Paul van Els, Wang Xiaowei/Abigail Wang, Wu Xiaoxin, and Yves Vendé.