One and Many: A Comparative Study of Plato's Philosophy and Daoism Represented by Ge Hong

Notes

327 Notes Introduction: The “One and Many” as an Ontological Problem 1. There are two theories on the number of years Ge Hong lived. (1) According to Wang Ming, Ge Hong was born in 283 and died in 363, when he was eighty-one years old. Wang Ming’s study is based on the single reference in Jinshu “Ge Hong zhuan” 晉書葛洪傳 (Wang Ming 1980, 383). For a detailed argument along the same lines, see You Xinxiong 1977, 1. (2) According to Hu Fuchen, Ge Hong was born in 284, and the year of his death is 344. The key reference is Luofu ji 羅浮記. For a full historical study of the reference, see the work of the historian Wang Chengwen (2003). Hu’s essay bears similarity to Chen Feilong’s essay in the same conference proceedings (Chen Feilong 2003). 2. 道生一, 一生二, 二生三, 三生萬物。 3. 玄者, 自然之始祖, 而萬殊之大宗也。 4. Neville 1992, 1–13. 5. Moltmann 1985, 1–19. 6. Honderich 2005, 670. 7. Gao Yongwei 1985, 907. 8. Ware and Ge 1966; Campany 2002. 9. Chen Guofu (1997) has pioneered the study to understand alchemical terms. 10. In the past twenty years, there have been some comparative studies published in Chinese, but they are general studies rather than topic based. See Li Zhilin 1988; Cheng Zhongying 1991; Wang Miaoyang and Fan Mingsheng 1994; Wu 1997; Zhang Zailin 1999; Shanghai Zhongxi Zhexue yu Wenhua Bijiao Yanjiuhui 2000. 11. Yang Ruzhou 1983. Yang’s title claims to be a comparison between two philosophical traditions. In reality, he has not gone the distance to conduct actual comparisons beyond propositional differences stated in the opening chapter (Chenyang Li 1999). In a relatively short first chapter (pp. 1–34), Li makes an ontological distinction between the “one-only” in the Western ontol- 328 notes to pages xx–xxiii ogy and the “one-many” in the Chinese ontology. Although Li’s works contains specific discussion on Zhuangzi, unfortunately the comparison of Daoism and Western philosophy is done with broad strokes—without penetrating details. 12. Throughout this book “Daoism” is translated from the Chinese term 道 學, the School of Dao, which can be traced to the bibliographical chapter in the History of the Sui “Jingji zhi” 隋書*經籍志. 13. In many textbooks on Chinese intellectual history, Ge Hong is mentioned along with other Daoist thinkers in the Wei-Jin period. However, his thought is mainly seen as a religious sidetrack along the main philosophical stream and is not considered to be directly comparable with his philosophical contemporaries. For this general treatment see Ren Jiyu 1963, 2: 247–253; Beijing Daxue Zhexuexi Zhongguo Zhexue Jiaoyanshi 2001, 203–207; Xiang Shiling 2004, 339–344. 14. Three important works on the philosophy of “religious Daoism” have removed the division and established important connections between socalled philosophical Daoism and religious Daoism. See Lü Pengzhi 2000; Li Dahua 2001; Li Dahua, Li Gang, and He Jianming 2003. 15. There is a new trend in Sinology that regards religious Daoism as the larger paradigm within which philosophical Daoism is an important stream. This new approach does not only remove the division between religion and philosophy, but also sets philosophy within religion. For an influential argument see Bokenkamp and Nickerson 1997, 10–15. 16. Schipper 1993; Schipper and Verellen 2004; Robinet 1997. 17. Kohn 1991, 2000. 18. Bokenkamp and Nickerson 1997. 19. Lagerwey 1987. 20. Campany 2002. 21. Ware and Ge 1966. 22. The formula “道家／儒家＝促進／阻礙” by Xi Zeyan 席澤言 summarizes the overtones of the multivolume collective work The History of Chinese Daoism and Scientific Technology (Jiang Sheng and Tang Weixia 2002, iv). 23. Needham 1968, 1960, 1971. 24. Jiang Sheng and Tang Weixia 2002; Needham 2001; Zhao Kuanghua and Lu Jiaxi 1998; Rong Zhiyi 1998; Zhao Kuanghua 1996; Sivin 1995, 1968, 1969. 25. In my postgraduate education, I became engaged in the dialogue between science and religion, through which I encountered a number of institutions that aim to bridge the gap between religion and science: the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences run by the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) in Berkeley, California, http://www.ctns.org/ (accessed June 2006); the John Templeton Foundation in Philadelphia, http://www.templeton .org/ (accessed June 2006); the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology at Leiden University in the Netherlands, http://www.esssat .org/ (accessed June 2006). notes to pages 2–9 329 Chapter 1: Ge Hong’s Doctrine of Xuan Dao 1. As for this passage, long quoted passages throughout this book are not...