Li Zhi, Confucianism, and the Virtue of Desire

Cover

Download PDF (2.1 MB)
 

Title Page, Copyright Page

Download PDF (292.8 KB)
 

Contents

Download PDF (290.0 KB)
 

Acknowledgments

Download PDF (293.5 KB)
pp. ix-xi

Completion of this book gives me the treasured opportunity to express my deep gratitude to the people who have supported, taught, and inspired me through these many years. There are three to whom I owe an immeasurable debt of gratitude, and without whom this book could certainly not have been...

Conventions

Download PDF (289.6 KB)
pp. xiii-

In Romanizing the Chinese, I use the pinyin system. Two exceptions to my use of pinyin are with proper names and published works that have become commonly known under another Romanization system. When quoting translations by other...

1. Introduction

Download PDF (373.2 KB)
pp. 1-16

Li Zhi 李贄 (1527–1602), widely known as one of the foremost iconoclastic thinkers in Chinese history, was born in the commercial southern district of Jinjiang 晉江 in the port city of Quanzhou 泉州, the southern province of Fujian, in the sixth year

2. Life Stories (傳): Reading A Sketch of Zhuowu: Written in Unnan

Download PDF (420.0 KB)
pp. 17-43

In this chapter we turn to a close textual analysis of “A Sketch of Zhuowu: Written in Yunnan” (Zhuowu lunlüe: Dian zhong zuo 卓吾論略：滇中作),¹ one of the most widely cited, though not so often critically analyzed,² of Li’s essays.³ The title of the essay identifi es the piece as a “commentary” or lun (論) and indeed...

3. The Heart-Mind (心): Reading “On the Child-like Heart-Mind”

Download PDF (403.6 KB)
pp. 45-67

Upon reading the title of Li Zhi’s famous essay “On the Child-like Heart- Mind,”² surely any literatus in his time would immediately have recalled earlier references to the term of art at the heart of Li’s philosophy.3 Its locus classicus is the canonical historical...

4. Virtue (德): Reading “Miscellaneous Matters”

Download PDF (444.2 KB)
pp. 69-99

In the previous chapter we studied Li Zhi’s concept of the child-like heart-mind and showed that resources for living the good life—genuine feelings—reside within this heart and mind. In this chapter I turn to the question of how one knows that a genuine feeling...

5. Genuineness (真)

Download PDF (349.2 KB)
pp. 101-113

In The Ethics of Authenticity, Charles Taylor writes, “I believe that in articulating the ideal [of authenticity] over the last two centuries, Western culture has identifi ed one of the important potentialities of human life.”¹ While our study...

Appendix A: “A Sketch of Zhuowu: Written in Unnan”

Download PDF (315.6 KB)
pp. 115-121

Kong Ruogu² 孔若谷 said, “I am old enough to have met the Layman Zhuowu 卓吾居士 and I am able to provide some general comments about him. The Layman is known by many names. ‘Zhuowu’ is simply one of them. The character...

Appendix B: “On the Child-like Heart-Mind”

Download PDF (297.0 KB)
pp. 123-125

In the concluding remarks to his preface for the Western Chamber² the Farmer of the Dragon Ravine stated: “Those who understand me shall not say I still possess the child-like heart-mind.”³...

Appendix C: “Miscellaneous Matters”

Download PDF (296.8 KB)
pp. 127-129

Moon Prayer Pavilion² and the Western Chamber³ are from the “skills of Nature“ (hua gong 化工). The Lute (Pipa ji 琵琶記)4 is created by the “skills of an artisan“ (hua gong 畫工). As for those who use the “skills of an artisan,” they use these abilities to seize...

Notes

Download PDF (441.1 KB)
pp. 131-160

Selected Bibliography

Download PDF (394.9 KB)
pp. 161-177

Index

Download PDF (379.6 KB)
pp. 179-186

Back Cover

Download PDF (1.8 MB)