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From Ontology to Cosmogony: Notes on Chuang Tzu and Huai-nan Tzu Charles Le Blanc In a classsic work F. M. Cornford argues that Greek culture, starting about 600 B.C. moved steadily from religion to philosophy and that the latter was by and large a rational transposition of the former.1 The work of M. Granet, based on very different premises, tends to show that basic patterns of 'classical' Chinese philosophy (sixth to third century B.C.) were evolved fromarchaic Chinese myths and religious beliefs.2 The beginnings of Chinese philosophy can for a large part be understood as the result of a process of 'demythologisation'. My purpcse here, however, is not to delve in the many fascinating developments that led to the forming of philosophical traditions in ancient China, but rather to examine a reversal of the rationalizing trend that can be witnessed in some writings of the Former Han Dynasty (206 B.c.-9 A.D.) which reinterpret formal concepts of classical Chinese philosophy in a kind of materialisitic view of the universe. The two different mental attitudes can be illustrated by a source-teχt in Chuang Tzu 2/21a-b:'Ch'i wu lun' 齊物論 (Discussion on Equalizing Things) and by its commentary in Huainan Tzu 2/1a-b: '5hu chen hsün' {.叔真言11 (On the Beginning of Reality).3 1 Francis M. Comford, From Religion to Philosophy. A Study of the Origins of Western Speculation (London, 1912; Harper Torchbooks edition, New York, 1957). This should be completed by the same author's Before and after Socrates (Cambridge, U.K., 1932) and The Unwritten Philosophy (Cambridge, U.K., 1950). See especial1y Marcel Granet's Fêtes et chansons anciennes de la Chine (Paris, 1919; reprint, Paris, 1982) and Danses et légendes de la Chine ancienne, 2 vols. (Paris, 1929; reprint, Paris, 1968). For the Chuang Tzu, we use the edition prepared by Liu Wen-tien 劉文典 entitled Chuang Tzu pu-cheng 莊于補正 (Supplementary Corrections of the Chuang Tzu) (Shanghai, 1928; reprinted in the Chuang Tzu chi-ch'eng 位于無鼠， Taipei， 1972); the Huai-nan Tzu edition used in this study was also prepared by Liu \-何en-tien under the title Huai-nan hung-lieh chi-chieh 准南鴻烈、無解 (Collected Commentaries of the Huai-nan hung-lieh) (Shanghai, 1923; Taípeí reprint, 2 vols., 1968). Charles Le Blαnc The Chuαng Tzu text bears on the problem of the beginning or nonbeginning of time (shih 始 ， 'lρei shih 永抬)， of being (yu 有)， and nonbeing (wu 無). The literary unit, comprising seven propositions, has been a source of perplexity not only for Western translators, but also for a two-millenia long Chinese exegetical tradition.4 The Huai刑的1 Tzu parallel- the first extant commentary on Chuang Tzu - transformed the seven propositions into a rudimentary evolutive schema of the universe, centering around the ideas of ch'i (matterenergy ), yin-yang 陰陽 and kan-ying 感應 (action and reaction; resonance). As will be shown later, Huai-nan Tzu takes each of the seven propositions as referring or corresponding to a concrete stage of the development and formation of the universe. This explanation offers a striking contrast to the understanding of the Chuang Tzu text by the majority of commentators. For the latter, Chuang Tzu here has in mind abstract principles and formal concepts, not concrete actualities that could be described as referential objects of perception. The comparative study of the source-teχt and of its commentary leads us to distinguish two intellectual approaches to reality and knowledge. The shift of meaning seems to find its historical roots in the development of Taoism from the fourth to the second century B.C., particularly in its relation to the naturalist thinkers of the Chi-hsia 稜下 Academy and to the tradition of Huang-Lao 黃老. It will, however, not be possible to pursue this line of inquiry in the limits of the present essay. Chuang Tzu 2/21a-b: ontology/ epistemology, or logic? In order to facilitate analysis and comparison with Huai-nan Tzu, the Chuang Tzu teχt may be divided into seven distinct propositions and translated as follows: 1 There was a beginning. Yu shih yeh che 有始也者 2 There was a time which preceded the beginning. Yu wei shih yu shih yeh che 有水始有始也者 3 There was a time before that which preceded the beginning. Yu wei shih yu fu 'lρei shih yu shih yeh che 有水始有夫求始有始也者 4 There was Being. Yu yu yeh che 有有也者 s. There was Non-Being. Yu ωu yeh che 有無也者 6 There was a time...

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