This Source Book is devoted to the purpose of providing such a basis for genuine understanding of Chinese thought (and thereby of Chinese life and culture, ...

Argues that the only way to understand the Confucian vision of the consummate moral life is to take the tradition on its own terms.

Guo Xiang's ontological individualism represents a case of philosophical construction based on his interpretation of the Zhuangzi. His concept of the self-transformation of the individual who is self-born, with self-nature and without dependence on others supports the idea of individual autonomy. Nevertheless, each individual's act for self-interest still benefits other individuals in a non-teleological mutual accommodation. The path from duhua of each individual on the level of existence, to the xiangyin among individuals on the level of action consequence, to the (...) ideal of xuanming , is the path on which the world is to proceed. (shrink)