| Abstract |
Lu Xi-Sheng, the author of Dao-der-zhen-jing-zhuan （Annotations of Dao Der Jing）, believed that “nature and sentiment” were the key points to understand Laotze. According to Lu, the settlement of body and mind was related to the fulfillment of human. Therefore, one must start with self-cultivation and then develop to give people peace and security. As a matter of fact, Lzotze seldom mentioned human nature. Lu’s discourse provided a distinct viewpoint. His discourse on nature and sentiment was the main subject of debate among the Confucian scholars of the Mid-Tang Dynasty. Reviewing the context of Dao-der-zhen-jing-zhuan, we can find the theme of “back to nature” repeatedly. The derived theses included “sentiment that came from nature,” “the interdependence of nature and sentiment,” “the stillness of nature versus the motion of sentiment,” and “nature as the noumenon versus sentiment as the effect.” Lu advocated to invert sentiment back to nature and to correct sentiment by nature. All of these efforts aimed to deal with the bewildering sentiment. This article tries to define “nature and sentiment” as a word group and explores their interactive relation. This article also compares Lu’s Dao-der-zhen-jing-zhuan with The Book of Back to Nature authored by his contemporary scholar, Li Ao. By comparison between their explanations of nature, we can conclude the characterization of Lu’s theory on nature and sentiment.
|
