| Abstract |
Contemporary studies on Wang Bi’s shengren youqingshuo (discourse on “sainthood with affection”) have been based on Confucianism and/or Taoism. This study will classify them into five types with respect to their interpretive stance and review each of them: (1) near-Confucian; (2) near-Taoist; (3) modified by Taoism; (4) mainstream Taoist; and (5) a synthesis of Confucian-Taoist views. The studies on Wang Bi’s discourse that are based on Confucianism and/or Taoism inevitably reappropriate Wang’s discourse in a Confucian and/or Taoist intellectual framework. As such, they have their limitations. This paper contends that Wang’s discourse needs to be reconsidered in the context of metaphysical thinking. In order to approach this topic, this article will examine three particular issues: (1) links between Ho Yen and Wang Bi’s theories and their metaphysics; (2) the metaphysical turn from the controversy over having or not having “affection” (qing) to the relationship between them; and (3) the metaphysical underpinning of sainthood. By so doing, this study aims to reconsider the relationship between having (you) and not having (wu) and to resituate Wang Bi’s discourse firmly in an ontology, thus highlighting its role and significance in the development of Chinese metaphysics. By bringing Confucian, Taoist, and metaphysical perspectives into discussion, this study offers some diachronic sight into Wang Bi’s discourse as it delineates what makes Wang Bi’s discourse different from Confucianism and Taoism, and it traces the metaphysical developments of Ho Yen, Wang Bi, and Xiang Kuo. This study also offers some synchronic insight into the relationship between the ultimate status of sainthood and the intellectual’s character.
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