Traditional Chinese Philosophy as the Philosophy of the Body

Is there a need to construct a “paradigm shift” in the study of Chinese philosophy? Will a new paradigm help legitimize Chinese philosophy? Is Chinese philosophy a philosophy of body? How could this claim energize our understanding of the orientation, structure, and content of Chinese philosophy? These questions are the primary driving forces underlying this creative new book. This vision is constructed through two parts and eleven chapters. The first part consists of four chapters, which illustrate how body plays a crucial role in four areas: cosmology, ethics, religion/spirituality, and history of Chinese philosophy. This part establishes two important claims: (1) Chinese philosophy is a philosophy of body; and (2) this philosophy of body reveals a pattern that provides a center for the basic structure of Chinese philosophy: body–gender–family/kinship. This pattern is different from the more common pattern seen in Western philosophy: consciousness–concepts–universe. The second part of the book consists of seven chapters that deal with a variety of issues: the family as the root of Chinese philosophy, genealogy in the Zhouyi 周易, the body and Chinese political thought, the characteristics of the embodiment of knowing, WANG Fuzhi’s 王夫之 philosophy of body, and the significance of the classic Chinese novel, Dream of the Red Chamber. The book ends with an interview, with the author addressing the meaning and the importance of Chinese body philosophy. The book also contains two interesting appendices. One is an essay on “Three Aspects of Body in the Study of Chinese Body Philosophy” by YAN Lianfu 燕連福; the other is an essay in English on “The Body and Image of the New Woman in Modern China (1912–1949)” by ZHANG Shaoqian.