par Van Daele, Raphael
Référence Being, Thinking and Meaningfulness of Life International Conference in Memory of Professor Vincent Shen (2024-06-06: Fu Jen Catholic University, Taibei, Taiwan)
Publication Non publié, 2024-06-06
Communication à un colloque
Résumé : Wang Bi 王弼 (226-249)’s Commentary on the Changes (Zhouyi Zhu 周易注) is certainly among the most important landmarks in the history of this Classic. However, in recent scholarship, with only some notable exceptions, Wang Bi’s philosophy has mostly been approached through his Commentary on the Laozi (Laozi Zhu 老子注). In that regard, readers tend to consider that, on the one hand, Wang Bi consistently applies principles derived from the Laozi to explain the Changes, and that, on the other, both texts should be read as pertaining to the same theoretical framework. Rudolf Wagner, for instance, argued that, in Wang Bi’s view, the Changes and the Laozi, together with other texts composed by the Sages of old, convey the same profound teaching: they cryptically point toward the ultimate and unfathomable principle by which the myriad things are brought and sustained into being, i.e. the dao 道.Although this metaphysical reading of Wang Bi’s Commentary has been challenged – especially by Edward Shaughnessy and Hon Tze-ki, who argued that an understanding of the Commentary on the Changes as an appendix to the Commentary on the Laozi relies on a selective reading of the former – no consistent account of these two works’ relationship has been suggested yet. The present paper aims at reassessing this question. By highlighting the key role of the concept of image (xiang 象), and its uses in both of Wang Bi’s commentaries, I shall argue that the Changes and the Laozi do form a system, although each text deals with contrasting philosophical inquiries. By doing so, this paper aims at contributing to a detailed understanding of classical texts and their relationships in Wang Bi and Early Medieval Chinese philosophers’ view.

Documents en relation