|
|
Approaching Laozi : Comparing a Syncretic Reading to a Synthetic One |
Thomas Michael1(), CHEN Yazhou2 |
1. School of Philosophy, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China 2. School of Philosophy, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China |
|
|
Abstract Is Laozi a syncretic text whose primary body of ideas were cobbled together from multiple and various sources, none of which can reasonably be identified as Daoist, or is it a synthetic text whose ideas emerged from a single source that for all intents embodies the core elements of a tradition that meets the standards of inclusion for a tradition of early Daoism? The present work examines the key points of Hongkyung Kim’s sophisticated account of Laozi’s origins as a syncretic text. It then goes on to present the key points of what would have to be involved in its original circulations as a synthetic text. It concludes by suggesting a middle ground that is able to explain why an originally synthetic Laozi is all too easily read by modern scholars as a syncretic text.
|
Keywords
Laozi
Dao De Jing
early Daoism
Lüshi Chunqiu
yangsheng
Hongkyung Kim
|
Issue Date: 24 April 2017
|
|
|
Viewed |
|
|
|
Full text
|
|
|
|
|
Abstract
|
|
|
|
|
Cited |
|
|
|
|
|
Shared |
|
|
|
|
|
Discussed |
|
|
|
|