Persons Emerging: Three Neo-Confucian Perspectives on Transcending Self-Boundaries

278 Pages·2021·2.542 MB·English

by  Galia Patt-Shamir

Persons Emerging
SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture
Roger T. Ames, editor
PERSONS
EMERGING
Three Neo-Confucian Perspectives
on Transcending Self-Boundaries
Galia Patt-Shamir
Cover art: Ma Yuan, Scholar by a Waterfall, Southern Song
dynasty (1127–1279), late 12th–early 13th century.
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2021 State UniverSity of new york PreSS
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Patt-Shamir, Galia, author.
Title: Persons emerging : three neo-Confucian perspectives on tran-
scending self-boundaries / Galia Patt-Shamir.
Description: Albany, NY : State University of New York Press, [2021]
| Series: Suny series in Chinese philosophy and culture | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020057308 | ISBN 9781438485614 (hardcover) |
ISBN 9781438485621 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Neo-Confucianism.
Classification: LCC B127.N4 P38 2021 | DDC 181/.112–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020057308
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Jenny: Do you ever dream, Forrest, of who you wanna be?
forreSt: Who I’m gonna be? Aren’t I gonna be me?
Jenny: You’ll always be you. Just another kind of you. You know?
forreSt: I want to reach people on a personal level.
I want to be able to say things, just one to one.
—Eric Roth, Forrest Gump, movie script
For Boaz
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction A Riddle: The Person as the Way? 1
ONE. I Think, Therefore You Are: Emerging Out
of Self-Boundaries in Early Confucianism 17
TWO. Emerging to a Self through Transcending
the Infinitude-Finitude Dichotomy: Zhou Dunyi’s
Anthropocosmic Riddle and Its Response 47
THREE. Emerging through Transcending the In-Out
Duality: Shao Yong’s Epistemological Shift 103
FOUR. Emerging Out of Life and Death:
Zhang Zai’s Pragmatic Point of View 163
Appendix A Brief Methodological Remark:
Chan Buddhism and Living Riddles 205
Notes 217
Bibliography 247
Index 261

ACknowledgments
Persons Emerging was reaching its final stage in spring 2020, when the
COVID-19 pandemic was turning into a member (albeit undesirable) of
the global community. My annual neo-Confucianism seminar in Tel Aviv
University was, in some senses, a reflection of the strange time we are living in.
Against the dark background of chaotic events, and when the class—students
and teachers alike—was reduced to online entities locked up in pixel squares,
the idea of emerging out of boundaries and thriving had special magnitude.
Neo-Confucian ideas of personhood were revealed as a source of optimism
and hope for us all.
For this hope and its time-specific sense, I am indebted to my students
in Philosophy as a Practice: The neo-Confucian Case of Spring 2020. I am
grateful to all my students—my partners in pursuit of the Way over the years,
who ask and challenge, dare and open up new horizons. Some of my former
and present graduate students—Sharon Small, Roy Porat, Galia Dor, Inbal
Shamir, Niva Sharon, Keinan Mariasin, and Karine Vieman—will find here
echoes to their own poignant voices. For the love for the world of ideas, spur
for research and faith in the human ability, I am forever indebted to my teach-
ers, Tu Weiming, Benjamin Schwartz, Hillary Putnam, Ben-Ami Scharfstein,
Yoav Ariel, and Shlomo Biderman. Heartfelt thanks to Roger Ames, who has
been an inspiration to ideas on becoming persons in writing and in presence;
one of his remarks at a conference in Beijing was adopted by me as the ti-
tle of this book. I am fortunate to have exchanges on ideas that appear here
with brilliant scholars who have been broadening my mind and influencing
my work: Robin Wang, Yong Huang, Michael Puett, Zhang Ping, Nechama
Verbin, Noa Naaman Zauderer, Daniel Raveh, and Roy Tzohar.
ix