Riding the Wind with Liezi: New Perspectives on the Daoist Classic PDF
Preview Riding the Wind with Liezi: New Perspectives on the Daoist Classic
Riding the Wind with Liezi New Perspectives on the Daoist Classic Edited by Ronnie Littlejohn & Jeffrey Dippmann Riding the Wind with Liezi 列子 SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture Roger T. Ames, editor Riding the Wind with Liezi 列子 New Perspectives on the Daoist Classic Edited by Ronnie Littlejohn and Jeffrey Dippmann Published by State University of New York Press, Albany ©2011 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu Production by Ryan Morris Marketing by Anne M. Valentine Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Riding the wind with Liezi : new perspectives on the Daoist classic / edited by Ronnie Littlejohn and Jeffrey Dippmann. p. cm. — (SUNY series in Chinese philosophy and culture) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN978–1–4384–3455–1 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Liezi,4th cent. b.c.Liezi. I. Littlejohn, Ronnie. II. Dippmann, Jeffrey Walter. III. Title: Riding the wind with Liezi. BL1900.L485R532011 299.5'1482––dc22 2010031922 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 32 1 Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction 1 Roger T. Ames The Liezi Text Reading the Liezi: The First Thousand Years 15 T. H. Barrett The Liezi’s Use of the Lost Zhuangzi 31 Ronnie Littlejohn Is the Liezi an Encheiridion? 51 May Sim Interpretive Essays Torches of Chaos and Doubt: Themes of Process 77 and Transformations in the Liezi John H. Berthrong The That-Beyond-Which of the Pristine Dao: 101 Cosmogony in the Liezi Thomas Michael The Theme of Unselfconsciousness in the Liezi 127 Philip J. Ivanhoe Reading the Zhuangzi in Liezi: Redefining Xianship 151 Jeffrey Dippmann v vi Contents Applying the Teachings of the Liezi Body and Identity 167 Livia Kohn I, Robot: Self as Machine in the Liezi 193 Jeffrey L. Richey Dancing with Yinyang: The Art of Emergence 209 Robin R. Wang How To Fish Like a Daoist 225 Erin M. Cline When Butterflflies Change into Birds: 241 Life and Death in theLiezi David Jones Contributors 255 Index 261 Acknowledgments As co-editors, we would like to express our thanks and deep grati- tude to each of this volume’s contributors. Without their patience and enthusiastic support of this project, it would have never seen fruition. We wish to thank Roger Ames in particular for his stead- fast encouragement and wise counsel throughout the entire process, from conception to publication. In addition, we need to express our appreciation for the community of friends and scholars that we have come to cherish through the Asian Studies Development Program, and the Association of Regional Centers. Both organiza- tions owe their inception to the work of Roger, Peter Hershock, and Betty Buck, and their members have been stalwart supporters and in some cases contributors to this anthology. I want to express my deep gratitude to Jeff Dippmann for his friendship and deep commitment to our project in this book, and to the many contributors who allowed us to bring their new work on Liezi into the ongoing conversation about Daoism. As always, my thanks and affection goes out to my family and colleagues who inspire me to follow the Dao. I would like to personally thank Ronnie Littlejohn for his unwav- ering friendship and support throughout this process, and can never fully express my gratitude for all that he did to ensure the success of this volume. Most importantly, my thanks to my loving wife Cheri, and children Angela, Brooks, David, and Jennifer, whose unfailing support, encouragement and advice made this volume possible. vii 列子 Introduction Roger T. Ames The Liezi as a text seems almost as elusive as Liezi the historical person. The Liezi is associated with perhaps the most mystical of all the Daoist adepts who surfaces here and there in the philosophical literature only to ride elsewhere on the winds. What Liezi was originally as a text we do not know, but as it has been received, it is a compendium of hyperbolic anecdotes, seemingly paradoxical aphorisms, and curious parables, an anthology that ranges as far and as wide as the winds blow, that loses its reader in a wild world of unfathomable change and indeterminacy, and that quite literally makes a great deal out of nothing. Like most of the Daoist texts, the Liezi is normative, recommending a way of being in this world that presumably enables the willing adept to make the most of the human experience. This present volume is a long-overdue collection of seminal essays on this most curious Liezi, one of the most understudied texts in the classical Chinese corpus. Rather than being read for what it is, Liezi has often been disrespected if not dismissed in the historical scholarship because of what it is not. In sum, then, this present volume contests this unfortunate situation. It begins from the recognition that most if not all of the classical Chinese philosophical texts are suspicious in their origins and as such, are other than what they purport to be. Setting aside the problem of “authenticity” as an only marginally relevant question, this set of essays provides a multidimensional argument for the historical, literary, and philosophical importance of this document by an 1
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