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Red sea through pine lattice.
Islands kneel like vassals before headlands.
Rain clouds snag on coastal ridges.
Yarrow stands spectral in the lighthouse beam.
| “Old Ferry On The Yellow River” Wang Huaiqing 1987 Oil on canvas 30" x 40" Wang Huaiqing is from a family of
artists and consequently began his study of art at a very early age. He
was born in Beijing in 1944 and entered the Central Academy of Fine
Arts Preparatory School at age eleven. From 1964 to 1966 he was a
student of Wu Guanzhong's at the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts.
Following the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) he resumed his studies at
the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts, graduating with a Masters
degree in 1981. In 1983, he joined the Beijing Painting Academy as a
professional artist. In 1987, at the invitation of Robert A. Hefner
III, he came to the United States where he remained for a year. During
this time he was an instructor in the Art Department of Oklahoma City
University. Currently, Wang lives in Beijing. His paintings have been
acquired by the China National Gallery and collectors worldwide. His
daughter Tian-Tian is also an artist. image
used with permission
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| Stanford Studies on Daoism Definition of “Daoism” The Origins of Daoism • Attitudinal Daoism I: Anarchism • Attitudinal Daoism II: Authoritarian views • Pre-Laozi Daoist Theory Pre-Laozi Daoist Theory The earliest known "history of thought" in ancient China is Chapter 33 of the Zhuangzi. It surveys trends of thought leading from the "ancients" (the Chinese golden age"?) to Zhuangzi. After introducing the ancient dao it implies a "fall," then lists a series of groups of thinkers leading to Laozi's group and finally to Zhuangzi. The list takes key thinkers to be motivated by goals of neutrality, universality, freedom from bias and natural "spontaneity" in action. The list starts a group that includes Mozi (universal, impartial utilitarians), then discusses anti-conventionalists headed by Song Xing, third came Shen Dao's group (metaphysical anti-knowledge stoics), then Laozi and Zhuangzi. It bitterly dismisses Zhuangzi's friend and frequent philosophical debating companion, Hui Shi along with the school of names as if he were irrelevant to understanding Zhuangzi's thought. Thus we must use this history cautiously and here I will use this internal history but temper it with external accounts, and demur from this last, counter-intuitive, historical re-writing. Initially, it is a surprise to see Mozi listed as a "forerunner" of Daoism since in many respects, Daoist takes their dispute with Confucianism as its main target. However, in both attitudinal and theoretical senses, Daoism could be said to have roots in the anti-Confucian Mozi (5th Century BC). First, his early challenge to Confucianism initiated higher level philosophical reflections on dao, its role and the kind of thinking it involved. Mozi, for example, theorized that a dao should be constant, not a matter of a special history or arbitrary social convention. He supported his use of a utilitarian standard to evaluate social daos on grounds of the impartiality and constancy of the benefit-harm distinction. He taught this "constant" feature of utilitarianism was evidence that it was tian nature's standard. Mozi's challenge to Confucianism focused on his crucial philosophical realization that our own traditional norms do not warrant taking traditions as correct. Mozi thus launched the meta-search for a way (a dao ) impartially to select a first-order dao. He first formulates the goal of unbiased, universality in morality. Both of these results, further, involved important theoretical insights into the concept of dao. The Mohists developed much of the terminology of analysis that other Chinese thinkers, including Mencius and Zhuangzi, adopted. Zhuangzi deployed the language to undermine all moral authority. However, Mohism did directly advocate a first order normative dao and followed Confucianism in the assumption that an orderly society needs to follow a single constant dao. Though they developed an account of how to justify a dao and first formulated the standard of dao adequacy (constancy), they did not directly address the nature of a dao nor did they exhibit much worry about whether such a dao was knowable. They disagreed with Confucianism mainly on the content of the dao guide to be imposed on society by authority. Theoretical Daoism focused on the insolubility of this ru-mo Confucian-Mohist debate. (continued) |