During the late Ming dynasty, Fang Yizhi had extensive contact with Catholic missionaries and exh... more During the late Ming dynasty, Fang Yizhi had extensive contact with Catholic missionaries and exhibited a strong interest in the astronomical knowledge introduced from the West. While eagerly embracing new knowledge, Fang maintained the capacity for critical thinking and self-reflection. When considering the medieval European theories that blended astronomy and theology, Fang employed verification-based calculations to challenge the theories and data disseminated by Matteo Ricci and his colleagues. When Fang encountered new paradigms developed by scholars of the European Scientific Revolution, such as Galileo, Copernicus, and Tycho Brahe, he appreciated their scientific merits and incorporated their theories into his own study of object-observation ("Zhi ce"). To investigate the transformations of old and new visual representations of the cosmos from both Eastern and Western perspectives in the 17th century, as well as to inspect the dissemination and interpretative models of new doctrines during the Ming dynasty of China, this paper begins by examining Fang's learning process of Western knowledge and then proceeds to investigate Fang's evaluations of various cosmological discourses, including the concept of Spherical Earth, the model of crystalline celestial spheres, the theory of Guangfei Yingshou, the Three-Region Theory, and the Theory of the Four Primordial Elements. This research deepens our understanding of the changes in Fang's cosmological views and the significance of his thoughts in the history of ideas and technology during the Ming-Qing transition.
The nine stages of body-mind cultivation created by Chao-En Lin inherits the tradition of inner a... more The nine stages of body-mind cultivation created by Chao-En Lin inherits the tradition of inner alchemy from the Ming dynasty. Although Wan-Chun Zhuo and San-Feng Zhang used to be seen as the direct source of the nine stages, a large volume of alchemical texts cited by Lin in his works proves that Lin's philosophy and practice owe greatly to the inner alchemy tradition of the Song and Ming dynasties. Investigating these alchemical texts provides a more complete understanding of the nine stages. First, this study looks at the alchemical texts cited by Lin, which provide us references to The Daoist Canon and other alchemical texts that forms the tradition of inner alchemy in the Ming dynasty. Second, it uses Jiuxu zhaiyan neijingtu (《九序摘言內景圖》) to study the relationship between the pratice of the nine stages and the tradition of Daoist cultivation. Finally, this study attemps to rethink the role that the nine stages played in the development of inner alchemy and its diversity and richness in the Ming dynasty.
The Zhouyi shilun hebian 周易時論合編, compiled in the mid-seventeenth century, collected together larg... more The Zhouyi shilun hebian 周易時論合編, compiled in the mid-seventeenth century, collected together large amounts of earlier research on astronomy, musicology, medicine, physics and mathematics. The text not only reveals the Chinese interest in natural science, but also the belief among Chinese mathematicians and scientists that the Zhouyi 周易 had perfectly rendered visible Nature's truth. The study of numbers in China was perceived to have had two functions: an inner-calculation (neisuan 內 算), which concerned both the ability to be numinous and illuminating (shenming 神 明) and to comply with one's Nature and Destiny (xingming 性命); and an outercalculation (waisuan 外 算 ), which dealt with practical problems involving the application of certain mathematical methods. The idea that both inner and outer calculations, two subsets of numerical learning, originated with the Zhouyi inspired Chinese mathematicians to study the metaphysics of the Zhouyi and its numerology, which since antiquity was thought to have held the keys to predicting the future. In depicting and interpreting Zhouyi images, the Tuxiang jibiao 圖象幾表, found at the beginning of the Zhouyi shilun hebian, made use of traditional mathematical knowledge and the image-number symbolism of the Zhouyi to express a combined worldview that did not treat natural sciences and numerology as distinct systems of thought.
This paper argues that Yaodi paozhuang 藥地炮莊 belongs to the genre of literary criticism (pingdian ... more This paper argues that Yaodi paozhuang 藥地炮莊 belongs to the genre of literary criticism (pingdian 評點) from the late Ming and early Qing periods. While recent studies apply a philosophical approach to the research about Fang Yizhi 方以智 (1611-1671) and his commentary on Zhuangzi 莊子, this paper adopts the method of literary criticism to reveal the reading skill and the interpretative strategy evident in Yaodi paozhuang. Considering the huge number of texts quoted in Yaodi paozhuang and the skill of meta-reading derived from the tradition of literary criticism, it is of great help to elucidate these elements in Fang's work for a better understanding of this work. In addition, investigating the discursive field of late Ming and early Qing literati can shed some light on how popular novels and sophisticated writings like Zhuangzi were read and analyzed. In this way, many difficulties of reading Yaodi paozhuang can be overcome and messages Fang left for us can be transmitted more accurately.
Li Daochun (literary name Qing'an), the famous inner alchemy master in the Yuan dynasty practiced... more Li Daochun (literary name Qing'an), the famous inner alchemy master in the Yuan dynasty practiced and taught Daoist inner alchemy and thoughts of Yijing and Laozi. He also instructed his community of followers ("the Community") on the meditation methods to investigate the gong'an of Chan Buddhism. The Recorded Sayings of Qing'an, Master of the Shining Toad (Qing'an Yingchanzi Yulu, 《清庵瑩蟾子語錄》 ) (the Yulu) includes Li's speeches and dialogues with his disciples, which are also included in other works in circulation. The Yulu shows that Li's teaching methods such as Ascending the Hall (shangtang, 上堂) to preach and the rituals and regulations of the Community followed the examples by the Chan Buddhism monastic community. Li and his disciples wrote poems about their revelation achieved through meditation and collaborative poetry, these activities were also related with gong'an of Chan Buddhism. In addition, Li's teaching about the thought of Laozi is included in the Essentials of Dao, (Daode Xinyao, 《道德心要》) and edited to become the Returning to the origin of the Dao and Its virtue (Daode Huiyuan, 《道德會元》) The dialogues between Li Daochun and Zhao Daoke are included in "Dispelling Doubts in Mind" ("Huangzhong Jiehuo," 〈黃中解惑〉) in the Yulu, and edited
The standardization of the Chan school Pure Regulations texts and of the rituals described within... more The standardization of the Chan school Pure Regulations texts and of the rituals described within them is emblematic of the standardization of both the institutional structure of Chan monasteries and their rituals. It is also emblematic of the direct intervention by the state in the ritual practice of Chan Buddhism. From this example with the Chan tradition, we can see that although the standardization of rituals was encouraged by the state, the state could not easily create new rituals. Instead, rituals had to follow traditions that had been established centuries previously. Nonetheless, celebration of the emperor's birthday, as well as rites for rain, rites against floods, droughts, epidemics and other natural disasters have been appended to Chan's ancient traditions, as products of cooperation between religion and politics. By comparing several Pure Regulations texts compiled in the Yuan dynasty with those of the Song dynasty, the present article provides an account of the history of the standardization of Chan rituals and describes some of the specific ritual procedures. In addition, it uses ritual announcements and ritual prefaces written by Yuan dynasty Chan monks to 元代禪宗清規祈禳儀式的標準化 043 describe minor differences found in the structures of the standardized rituals and to ascertain how the rituals were actually practiced. From this, this article hopes to reconsider the importance of the Yuan dynasty in Chan history and reevaluate the influence of the standardization of Chan rituals upon developments occurring over the centuries that followed.
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Papers by Chung Ta Lee