Order in Early Chinese Excavated Texts : Natural, Supernatural, and Legal Approaches

Recently discovered ancient silk and bamboo manuscripts have reformulated our understanding of ancient Chinese thought. They show that ancient Chinese philosophy was and is much richer and more complex than we ever imagined, and they chart the path from belief in powerful spirits and gods to the discovery of universal laws and order. "Recently discovered ancient silk and bamboo manuscripts have transformed our understanding of classical Chinese thought. In this book, Wang Zhongjiang closely examines these texts, and by parsing the complex divergence between ancient and modern Chinese records reveals early Chinese philosophy to be much richer and more complex than we ever imagined. As numerous and varied cosmologies sprang up in this cradle of civilization, beliefs in the predictable movements of nature merged with faith in gods and their divine punishments. Slowly, powerful spirits and gods were stripped of their potency as nature's constant order awakened people to the possibility of universal laws, and from those laws was finally born an ideally conceived community, objectively managed, and rationally ordered"-- Provided by publisher Recently discovered ancient silk and bamboo manuscripts have transformed our understanding of classical Chinese thought. In this book, Wang Zhongjiang closely examines these texts and, by parsing the complex divergence between ancient and modern Chinese records, reveals early Chinese philosophy to be much richer and more complex than we ever imagined. As numerous and varied cosmologies sprang up in this cradle of civilization, beliefs in the predictable movements of nature merged with faith in gods and their divine punishments. Slowly, powerful spirits and gods were stripped of their potency as nature's constant order awakened people to the possibility of universal laws, and those laws finally gave birth to an ideally conceived community, objectively managed and rationally ordered. Front Matter....Pages i-v Prolegomenon....Pages 1-13 The Cosmology of The Great One Birthed Water....Pages 15-47 Cosmology, Nature, and the Sage in All Things Are Forms in Flux ....Pages 49-81 The Diversity of Eastern Zhou Views on Deities and The Divine Insight of Spirits and Gods ....Pages 83-106 Natural Order and Divine Will in The Three Virtues ....Pages 107-130 Huang-Lao’s Conception of Universal Law: Why Govern with the Way and the Law?....Pages 131-164 Back Matter....Pages 165-241