Love and Thought: Life Confucianism as Philosophy

Life itself has long gone unnoticed in Confucian texts since the Qin and Han dynasties, which is similar to the forgetting of Being, per se, in the Western philosophy after the Axial Period, according to Heidegger. Today, there is a philosophical mission to return life to Confucianism, restoring and reconstructing Confucianism in the perspective of a comparison between Confucianism and Husserl's Phenomenology. The author reduces the features of life to the essence of a thing but returns to life as the essence of Being. The author rejects the idea of post-philosophy in order to reconstruct the metaphysical and the post-metaphysical gradations of Confucianism. These gradations are made along three strata in the life of human beings-no-being of anything (a life comprehension), metaphysical thinghood (the absolute Being), and post-metaphysical things (the relative beings). In this way we have a full understanding of the idea of Confucianism.

Table of Contents

Preface to the English Edition
Introduction
Lecture I: The Gradations of Ideas
1.1 Equality and Equivalency: Proper Name and Functional Position
1.2 The Gradations of Ideas
1.2.1 Heidegger
1.2.2 Lao Tzu
1.2.3 Confucianism
1.3 The Ideas of Being in Confucianism: This Being (shi是), the Being (you 有), and Being (zai 在)
1.3.1 是 (shi): Judging the Post-Metaphysical Beings
1.3.2 有 (you): Tracing the Metaphysical Being
1.3.3 Being (zai在): Life
Lecture II: The Ideas of Love
2.1 Nature
2.1.1 Nature (xing性) and Emotion (qing情): The Structure of Metaphysics in Confucianism
2.1.2 Nature and Birth-Giving (sheng生): The Source of Metaphysics in Confucianism
2.1.3 Nature and Subjectivity
2.2 Emotion
2.2.1 Qing (Emotion) of Humans
2.2.2 Qing (Situation) of Actions
2.2.3 Life Emotion
2.3 Love
2.3.1 Love (ai愛) as the Source
2.3.2 Benevolence (ren仁) as the Source
Lecture III: The Ideas of Thought
3.1 Thought in Western Philosophy: The Perplexity of Epistemology
3.2 Thought in Chinese Idea: Love and Thought
3.2.1 The Meaning of Thought (si思) or Thinking (sixiang思想) at the Gradation of the Source in Chinese
3.2.2 Thought and Love: Emotional Thought
3.2.3 Thought and Narration of Poetry at the Gradation of the Source
3.2.4 Imagination, Image and Presentation: Comprehensive Thought
3.3 The Constructiveness of Thought: From the Metaphysical to the Post-Metaphysical
• 3.3.1 Metaphysical Thought: Reconstructing Metaphysics
• 3.3.2 Post-Metaphysical Thought: Reconstructing Post-Metaphysics
Lecture IV: The Ideas of Dimensions (jingjie境界)
4.1 Kung Fu (功夫)
4.2 Confucius and Hui’s Cheerfulness
• 4.2.1 Easiness (an安) (in Mind) and Cheerfulness (le乐)
• 4.2.2 Cheerfulness for Something and Cheerfulness for Nothing
• 4.2.3 Cheerfulness (le乐) and Music (yue乐)
4.3 On Dimensions
• 4.3.1 The Spontaneous Dimension (zifa jingjie自发境界): Being in Life
• 4.3.2 The For-itself Dimension (ziwei jingjie自为境界): Going to Live a Life
• 4.3.3 The Free Dimension (ziru jingjie自如境界): Returning to Life
Appendix I: On 观念 (guan nian) in the Chinese Language
The First Part: 观念 (guan nian) Is Thinking
• 1.1. Thought of Emotion
• 1.2. Thought of Desire
• 1.3. Thought of Cognition
The Second Part: Thought Is from Observation (guan觀)
• 2.1. Post-Metaphysical Viewing
• 2.2. Metaphysical Observation
• 2.3. Source Observation
Appendix II: On Life as the Source
1. Life per se: Life as Life
• 1.1. Birth-Giving (sheng生) and Endless Birth-Giving (shengsheng
生生): Being Given Birth and Living (sheng-huo生-活)
• 1.2. Life Is Being
• 1.3. Life as Identity (hunlun混沦)
• 1.4. Naturalness (ziran自然): Life Is Self-Same (ziji ruci自己如此)
2. Situation of the Source: We Are in Life
• 2.1. Being in Life
• 2.2. Living in the World: We Are in Life
• 2.3. Benevolence (ren仁) as the Source: Co-Living
• 2.4. Thing as the Source: Action (shiqing事情)
3. The Structure of the Source: Being in Life and Going to Live a Life
• 3.1. Life as Encounter (jiyu际遇): Being in Life
• 3.2. Sage (sheng聖) at the Gradation of the Source: Giving Ear to Vocation (tianming天命)
• 3.3. Life as T