Beyond Oneness and Difference

Brook Ziporyn is Professor of Chinese Philosophy, Religion, and Comparative Thought at the University of Chicago Divinity School. He is the author of several books, including The Penumbra Unbound: The Neo-Taoist Philosophy of Guo Xiang and Ironies of Oneness and Difference: Coherence in Early Chinese Thought; Prolegomena to the Study of Li, both also published by SUNY Press.

"Ziporyn takes on the deepest issues and most difficult texts from a millennium and a half of Chinese thinking, and offers exciting new ways to make sense of both individual texts and the tradition's broader concerns … Whether read separately or together, these two volumes are among the most provocative and tightly argued works on Chinese philosophy to appear in many years, and richly repay the effort it takes to learn to see through the lens of coherence." — Dao"…Ziporyn's two volumes on 'oneness and difference' represent a well-argued and highly sophisticated attempt at understanding Chinese metaphysics on its own terms … I recommend these two volumes unconditionally to the reader." — Kai Marchal, Philosophy East & West"…constitute[s] the first comprehensive attempt in any Western language to explore the meaning and history of the difficult term li prior to the Song period … Ziporyn displays a tremendous knowledge of difficult philosophical texts such as the commentaries to Daoist classics by Wang Bi and Guo Xiang as well as primary texts and commentaries of the Buddhist Tiantai and Huayan traditions." — Monumenta Serica

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Li理 and Coherence: Recap of Ironies of Oneness and Difference and Terminological Clarifications1. Li 理 as a Fundamental Category in Chinese ThoughtNeedham and Organic PatternHansen and the Mass Noun HypothesisGraham and the Absent Copula and Correlative ThinkingPeterson and CoherenceHall and Ames and the Focus/Field2. The Advent of Li, Ironic and Non-IronicLi and "Greatest Coherence" in the Xunzi"Heavenly Principle" (天理 tianli) Ironic and Non-Ironic in the "Inner Chapters" of the Zhuangzi and "The Record of Music"Li in the "Wings" to the ZhouyiLi and Centrality in Dong Zhongshu (179-104 BCE)3. The Development of Li in Ironic TextsLi and Non-Ironic Coherence in the Later Parts of Zhuangzi: Integrating the Non-IronicFirst Type: Li and Dao Both Non-IronicSecond Type: Dao Ironic, Li Non-IronicThird Type: Dao and Li Both IronicIntegrating Types Two and Three4. The Advent of Li as a Technical Philosophical TermToward the Ironic: Li in the Pre-Ironic Daoism of the GuanziLi Defined: The Later Two-and-a-half Chapters of the GuanziThe Hanfeizi Commentary on Laozi: Li as Division and the Yielding DaoCosmological Dao and Its Li in the Huainanzi5. Li as the Convergence of Coherence and Incoherence in Wang Bi and Guo XiangSubjective Perspectivism in Wang Bi: The Advent of Ti and Yong 體用 as Ironic StructureApplications of the Multiplicity of Li in Wang’s Laozi CommentaryConvergence of Coherence and Incoherence in Guo Xiang: Li as "Just the Way It Is," as Limit, and as Vanishing ConvergenceUnintelligible Coherence: Vanishing and Merging into ThingsIronic Li as Non-Ironic Li in Guo Xiang6. Beyond One and Many: Li in Tianti and Huayan BuddhismHow Emptiness Became LiTianti on Truth, ThreefoldLi in Early Tiantai: Center as Convertibility of Determinate and IndeterminateAppearance and Reality in Huayan and TiantaiExistance and Nonexistence in Tiantai and HuayanWave and Water in Huayan: "Beyond" LiWave, Water, and Mud in Tiantai: Inherent Entailment as OmniavailabilitySummary of Difference between Tiantai and Huayan, and the Irony of Coherence in the Tiantai and Huayan Classifications of Teachings7. Mind, Omnipresence, and Coherence in Tiantai and HuayanThe Pure Mind and the Deluded Mind in Huayan ThoughtMind and the Nature in Tiantai ThoughtThe Three Thousand Lis and the Three Thousand EventsConclusion: The Vertex of the VortexEpilogue: Toward Li in Neo-ConfucianismNotesBibliographyIndex