The Dialogue Between Mysticism and Politics: The Political Thought of 《Annotation of Chung-Tsu》
Author: Chun-Hung Lin
Abstract / Chinese PDF Download
This paper deals with three issues that link mysticism and politics in《Annotation of Chung-Tsu》by Guo Xiang. First of all, the issue found in “emerge of oneself and self-development” tries to unlock the paradox in “non-being and being”. We may find a higher ontological construct like Tao in《Annotation of Chung-Tsu》, and by which, the deadlock issue of “non-being and being” in “Zheng-Shi mysticism epoch” has been solved. The issue of “Nature and norms” which was the fundamental concern during Wei-Jing epoch reveals the essential tension between individuals and the political community. Different from the proposition of “norms come from nature”, Kuo-Xiang, by discoursing the dialectical relation of “tracing and trace”, leaded to the proposition of “nature is norms” that release the tension. The issue of “Non-action and political roes” discusses the ideal political order of Taoist and how could it be achieved. By emphasizing the importance of political leader (king), Kuo-Xiang combined the essences of political leader in Confucian School and Taoist School and stressed the differentiation of political roles. There are some interesting questions, such as the ranking of root and branch, the importance ranking between individuals and community, physically or mentally emphasizing viewpoint, body formation in state building process and etc. hidden in traditional Chinese political philosophy. This paper also tries to answer the questions above by finding out some clues in the text.