Lecture 05 Cosmology and Ethics II: Zhang Zai (張載, 1020-1077)

  • The Great Harmony, the Great Void, and the material force
    • The problem of Buddhist redistribution theory and the Daoist naturalism
    • The solution
    • The cosmology of qi (氣 material force, material energy, vapor, mist, air)
  • Human nature as the foundation for human beings to communicate with the cosmos
    • The foundation beyond death and life
    • The unity through a cosmological construction
  • Expanding one's mind beyond the limitation of sensual organs
    • The free status of qi
    • The qi of man
    • Knowledge goes beyond ears and eys
    • The unstoppable mind (xin 心)
  • Lining up the cosmological, the individual, the familial and the political order: the "Western Inscription"
    • The analogy of family
    • The politics
    • The individual
  • The integration through governmental intervention: the New Policies promoted by Wang Anshi (王安石, 1021-1985)