The “one-many” problem is ontological rather than logical. The thesis is a dialogue between thinkers who never met, investigating the question of what reality fundamentally is in the context of change. Textual studies distinguishing Ge Hong’s relational ontology from Platonic causational ontology lead to the conclusion that Daoist cosmogony, moving “from nothing into being” offers an evolutionary solution to Plato’s problem of change “from being to becoming”.

abstract: Sacred apocalyptic texts claim to foretell coming events, warning the faithful of some terrible fate that lies beyond the present. Such texts often derive their power from successfully recasting past events in such a way as they appear to be "predicted" by the text and thus take on additional meanings beyond the superficial. This ex eventu status allows apocalyptic texts to increase the credibility of their future predictions and connect emotionally with the reader by playing on present fears. The fifth-century Daoist apocalyptic text, the Scripture on the Cycles of Heaven and Earth (Tiandi yundu jing, 天地運度經), is no exception. This thesis examines the apocalyptic markers in the poetic sections of the text, attempting to develop a strategy for separating the generic imagery (both to Chinese texts and the apocalyptic literary genre as a whole) from the more significant recoverable references to contemporary events such as the fall of the Jin dynasty and the subsequent founding of the Liu-Song dynasty. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. East Asian Languages and Civilizations 2011

À partir d’une pratique bien spécifique, celle du Taiji quan, art martial chinois, l’objectif de cette étude est de repenser l’interaction psychophysique, à l’aune d’un regard à la fois phénoménologique et taoïste. Il s’agit donc de ré-interroger le déséquilibre de la hiérarchie habituelle entre corps et esprit sous un angle nouveau, celui d’une activité posant une situation de conflit, de crise, celle du combat, au sens large de l’affrontement. Dès lors, la confrontation entre la base spirituelle du Taiji quan, le taoïsme, et les acquis de la phénoménologie concernant l’interaction psychophysique, permet de repenser ce rapport en fonction d’une logique d’harmonisation, et par conséquent de manière dynamique. Art martial, le Taiji quan est en effet un art du mouvement (entre autres), et c’est précisément cette dimension, rythmée sur le modèle du couple notionnel chinois yin/yang, qui permet de développer de nouvelles modalités dans l’interaction psychophysique. L’analyse de ce qui apparaît alors comme une véritable intelligence somatique invite à poursuivre l’entreprise de réhabilitation du corps et des arts martiaux au sein de la philosophie, visant ainsi à équilibrer des opposés qui tendent finalement à se compléter, participant les uns des autres. / In considering the practice of Taiji quan, a Chinese martial art, this study aims to think about the psychophysical interaction from a point of view including Phenomenology and Taoism. The goal is to question the typical hierarchy between body and mind under a different angle : an activity involving a situation of conflict, of crisis, the fight, in the widest sense of confrontation. Consequently, the debate between the spiritual basis of Taiji quan, that means the Taoism, and what has been thought by phenomenology about psychophysical interaction, allows to think again this relationship with a perspective of harmonization, and thus in a dynamic way. As a martial art, Taiji quan is an art of movement, and this aspect, whose rhythm is given by the model of Chinese conceptual couple yin/yang, allows to develop new modalities in the psychophysical interaction. The analysis of what appears as a true somatic intelligence invites going on the project of rehabilitating body and martial arts in philosophy, aiming to equilibrate opposites that, in the end, are willing to complete each other, participating to each other.

abstract: This dissertation is a study and translation of the Hereditary Household of the Han Celestial Master (Han tianshi shijia 漢天師世家), a hagiographical account of successive generations of the Zhang family patriarchs of Celestial Masters Daoism (Tianshi dao 天師道) at Dragon and Tiger Mountain (Longhu shan 龍虎山) in Jiangxi province that was compiled in stages between the late fourteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The Zhang family emerged in the late Tang or early Five dynasties period and rose to great prominence and power through the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties on the basis of the claim of direct and unbroken lineal descent from Zhang Daoling 張道陵 the ancestral Celestial Master whose covenant with the deified Laozi in 142 C.E. is a founding event of the Daoist religion. In this study I trace the lineal history of the Zhang family as presented in the Hereditary Household in chronological parallel to contrasting narratives found in official histories, epigraphy, and the literary record. This approach affords insight into the polemical nature of the text as an assertion of legitimacy and allows for a demonstration of how the work represents an attempt to create in writing an idealized past in order to win prestige in the present. It also affords the opportunity to scour the historical record in an attempt to ascertain a plausible timeframe for the origin of the movement and to explore the relationship of the Hereditary Household to earlier hagiographic works that may have informed it. This study also contextualizes the Hereditary Household in the post-Tang religious climate of China. In that period the establishment of lineal authenticity and institutional charisma through narratives of descent became a widespread tool of legitimation employed by Buddhists, Daoists, and Confucians in hopes of obtaining imperial recognition and patronage. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Religious Studies 2016

abstract: During the twelfth century, three new schools of Daoism were founded in North China: Quanzhen (Complete Perfection), Taiyi (Supreme Unity), and Dadao (Great Way). While Quanzhen has received much scholarly attention, the others have been largely ignored. By focusing on just one school--Dadao--as in depth as possible and within the historical context, I hope to elucidate the flourishing state of Daoism in North China during the twelfth through fourteenth centuries beyond just the activity of the Quanzhen school. To that end, I have amassed sixteen inscriptions and records, as well as reconstructed one inscription previously incomplete, and added them to the eleven inscriptions and records published in the Daojia jinshi lüe and the three pieces of Yuan-dynasty poetry and prose contained in the Nan Song chu Hebei xin Daojiao kao. This has doubled the available source material. Most of these have been previously published individually, but have never been studied in conjunction with the other known Dadao texts. The result is the most comprehensive study of the school in over seventy-five years, in which I also present a new understanding of the school’s founder, how the lineages developed, and the school’s ultimate fate. The portrait of the school which emerges from this dissertation challenges the notion that Dadao was nothing more than a minor variation of the Quanzhen school or is otherwise unworthy of scholarly attention. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation East Asian Languages and Civilizations 2017

abstract: Wu Yun (d. 778) was prominent poet at the Tang court. His biography of the Daoist ritualist Lu Xiujing (406-77) can be read on several levels. It functions as a source of information on Lu's life and works, but a reading focused on this alone is insufficient. Conventions of Chinese biography dictate the text is read not just with an eye towards who Lu "really was," but also how he functions as a character fashioned by an author for certain purposes. With this in mind, the reader can learn not just about Lu, but about the audience of the text and the aims of its author. Lu functioned as a model for later Daoist masters and as an exhortation to proper conduct towards them on the part of rulers and elites. Finally, with reference to the work of Michel Foucault and scholars of collective memory, this work can be read as a window onto the world of discourse in early medieval China. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Religious Studies 2012

abstract: This thesis is a translation and analysis of the “Epitaph of the Wu Kingdom Transcendent Duke Ge of the Left Palace of the Grand Bourne” (Epitaph below). The author was Tao Hongjing (456 CE-536 CE). The subject of this Epitaph inscribed on a stele was Ge Xuan (trad. 164 CE-244 CE). Ge Xuan had two titles attributed to him by later Daoists. According to the Lingbao scriptures, Ge was appointed by the Perfected of Grand Bourne, a heavenly title. Later, in the Shangqing scriptures, Ge Xuan was said to be an earthly transcendent without any heavenly appointment. This debate occurred before Tao Hongjing began to write. This stele epitaph is essential, as it records sayings from both Lingbao and Shangqing scriptures. By reading this translated epitaph, scholars can know more about different versions of Ge Xuan's legend, as well as how Ge Xuan's legend was constantly rewritten by later Daoists. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Religious Studies 2020

This project is a close study and translation of Heshanggong's Commentary on the Daodejing. The text, attributed to the "Old Man by the River" (Heshanggong) and dating from the Eastern Han (25-220 CE), remains one of the most historically influential readings of the Daoist classic the Daodejing. However, in modern times it has received little attention, being dismissed as a superstitious interpretation of the original. This dissertation seeks to amend contemporary scholarship and address the underlying theoretical categories responsible for this situation. These problems largely originate from a common scholarly view of Chinese civilization as foundationally monistic. Because of this bias, any hints of transcendence found in the commentary are read as later "religious" distortions of the original "philosophical" holism of the Daodejing. Rather than engaging with debates over whether Daoism is monistic or dualistic, philosophical or religious, this dissertation shifts focus away from those Western constructs. It instead draws on different binaries found within the commentator's own writings. In particular, the categories of yin and yang become central to a native reading of this tradition. Furthermore, I argue that Heshanggong's approach rests on subdividing both yin and yang into a causal relationship of mode and substance. I use this fourfold conceptual framework to analyze the key themes of the commentary, including cosmology, body, and state. So doing reveals the novelty of Heshanggong's responses to a range of conceptual and historical issues in Early China (6th century BCE-3rd century CE). First, the mode-substance reading of yin-yang challenges depictions of early Daoism as having a solely "correlative cosmos": uncreated, relativistic, and perfectly united through spontaneous resonance. Instead, it suggests a single cosmic substance originating from a first cause, the yin mode of the Way (that includes stillness, emptiness, darkness, and softness). Second, this means that contrary to the often-asserted historical split between monistic "philosophical" Daoism and dualistic "religious" Daoism, one finds a continuous tradition that seeks Heavenly spirit (yang substance) through stillness (yin mode). By excising monism and dualism from the discussion, a greater awareness of historical progression and cosmological nuance appears.

The interactions between Chinese religions has occupied an enormous amount of scholarly attention in many fields because there have been direct and indirect consequences resulting from the interactions among Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism. These religious traditions have obviously influenced each other in many respects such as rituals, doctrines, textual materials, philosophy and so on. Accordingly, I will, in this paper, critically analyze the implications of the interactions between Buddhism and Daoism by examining Twofold Mystery. Since Twofold Mystery is heavily dependent on Madhyamaka Buddhist concepts, this study will, on the one hand, examine the influence of Madhyamaka Buddhism on the development of Twofold Mystery. On the other hand, it will critically survey how Twofold Mystery remained faithful to the Daoist worldview.

The focus of this study is on portrayals of religious awakening in four short works of literature: a Chinese play, two Chinese short stories, and an American short story. In all of these works, the protagonists attain religious awakening, but only do so because they experience suffering and loss. The experience of suffering and loss in these works helps to bring about the protagonists’ willingness to leave the worldly life. This is because the experience of suffering and loss clears the minds of the protagonists and helps them to realize the bitter nature of worldly existence. In addition, these works portray worldly concepts from the perspective of a mystical, transcendent order of reality. Things that appear normal from a worldly perspective are abnormal from the mystical perspective, and vice versa. Thus, the wise may appear foolish, the sane crazy, and the successful materially destitute, to name a few examples. In these works, religious heroism (a characteristic of the protagonists) also appears unheroic because of this distorted perspective. Religious heroism may appear cowardly, for example, and religious success may appear to be a failure or a tragedy. These literary portrayals of religious awakening through suffering and loss may thus help to shed light on religious concepts common to Buddhism, Taoism and Christianity, and also on the differences between the worldly and mystical perspectives.