A Study of Comparative Philosophy of Religion on "Creatio ex Nihilo" and "Sheng Sheng (Birth Birth, 生生)" / by Bin Song.

Dissertation, Ph.D. (Religious Studies)—Boston University, 2018.
Bibliography: p. 432-441.

Alternate title (per ProQuest):  關於“無中生有(creatio ex nihilo)”與“生生”的比較宗教哲學研究

ABSTRACT

The question whether the Ruist (Confucian) idea of Tian (heaven) or Taiji (ultimate polarity) is transcendent in comparison to Christian ideas of the Creator-God remains controversial in the history of Christian-Ru interaction. To tackle the debate, this dissertation investigates the intellectual  histories of “creatio ex nihilo” in the Greek-European Christian tradition and of “sheng sheng” (birth birth) in the Chinese Ru tradition, and compares these ideas with a methodology combining the pragmatist use of “vague category” and the hermeneutical “situational thinking.” The emergence of the idea “creatio ex nihilo” from Plato to Augustine championed the “ontological dependence” of cosmic realities upon the Creator-God. Divine creation was typically thought of as one process whereby divine intelligence implants ideas and forms into an inchoate form of being  so that varying realities are created. However, Descartes’ theory of “created eternal truth” conceptualized divine creation as not being constrained by any rule of intelligence. This Cartesian voluntarism pushes the theistic vocabularies of creation to their limit such that it allows us to delineate a de-anthropomorphic sub-tradition within the main theistic tradition of “creatio ex nihilo.” Descartes’ thought was refined by Schleiermacher and Tillich. 

There were two distinctive ancient Chinese cosmologies: one Daoist pioneered by the Dao De Jing, and the other is Ruist initiated by the Appended Texts in the Classic of Change. When Wang Bi employed the ontology in the Appended Texts to interpret the cosmogony of Dao De Jing, his understanding of Taiji influenced the Ru tradition to reach an idea of creation similar to “creatio ex nihilo.” Accordingly, Taiji’s creativity can be characterized as “generatio ex nihilo,” an unconditioned constantly creative cosmic power without a creator standing behind the scene. Wang Bi’s thought was refined by Zhou Dunyi and Zhu Xi. As this project demonstrates, the Ru tradition of “generatio ex nihilo” provides the most apt comparison to the de-anthropomorphic sub-tradition of “creatio ex nihilo.” If we define transcendence as what is indeterminate and ontologically unconditioned by the existing world, Taiji’s “sheng sheng” conceptualized as “generatio ex nihilo” is even more transcendent than the mainstream theistic Christian understanding of divine creation.  

Link to ProQuest online record

Local access dig. pdf. [Song Bin-Creatio.pdf]

Knowing "things and affairs" in premodern China -- Nature, crafts, and knowing -- Private affairs -- The Ming dynasty and the Song family -- Childhood and education -- Driving forces: the appointment of Chen Qixin -- Song's writing campaign -- Affairs of honor -- Knowledge in terms of qi: universal rulings and rationality -- The truth in heaven and the order of qi -- The power of heaven: omens and eclipses -- Systems of value: the sage-kings, the authority of the past, and man's role -- The knowledge in crafts -- Public affairs -- Crafts and the Ming state -- Man's nature (xing) and talents -- Abilities and education -- Social permeability and the commercialization of society: the merchant -- Customs and habits -- Written affairs -- Rhetoric of knowledge inquiry: texts and experience -- Images, technology and argument -- Observing the nature of qi: theory and practice in knowledge construction -- The complexity of qi transformations: composites and compositions of qi -- Formulating the transformation -- Reading the signature of yin-yang qi in gas, salt, wind, and rain -- Growth and decay: wood, corpses, and the proportional relation of yin and yang -- Glitches in the matrix of qi: the concepts of ashes and particles -- Acoustics -- An anatomy of sound -- The human voice -- Volume and velocity -- Resonance and harmony -- Conclusion. leaving the theater -- Epilogue. aftermath -- By virtue of friendship: literary sponsorship -- By virtue of position: outside and opposition -- By virtue of loyalty: moral obligations -- An artifact in transmission: The editions of the Works of heaven -- Writing about practical knowledge in the Chinese literati world -- Acknowledgments -- Appendix 1. Chinese dynasties and various rulers -- Appendix 2. Song Yingxing curriculum vitae -- Appendix 3. Editions of the Tiangong kaiwu.

Local access dig.pdf. [Schafer-10,000.pdf]

Friendship and hospitality : the Jesuit-Confucian encounter in late Ming China /  Dongfeng Xu.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-265) and index.

Introduction -- Part One Friendship and the Jesuits -- 1 Striving for Divine Union: The Wholly Other and the Jesuit Vocation -- 2 Other Rhetoric: Reading Matteo Ricci's On Friendship -- Part Two Hospitality and the Confucians -- 3 The Subject of Hospitality and Sino-centrism: Theory and Chinese Cultural Background -- 4 Situating the Middle Kingdom: Matteo Ricci's World Map, the Wobbling Center, and the Undoing of the Host -- 5 Reforming the Calendar: The Ming Empire's Stairway to Heaven through the Jesuits -- 6 The Confucian Hospitality: Responding to the Jesuits -- Conclusion -- Notes.

Offers a comparative and deconstructive reading of the cross-cultural encounter between the Jesuits and their Confucian hosts in late Ming China.--OCLC note.

Librarian's note: While the focus of this study is on comparative concepts of friendship and hospitality, the text includes in-depth analysis of Ricci's 1602 Mappamondo, its layout, content, and background, and the Chinese critical response to it.  

Local access dig.pdf. [Xu-Friendship and hospitality.pdf]

"Heaven round, earth square" : architectural cosmology in late imperial China / Bor-Shuenn Chiou.

Thesis (Ph. D.) : Edinburgh University, 1991

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 310-340) and alphabetic character index.

Abstract: This text-based study aims to refute the position of daoqi(*) fentu which, held by several sinologists, is interpreted by the author as meaning the absence of theory in the art of bUIlding in China of mid-imperial and later times. In method, a cosmological schema is first established and its presence shown throughout all architectural writings, identified by the author as standing for different 'ratios' between theory and practice, so as to verify an uninterrupted connection between the two. A prerequisite for the whole research is that Yangzhai (human dwellings) writings are recognised as part of the proper documentation for Chinese architectural studies. The conceptual schema is extracted from a broad survey of Chinese culture within the scope of the Chinese cosmological adage that "tiilnyuan difang' ("heaven round, earth square"). This results in the identification of an inner structure, the interplay of cyclicity and fixity. The writings for examination are grouped in three categories: the scholarly literature (theory), Yangzhai writings (intermediary), and building craftsmen's manuals (practice). All three are examined selectively in  order to explore several representative common themes. The conclusion is that the interplay of cyclicity and fixity is fully perceptible in one way or another in all of them. In this way the thesis is supported. However, this does not mean that the position of daoqi(*) fentu is invalidated in all its aspects; rather, the  completion of the study provides only a piece of counter-evidence. Also, the dates of the major materials available allow the research only to reflect the situation of late imperial times.

Local access dig.pdf. [Chiou-Heaven round.pdf]

URI link to Edinburgh Research Archive

Introduction -- The languages of the Yijing and the representation of reality -- Mapping China's world : cultural cartography in late imperial China -- Ritual in Qing culture -- The teachings of ritual and the rectification of customs : echos of tradition in the political culture of modern China -- Divination in the Qing -- Jesuit interpretations of the Yijing in global perspective.

Local access dig.pdf. [Smith-Mapping China.pdf]

馬若瑟(1666 - 1736)法國著名的漢學家, 耶穌會傳教士. 馬若瑟從一開始學習漢文時起, 其目的就不只是為了傳教, 而且想要用漢文來著述, 並且從漢文經籍中尋找對信奉基督教的支持和依據, 為此, 那些把中國經典文獻看成禮儀事物代表的傳教士們, 就對馬若瑟感到不滿和懷疑. 馬若瑟的有生之年大多用於研究中國文學, 其研究對像從保存下來的早期文獻一直到宋朝的哲學家, 文士和詩人. 他在這些研究中所獲得的對中國文學的深刻認識, 使他在寫作《中國語言志略》(Notitia Linguae Sinicae)時獲益匪淺.