International Society of East Asian Philosophy

2021 Conference

Philosophies around
East Asian Seas
Date: December 10-11, 2021 (Friday and Saturday, Japan Time)
Venue: Virtual (Zoom)
Organizer: International Society of East Asian Philosophy (ISEAP)
Co-organizer: Meiji Institute of Philosophies, Meiji University (MIPs)

Program and Abstracts

(as of December 6, 2021)

Individual papers: 20 minutes for presentation and 10 minutes for discussion

Organized panels: the moderators will manage time allocation

The conference is supported by

科研費基盤研究 「東アジア哲学の国際的研究拠点の形成」
B
科研費基盤研究C「戦前東アジアにおける哲学：日本の植民地支配の観点から」

 Table of contents
Conference Program 1
Day 1(December 10, 2021) 1
Day 2(December 11, 2021) 7
Abstracts 11
Keynote speeches 11
Individual papers and organized panels 12
Session 1 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 12
Session 2 14
Session 3 16
Session 4 18
Session 5 20
Session 6 23
Session 7 25
Session 8 27
Session 9 29
Session 10 31
Session 11 33
Session 12 35
Session 13 37
Session 14 39
Session 15 40
Session 16 42
Conference Program
December 10, 2021 (Japan Time) Day 1

Time Content Venue

Opening Remarks and Photo Taking

Speaker: Yoshinobu SHINO

09:00
Chair of the Organizing Committee ISEAP Conference 2021 and
I
Professor, School of Arts and Letters, Meiji University Room 1
09:10

Moderator: Yuko ISHIHARA

Management Committee Member of ISEAP and Associate Professor,
College of Global Liberal Arts, Ritsumeikan University

Keynote speech 1

Speaker: Michiko YUSA

Professor Emerita, Western Washington University and Visiting
09:10
Professor, Tōhoku University
I
10:10 Room 1
"Nature, Language, Art, and Environment"

Moderator: Yuko ISHIHARA

Management Committee Member of ISEAP and Associate Professor,
College of Global Liberal Arts, Ritsumeikan University

10:10
I Break
10:20

1
December 10, 2021 (Japan Time) Day 1

Time Content Venue

Session 1
Moderator: Bradley Kaye, Niagara University

Virtuous Actions in the Mengzi

Waldemar Brys, University of New South Wales

10:20
I Intellectualist Moral Psychology and the Origins of Evil:
11:50 A Comparison between Mengzi and the Stoics
Room 1
Jordan Davis, Zhejiang University

On the Features of Ideal Confucian Political Leadership

Through Mencius’ (Mengzi’s) Perspective
Verena Xiwen Zhang, Tunghai University

Session 2
Moderator: Hwa Yeong WANG, Georgetown University

Suzuki on Swedenborg: the Mysticism of the Soul. An Introduction.

Federica SGARBI, Doshisha University

10:20
I Between Self-Knowledge and Faith:
11:50 On the Basic Character of the Buddha’s Teaching
Room 2
Timo Ennen, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

On Seng Zhao and Contradiction

Tyler Neenan, University of Chicago Divinity School

11:50
I Lunch Break
12:50

2
December 10, 2021 (Japan Time) Day 1

Time Content Venue

Session 3
Moderator: Yu SANG, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Division(s) and Transformation(s): On Five Cognitive Stations in the

Delimitation of Things in “Qiwulun” Chapter of the Zhuangzi
12:50 Chiayu Hsu, University of Chicago
I
14:20 西田几多郎的艺术哲学——以表现概念为线索 Room 1
Sun Bin(孙彬), Sun Yat-sen University

Overcoming Anthropocentrism: Watsuji, Ecology, and Symbiosis

Kyle Michael James Shuttleworth, Rikkyo University

Session 4: Organized Panel

40 Years of Religion and Nothingness
Moderator: Jordan Davis, Zhejiang University

Nishitani Keiji and the Kyoto School’s Response to the Challenge of the Cross

12:50 Tobias BARTNECK, Kyoto University

I
Nishitani’s “Anti-Cartesianism”
14:20
Sova P. K. CERDA, Kyoto University
Room 2

Realization and Duration:

Bergson and the Dynamic Phenomenology of Nishitani Keiji
Morten E. JELBY, École Normale Supérieure of Paris,
Pays Germaniques-Archives Husserl and Kyoto University

14:20
I Break
14:30

3
December 10, 2021 (Japan Time) Day 1
Time Content Venue
Session 5: Organized Panel
The Kyoto School, East Asian Philosophy and beyond
Moderator: WU Wing Chi, Meiji University

Confucianism, Kyoto School and Time

WANG Xiaolin , City University of Hong Kong

14:30 Self and Action: Nishida and Nakai on somatic deindividuation of self
I
DEGUCHI Yasuo , Kyoto University
16:00
遊
Wandering ( ) around limitations: Room 1
An insight from Ueda Shizuteru’s ‘emptiness/world 虚空/世界’
LIU Kuan-ling , Kyoto University

Natsume Sōseki and The Kyoto School:

With a focus on his view of Life and Death
WU Wing Chi, Meiji University

Session 6
Moderator: Seongho Choi, Seoul National University and University of Leipzig

An Analysis of Yamazaki Ansai’s Lecture Notes

on the ‘Reflections on Things at Hand’

14:30 Jeremy Wood, Nagoya University

I Ikigai and the Indian sense of well-being
16:00
Room 2
Piyali Mitra, University of Calcutta, India and Woolf Institute, UK

Fukuzawa Yukichi's Education Ideas And Their Impact On Education

In Vietnam In The Early Modern And Modern Period

Tran Thi Thao and Hua Tran Phuong Thao,

Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education

16:00
I Break
16:10
4
December 10, 2021 (Japan Time) Day 1

Time Content Venue

Session 7
Moderator: CHEN Yi, Heidelberg University

Does Dōgen’s Shikantaza mean literally?

16:10 CHAN Chu Kwan, Universität Hamburg
I
17:40 Practice as a Work of Art: A Study of “Gabyō” in Dōgen’s Buddhist Philosophy
Room 1
Rika Dunlap, University of Guam

Kūkai’s Pragmatism

Robert Sinclair, Soka University

Session 8

Moderator: Boris Steipe, University of Toronto

The revival of Daoism: From the Laozi to contemporary neo-Daoism

Siqi Liu, King’s College London

16:10
I Kant, Nishida, and Mou on Intellectual Intuition:
17:40 a transcultural philosophical debate
Room 2
Tak-Lap Yeung, Academia Sinica

Transformation of humanness and self in Zhuangzi and Kafka:

When one person’s dream is another man’s nightmare

Agne Veisaite, City University of Hong Kong

17:40
I Break
17:50

5
December 10, 2021 (Japan Time) Day 1

Time Content Venue

Session 9
Moderator: Takaharu Oda, Trinity College

The Buddhist Seng Zhao’s Roots in Daoism: Ex Contradictione Nihil

17:50 Takaharu Oda, Trinity College

Jieyou Zheng, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
I
19:20
Primitivist Violence? An alternative to Sarkissian’s argument on
Room 1
the darker side of Daoist Primitivism

Thaddee Chantry-Gellens, University of Warwick, UK

Spontaneity in Kiyozawa Manshi’s Practical Dialectic

Dennis Prooi, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Session 10

Moderator: Zofia Anna WYBIERALSKA, Taiwan National Chengchi University

The construction of Guanxue (the Guan school) in the Qing dynasty

SONG Na, University of Goettingen, Germany

17:50
I Reexamining the Formation History of Kongzi jiayu
19:20
Kai Sum WONG, University of Arizona Room 2

RECURSION, EMERGENCE, NETWORK ––

ETHICS FROM CLASSICAL JAPANESE AESTHETICS

Yi Chen, Heidelberg University

Boris Steipe, University of Toronto

6
Conference Program
December 11, 2021 (Japan Time) Day 2

Time Content Venue

Keynote speech 2

Speaker: Philip J. IVANHOE

Professor, Georgetown University

09:00
I
10:00
"Dasan 茶山 on “Sympathetic Consideration” (Seo 恕)" Room 1

Moderator: Yoshinobu SHINO

Chair of the Organizing Committee ISEAP Conference 2021 and
Professor, School of Arts and Letters, Meiji University

10:00
I Break
10:10

7
December 11, 2021 (Japan Time) Day 2

Time Content Venue

Session 11
Moderator: David W. Johnson, Boston College

Saving the Appearances: Reconsidering the Buddhist Doctrine of No-Self

10:10 David W. Johnson, Boston College

I
11:40 Buddhist Education for Omniscience
Room 1
Seongho Choi, Seoul National University and University of Leipzig

Tosaka Jun: Laughter in a Time of Tragedy 　

Bradley Kaye, Niagara University

Session 12

Moderator: Tyler Neenan, University of Chicago Divinity School

Women Who Knew Ritual

Hwa Yeong WANG, Georgetown University

10:10
Reverence and Reverential Respect in Early Confucian Thought
I
Room 2
11:40 Ellie Hua WANG, National Chengchi University

Aesthetic and Practical Significance of Dasan Jeong Yakyong's Theory

of Human-nature-as-taste

Dobin Choi, University of Iowa

11:40
I Lunch Break
12:40

8
December 11, 2021 (Japan Time) Day 2

Time Content Venue

Session 13
Moderator: LAI Chi Fung, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

From “Revere Heaven” to “Will of Heaven”:

Different argumentative strategies between Chapters 26, 27 and 28 of the Mozi
12:40
LAI Chi Fung, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
I
14:10 The sex-balanced Neidan self-cultivation in the light of feminist philosophy
Room 1
Zofia Anna WYBIERALSKA, Taiwan National Chengchi University

《管子》の礼法思想
Masayuki Sato(佐藤將之), National Taiwan University(國立臺灣大學)

Session 14

Moderator: Rika Dunlap, University of Guam

Fafang’s Interpretation of Yogācāra Learning

12:40 Yu SANG, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

I
Room 2
14:10
The Metanoetics of Zarathustra: Tanabe Hajime’s Engagement and Response
to Nietzsche and the Overcoming of the Victim-Victimizer Paradox

Dennis Stromback, Independent Scholar

14:10
I Break
14:20

9
December 11, 2021 (Japan Time) Day 2

Time Content Venue

Session 15
Moderator: Verena Xiwen Zhang, Tunghai University

心 in moral decision
Think with your heart, feel with your mind – The role of xīn
making in Classical Chinese philosophy
14:20
Lisa Indraccolo, Tallinn University and University of Zurich
I
15:50 How to Understand the Concept of Junzi （君子） ?:
A Reflection on the Research of Ancient Confucianism for the past Century Room 1

LIN, Yan-ting, National Taiwan University

Confucius’ wisdom: a liberal reading of the Analects
and its conservative implications
CHEUNG Wai Lok, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Session 16: Organized Panel

Merging Seas and Troubled Waters
Moderator: Robert Sinclair, Soka University

“Cultivating the sea and leaving the land alone”:

Historical flows and civilizational currents in merging seas

Fabrizio BOZZATO,
14:20
Ocean Policy Research Institute of The Sasakawa Peace Foundation
I
15:50 The Peninsula Self-Consciousness of Hong Kong in its Maritime and Room 2
Continental Fudo

Andrew TAM Ka Pok, University of Saint Joseph, Macao

Miki Kiyoshi and the Philippines

CHEUNG Ching Yuen, The University of Tokyo

Closing Remarks
Speaker: Yoshinobu SHINO
15:50 Chair of the Organizing Committee ISEAP Conference 2021 and
I Professor, School of Arts and Letters, Meiji University Room 1
16:00
Moderator: Yuko ISHIHARA
Management Committee Member of ISEAP and Associate Professor,
College of Global Liberal Arts, Ritsumeikan University

10
Keynote speeches
December 10, 2021 (09:10-10:10 Japan Time, Day 1) Room 1
Moderator: Yuko ISHIHARA, Management Committee Member of ISEAP and Associate Professor,
College of Global Liberal Arts, Ritsumeikan University

Nature, Language, Art, and Environment

Michiko YUSA
Professor Emerita, Western Washington University and Visiting Professor, Tōhoku University

Abstract
"One who knows does not speak; one who speaks does not know," so ​goes ​the time-honored ​advise of the Daodejing​(61).
Tao Yuanming (a pre-Tang poet), while seeing "birds flying back home in groups" in the setting sun, wished to describe
something "true" in this picture, but he found himself having "forgotten human words" to do so.
Tanikawa Shuntarō (born on Dec. 15, 1931), a contemporary Japanese poet, wanted to bid "farewell" to his fellow poet-
friend in 2017, not with "human words" but with the sound of sea waves surging and receding, rustling leaves in the wind,
and so on. How does a poet, who by definition poetizes in words, meet this challenge?
Dōgen (1200-1253) found that the sound of valley streams in the deep mountains had the "cleansing power" of defilements
the human mind accumulates ("Keisei sanshoku").
Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832), out of his serious studies of nature, reflected on the use of "language" in its ability
to "describe nature." In this context, he spoke about "everyday language," "poetic language," and also suggested that we
need to adopt "many modes of description" to speak about nature's inner relationships ("Symbolism").
D. T. Suzuki asked the question: where does the language arise? His answer was "Consciousness." Human religious
consciousness (or spirituality) is thus closely connected with language.
Nishida Kitarō compared language to "the body that carries out philosophical thinking."
In this presentation, I will read two poems and two texts (Tao Yuanming, Tanikawa, Dōgen, and Liu Zongyuan), who seem
to acknowledge the realm of "language" beyond everyday language. Then, with the help of Goethe's poems as well as his
natural scientific writings on nature and language, I will draw a tentative conclusion that nature provides us with the
standard for "truth," while human pursuit for "beauty" and "good" get expressed in the art of painting, music, poetry, and so
on. I will weave in D. T. Suzuki's Buddhist epistemology and Nishida's view of language.
Next, I will briefly address the importance of speaking "truthfully, and not to lie," in facing climate crisis, covid virus, etc.
For us to dwell on the earth authentically today, we must take care of our environment so that we are sustained by healthy
sea and rivers, forest, land, air, and all plants, vegetation, and creatures in between. I hope it is not too late to start listening
to the sound of nature and respond to it.

December 11, 2021 (09:00-10:00 Japan Time, Day 2) Room 1

Moderator: Yoshinobu SHINO, Chair of the Organizing Committee ISEAP Conference 2021 and Professor,
School of Arts and Letters, Meiji University

Dasan 茶山 on “Sympathetic Consideration” (Seo 恕)

Philip J. IVANHOE
Professor, Georgetown University

Abstract
My talk concerns some core features of Dasan’s first-order naturalism, in particular his conception of “sympathetic
consideration” (seo 恕 ). I will sketch some key features of his philosophy, describe and analyze his conception of
sympathetic consideration, and compare and contrast it with related concepts in contemporary Anglo-American analytic
ethics and psychology. I will argue that his view of sympathetic consideration offers something not only unique but also
interesting and potentially important for understanding our moral lives.

11
Individual Papers and Organized Panels
December 10, 2021 (Japan Time, Day 1)
Session 1 (10:20-11:50 Japan Time) Room 1
Moderator: Bradley Kaye, Niagara University

Paper 1
Virtuous Actions in the Mengzi

Waldemar Brys
University of New South Wales

Abstract
Many anglophone scholars take the early Confucians to be virtue ethicists of one kind or another. A common virtue ethical
reading of the Mengzi ascribes to Mengzi the view that moral actions are partially (or entirely) moral because of the state
from which they are performed, be it the agent's right motives, feelings or their virtuous character. I consider whether such
a reading of the Mengzi is justified and I argue that it is not. I argue that there is no reason to believe that Mengzi
distinguishes the moral value of actions that are performed from virtuous and non-virtuous states, from which follows that
the moral value of virtuous actions is not derived from the virtuous state of the agent that performs them. Furthermore,
there is independent textual evidence that suggests that Mengzi takes actions to be virtuous because of the kind of
actions that they are, and that the moral quality of the agent’s state does not individuate the actions that are performed
from it. I claim that this poses a serious challenge to reading Mengzi as a virtue ethicist, and it more generally calls into
question whether the recent trend to read the ancient Confucians as virtue ethicists is sustainable.

Paper 2
Intellectualist Moral Psychology and the Origins of Evil:
A Comparison between Mengzi and the Stoics

Jordan Davis
Zhejiang University

Abstract
The nature of human evil is a problem that has long occupied philosophers both East and West. This paper will consider a
new interpretation of the psychological underpinnings of evil in Mengzi's thought with reference to Stoic moral
psychology.
The Stoics and Mengzi both believed that humans are born without an innate source of evil. Vice arises from cultural and
environmental factors. This similarity between the two hints at common psychological assumptions. Unlike Platonic
psychology, the Stoics believed that passions and appetites did not stem from a non-rational source. In the Stoic’s
monistic psychology, passions or desires were rational judgments. They were intellectual errors concerning the value of
external objects. These errors resulted from cultural, social, and other outside influences.
This paper argues that the Mengzi and its later commentaries show a similar line of thought. For Mengzi, the origins of
vice are found in intellectual errors alone: vice stems from incorrect ascriptions of value. This interpretation has important
implications for Mengzi’s moral psychology. Many scholars see the senses and blind impulse as the origins of vice in
Mengzi’s thought, creating a dualistic understanding of both the origins of vice and human action. If the intellectualist
view of Mengzi proves correct, we must rethink not only the nature of evil but also the framework used to understand
action and motivation in Mengzi’s moral psychology.

12
 Paper 3
On the Features of Ideal Confucian Political Leadership Through Mencius’ (Mengzi’s) Perspective

Verena Xiwen Zhang

Tunghai University

Abstract
This paper attempts to explore the features of ideal Confucian political leadership which could be seen as a sub-theme of
the greater theme of Confucian political philosophy, under which there’s also a sub-theme of ideal Confucian political
institution. This paper mainly focuses on the first sub-theme and discusses the following questions:
1. What’s the criteria of being an ideal Confucian political leader through Mencius’ (Mengzi’s) perspective?
2. How do the personal character and personal virtue of courtier/vassal (nowadays official at upper class) have great
influence on the performance of assisting sovereign to expand his benevolence in order to establish a benevolent
society through Confucian political principles and measures in accordance with Confucian Dao and the heart of
average people?
3. What’s the way of leaving a political dilemma when elite, gentry, intellectual without official ranking is in a cleft stick?
How should a sovereign reflect on the problem of which elite and gentry are not willing to serve him and his country?
How should an ideal Confucian leader (at any high-ranking status) consider the Way of recruiting elite, intellectual,
gentry with virtue and talents? The Way of recruitment reveals the spiritual level of sovereign.
4. What’s the proper, polite Way of interaction between the superpower and statelet? How should superpower, power,
statelet mutually stand in moments of comfort and convenience and at times of challenge and controversy? Take
Singapore governed by the Senior Minister, Lee Kuan Yew for example.

Keywords: Confucian political leadership, ideal Confucian political leader, Mencius (Mengzi), Confucian Way of
recruitment, relationship between superpower and statelet, Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew

13
Session 2 (10:20-11:50 Japan Time) Room 2
Moderator: Hwa Yeong WANG, Georgetown University

Paper 1
Suzuki on Swedenborg: the Mysticism of the Soul. An Introduction.

Federica SGARBI
Doshisha University
Abstract
The Japanese philosopher Daisetsu Teitarō Suzuki (1870–1966) is known for his contributions to and for his tireless
dissemination of Zen Buddhism in the West. However, a field of investigation that he diligently cultivated, somewhat
neglected in research, is the Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) and his works. Suzuki was a devoted
admirer of the European author. He considered his works a valuable point of reference for overcoming the profound
spiritual crisis rampant in Japan at the end of the 19th century. Therefore, he did his utmost to make his books known by
translating them into Japanese and through his writings.
Suzuki’s research offers an original contribution to philosophy and the history of religion and an unprecedented
interpretation of the figure of Swedenborg, perhaps known more for Kant’s criticism of his work than for his theological
views.
This article aims to introduce these contributions, retracing the life and works of the Swedish mystic, with specific
reference to the analogies that Suzuki identified between Swedenborg's and the Buddhist thought.

Keywords: Buddhism — Kant — religion — esotericism — culture— Suzuki Daisetsu — Swedenborg — Western
philosophy — Eastern philosophy — Beatrice Erskine Lane

Paper 2
Between Self-Knowledge and Faith: On the Basic Character of the Buddha’s Teaching
Timo Ennen
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Abstract
Proponents of modern secular Buddhism argue that the Buddha’s teaching, in contrast to later Buddhist inspired
philosophies and folklore, is of a fundamentally empiricist and down-to-earth character. In response, other scholars have
objected that this amounts to an inadequate protestantization that neglects the notion of rebirth and the Buddha’s belief
in invisible beings. In this paper, I intend to give a reconstruction of the basic character of the
Buddha’s teaching that will neither depict him as an empirical minded scientist nor rely on belief in magical powers and
spiritual beings. My interpretation will be grounded on the notion of self-knowledge. This notion, prevalent throughout the
history of Western philosophy, takes on a peculiar shape if seen from a Buddhist perspective. In contrast to contemporary
analytical and ancient Greek philosophy, self-knowledge in the Buddhist context does neither exhaust itself in a particular
access we have to experiences from our first-person perspective nor in the awareness of certain anthropological facts.
Instead, paradoxically, it denotes the overcoming of self. Awakening as depicted in the early Pali discourses is not just
one experience among others we make but the experienceable transformation of all experiences we had and could ever
have. Thus, the Buddha speaks to us of his self-knowledge that exceeds our empirical (and any a priori) knowledge. This
imbalance between the Buddha and his real or potential interlocutors is explanatory of why his teaching remains
inaccessible to many, in spite of modern attempts to rationalize it.

14
 Paper 3
On Seng Zhao and Contradiction

Tyler Neenan
University of Chicago Divinity School

Abstract
Seng Zhao, the early Chinese Madhyamakan visionary, leads us back around, on either side of the subject/object divide, to
the site of some terminal contradiction—to the oneness of what had appeared at first two. On the far side, things are
neither exclusively existent nor non-existent. Rather, they exist in their non-existence, ever unborn and undying in their
irreducible existence. And on the near side, the sage’s prajñā can neither be said exclusively to know nor not to know.
Rather, it knows nothing in its exhaustive knowledge, illuminative of the ten-thousand things in their variegated provisional
determinacies. In this paper, I firstly take up Seng Zhao’s critique of the Doctrine of Names (mingjiao), a position closely
related to the Confucian/Legalist doctrine of the Rectification of Names (zhengming) which sets out, as the condition of a
thing’s communicability, the one-to-one match between a name (ming) and reality (shi). I then examine how, through this
critique of the Doctrine of Names, Seng Zhao is able to hold at once to two seemingly contradictory determinations on
each respective side of the subject/object divide. Lastly, I turn to consider whether Seng Zhao in fact embraces
contradiction. I argue that he is not a dialetheist, since his philosophical methodology suspends the requisite condition of
the contradictoriness of prima facie mutually exclusive determinations. And yet, he nevertheless draws out the contours of
an unlimited “trivialist” contradiction in the insuperable split between the quiescence (ji) and function (yong) with respect
to anything whatsoever that appears.

15
Session 3 (12:50-14:20 Japan Time) Room 1
Moderator: Yu SANG, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Paper 1
Division(s) and Transformation(s):
On Five Cognitive Stations in the Delimitation of Things in “Qiwulun” Chapter of the Zhuangzi

Chiayu Hsu
University of Chicago

Abstract
This article demonstrates that the most manifest and recurrently zig-zagging theme in Zhuangzi’s philosophy is the
courses (Daos) of transformation. For Zhuangzi, the transformations of the ten-thousand things never have begun to reach
their limit insofar all the beings are deeply endlessly intertwined. The fundamental idea of ​Zhuangzi's concept of
transformation lies in the flow and breakthrough of all boundaries. The unlimited transforming of all things is the merging
of margins, the convergence of borders, leading all the fixed to become unfixed. Breaking divisions does not mean there
are no divisions, as the paradox is that transformations must imply divisions. All subjects are constantly in an infinite
continuity of mutual intersubjective transformation. The knowledge and narratives on the divisions of things are
inseparable from the function of cognition. In this paper, with a close investigation and comparison to Zhuangzi’s
contemporary thinkers, I analyze a pivotal passage which expressly sets forth the delimitation of things within human
knowledge in the chapter the Equalizing Assessments of Things; illustrate what Zhuangzi takes to be the five stations of
the cognition: 1. “never having begun to exist at all.” 2. “things exist, but no sealed boundaries between.” 3. “there were
sealed boundaries, but never any rights (shi) and wrongs (fei).” 4. “The waxing of rights (shi) and wrongs (fei).” 5.
“preference for one thing over another to succeed in reaching its full formation;” as well as manifest the interrelation
between divisions and transformations.

Paper 2
西田几多郎的艺术哲学——以表现概念为线索
Sun Bin(孙彬)
Sun Yat-sen University

Abstract
西田几多郎是日本近代著名哲学家，其哲学受到西方哲学影响的同时，也融入了日本乃至东亚传统思想。本文
将以“表现”概念为线索讨论西田的艺术哲学，在西田整个哲学思索的生涯中，艺术论占有重要的地位。在早期和
中期哲学中，艺术直观是奠基在“自觉”的根本立场上，艺术的意欲意味着根底的一种“人格的统一”和“生命的冲
动”，透过“纯粹视觉”的观看，这种意欲转变为一个艺术的内容——直观即创作（表现）。西田进一步将手的活动也
纳入进这个自觉的统一之中，试图通过将这种 “ 纯粹视觉 ” 与 “ 手的活动 ” 的连续来说明自己 “ 身心一如 ” 、 “ 主客统
一”的艺术哲学。
在后期哲学之中，艺术的创作是建立在“行为的直观”立场上，艺术的制作也是“历史世界的制作”的典型形式。艺
术的意欲与艺术表现之间是一个连续又断裂的关系。一方面，艺术的意欲解释了艺术的起源，与艺术的表现是一
个连续整体的过程关系；另一方面，这种不断涌现、不断流动的意欲通过艺术表现时，必须具有一个断裂或者是
否定的创作，使得这种无形的意欲呈现一个“形”，透过行为的身体（作为媒介的道具）表现出来。
研究兴趣：
日本哲学（以西田几多郎哲学为核心）

16
 Paper 3
Overcoming Anthropocentrism: Watsuji, Ecology, and Symbiosis
Kyle Michael James Shuttleworth
Rikkyo University

Abstract
In this presentation, I argue that the environmental problem of anthropocentrism can be overcome by developing the
ecological potential in Watsuji’s philosophical thought. To achieve this aim, I extend Watsuji’s ethical theory of
“betweenness” from human beings to all forms of life, by appealing to Watsuji’s concept of “climate”. I also illustrate the
practical application of Watsuji’s thought through the concept of symbiosis and speculate upon how symbiotic relations
can be developed between human beings and non-human beings in Japan.
（日本語要旨）
人間中心主義の克服: 和辻、エコロジー、共生
私の発表では、和辻の哲学的な思想に含まれているエコロジー的な潜在性を発展させることによって、人間中
心主義から生じる環境問題を克服できると主張したいと思います。そのため、和辻の「風土」概念に訴えなが
ら、「間柄」についての和辻の倫理的理論を、人間だけでなく、あらゆる生命形態に拡張することを試みま
す。また、共生の概念によって、和辻の思想の実践的な応用して、日本における人間と非人間との共生関係を
どのように展開できるかについて考察してみたいです。

17
Session 4 (12:50-14:20 Japan Time) Room 2
Moderator: Jordan Davis, Zhejiang University

Organized Panel
40 Years of Religion and Nothingness

Panel Abstract
2022 marks forty years since NISHITANI Keiji’s ( 西谷啓治 1900-1990) Shūkyō to wa Nani ka? 『宗教とは何か』 was
translated into English as Religion and Nothingness. Recent scholarship in Nishitani reveals that the great corrective
tasks facing his, and indeed Japanese philosophy’s, early reception within the framework of the Greco-European
tradition have been, at least partially, accomplished: researchers are shifting from propaedeutic and comparativist
approaches toward those more problem-oriented, i.e., sachlich. This shift in emphasis is welcome: for philosophies,
Japanese or otherwise, do not belong merely alongside one another, but become animated by the to-and-fro of concrete
and critical exchange. What makes Nishitani especially felicitous to the sachlich approach is that he has already
positioned himself in dialogue with the Greco-European tradition; through direct critique he poses a challenge and makes
specific claims to assert the plausibility of his position. The task facing scholars now is to begin critically evaluating
and developing those challenges, without leaving sound hermeneutics behind. In this panel we will be approaching
Nishitani from three different angles. First, Cerda will introduce Nishitani’s “anti-Cartesianism”; from there, Jelby will
approach the question of being-in-the-world in Nishitani from the perspective of asubjective phenomenology and
Bergson; and finally, Bartneck will reframe the Kyoto School’s engagement with Christianity in light of Nishitani’s
historical observations. Uniting our panel is an interest in engaging with Nishitani by getting to brass tacks—zu den
Sachen selbst!

Research interests:
Mind and subjectivity, phenomenology, ontology, kenoticism, logic and religion

Paper 1
Nishitani Keiji and the Kyoto School’s Response to the Challenge of the Cross

Tobias BARTNECK
Kyoto University
Abstract
Following the key insights of Nishitani Keiji into the historical significance of Christianity given in his seminal work
Religion and Nothingness, I will argue in this paper, first, that the Kyoto School’s philosophical approach to Christianity
should be read primarily as a response to the historic challenge of the cross and its kenotic negativity, taken in its
“polemic” (Hegel) or “nihilistic” (Nietzsche) nature, and neither as an attempt at vain inter-religious “dialogue,” nor as a
drawing out of abstract analogies between religious semantics. Second, that the response of the Kyoto School treats the
Christian cross formally like a Zen kōan, employing a Buddhist logic of negation to “solve” the “antinomy” inherent to the
Gospel of the cross; in this respect, the philosophy of the Kyoto School could be called a “Buddhist philosophia crucis.”
Third, reading “Japanese Kenoticism” (Steve Odin) as based on a Buddhist logic of emptiness, sometimes characterized
as a “tetralemmatic” logic—which, suspending the law of identity, the law of contradiction and the law of the excluded
third, allows for a different logical functioning of negativity—I take this Buddhist logic as a specific form of “coping” with
the paradoxical negativity inherent to the kenotic, crucified God. This allows for a methodical comparison between the
logical structure of this “coping strategy” found in the Buddhist thought of the Kyoto School with the way orthodox
theology employs (and modifies) “classical,” i.e. Aristotelian logic, to “solve” the “antinomy” through the concept of a
triune God.

Research Interests:
Kyoto School, Christianity, Buddhism, religious philosophy, nihilism

18
 Paper 2
Nishitani’s “Anti-Cartesianism”

Sova P. K. CERDA
Kyoto University

Abstract
For those attempting a dialogue with Nishitani Keiji’s thought, the central point of interpretation has been his anti-
Cartesianism. Yet, it is insufficient to state Nishitani’s position merely in the negative, that it is one of “no-self,” “no-mind,”
etc., since he employs these terms (both the positive and its negation) in a technical sense that requires elaboration.
Thus, the stakes are raised to clarify the “Cartesianism” that Nishitani sees as underlying all manner of moral, epistemic,
and soteriological problems, as well as uniquely modern dissatisfactions. The aim of this presentation is to begin
complicating Nishitani’s relation to the “Cartesian tradition.” Focusing on the discussion of Descartes in Religion and
Nothingness, I first characterize this relation in terms of tettei 徹底 . Interpreters, thus, must try to clarify how Nishitani’s
position is more tettei (‘radical,’ ‘thoroughgoing’) than Descartes’. I then evaluate recent interpretations of this more
radical position, interpretations whose form goes back to some of the earliest receptions of his thought by the
Anglophone world. I argue that the position that emerges in this approach is vulnerable to criticism by a more robust anti-
Cartesianism. Specifically, it fails to make a distinction between what Nishitani calls a “merely subjective phenomenon of
consciousness” and “the real actualization of reality.” I conclude with suggestions for research tasks that could shed light
on why Nishitani thought this distinction was necessary and how he tried to maintain it.

Research Interests:
Descartes, philosophy of mind, subjectivity and subjectivism, corporeality, representation

Paper 3
Realization and Duration: Bergson and the Dynamic Phenomenology of Nishitani Keiji

Morten E. JELBY
École Normale Supérieure of Paris, Pays Germaniques-Archives Husserl and Kyoto University

Abstract
Within the recent developments of phenomenology, that of the asubjective phenomenology of movement, represented
first and foremost by Jan Patočka and R. Barbaras, is no doubt among the most innovative and radical approaches to the
question of phenomenality. These thinkers have shown how movement, understood as a mode of being, allows for
rethinking phenomenality as such, as well as the inscription of the subject in the world. However, taking its point of
departure in Bergson and Schelling, Nishitani Keiji’s philosophy offers an alternative phenomenology of movement to
grasp this ontological rootedness of the subject—an aspect of his philosophy which has yet to be explored. In this paper, I
will try to show how Nishitani uses Bergson when dealing with the problems of intuition, radical subjectivity and
“realization”, drawing a red line from the Japanese thinker’s early texts to the main work known in English as Religion and
Nothingness. I will assess the role of Bergson’s thinking in Nishitani’s conception of the primordial unity of subjectivity
and world as movement; I will argue that this dynamic ontology allows for inscribing phenomenality in the world rather
than in the subject, under the notion of “realization” in the framework of what I will call Nishitani’s phenomenology of
emptiness. I will discuss the possibility of a return to the suchness of things—from the scission between world and
subject where it is lost—in light of Bergson’s theory of intuition.

Research Interests:
Kyoto School, phenomenology, ontology, aesthetics, poetics

19
Session 5 (14:30-16:00 Japan Time) Room 1
Moderator: WU Wing Chi, Meiji University

Organized Panel
The Kyoto School, East Asian Philosophy and beyond

Panel Abstract
This panel aims at exploring the potential of the Kyoto School in relation to East Asian philosophy. While a number of
scholarships can be found on the comparison of moral philosophy between Neo-Confucianism, New Confucianism and
Nishida Kitarō, this panel includes four papers which deal with time, self, wandering and life and death. The paper of
Wang Xiaolin compares the similarities and differences on time posited by the Kyoto School and Confucianism, and
unveil their lessons for political philosophy. Deguchi’s paper touches upon the concept, somatic deindividuation of self,
that addressed by Nishida and Nakai. In the course of lining up their parities and disparities, Deguchi would like to open
up their significance for the after/with corona era. Liu Kuan-ling’s paper attempts to comparing Zhuangzi’s and Ueda
Shizuteru’s philosophy, with a focus on the concept “wandering”. Last but not least, Wu’s paper explores the relationship
between Sōseki and Nishida, discussing their views on life and death. In face of the influx of Western philosophy, the
underlying influence of Eastern philosophy between the Kyoto School, broadly conceived, should not be overlooked.

Paper 1
Confucianism, Kyoto School and Time
Wang Xiaolin
Department of Asian and International Studies, City University of Hong Kong

Abstract
In relation with the Individual, the concept of Time shows a variety of manifestations in East Asian philosophical context.
For instance, when we use the Time as a key word to compare its relations with individual in Confucianism and Kyoto
School, we can find significant distinctions between the two philosophical streams. While Confucianism emphasizing the
Time as a decisive rule mainly represents the order of the Heaven on individual, Kyoto School almost reversed such kind of
the principles and demonstrated a totally new discourse of the Time in which the individual (body) is treated as a
subjective existence of the Time. This new establishment of the theory of Time by Kyoto School eventually enabled
individual in East Asia being able to approach the egalitarianism in both the philosophical as well as political levels. Using
the sources from both sides, this paper will shed light on the original ideas of Time in both Confucianism and Kyoto
School, while discussing the differentiation and similarities of Time in the two streams, the paper will also emphasize the
importance of the study of Kyoto School.

20
 Paper 2
Self and Action: Nishida and Nakai on somatic deindividuation of self
Yasuo DEGUCHI
Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University

Abstract
The covid-19 pandemic spotlights our existential situations. It is a mere illusion that an individual can be safely isolated
from, and live an untouched life regardless to any troubles in the outside world including the pandemic. I am always and
already involved in interactions of people, social and political situations and environmental agents including viruses. My
body, including its most inner parts, is vulnerably exposed to those interactions or troubles out there. Rather it is my body
that exposes me to them. In a nutshell, the pandemic reveals the basic fact that an individual self is inescapably
connected to the world through its body.

Such observations can give a persuasion, though not a proof, to a motive of philosophies of the Kyoto school:
deindividuation of self through somatic action. It is an idea that the individuality of self is broken up and one or another
form of holistic self emerges through our bodily actions and somatic intercourses with many agents in the world. The
motive has many variants within the school. Two of them are the late Nishida’s ‘active intuitive self ( 行為的直観的自己 )’
and Masakazu Nakai’s ‘form of fresh ( 生身の型 )’. A model of Nishida’s self is a master carpenter who works alone in
silence, dedicating himself to something infinite beyond him (the heaven, God, Buddha or etc.) and tools and material that
he uses. On the other, Nakai’s model is oarsmen in rowing race. Nishida’s carpenter is industrial, working for his life, while
distancing himself from other fellow humans. On the other, Nakai’s oarsmen are enjoying leisure, while being social
figures who always find themselves among their fellows. This talk will explore those variants while examining their
similarities and dissimilarities, and significance to the after/with corona era.

Paper 3
Wandering ( 遊) around limitations: An insight from Ueda Shizuteru’s ‘emptiness/world 虚空/世界’
LIU Kuan-ling
Kyoto University

Abstract
Why an issue concerning wandering, mentioned and developed in Zhuangzi, is still worthy of discussion, especially in a
time of pandemic in which we continue to suffer different kinds of limitations in varying degrees? It would be great irony if
wandering concerned were possessing certain traditional connotations such as departing from or going beyond
constraints, or primarily related to kinds of attitudes and spirits whose focuses are on specific practices. The reason of
inappropriateness is simple because it is the pervading inescapable and even escalating feeling of being limited that we
are undergoing during these two years. Besides, the very feeling of which was deeply aware by Zhuangzi is essentially
connected with his though of wandering and its corresponding concept of ‘free and ease 逍遙 ’.

In this presentation, I attempt to suggest that in Zhuangzi issues on wandering are contemplated within an existential
condition which is related to the fact that for human beings there is no world without limitations, the situation that can be
hugely highlighted because of specific events, such as worldwide pandemic, but still stands as an element of being in the
world. The thought of wandering provides an aspect from which to deal with other than to neglect or refuse those
experiences about incapability of escaping anywhere in the world of human beings. Accordingly, the question now
becomes: how to make possible wandering around limitation? Ueda’s view on ‘emptiness/world’ offers a penetrating
insight into such a question, and a well-known attitude about ‘regarding such incapability as destiny’ taken by Zhuangzi
could show its implicit positive dimension through Ueda’s perspective.

21
 Paper 4
Natsume Sōseki and The Kyoto School: With a focus on his view of Life and Death

WU Wing Chi
Organization for the Strategic Coordination of Research and Intellectual Properties,
Meiji University

Abstract
In this paper, I would like to focus on Natsume Sōseki(1867-1916)'s view of life and death, and to argue that it may have
been influenced by the concept of Phenomenon as Realism( 現象即実在論 ) developed in Meiji Period, in particular the
influence from Nishida Kitarō (1870-1945).

Sōseki is well known as a modern Japanese writer and a scholar of English literature, but he is not completely unrelated to
philosophy. The influence of Eastern philosophy such as Confucianism, Taoist Philosophy and Zen Buddhism on Sōseki
has already attracted the attention of researchers, while the relationship between Sōseki and Western philosophy is not
completely invisible. For example, there was an episode in Omoi Dasu Koto Nado( 『思ひ出す事など』 , Remembrances)
which is the recollections of Sōseki's experience of serious illness and his medical treatment life in Shuzenji( 修善寺大
患 ). Sōseki reminisced about how impressed he was by William James (1842-1910)'s A Pluralistic Universe( 『多元的宇
宙』 ). Therefore, the influence of William James on Sōseki has been taken up as one research topic.

With the acceptance of William James as a trigger, there are several previous studies comparing Sōseki and Nishida's
thoughts, as they are considered to be the representatives of the spirit of Meiji Period. Although it is often pointed out that
there is not much direct contact between the two, I would like to argue that Sōseki, as a layman in philosophy, acquired
philosophical knowledge through reading the discussions by philosophers at that time (for example, papers published in
philosophy journals) and Nishida is considered to be one of them. For instance, Sōseki’s view of life and death is very
likely to be influenced by the discussions of the concept of Phenomenon as Realism published in Tetsugaku Zasshi( 『哲
学（会）雑誌』 , The Journal of the Society of Philosophy).

22
Session 6 (14:30-16:00 Japan Time) Room 2
Moderator: Seongho Choi, Seoul National University and University of Leipzig

Paper 1
An Analysis of Yamazaki Ansai’s Lecture Notes on the ‘Reflections on Things at Hand’

Jeremy Wood
Nagoya University

Abstract
There has been much research in recent years on the reception history of the Confucian canon in early modern Japan.
This research has however mostly been focused on the Four Books and Five Classics, along with the commentaries and
glosses based on them. However, there still remain numerous important Confucian texts that are relatively under-studied.
The Reflections on Things at Hand (Chn. Jinsilu, Jpn. Kinshiroku), a Southern Song (1127-1279) introduction to Neo-
Confucian philosophy, is one such text. The Jinsilu, compiled and edited by the great synthesiser and innovator of Neo-
Confucianism Zhu Xi (1130-1200) became a highly influential text throughout East Asia, and there were many
commentaries devoted to it written in China, Korea, and Japan.
There are at least 105 Japanese commentaries and lecture notes that remain extant from the Edo period. The majority of
these texts were compiled by adherents of the Ansai school of Neo-Confucianism. Yamazaki Ansai (1619 - 1682), a
renowned Neo-Confucian scholar of the early Edo period is well known for having edited and compiled many editions of
Confucian texts, including an edition of the Jinsilu. However, most of his teachings were recorded by his pupils as
handwritten lecture notes.
The aim of this paper is to examine a hitherto neglected manuscript copy of notes on Ansai’s lectures on the Jinsilu, which
is held at the Chiba Prefectural Archives in Japan. An analysis of this manuscript will show that it is not only important for
understanding Ansai’s own interpretation of the text, but also for understanding the reception and development of his
ideas by his pupils, thereby shedding greater light on the reception history of the Jinsilu in Japan.

Paper 2
Ikigai and the Indian sense of well-being

Piyali Mitra
University of Calcutta, India and Woolf Institute, UK

Abstract
‘Ikigai’ is culturally defined in the Japanese society as an all-embracing idea pertaining to subjective well-being. Ikigai is
the source of value in one’s life and refers to mental and spiritual circumstances under which individuals feel that lives are
valuable. The paper focused upon the concept of ikigai which is said to have evolved from the basic health and wellness
principles of traditional Japanese medicine. This paper would try to draw a comparison between the Japanese sense of
well-being ‘Ikigai’ and Indian sense of well-being ‘ānandam’ or bliss and quality of life. One of the challenges in the study
of well-being is how it can be defined so that it can be measured as the concept may vary across different societies.
Ikigai is differentiated from transitory pleasure (hedonia, in the ancient Greek sense) and aligns it with eudaimonia – the
ancient Greek sense of a life well lived, leading to the highest and most lasting form of happiness. There is a difference
between ikigai and the sense of well-being. Ikigai is more concerned with the future. Ikigai is personal; it reflects the inner
self of an individual and expresses that faithfully. It establishes a unique mental world in which the individual can feel at
ease.
The paper would highlight upon the notions of quality of life and well-being that we find in the Indian philosophical
thoughts that can be traced back to two major traditions. One is the culture of Vedic Aryans whose idea was one of a
materially secure and prosperous family life. They lived close to nature as a part of it rather than apart from it. The other
is muni-yati tradition represented those who glorified a life of renunciation, asceticism, wandering mendicancy, and severe
austerities.

23
 Paper 3
Fukuzawa Yukichi's Education Ideas And Their Impact On Education In Vietnam In The Early Modern And Modern Period

Tran Thi Thao, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education
Hua Tran Phuong Thao, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education

Abstract
Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835 – 1901) was a late-nineteenth-century Japanese radical social thinker who launched the cause of
educational modernization, laying the groundwork for Japan's rapid growth. His profound and comprehensive reform ideas
in almost every field of economy, politics, and culture, especially his ideas on education, aided Japan in quickly catching
up with Western countries. Fukuzawa Yukichi's educational ideology has an impact that extends beyond Japanese society,
having a significant impact on countries in the region and around the world. Vietnam is a country in the same line of Asian
culture, and the impact of education thought Fukuzawa Yukichi created a strong Duy Tan movement in education in the
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As the twenty-first century begins, the exchange relationship between
Vietnam and Japan has reached new heights. Research and mutual understanding have also become more focused
between the two countries. Fukuzawa Yukichi's study of educational thought suggests practical ideas for the educational
reform process in Vietnam today. Using the documentary method and written documents from books, newspapers, and
magazines, this article aims to describe and analyze Fukuzawa Yukichi's education concept and its influence on early
modern and modern Vietnamese education.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Keywords: educational thought of Fukuzawa Yukichi, influence, education in Vietnam

24
Session 7 (16:10-17:40 Japan Time) Room 1
Moderator: CHEN Yi, Heidelberg University

Paper 1
Does Dōgen’s Shikantaza mean literally?

CHAN Chu Kwan

Universität Hamburg

Abstract
Does Dōgen’s Shikantaza mean literally? To avoid ambiguity, this paper tackles the question by first developing a new
taxonomy for interpretations of Shikantaza. And then, with a close reading of Bendōwa, it argues that the right
interpretation(s) falls into the category of Weak Inclusive Reading but is still compatible with Weak Literal Reading in the
taxonomy. As the core of Dōgen’s writings and the principal guide of seated meditation in the Sōtō School, how
Shikantaza is interpreted would have strong implications on Dōgen’s philosophy of body and mind and the Sōtō School’s
practices. There are two strands of interpretations in recent literature. One answers the question affirmatively, one
negatively. Yet, both strands have not given a full elaboration of themselves. There are ambiguities and they are
sometimes talking past each other. Without a detailed account of the relation between Shikantaza, Shinjin datsuraku and
the Buddhist enlightenment, other questions are raised. For example, is Shikantaza the only authentic way to Shinjin
datsuraku and the Buddhist enlightenment? With different answers to these questions, it results in different
interpretations. By identifying these questions and the corresponding answers, a new taxonomy is developed and
interpretations are better organized for comparison. It dissolves some criticisms on each other from the two strands and
shows the way to a more comprehensive interpretation. It is also hoped that the taxonomy could be a useful tool for the
broader discussion on Dōgen’s philosophy.

Paper 2
Practice as a Work of Art: A Study of “Gabyō” in Dōgen’s Buddhist Philosophy

Rika Dunlap
University of Guam

Abstract
While there are many studies of language in Dōgen’s thought, the same cannot be said about art and its significance for
enlightenment. This presentation sheds light on this area of study by focusing on the fascicle of “A Painting of a Rice
Cake ( 画餅 Gabyō),” the fascicle that demonstrates not only the significance of art for enlightenment but also the
important link between language and a painting as a work of art that expresses enlightenment in Dōgen’s philosophy.
Unlike the esoteric Buddhism of Kūkai that actually utilizes mandalas and images for enlightenment, Dōgen’s approach to
1
visual art is rather limited. Indeed, Pamela Winfield, in her comparative study of Kūkai and Dōgen, warns that Dōgen’s
discussions of paintings are metaphors and thus are not about art per se. 2 Nevertheless, I argue that Dōgen appreciates
art as a model for religious practice, and the metaphor of a painting in the fascicle of “Gabyō” in particular has a unique
role in elucidating Dōgen’s transmission of the True Dharma Eye, one that begins with seeing the dharma and evolves to
painting the dharma to deepen the meaning of realizational practice.
To show this, it is necessary to conduct a close textual analysis in the original language to demarcate the multiple
meanings that Dōgen ascribes to the single expression of gabyō ( 画餅
): a painting of a rice cake, a painted rice cake, and
the expressive activity of panting rice cakes. Focusing on these multiple meanings, I argue that the fascicle can clarify two
important ideas in Dōgen’s philosophy: one is the manifestation of reality as an expression of Buddha-nature, and the
other is the nonduality of practice and enlightenment to show that enlightenment requires a deeply personal attunement to
the dharma through practice.

1 Pamela Winfield, Icons and Iconoclasm in Japanese Buddhism: Kūkai and Dōgen on the Art of Enlightenment (New York: Oxford University Press,
2013), 112. Pamela Winfield discusses this point.
2 Winfield, Icons, 112.
25
 Paper 3
Kūkai’s Pragmatism

Robert Sinclair
Soka University

Abstract
The philosophical credentials of Kūkai’s Esoteric Buddhism are often taken to rest on his attempt to justify and clarify
ritual practice. Kūkai’s philosophical perspective is then based in his fundamental distinction between esoteric teachings
(mikkyō) and exoteric teachings (kengyō), or what Kasulis describes as the difference between engaged and detached
forms of knowing. The esoteric perspective represents an interpersonal engagement between the interpenetration of all
things and the Buddhist practitioner, where genuine wisdom is found when the interconnectedness of theory and practice
results in a functional harmony between reality and the mind. Exoteric knowing highlights a gap between the knower and
the known, only bridged with the outside application of concepts. So while exoteric philosophy sees the importance of the
engagement between the knower and the known, it remains external and theoretical not being grounded in bodily practice
and ritual. While then noting the difference between theoretical doctrines and ritual practice, Kūkai’s esoteric viewpoint
stresses the basic inseparability of the theoretical and the practical, a viewpoint that is also fundamental to American
pragmatist thought. This presentation examines this unexplored methodological affinity between Kūkai and classical
American pragmatism emphasizing their shared commitment to an engaged epistemology. This mutual epistemological
perspective provides additional support for the philosophical status of Kūkai’s achievements. It further suggests that we
view pragmatism as a type of perennial philosophy rather than an exclusive American invention. Lastly, I argue that
Kūkai’s pragmatist critique of exoteric thought might be usefully applied to contemporary forms of pragmatism, which
only theorize rather than engage with human practices.

26
Session 8 (16:10-17:40 Japan Time) Room 2
Moderator: Boris Steipe, University of Toronto

Paper 1
The revival of Daoism: From the Laozi to contemporary neo-Daoism

Siqi Liu
King’s College London

Abstract
Daoism is a vital philosophical sect in Chinese philosophy, which can be traced back to the period before the Xia dynasty
(circa 2070-1600 BCE), when Fu Xi (circa 2600 BCE) created a diagram of xiantian bagua (primordial eight trigrams). In
accordance with different scholars’ interpretations and conversations with different philosophies, Daoism was later
developed into different schools, including the Lao-Zhuang theory, the doctrine of Huang-Lao, Jixia Daoism, religious
Daoism, Wei-Jin xuanxue, Chongxuan xue, neo-Confucianism, and contemporary neo-Daoism. Along its historical
development, Daoism was continually suppressed and revived. It is notable that its renaissance often took place under a
chaotic sociopolitical context, so that Daoist thoughts became a sort of emotional and mental sustenance. These periods
include the early Western Han dynasty (202 BCE – 8 CE) when the empire recovered from the destruction of wars, the Wei-
Jin and the Southern and Northern dynasties (220-589 CE) with continuous wars and changes of dynasties, and the late
Qing dynasty (1840-1912) with the invasion and colonization of Euro-American countries and Japan. This paper focuses
on the historical development of Daoist philosophy, from the Laozi in the epoch of Chun Qiu (770–476 BCE) – when a
complete Daoist philosophical system was established – to the twentieth century, when a group of scholars known as
Dangdai xin daojia (contemporary neo-Daoism) initiated a conversation between Daoism and Euro-American philosophy.

Paper 2
Kant, Nishida, and Mou on Intellectual Intuition: a transcultural philosophical debate
Tak-Lap Yeung
Academia Sinica

Abstract
As a pathway connecting Western philosophy to Eastern, Nishida Kitaro and Mou Zongsan have similarly taken the
challenge to reinterpret the meaning of intellectual intuition (intellektuelle Anschauung), through which the special
characters of Asian philosophical thoughts can clearly be revealed in the perspective of world philosophy. Nishida
believes that there is no clear distinction between intellectual intuition and perception. Intellectual intuition contains far
richer content than ordinary intuition, which can be seen from the artistic and religious experience. Intellectual intuition
transcends the dichotomy between subject and object and serves as a united basis for knowledge and morality in relation
to religion; Mou, on the other hand, believes that the acknowledgment of intellectual intuition is the common character of
Chinese philosophy in general. By such character, human beings can act as infinite beings in terms of morality and with
which they can stand for and live out their subjectivity. The above appropriations show not only the different approaches
to reinterpret Kant’s conception of intellectual intuition but also the unique way of modernization of Asian philosophy. The
former introduces a different understanding of consciousness and unconscious acts for a better understanding of living
phenomenon, the latter rebuild the foundation of Confucianism by Kantian argumentation of morality. In this paper, I will
not only shed light on their thinking on intellectual intuition but also evaluate their interpretations according to their
1
reception of Kant and phenomenology to show why they are not “just another Kantian”.

1 Asakura Tomomi, “On the Principle of Comparative East Asian Philosophy: Nishida Kitaro and Mou Zongsan,”, p. 7.

27
 Paper 3
Transformation of humanness and self in Zhuangzi and Kafka:
When one person’s dream is another man’s nightmare

Agne Veisaite
City University of Hong Kong

Abstract
This study aims at examining the parallels between Kafka’s “Metamorphoses” and “The Butterfly Dream” by Zhuangzi. Both
texts narrate human transition from a dream into a new state of self when a human perspective is challenged through the
complete bodily transformation into an insect. The main protagonist in the Metamorphoses, Gregor Samsa, wakes up to
find himself transformed into a repulsive, gigantic bug that marks his steady and fast decrease in mental and physical
capacities. The loss of a human body and especially language alienate him to the utmost sense – the new “less-than-
human” perspective brings no identity shift and no starting points of relating with those around him. Zhuangzi, on the
other hand, experiences a dream when the boundaries between self and non-human other (the butterfly) exceed into a
joyful state. The loss of Zhuangzi’s humanness results in the broader human experience and fluidity of selves.

Kafka’s Metamorphoses reflects the continuum of Greek ontology where monstrous or hybrid beings stand for the analogy
of curse/defect (often related with moral degradation), half-living (neither human nor animal), and represent entities that
must be overcome. While readers wait for Gregor’s (failed) rehabilitation into a human, Zhuangzi suggests a different
soteriological strategy – to become fully human is to transcend one’s humanness. Zhuangzi’s transformation within the
dream is a transformative experience at large – he is not the same Zhuangzi but a “more-than-human” spectrum of selves.
Gregor wakes up from his dream to remain the same Gregor but with a shrink experience. The spectrum of new
perspectives, instead of enriching his existence, makes him less human, and consequently, less of Gregor. The radical
transformations in Zhuangzi and Kafka suggest radically different notions on self and humanness at large – while
Zhuangzi wakes up with his experience enhanced, Kafka’s Gregor never wakes up from his nightmare.

28
Session 9 (17:50-19:20 Japan Time) Room 1
Moderator: Takaharu Oda, Trinity College

Paper 1
The Buddhist Seng Zhao’s Roots in Daoism: Ex Contradictione Nihil

Takaharu Oda, Trinity College

Jieyou Zheng, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Abstract
We will argue that deliberating on contradictions is newly appreciated in Daoism and Sanlun School, especially in the
Chinese Mahāyāna Buddhist case of Seng Zhao (c.374–414). Whilst using non-Chinese notations, our aim is to
reconstruct basic arguments to explain how Seng Zhao incorporated the theories of middle way, of no-thesis position, and
of two truths, into his interpretation of śūnyatā (void) in a Neo-Daoist way. First, from the Daodejing of Laozi, we
demonstrate a Daoist argument for contradictions:

∀ ∧
P1. x(φ(Ψx ¬Ψx))
∀ □ ∧
P2. x( (Ωx ¬Ωx) ⊃ Ωx∧¬Ωx)
⊃□
P3. φ(α) (α)
∀ ∧
C. x(Ψx ¬Ψx)

∧
Any contradiction (Ψx ¬Ψx) within the ultimate and universal set of Dao (x) is concluded by the inference of
conceivability (operator φ) and necessity (operator □ ). To this end, the contradiction (i.e. confirming the oppositions
such as beautiful/ugly, good/bad) invalidates the principle of non-contradiction. In our view, if a contradiction is inferred
in the argument above, then ECN (ex contradictione nihil, ‘from a contradiction no proposition follows’). When nothing is
deduced (ECN), everything is assumed to be limitlessly (or trivially) realised as a predicate of the Dao in the name of
‘nothing’, ultimate void. That is, if the contradiction is conceived (P1) and necessitated (P2) and there is pre-theoretic
□
implication (Ψφ ⊪ Ψ for P3), then from this consequence nothing does follow. This ECN will be defended in the Chinese
Neo-Daoist and Buddhist context, featuring the Buzhenkonglun of Seng Zhao.

Paper 2
Primitivist Violence? An alternative to Sarkissian’s argument on the darker side of Daoist Primitivism

Thaddee Chantry-Gellens
University of Warwick, UK

Abstract
The Primitivist section of the Zhuangzi 莊子 anthology offers a peculiar series of arguments on xing 性 (human nature) and
the way to deal with cultural artifices. Sarkissian proposed a literal reading of the more violent passages of the text and of
its calls to kill and cudgel the sages. This paper disagrees with this reading. In analysing the historical context of the
士
Primitivist’s writing, this essay contends that the sage the text presents corresponds to the shi . These gentlemen were
the symbol of the centralising, imperialistic tendencies that pervaded the political scene of the waning Warring States
period. Considering the Primitivist’s audience, it seems either counterproductive or self-defeating for them to argue for
actual violence to be exerted on the sages. Importantly, this violence does not fit the Primitivist’s objective of making
governance itself a subject of inquiry. Additionally, a literal reading of the calls to violent action introduces an
inconsistency within the Primitivist section itself, irrespective of its differences with the rest of the text. An analysis of
xing and of the image of webbed toes or forked fingers in Chapter 8 leads this essay to contend that the Primitivist calls
for a non-violent way to deal with artificiality in people’s nature. This is in contradistinction with the way Sarkissian reads
Chapter 10, to the extent that such an inconsistency would put in question the relevance of classifying these two chapters
as part of the same section. An alternative, non-violent reading of the calls to “cudgel” and “kill” the sages therefore
seems, at this stage, preferrable.

29
 Paper 3
Spontaneity in Kiyozawa Manshi’s Practical Dialectic

Dennis Prooi
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Abstract
Because of Shinran’s categorical rejection of self-power practices in favor of self-entrustment to other-power, the stress
Kiyozawa Manshi places upon the cultivation of the self seemingly places him at odds with Shin Buddhist orthodoxy. My
argument in this paper is that Kiyozawa incorporates at least one key feature of Shinran’s thought in his own practical
dialectic, namely that the impulse to cultivate the self occurs spontaneously ( 自然に ). This runs parallel to how Shinran
thinks the nembutsu ( 念仏 ) is not a practice but spontaneously chanted upon attaining an entrusting mind. The impulse to
self-cultivation in Kiyozawa and the nembutsu in Shinran are therefore both prompted by other-power. To build my
argument, I primarily make use of two texts in which a variant of the practical dialectic occurs: the 1898 December Fan ( 臘
扇忌 心靈の修養
) and the 1902 Cultivation of the Spirit ( ). The term ‘practical dialectic’ is my shorthand for the structure
of self-cultivation as it occurs in Kiyozawa’s later writings (that is, post 1898). It signifies the practical contradiction that
the self ought to cultivate the self, but cannot cultivate the self. Although this contradiction continually sets the self up for
failure, the impulse to cultivate the self occurs spontaneously again and again each time other-power has come to the
self’s aid. Instead of Shinran’s static rejection of self-power, Kiyozawa thus dynamically incorporates self-power practices
into other-power faith.

30
Session 10 (17:50-19:20 Japan Time) Room 2
Moderator: Zofia Anna WYBIERALSKA, Taiwan National Chengchi University

Paper 1
The construction of Guanxue (the Guan school) in the Qing dynasty

SONG Na
University of Goettingen, Germany
Abstract
Recently, historians, like Ong Chang Woei and Lu Miaw-fen, have challenged the conventional idea that Guanxue is one
regional Daoxue school Zhang Zai established in the Northern Song dynasty and continued to exist till the last imperial
days. By demonstrating how Feng Congwu of the Ming constructed the Guan school, they suggest that Guanxue is not a
self-evident concept but a category that has been constructed. They point out two critical aspects intertwined with the
construction: the rise of locality, Feng’s contemporary concern – the great dispute between Cheng-Zhu and Lu-Wang
schools.1
However, how Guanxue was constructed in the Qing era remains unknown. The intellectual enterprise of the Qing differs
from the Ming; briefly speaking, lixue was no longer at the center of the stage. Therefore, I examine the construction of
Guanxue against the Qing intellectual world. Three Guanzhong scholars with different theoretical backgrounds will be
discussed: the claimed Yangming adherents - Li Yong and Wang Xinjing, Cheng-Zhu follower- Li Yuanchuan. By
investigating their sequels to Feng’s Cases of Guanzhong Learning, their activities to level up the local tradition, and their
philosophy, my first aim is to present the characteristic of their construction and of Qing Guanxue: a combination of moral
philosophy and statecraft learning. Secondly, I would like to trace if and how the two critical aspects Ong and Lu detected
still matters for Qing scholars. The last goal is to respond to the image of the waning lixue of the Qing intellectual
2
enterprise, which former historians have already questioned.

Paper 2
Reexamining the Formation History of Kongzi jiayu

Kai Sum WONG

University of Arizona
Abstract
Kongzi jiayu, edited and commented by Wang Su (195-256), is a compilation of political discourse and anecdotes centering
around Confucius and his disciples. Since scholars from the tenth century onward tend to regard KZJY as a forged text, its
study had been largely neglected until the recent decade, when excavated manuscripts necessitated its reexamination.
While KZJY is often postulated as a product of gradual textual accretion, existing studies have yet to identify concrete
evidence to disentangle its formation process.

My investigation of the formation and redaction history of KZJY examines two types of evidence, that require further
scholarly attention: 1) The three postscripts of KZJY: Moving beyond the existing dispute over their authenticity, this study
turns to a rhetorical analysis, examining their structure, literary devices and narrative strategies. It suggests an anxiety of
orthodoxy, with which these materials prescribe to the later audience how they should read and understand KZJY in the
context of Han period intellectual history. 2) A comparison of textual sharing between KZJY and Liji: Previous research
has shown that KZJY contains extensive textual parallels with over twenty early Chinese compilations, with the largest
amount being between KZJY and Liji. By comparing these two texts, this paper sheds light on how the KZJY’s redactors
might have revised and transformed earlier writings, arguing for the existence of a multiplicity of textual layers within
KZJY. Together, these two lines of inquiries reveal not only the early evolution of KZJY, but also textual and scholarly
practices during the Han period.

Keywords: Kongzi jiayu Liji Textual accretion Intertextuality

1 Chang Woei Ong, Men of Letters: Within the Passes (Cambridge: Harvard University, 2008), 133-4; Chang Woei Ong, “Guan xue bian yu ming qing shan
xi shi da fu de ji ti ji yi” ),” in Culture, Memory and Chinese society, ed. Guozhong He (Kuala Lumpur: Ma da Zhong guo yan jiu suo, 2008); Miaw-fen Lu,
“The Rediscovery of Zhang Zai in the Ming-Qing transition”, Ming Qing studies 2010, Napoli, p83-119.
2 For example, Miaw-fen Lu, Cheng sheng yu jiating renlun: zongjiao duihua mailuo xia de mingqing zhiji ruxue (Taibei, Lianjing ,2017); Chang Woei Ong,
“Wang Xinjing xu Guanxue bian yu Kangqian zhiji Guanzhong lixue chuantong de jiangou”(Taibei: Intellectual history, no.5, Lianjing, 2016).

31
 Paper 3
RECURSION, EMERGENCE, NETWORK –– ETHICS FROM CLASSICAL JAPANESE AESTHETICS

Yi Chen, Heidelberg University

Boris Steipe, University of Toronto
Abstract
The geopolitics around the East Asian seas have been shaped in historical cycles of isolation and expansive dominance.
Remarkably, those two modes are a fundamental paradigm of molecular evolution as well, where they are prerequisites for
the appearance of vital variation. However, reflecting on the intermediate scale, that of the individual self, makes it clear
that the recursive nature of the self at the core of this system cannot be ignored. The self is an emergent feature of its
encounters and cannot be reduced to an individual node of a relationship (in isolation) nor can it realize itself through
superiority (as dominance). The proper abstraction is a network in which the operative units are emergent phenomena of
its edges. This view readily generalizes to both the molecular scale, as well as the scale of societies, and it is a question
for philosophy to formulate the possibilities. In constituting such a network, trust plays a key role, and like many aspects
千利休
of the ethical “good”, trust too is a belief that is founded in aesthetics, not logic. Sen no Rikyū’s ( ) ground-breaking
re-invention of chanoyu (茶の湯 ) is itself an example of East Asian cultural confluence, and we take the architecture of his
Tai-an (待庵 ) as an example in which a ritual system transforms such aesthetic principles into ethics that unfold, and
structure societies.

32
December 11, 2021 (Japan Time, Day 2)
Session 11 (10:10-11:40 Japan Time) Room 1
Moderator: David W. Johnson, Boston College

Paper 1
Saving the Appearances: Reconsidering the Buddhist Doctrine of No-Self

David W. Johnson
Boston College

Abstract
Buddhism holds out the possibility of a transformative experience that can alter one’s conduct, lifestyle, and worldview.
But there may be good reasons to decide against taking up the texts and practices of this religious tradition. I suggest
that the Buddhist denial of a fixed and enduring self gives us one such reason. I contend, with Richard Sorabji, that the
self—among other things—is “an embodied individual whose existence is plain to see.” I support the claim that the self
appears in the world by drawing on comparable arguments from moral realism that attempt to save the appearances in
ethical experience. The reality of this self enables us to account for essential phenomena such as moral accountability,
the hopes for oneself that motivate actions, and attachments to the particular selves of others in bonds of love and
affection.
On the other hand, a Buddhist practitioner is likely to contend that the truth of the no-self doctrine is an aspect of reality
that is revealed only by exercising a particular kind of sensitivity. On this view, what one comes to know can sometimes
depend on who one is or becomes (e.g., a chef, a psychologist, an art critic). I explore whether this connection between
acquiring a self and acquiring a truer way of seeing the world can be applied to the domain of transformative religious
experience as this is understood in the Zen tradition.

Paper 2
Buddhist Education for Omniscience

Seongho Choi
Seoul National University and University of Leipzig

Abstract
The Indian Yogācāra Buddhists established five fields of science of the Buddhist practitioners: The science of Buddhist
doctrine, the science of logic, the science of grammar, the science of medicine, and the science of arts and crafts. This
Buddhist division of knowledge into separate areas is mainly for educational purposes (Griffiths 1990, 99). The Buddhists,
especially those who aim to be the Bodhisattva, should master these five fields for helping suffering people liberated.
Interestingly, some texts relate the mastery of the five sciences to omniscience. In the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra (MSA), this
mastery means the "awareness of all the modes of appearance of all dharmas".
The textual evidence demonstrates that this statement of the MSA implies a change of the Buddhist technical term
"omniscience". The early Buddhist texts define omniscience as knowing everything, and the Buddha is omniscient.
However, the later Yogācāra texts relate this term to the knowledge for achieving Buddhist liberation and altruism. This
limitation probably happened due to the competition among Indian religions: Buddhism competed with other religions, and
the Buddhists should have attained the knowledge for winning this competition. As a result, omniscience changed from a
divine nature to a qualification of the established Buddhist practitioner in some contexts.

33
 Paper 3
Tosaka Jun: Laughter in a Time of Tragedy 　
Bradley Kaye
Niagara University

Abstract
A provocative thesis is forwarded in Tosaka Jun’s brilliant trilogy of essays “Laughter, Comedy, and Humor,”: “Superb
dialecticians such as Hegel, Marx, and Lenin were invariably superb critics. These superb critics were the virtuoso
discoverers of paradox and masters of irony and humor; and it is also probably true that they were superb theoretical
writers of comedy. It is characteristic of established theoreticians that, along with a skill for metaphor, which is one level
of dialectical talent, they excel at banter.” In staying true to Tosaka’s thesis that truth is Shizen Tetsugaku Teki (Self-
Nature in Philosophical-Process) there is a dialectical process grounded in material conditions. Tosaka’s theses on
comedy adds to the common notion of revolution as mass-action into resistance as a multitude of micro-political
transactions. Is it that the political signifier that presented itself as “communism” in the twentieth century, the terror of
which left millions dead, was the first tragic phase of communism, and perhaps by ushering in a new phase of communist
ontology as “farce” where the terror of fascism was felt like a tidal wave, perhaps it was the overdetermination of the
tragic interpretations of power expressed through state apparatuses, rather than the hermeneutics of comedy as rendering
possible a communism of the absurd. Jun may have been channeling the thought of Marx in the 18th Brumaire, “what
appears first as tragedy, returns as farce,” with the violence of fascism bleeding into the state forms of communism,
twentieth century endured the manifestation of tragic-communism, and now, reminding ourselves of the brilliant
introduction to Anti-Oedipus offered by Michel Foucault, which echoes the sentiment of Tosaka Jun’s work on laughter:
“Do not think that one has to be sad in order to be militant, even though the thing one is fighting is abominable. It is the
connection of desire to reality (and not its retreat into the forms of representation) that possesses revolutionary force.”
Tosaka Jun’s work on the philosophy of laughter, comedy, and humor seems to appear at a particularly auspicious
moment in Japanese history. It was not a joyful time.
From 1930-1933, over 30,000 left-dissidents were arrested in Japan by the Ministry of Home Affairs, and by 1936, the
censorship laws were so strict that direct criticism of the government meant facing incarceration, and so any published
criticisms were difficult if not nearly impossible. Written from September 1932 through May of 1933, and published in
1936, Tosaka Jun’s “Laughter, Comedy, and Humor”provides us with a significant philosophy of laughter as a political
weapon for cultural resistance.
The political question regarding the rise of fascism seemed to be a particularly poignant one that Tosaka Jun’s work
located in the rise of “liberalism” during the Taisho period (1912 - 1926), which opened up post-Meiji Japan to cultural
pluralism where this pluralism allowed religious fundamentalism to flourish as a choice among any other choice, by
emphasizing family values, nationalism, and loyalty to the emperor, the fascist ideology seized upon ressentiment as a
reaction to the innumerable choices offered by opening consumer choices. As the modernization process increased the
wealth and power of a newly formed bourgeois class, the consumer choices offered by Japan entering the world-market
opened up new choices, and a fascist reactionary ultra-nationalism seized upon this open cultural pluralism. Seizing the
chance to appear as one kind of political choice as if in a kind of equal and free competition among other kinds of political
thoughts, each of which are presented to consumers as if they are all the same and equal. What is concealed is the
violence of fascism, the ‘backside.’

34
Session 12 (10:10-11:40 Japan Time) Room 2
Moderator: Tyler Neenan, University of Chicago Divinity School

Paper 1
Women Who Knew Ritual

Hwa Yeong WANG

Georgetown University

Abstract
Recent philosophical studies on Confucianism and ritual have paid attention, though still to only a limited extent, to issues
regarding women and feminism. When a Confucian ritual is discussed in relation to women, two types of arguments tend
to be advanced: one claims that Confucian ritual practices are fundamentally and thoroughly gendered and biased against
women; the other argues for some hidden true spirit or idea behind the ritual that shows it is not necessarily gendered, and
on this basis seeks to demonstrate how the practice can be reinterpreted and reinvigorated, providing for a feminist
future. These different strategies demonstrate that there is a wide gap between the conception and practice of Confucian
ritual and lives and wellbeing of women. This gap calls out for philosophical examination and analysis and such study
should begin by focusing on the ritual understanding and practice of Confucian women. This paper aims to present women
who knew and practiced Confucian ritual. I will present several cases of women who understood and practiced ritual. I will
demonstrate that the Joseon dynasty (1392-1910) offers a rich resource that enables us to understand how women
understood and carried out Confucian rituals. Such women not only understood the theory and practice of ritual, but also
explored the normative foundation of ritual according to pattern-principle, often in ways that challenged the orthodox
tradition. By analyzing the writings of two Korean women neo-Confucian philosophers–Im Yunjidang and Gang
Jeongildang– as well as on others– Queen Dowager Jaui and Madam Song–this paper will provide a way to listen to these
unheard women’s voices on ritual theory and practice.

Research Interests: Asian and Comparative Philosophy, Confucian Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy

Paper 2
Reverence and Reverential Respect in Early Confucian Thought

Ellie Hua WANG

National Chengchi University

Abstract
敬
Reverence (jing ) is recognized as a core virtue in early Confucian thought, as well as in its developmental origin and
foundation, classical works from the Western Zhou. In this paper, I provide an analysis of this virtue and its connection
with ren 仁 禮 and li , the two central ideals in early Confucian thought. I argue that the core conception of reverence
involves five aspects: a feeling of awe toward something transcendent, a recognition of one’s place and responsibilities
dictated by this transcendence, an awareness of one’s limitations and anxiety toward fulfilling one’s responsibility, a
disposition and capacity to feel shame when one fails, and reverential respect toward various objects. Moreover, due to
the fading of the idea of religious heaven and the humanistic movement in early Confucianism, the conception of
reverence also transforms. Specifically, the normative basis of reverence changes to the relational harmony in ren and li,
and reverential respect thus develops a distinctively mutual and relational form, involving what Darwall calls “recognition
respect”.

35
 Paper 3
Aesthetic and Practical Significance of Dasan Jeong Yakyong's Theory of Human-nature-as-taste

Dobin Choi
University of Iowa

Abstract
In this essay, I investigate the aesthetic and practical significance of Dasan’s theory of human-nature-as-taste. First, I
introduce Dasan’s view of human nature as taste, which Dasan developed through his re-investigation of the Confucian
Classics. I argue that Dasan understands human nature through our taste perceptions and preferences. Second, I attend to
the philosophical connection between human-nature-as-taste and moral practice. Given that Confucian moral philosophy is
founded on an account of human nature, we can reasonably assume that Dasan’s theory of human-nature-as-taste is
closely associated with his account of moral practice that accords with the tradition of “Practical Learning” during the late
Joseon period. I argue that Dasan’s view of human-nature-as-taste offers a better explanation of agents’ obligation of
moral practice than do the conventional neo-Confucian accounts of human nature as the Principle. By separating the
metaphysical and epistemic grounds of human nature, Dasan’s theory can strengthen agents’ motives for moral practice
based on their aesthetic and moral preferences.

36
Session 13 (12:40-14:10 Japan Time) Room 1
Moderator: LAI Chi Fung, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Paper 1
From “Revere Heaven” to “Will of Heaven”:
Different argumentative strategies between Chapters 26, 27 and 28 of the Mozi

LAI Chi Fung

The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Abstract
天
Heaven (Tian ) is one of the key concepts in Mohist philosophy, which represents the highest ethical model. In the core
chapters of Mozi, “Will of Heaven” Triplets, which included Chapters 26, 27 and 28, presented the main arguments of
Heaven of Early Mohism. In this special Triplet structure of Mozi, the three chapters are distinguished as shang ( ) , 上
中 下
zhong ( ), and xia ( ), the interpretations of the relationship between the three chapters directly affect almost all
studies on Early Mohism and Mohist philosophy. This article proposes that there are several stages of the formation of
Mohist Mottos and evolvement of the concepts related to Heaven. These stages are shown in the “Will of Heaven”
Triplets. From “Revere Heaven” (Zun tian 尊天 ) to “Will of Heaven” (Tian zhi天志 ), the intention of Master Mo Di (墨翟
)
transform into intention of Heaven (Tian yi天意 ), and finally“Will of Heaven” became the highest moral norm of Mohist
philosophy. This article examines the similarities and differences in features between the three chapters in order to
establish that each chapter is using a unique argumentative strategy to manifest the “Will of Heaven”.

Research interests:
Traditional Chinese Text, Pre-Qin Philosophy, Mozi 《墨子》, Xunzi《荀子》

Paper 2
The sex-balanced Neidan self-cultivation in the light of feminist philosophy

Zofia Anna WYBIERALSKA

Taiwan National Chengchi University

Abstract
The main focus of this paper is the philosophical investigation of an idea of gender-balanced inner cultivation, a spiritual
and moral practice that emerged and developed in medieval China between the 8th and 12th century as a part of Daoist
Internal Alchemy School neidanpai ( 内丹派 ). The author proposes a cross-cultural study inspired by western feminist
philosophy's approach and aims to concentrate on the ontological and epistemological reasons for sex differentiation
within Neidan self-cultivation methods together with historical and cultural reasons for gender differentiation in Chinese
Confucian society of Tang and Song periods. The purpose of this analysis is to understand better the importance of sex-
specification in Daoist life-nurturing practices yangsheng shu (養生術 ) and see it as an example of a culturally unique idea
of “sex-balanced equality” xingbie pingheng ( 性别平衡 ). The following term can serve as an interesting alternative to the
contemporary globalized term of gender-equality xingbie pingdeng (性别平等 ) and rise new questions about sex or gender
dynamics and identity of a person. The philosophical examination of sex-specific Daoist Internal Alchemy cultivation
methods aims to provide a tool for uncovering our limitations and challenging our fixed standards, which can help us
arrive at a bigger clarity in our words and thoughts while conducting comparative studies nowadays.
Keywords: Daoism, Neidan, feminist philosophy, gender-equality, sex-balanced equality

37
 Paper 3
《管子》の礼法思想
Masayuki Sato (佐藤將之)
National Taiwan University(國立臺灣大學)

Abstract
『管子』という書は、中国戦国時代の様々な思想の展開を知る上で、重要な概念や論説を含む文献として、
過去半世紀にわたって注目されて来た。しかし伝統的にその内容が「法家」と分類されたため、特にその政治
思想についてはいわゆる「前期法家」、あるいは「斉法家」という分類枠内で考察されることが多かった。本
稿は、《管子》が実は理論性の高い「礼治」思想を持っている点に注目し、その政治思想の中心を「礼法」を
両軸とする多層的な思想として把握できないかという可能性について検討してみたい。
発表言語：中国語か英語

38
Session 14 (12:40-14:10 Japan Time) Room 2
Moderator: Rika Dunlap, University of Guam

Paper 1
Fafang’s Interpretation of Yogācāra Learning

Yu SANG
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Abstract
After the Opium Wars, China experienced an unprecedented social transformation and was forced to enter its modern
period. This caused traditional Chinese culture – including Buddhism – to be obliged to seek renewal so as to be
compatible with the new social environment. During the first half of the twentieth century, in order to make Buddhism
survive and develop under the influence of “modernity”, some Chinese Buddhists (and Buddhist scholars) tried to explain
Buddhist philosophy in a way that could demonstrate its adaptability to a modern world. Fafang 法舫 (1904-1951) was a
prominent Chinese Buddhist scholar-monk who made a great contribution to the development of Buddhism in the twentieth
century. His Weishi shiguan jiqi zhexue 唯識史觀及其哲學 (The History of Yogācāra and Its Philosophy), published in
1950, can be said to be a reflection of his effort to demonstrate the compatibility of Buddhist thought with Western
philosophy. In this work, Fafang used modern terminology to elucidate Yogācāra learning. He claimed that what Yogācāra
Buddhism explores is precisely what Western philosophy talks about, and identified some Yogācāra concepts and theories
with certain Western philosophical ideas. This paper centres on Fafang’s thought in this work, and examines how he, in
response to the challenge of Western modernity, creatively interpreted Yogācāra concepts and theories by relating them to
Western philosophical ideas. It will deepen our understanding of how “modernity” influenced the development of Chinese
Buddhism during the first half of the twentieth century.

Paper 2
The Metanoetics of Zarathustra: Tanabe Hajime’s Engagement and Response to
Nietzsche and the Overcoming of the Victim-Victimizer Paradox

Dennis Stromback
Independent Scholar

Abstract
The influence Nietzsche had among the early Kyoto School thinkers is quite well-known. As a response to Nietzsche’s
proclamation of the “death of God,” and the problem of will-to-power and eternal recurrence, Nishitani Keiji, for instance,
would advance his own Übermensch through a non-metaphysical, non-theistic conception of overcoming. Freed from the
metaphysical presupposition of Western rationality, Nishitani’s view of the “self that is not a self” is not a nihilistic
proposition of a will-to-power as the Nietzscheans would likely theorize it, but rather an opportunity to expose the roots of
the primordial will attached to the experience of nihilism and its concomitant acts of annihilation. In a similar fashion, we
find a Mahāyāna transcendence of the self in Tanabe Hajime’s philosophy of metanoetics that addresses the Nietzschean
dilemmas but through the critiques of both Kant’s notion of “radical evil” and Nishida’s concept of basho. In the pursuit to
correct both Kant’s notion of “radical evil” on grounds that it is not radical enough and Nishida’s failure to give an
adequate account of the ethical within the context of the social community, Tanabe calls for an absolute critique that aims
at a religious self-awakening through a surrendering to Other-power. For Tanabe, this conversion can only occur through
the realization that evil is the tendency within subjectivity to absolutize itself in the name of freedom. After we let go of
our clinging to the logic of non-contradiction expressed within self-power, there is an emerging unshakable faith that will
continuously experience the wondrous power through which negation is transformed into an affirmation of the standpoint
of absolutely nothing. The transformation of the heart that comes from Tanabe’s philosophy of religion is a metanoetics
of Zarathustra that posits a non-philosophical overcoming of any inclination to dominate self and other generated from
within the death-and-resurrection of life. This research note will investigate Tanabe’s engagement and critical response to
Nietzsche’s discussion of “will-to-power” and standpoint of nihilism that underlies the victim-victimizer paradox from the
standpoint of a “philosophy that is not a philosophy.”
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Session 15 (14:20-15:50 Japan Time) Room 1
Moderator: Verena Xiwen Zhang, Tunghai University

Paper 1
Think with your heart, feel with your mind – The role of xīn 心 in
moral decision making in Classical Chinese philosophy

Lisa Indraccolo
Tallinn University and University of Zurich

Abstract
In Classical Chinese philosophy there is abundant evidence of a widespread, ongoing debate on the functions and the
reliability of the senses, and the input provided by sensory and emotional knowledge in the cognitive and decision-making
processes. In this landscape, xīn 心 (“heart,” “heart-mind”) plays a primary role. (Kasulis et al. 1993, Wu 1996)
The heart has a biological dimension – it is an actual internal organ situated in the thoracic cavity – but it is also
classified as one of, and the pre-eminent among, the five senses, as a sensory organ in its own right (Geaney 2002).
情
Moreover, it is also the seat of “emotions,” “natural dispositions” or “inclinations” (qíng ) (Virág 2017). Finally, it is (the
seat of) the human faculty of discernment, and in particular it has the capacity to exercise the intellectual operations of
知 辯辨 思
“knowing” (zhī ); “discriminating” or “distinguishing” (biàn / ); and “deliberating” (sī ). It is the “operative center”
that acquires, organizes, and actively re-elaborates information, providing integrated evaluations based on different kinds
of knowledge. (Csikszentmihalyi 2004; Yu 2009; Slingerland 2019)
The present paper explores the multidimensionality of the heart as a gnoseological faculty and as the ultimate cognitive
centre of the individual, and especially as the centre of moral decision-making. It further addresses issues such as the role
played by external circumstances and stimuli in determining one’s ethical evaluations and the ensuing course of action,
and the ultimate source of and limits to the moral agency of the self.

Paper 2
How to Understand the Concept of Junzi （君子） ?:
A Reflection on the Research of Ancient Confucianism for the past Century

LIN, Yan-ting
National Taiwan University
Abstract
The concept of junzi, is usually translated to noble man or superior man, in the Confucian classics is an important
keyword to present many different themes. Since the importance, of course, many scholars had discussed the texts about
junzi in classics. At the same time, scholars grasp the meaning and argument they understand, to construct the Confucian
philosophy theory they think. Basic on the situation we could notice, through understanding the research and discourse
about the concept of junzi in the past studies might find out the precondition and the position behind different studies.
On the assumption, the thesis would discuss at first the past studies about junzi in many different studies of philosophy
and intellectual history, especially at the ancient Confucianism. In general, it might have three main features: first, most
focus on Confucius and argue the Analects as the core thought and the foundation of junzi; second, most emphasize the
moral meaning in the concept of junzi and others must basic on the morality; third, only pay attention to the argument
from the term junzi instead of to discuss the concept of junzi. Although these three features do not must appear in all past
studies, indeed including in some studies and discourse.
Through to carefully discuss the features of different research, it could provide a comprehensive observation about the
theoretical characteristics between different scholars. On the comprehensive understanding, we could further discuss and
find out the preference or bias in the accustomed view about ancient Confucianism studies.

Research Interests: Chinese Philosophy History, Ancient Confucian Philosophy, Confucian Intellectual History, Chinese
Classics, the Bamboo Texts
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 Paper 3
Confucius’ wisdom: a liberal reading of the Analects and its conservative implications

CHEUNG Wai Lok

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Abstract
Humanity obligates respect. For anyone x and anyone y, x acted on full respect for y if and only if x intended all and only y
仁
intended that x intended. Confucian humanity (ren ), described with the rule of not doing to others what one does not
want to be done to, is understood with acting on mutual respect. Given interpersonal similarity, if I do not want a given act
和
be performed on me, so would not the others. Confucian harmony (he ), such that it is possible of a pluralistic society,
is understood with each citizen acting both on self-respect and mutual respect. Even if we shall have wanted different
禮
things respectively of ourselves, we may pursue them respectively. Propriety (li ), whose sentiments are often cultivated
with rituals, threatens some liberalism because of its paternalism; we follow the rituals without having, beforehand, better
understood what they are, let alone having alternatives. Some rituals limit one’s present freedom, but its liberal
understanding is constituted by the better future liberty one will have had. Filiality (xiao 孝 ) grounds citizens with a
Confucian conservatism because, however much some liberalism obligates individual impartiality with welfare
maximisation, social relationship makes a difference to its interaction, and thus it is on mutual respect that each citizen
permits others to care more for their own friends and family. The social order thus constituted contrasts a chaos through
rebellion out of disrespect with hate. A sagely wrath at evil is then demonstrated.

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Session 16 (14:20-15:50 Japan Time) Room 2
Moderator: Robert Sinclair, Soka University

Organized Panel
Merging Seas and Troubled Waters

Panel Abstract
In The Problem of Japanese culture (lecture delivered in 1938, published in 1940), Nishida Kitaro suggests that Japan is
no longer an isolated island of Japan in the East Sea, but a global Japan. Nishida’s view of culture is influenced by
Leopold von Ranke (1795-1886), who suggests that the Roman Empire united the Mediterranean region and large
swathes of Europe to form a cohesive world. In the history of Japan, Japanese culture has never become a global
culture. Japan’s task is not a matter of choosing either the Orient or the Occident, but to see
how Japan can contribute to future world history. We may say that Nishida’s project is beyond East and West; it is an
ultimate attempt to erase this demarcation. The problem of Nishida is that he accepts Ranke’s view unconditionally, and
believes Japan can become the new global leader, at least the leader of the East Asian world. In this panel, we will
discuss the problem of “merging seas and troubled waters” from three different perspectives. Fabrizio Bozzato will
discuss the transoceanic paradigm of converging and merging seas, encapsulated in renaissance Venice’s expression
“Let us cultivate the sea!”. Andrew Tam Ka Pok will discuss the peninsula self-consciousness of Hong Kong in its
Maritime and Continental Fudo. Cheung Ching-yuen will discuss Miki Kiyoshi’s experience in the Philippines during WWII.

Paper 1
“Cultivating the sea and leaving the land alone”:
Historical flows and civilizational currents in merging seas

Fabrizio BOZZATO
Ocean Policy Research Institute of The Sasakawa Peace Foundation

Abstract
In The temporality of historical flows can be understood through the paradigm of oceanic circulations. Historical
processes are not linear and tunneled but circulatory and global, like oceanic currents. The oceans comprise the largest
ecosystem on earth and, for millennia, have served as liquid highways of human mobility and migration, trade and war,
civilizational encounter and conflict, technological progress and economic development. Therefore, the oceanic expanses
should not be seen as daunting barriers, but bridges of winds and streams that generations before ours have crossed
sailing along routes set by the stars and marked by islands and ports. Today’s globalization process has ushered humanity
in a transoceanic paradigm in which the seas tend to converge and merge. Similarly to renaissance Venice, a society
convinced that its prosperity and glory were maritime, today the imperative for big powers is “to cultivate the sea.” In
particular, rising powers like China and India have ingrained in their historical memory the consequences of abandoning
the sea for the shore: political and economic decline. Thus, doctrines are being conceptualized and meta narratives spun
to guide the maritime expansion of nations and civilizational blocks, and present it as benign: Free and Open Indo-Pacific,
21st Century Maritime Silk Road, Integrated Maritime Policy, etc. In the coming decades, the integration of the Eurasian
and Rim American Pacific blue belts will merge and synergize the world’s oceans into blue infinity loops plastically
changing our planet’s geopolitical and geoeconomic environments. In the resulting circulatory and super-fluid oceanscape,
a sense of collective destiny will emerge and, hopefully, consign jingoistic manifest destiny to history.

Keywords:
merging seas; transoceanic paradigm; blue infinity loop; circulatory oceanscape

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 Paper 2
The Peninsula Self-Consciousness of Hong Kong in its Maritime and Continental Fudo

Andrew TAM Ka Pok

University of Saint Joseph, Macao

Abstract
In Hegel’s Lectures on the Philosophy of World-History, nations are divided into three geographical categories where the
cultural self-consciousness is manifested: highlands, valleys, and coasts. Hegel argues that nations only manifest their
freedoms in the limitlessness and boundlessness of the sea. In Jijinron, Uchimura Kanzo further argues that the people of
mountains, plains and sea have very different cultural characteristics. Hegel’s observation is acknowledged by Watsuji
Tetsuro, who argues that cultures manifest their self-consciousness in Fudo ( 風土 , climate and land), although Watsuji
disagrees with Hegel’s arbitrary judgement that Asian only regarded the sea as the limit of their continental territory.
Furthermore, in The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World, Lincoln Paine demonstrates that Asian maritime
adventures have significantly influenced world history. Paine also remarks that “Maritime History” is not only about the
sea but also rivers and canals linking the inland to the ocean.
Based upon the philosophical and historical studies mentioned above, this paper argues that Hong Kong manifests a
special “Peninsula Self-Consciousness” in its Maritime and Continental Fudo: Hong Kong is linked by Pearl river to both
the mainland and the sea, making Hong Kong a place linking China the Continental nation and other Maritime nations like
Britain and the United States. The Chinese term for the peninsula is 半島 bandao, which literally means “half-island”—it is
neither an island nor an inland, but an in-betweener. I argue that such half-ness brings several characteristics to Hong
Kong: (1) cultural interconnectedness, (2), inclusiveness, and, (3) freedom.

Keywords:
Hong Kong, Macao, Hegel, Watsuji Tetsuro, Uchimura Kanzo, Lincoln Paine

Paper 3
Miki Kiyoshi and the Philippines

CHEUNG Ching Yuen

The University of Tokyo

Abstract
On 2 January 1942, Japan occupied the Philippines. Two months later, Miki Kiyoshi was sent to the Philippines as officer
for the army. In “The Oriental Character of the Filipinos” (published in Kaizo in 1943), Miki claims Filipinos are fatalists,
and they see fatalism based on a sense of emptiness. Their unique philosophical wisdom can be expressed in the Tagalog
word Bahala na, which means something like the Chinese saying mei fa zi. Believing in a theory of destiny, they are patient
and quiet, and indifferent to disasters and suffering. While Miki praises the national character of the Philippines,
especially they like to keep clean, he believes that the Filipino people are naturally industrious but have become lazy
because of the climate. He writes, for example, “The heat of the land tends to make people lazy. But there is also great
wealth in this land, with all kinds of food available all year round, and they don’t have to work to get it, they don’t have to
worry about what will happen tomorrow.” From today’s standard, there is no doubt that that Miki has a cultural or racist
bias against the Philippines. However, we can still re-examine Miki’s claim that Filipinos do not care about death. If it is
the case, how about Japanese and Miki himself?

Keywords:
Miki Kiyoshi, Japanese philosophy, the Philippines, death

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