王船山氣化生命論研究 ── 儒家氣學、道教內丹學及佛教唯識學的跨界域激盪=A Study of Wang Fuzhi’s Treatise on the Transformation of Qi and Life: A Transdisciplinarity Inspired by the Melding of the Confucian School on Qi, Daoist Inner Alchemy and the Buddhist Yogochara
The Wang Fuzhi’s treatise on the transformation of qi and life interprets the nature of life from the point of view of qi. The treatise is different from modern molecular biology, the former derives from the macroscopic scale of life and defines life from the aspect of the entire universe, but the latter derives from the microscopic scale and defines from the DNA. The treatise is formed with the melding of the neo-Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism. It is based on the Confucian school on qi and absorbs the exercise techniques of inner alchemy and the reincarnation concepts of Yogochara. Therefore, besides emphasizing the theory of mind that neo-Confucianists focus on, the treatise also puts emphasis on the human physiology and the ultimate destination of human beings. These new elements compose the unique content of the treatise. The treatise contains two fundamental principles: one is the principle of entirety and the other is duality. The former principle is distinct from the principle of subject that most of the modern neo-Confucianism researchers adopt as the basis of their studying. The treatise not only accepts the principle of subject, but also pays more attention to the entirety that is constructed from subjectivity and objectivity. The latter principle originally comes from quantum mechanics; the author borrows the term from it to describe the characteristics of qi, two poles of everything is compatible to each other; therefore, the dichotomy can support each other. The principle believes qi meld heaven with human, subject with object, body with mind, individual with community, and birth with death. The second chapter explains the Wang Fuzhi’s particular insights into human life. At first, he analyses the divergence among human, plants and animals, and recognizes human’s moral ability deriving from the superior structure of human body and mind. To some extent, the concept is related to biology. He thinks that there is interaction between body and mind, so the behavior of a body can influence the quality of its mind. In other words, he puts forward a unique body theory that human body can cultivate its mind. Furthermore, the ability of mind is the result that comes from the collaboration of every single part of a body and the perception of mind originates from all the physiological organs and tissues. According to these concepts, he proposes a mind theory t
