The Dao Prevails In Two Domains,Regarding Void And Tranquility As The Principle

This article main text on the basis of "the liezi note",we hope through the analysis on how to construct a "heart" as the center of the thought system of void and tranquility,combs the inner structure of Zhang Zhan's thought of void and tranquility and its relationship with the metaphysics of Wei and Jin Dynasties,and explores the unique philosophical meaning implied by Zhang Zhan's thought,and to provide necessary supplements to further enrich the positive value connotation of the metaphysics of Wei and Jin dynasty in the history of Chinese philosophy.As the last metaphysician in the Wei and Jin Dynasties,while responding to the issue of “how sages experience non-being” which previous scholars could not solve,Zhang put forward creatively the idea that “a sage concentrates his spirit to follow the Dao” and constructed the dual system of void and tranquility according to the relationship between the Dao and humans and that between body and spirit.In this ideological system,Zhang's doctrine of void and tranquility is not the negative nothingness.Instead,by putting forward a serious of concepts such as “void”,the “ultimate void”,the “extreme void” and “void and tranquility”,it tries to develop the merits and discard the demerits of predecessors' thought based on the combination of Confucianism and Taoism,and to solve the heatedly discussed metaphysical issues such as the “distinction between being and non-being”,the “debate between the fundamental and the incidental”,the “debate between speech and meaning” and the “argument between the cardinal guides as well as constant virtues and nature” and the issue of the time of the relief from the transmigration of life and death in the Eastern Jin Dynasties.It also eliminates people's attachment to life and death,being and non-being,fortune and misfortune from multi-aspects of the noumenon of the milliards of things and human survival in order to realize the settlement of human beings in void and tranquility in the “tangible domain”,and consequently to build a good social order and a peaceful order to settle down individuals' “mind-hearts”.In terms of the problem of how to live in void and tranquility,Zhang puts forward the thought of “two domains of the Dao and behaviours” and constructs the doctrine of void and tranquility centering on the “mind-heart”.According to the logical relationship between the “domain of the void” and the “tangible domain” that are reciprocal in an endless cycle,we can divide Zhang's doctrine of void and tranquility into three stages: starting from the “domain of the void”,following the “tangible domain”,and returning to the “domain of the void”,in order to analyze the correlations between void and tranquility and the Dao,between the “property shared by the milliards of things” and the “unique intrinsic nature of each thing”,between returning to the “noumenon” of the milliards of things and that of humans.At the stage of starting from the “domain of the void”,from the “debate between being and non-being” to the “self generation of the fundamental and non-being”,Zhang puts forward that the “domain of the void” plays the role of a domain rather than the function of formation in the process of generation from non-being to being of the milliards of things.In this stage,Zhang demonstrates how to solve the problem of the “debate between being and non-being” with the idea of void and tranquility.Zhang puts forward the idea of self generation of the fundamental and the void by combining Wang Bi's doctrine of “valuing non-being” and Guo Xiang's doctrine of “things generate and develop spontaneously and independently”.In the logic approach of developing the “two domains” by following the path of non-being?being?void and tranquility and reaching the “domain of the void”,Zhang demonstrates the generation of “non-being” in the “domain of the void” from “non-being” to “being” and the movement of the Dao in the “domain of the void”.At the stage of following the “tangible domain”,Zhang maintains that the settlement of human beings in void and tranquility in the “tangible domain” contains the two aspects of individuality and society.He insists that the good social order regards “adhering to cardinal guides as well as constant virtues and following nature” as a principle;human void and tranquility includes three aspects of “adhering to one's nature and destiny”,“preserving one's health in void and tranquility” and “achieving the significance of life according to one's nature”.According to Zhang,the key for human beings to settle in void and tranquility is to cultivate one's “mind-heart”;only in the condition of no mind,no idea,no speech and no intention,one can make his “mind-heart” as empty as the “extreme void” and reach the domain of void and tranquility—“a domain without intention or knowledge”.In other words,the “domain without intention or knowledge” is the domain of void and tranquility that goes beyond the distinctions between speech and meaning,being and non-being,life and death,fortune and misfortune.His logical path is: the void and tranquility of Heaven and Earth—the wholeness of things in void and tranquility—human nature of void and tranquility and achieving the significance of life according to one's nature—directing to the domain of “knowing nothing” in which there is “on mind,no idea”,“no intention,no speech”.At this stage,Zhang mainly solves the metaphysical issues of the “debate between the fundamental and the incidental”,the “debate between speech and meaning” and the “relationship between cardinal guides as well as constant virtues and nature” in the Wei and Jin Dynasties.At the stage of returning to the “domain of the void”,Zhang mainly explains the different views of life and death and different approaches of returning to one's essence adopted by ordinary people and sages due to their different distances from the Dao and elaborates the issues such as what makes a sage,what a sage does,whether ordinary people can become sages,how ordinary people and sages return to their essense and go back to the “domain of the void”.Zhang thinks and solves the issue of the relief from the transmigration of life and death which was the issue of the time in the Eastern Jin Dynasty,points out the “domain of the void” is the place where people settle down while returning to the fundamental and void after “the decay of body and extinguishment of spirit”,and explains how a sage “concentrates his spirit to follow the Dao” and “connects the internal with the external through meditation”.Zhang's idea of “a sage concentrates his spirit to follow the Dao” solves the difficult issue of “how a sage experiences non-being” in the Wei and Jin Dynasties and develops Guo Xiang's doctrines of “sagely inside and kingly outside” and “transcending the secular world in order to enter the secular world”.He also points out the spontaneous nature of a sage that regards nature as the principle and “functions in a hidden way” is the sagely nature,that is,the nature of the Dao.In general,Zhang Zhan's idea of "void and quiet" has transformed the metaphysical ontology of Wei Jin metaphysics into the inner "heart"..However,Zhang's doctrine of void and tranquility does not really solve key issues such as how to build a good social order,how humans live in void and tranquility,and how ordinary people “transcend the commonness and become sages”.His construction of metaphysical thought is only a theoretical effort which has not solved the issue of the time of the “relief from the transmigration of life and death” thoroughly in practice,but his doctrine of void and tranquility does interpret comprehensively the main issues such as void and tranquility and the Dao,the generation and returning to the “void” of the milliards of things and humans.Instead of "meditation",he tried to melt the "no argument" in the Wei and Jin Dynasties,and tried to construct and realize the ideal of social stability and the two order of individual inner peace,which had important enlightenment for the exploration of the development of the contemporary individual and society.This has important implications for the exploration of contemporary individual and social development.he gets inspiration from the idea of “emptiness” in Buddhism,replaces “darkness” with “void”,eliminates the difference between being and non-being and puts the “debate between being and non-being” into an end which had been discussed since the Wei and Jin Dynasties and blurs the boundary between “life and death”.However,there are some inadequacies in zhang zhan's thought of void and tranquility,such as insufficient argument,such as insufficient argument,whether the person can conform to the “DAO” or the ordinary man is sacred.But in contrast,Zhang Zhan's positive meaning of "empty and quiet" is worth exploring.Zhang Zhan's thought of " void and tranquility " has a more comprehensive interpretation of the relationship between the imaginary quiet and the Tao,the natural endowment,and how all things and people return to the realm of the Tai Xu.It has played a positive role in promoting the development of later Buddhism,Taoism,metaphysics and the development of Neo Confucianism.Therefore,Zhang Zhan's thought of emptiness has made Zhang Zhan's thought unique in the history of philosophy.