Laozi And Zhuangzi's Theory Of The Dao In The Perspective Of Consummation

The Dao,universally taken as the kernel of the philosophy founded by Laozi and developed by Zhuangzi,stands at the top level for the traditional Chinese philosophy to reach.Academically developed connotations of Laozi and Zhuangzi's “Dao” have been diverse owing to differentiated approaches,resulting in two different researchers,one concentrating on its ontological,universal and disciplinary meanings while another on absolutism,transcendence,abstraction and idealism.The major achievements of these studies lie in the clarification of Dao's literal senses on which later discussions were based,some going deeper while others only annotating between lines.They have left endless perplexities for later researchers,however.This thesis discusses the approaches of returning the ultimate state of existence of the Dao,or an experiential vision that help us understand how the Dao functions.Chinese philosophy is different from the western philosophy in that the former emphasizes on synthesis,consistence,entire,totality,intuitivism and personal experience,as well as the structural certainty and flexibility of the Dao,which suggests a new way of thinking---thorough structure or thorough thinking,or even integrate harmony.This is the way the traditional Chinese philosophical thinking annotates the world,which has,however,rarely been discussed.This paper is to apply the structure to explain Laozi and Zhuangzi's Dao and clarify the correlations between the original Dao and all beings,namely unifying the essential and functional,apparent and abstruse,as well as the one and all.The paper consists of the following chapters:Chapter One annotates the longitudinal structure of the ontological Dao consummating the features of “eternality”,“none-being” and “being” while clarifying the correlations between the Dao and all beings;Chapter Two annotates the horizontal structure of the ontological Dao converting the states of “meaning”,“appearance” and “depiction” while discussing the correlations between the Dao and all beings from the perspective of holography,natural and inactive(wuwei)and harmonious features manifested;Chapter Three discusses the essences of dividing but impartial,unified but immixed correlations that suggest no difference between the body and function,the reviewed and the hidden parts between the ontological Dao and all beings.andChapter Four discusses the efforts or approaches Laozi and Zhuangzi applies when attempting to reach the ultimate state of the Dao through “sudden enlightenment”,by means of “restoring” and “un-differentiating” respectively,to the ultimate “harmony”.