Zhang Zai's Philosophy of Qi

Qi 氣 (“vital energy”) is one of the most important concepts in Chinese philosophy and culture, and neo-Confucian Zhang Zai (1020-1077) plays a pivotal role in developing the notion. An investigation of his philosophy of qi is not confined to his particularity, but sheds light upon the notion of qi as it is understood within Chinese and East Asian thought in general. Yet, his position has not been given a thorough philosophical analysis in contemporary times. The purpose of this book is to provide a thorough and proper understanding of Zhang Zai’s philosophy of qi. Zhang Zai’s Philosophy of Qi: A Practical Understanding focuses on the practical argument underlying Zhang Zai’s development of qi that emphasizes the endeavor to create meaningful coherence amongst our differences through mutual communication and transformation. In addition to this, the book compares and engages Zhang Zai’s philosophy of qi with John Dewey’s philosophy of aesthetic experience in order to make Zhang Zai’s position more plausible and relevant to the contemporary Western audience.

The book offers some fresh interpretative (and translational) perspectives on the Zhèngmeng and Zhang’s thought., Kim Jung-Yeup’s book (based on the author’s Ph.D. thesis) brings a refreshing and innovative understanding of Zhang Zai’s philosophy of qi as a dynamic pluralism of the human experience. This new interpretation challenges the accepted substance-monistic and materialistic understandings. Kim’s new voice is a longed-for necessity. . . . Kim brings back to the front the significance of morality, too often neglected with regard to Neo-Confucianism., There is no concept more fundamental to Chinese cosmology generally than qi, and yet there is no term more persistently misunderstood. In Zhang Zai's Philosophy of Qi: A Practical Understanding, Jung-Yeup Kim uses a close revisonist reading of Zhang Zai to challenge the standard monistic interpretations of a putative homogenous ontology with a dynamic organic pluralism that not only accounts for both the continuity and complexity of the content of the human experience, but also for the capacity of human beings to optimize the creative possibilities of this experience to live significant lives., This illuminating and creative work builds upon current scholarships of Zhang Zai's philosophy and the variety study of qi, and arrives with refreshing and innovative ways to construct Zhang Zai’s vertical and horizontal development of qi, rigorously unfolding a few debatable philosophical issues in a Neo-Confucian period. This book will offer a new impulse for fruitfully navigating Chinese and comparative philosophy and a deeper understanding of polarity, correlativity, and organic unity of qi. It is a timely and valuable contribution to the field.

Jung-Yeup Kim is assistant professor of philosophy at Kent State University.