Zhang Zai · Philosophy
Zhang Zai’s critique of Buddhism and Daoism: their teachings of emptiness (sunyata) and non-being misread the Supreme Void, treating the world as illusion or as sprung from nothing. Against them he argues that the world is fully real, and that to withdraw from it is to mistake the Way.
You learned that Zhang Zai, who had studied Buddhism and Daoism deeply before returning to Confucianism, argued that their doctrines of emptiness and non-being misconstrue the Void (which is really full qi), sever substance from function, and license a withdrawal from the world that betrays the Way. Explain his metaph…
Leads to Mencius.
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