Title

The Background of Juelang Daosheng’s Zhuangzi Ti Zheng《莊子提正》

Author

Hsieh, Ming-yang  

Genre

Article  

Pages

135-168  

Download

PDF

Language

Chinese  

Key words

the Ming loyalists, Juelang Daosheng 覺浪道盛, Fang Yi-zhi 方以智, Zhuangzi Ti Zheng 莊子提正, Tuo-Gu 托孤  

Abstract

        Juelang Daosheng 覺浪道盛(1592-1659), a Ming loyalist monk straddling the Ming and Qing Dynasties, proposed an unusual thesis—the Tuo-Gu Theory 托孤說 in the studies of Zhuangzi in a chapter entitled “Zhuangzi Serves as the True Orphan of Yao and Confucius” 〈正莊為堯孔真孤〉 in his book Zhuangzi Ti Zheng《莊 子提正》. The thinker Fang Yi-zhi 方以智(1611-1671) inherited this theory and wrote Yaodi Pao Zhuang 《藥地炮莊》. Although there has been much discussion among contemporary scholars about the meaning of the Tuo-Gu Theory, the exact time when, the location where, and the reasons why Zhuangzi Ti Zheng was written remain a mystery. This essay explores this puzzle and verifies that Daosheng wrote the book in the fifth year of Shunzhi’s 順治reign (1648), after consulting Cao Tai-Yue 曹臺岳, a member of the Bu-er Club 不二社, while Daosheng was staying at Wuxiang Temple, Dang-tu County, Tai-ping Prefecture 太平府當塗縣無相寺. Once this background is clarified, it becomes evident that, besides its intention to integrate Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism, the Tuo-Gu Theory should be read as an argument for the Ming loyalists.