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Chuang-tzu(莊子)’s Writing and Ecological Imagination

  • The Journal of Chinese Cultural Studies
  • 2018, (40), pp.1-28
  • DOI : 10.18212/cccs.2018..40.001
  • Publisher : The Society For Chinese Cultural Studies
  • Research Area : Humanities > Chinese Language and Literature > Chinese Literature > Chinese Culture
  • Received : April 17, 2018
  • Accepted : May 16, 2018
  • Published : May 30, 2018

Jung, Sun-kyung 1

1이화여자대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Human beings continuously form and expand the relationship with others not because they are biological beings but because they are socio-cultural beings. In the ecosystem of the earth on which we live, the awareness of life is also coupled with the relationship between human and human and the relationship between human and non-human. This paper focuses on ‘relationship’ in the humanities study. Nowadays when human alienation and ecological unequal problem are raised urgently with the rapid development of science and technology, I analyze the meaning and examine the implications for the present with the ecological consideration through the research on Chuang-tzu(莊子)’s writing. Furthermore, I would like to escape from anthropocentric values and expand the horizon of the awareness of contemporary people to the values of the community of life in the systematic relationship with others. Nature is not an object to develop or to conquer but the root of life and the order of universe including human beings. We can seek the solidarity with nature by deriving the value conversion to the position of the community of life escaping from the intellectual prejudice. Because human beings are beings to change the society and to create new values with their own will. In this paper, I examined three issues on the ecological imaginations inherent in the Chuang-tzu(莊子)’s writing, paying attention to ‘relationship’. The writing of ‘Equal(平)’ is the understanding of the value of life and the method of existence of the individual. The writing of ‘Communication(通)’ is the understanding of the expansion of life with an acknowledgement the continuity or multiplicity of life. The writing of ‘Enjoyment(遊)’ is the way of enjoying life and the ideal status of improving the individual with working of life in harmony. The research on the issue of the subject and the object and the issue on the alienation and the coexistence reminds the contemporary people of the value of ecological coexistence and gives the opportunity for an humanistic alternative of complementary life.

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