Publication details
Wang Bi, Heshang gong, Xiang er: Různá čtení jednoho textu v tradičních komentářích k dílu Laozi.
| Title in English | Wang Bi, Heshang gong, Xiang er: Different Readings of the Same Text in Traditional Commentaries on the Laozi |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2006 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Religio : revue pro religionistiku |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Philosophy and religion |
| Keywords | Laozi; Daodejing; commentary; interpretation |
| Description | The article analyses one of the central ideas of the Laozi (the Sage as an ideal ruler) as it is viewed in three traditional commentaries to the text. It focuses on two interrelated aspects of the idea: self-cultivation and political competence. All three commentaries view political competence as a result of self-cultivation. The article analyses differing interpretations of this idea in these three texts. It is demonstrated that however important the political competence may appear in the commentaries, in fact the implied reading of the text does not focus on politics but on self-cultivation, however differently viewed. The same focus is explicit in the Xiang er commentary. It is concluded that the Laozi's political message was in fact not the main motivation for these readings of the text. Instead, the commentaries read the text in context of differing concepts of self-cultivation, specific for the different social environments where these commentaries were written. |