英文摘要
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Based on Yu Jiaxi's two readings of Ning Wuzi, this article explores his discourse on people and characters by drawing upon the present author's previous studies on the two images of Ning Wuzi-”being a wise fool” and ”bracing oneself for difficulties.” As the author argues in previous studies, the two images together form a generic contrast to Zhu Xi and other Song Confucians. In this article, the author embarks a further investigation to trace the links between two transitions: from ”bracing oneself for difficulties” to fangzhengbue (straightness and righteousness), and from ”being a wise fool” to yushiweishe (following the crookedness of the world). By way of reconstructing these links, the article would like to extend previous discussions to Yu's discourse on fangzhengbue and yushiweishe as embedded in his Commentaries on Shishou Xinyu. In doing so, it also intends to show Yu's interpretive strategies and vision of values.
From Yu's interpretative remarks in Commentaries on Shishou Xinyu, whether taken separately or as a whole, we can discern his basic interpretative stance-he investigated Wei-Jin culture from the perspective of Song Confucians' intellectualism. Such investigation, as argued in this article, provides a fruitful occasion for us to critically reflect on methodological issues concerning those scholarly approaches that forge links between people/characters and interpretations of classics. All in all, this article resituates the two prototypes of beings, fangzhengbue and yushiweishe, within the contexts of philosophical thinking and cultural critique, an approach that the author has adopted in previous studies of characters and thoughts.
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