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The Laozi has been translated into Western languages hundreds of times over the past two hundred years. It has become the book of Chinese philosophy most widely appreciated for its philosophical depth and lyrical form. Nevertheless, very little attention has been paid to the way in which this book was read in China. This book introduces the reader to a highly sophisticated Chinese way of reading this Taoist classic, a way that differs greatly from the many translations of the Laozi available in the West.The most famous among the Chinese commentators on the Laozi—a man appreciated even by his opponents for the sheer brilliance of his analysis—is Wang Bi (226–249). Born into a short period of intellectual ferment and freedom after the collapse of the Han dynasty, this self-assured genius, in the short twenty-three years of his life, dashed off two of the most enduring works of Chinese philosophy, a commentary on the Laozi and another on the Book of Changes.By carefully reconstructing Wang Bi's Laozi text as well as his commentary, this book explores Wang Bi's craft as a scholarly commentator who is also a philosopher in his own right. By situating his work within the context of other competing commentaries and extracting their way of reading the Laozi, this book shows how the Laozi has been approached in many different ways, ranging from a philosophical underpinning for a particular theory of political rule to a guide to techniques of life-prolongation. Amidst his competitors, however, Wang Bi stands out through a literary and philosophical analysis of the Laozi that manages to "use the Laozi to explain the Laozi," rather than imposing an agenda on the text. Through a critical adaptation of several hundred years of commentaries on the classics, Wang Bi reaches a scholarly level in the art of understanding that is unmatched anywhere else in the world.

Wang, Bi, --- Laozi. --- Lao-tzu. --- 老子. --- Taoism. --- Daoism --- Taouism --- Religions --- Tao

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The relationships, both historical and philosophical, among the Zhuangzi’s Inner, Outer, and Miscellaneous chapters are the subject of ancient and enduring controversy. Liu marshals linguistic, intertextual, intratextual, and historical evidence to establish an objectively demonstrable chronology and determine the philosophical affiliations among the various chapters. This major advance in Zhuangzi scholarship furnishes indispensable data for all students of the great Daoist text. In a lengthy afterword, Liu compares his conclusions with those of A. C. Graham and addresses the relationship between the Zhuangzi and the Laozi.

S12/0600 --- China: Philosophy and Classics--Zhuangzi --- Laozi. --- Zhuangzi. --- 莊子. --- Chuang-tzu. --- Lao-tzu. --- 老子. --- Zhuangzi. Nanhua jing. --- Laozi. Dao de jing.

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Laozi. --- Bianque --- Lao-tzu. --- 老子. --- Yi jing. --- Huainan zi. --- Huangdi nei jing. --- Medicine, Chinese Traditional --- Manuscripts, Medical --- Incunabula as Topic --- methods --- Huainanzi

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Many of the brightest Chinese minds have used the form of the commentary to open the terse and poetic chapters of the Laozi to their readers and also to develop a philosophy of their own. None has been more sophisticated, philosophically probing, and influential in the endeavor than a young genius of the third century C.E., Wang Bi (226–249). In this book, Rudolf G. Wagner provides a full translation of the Laozi that extracts from Wang Bi's Commentary the manner in which he read the text, as well as a full translation of Wang Bi's Commentary and his essay on the "subtle pointers" of the Laozi. The result is a Chinese reading of the Laozi that will surprise and delight Western readers familiar with some of the many translations of the work.

Wang, Bi, --- Laozi. --- Wang, Pi, --- Wang, Pʻil, --- Wang, Bee, --- Ō, Hitsu, --- 王弼, --- Wang, Fusi, --- Wang, Fu-ssu, --- 王輔嗣, --- Lao-tzu. --- 老子. --- S12/0500 --- China: Philosophy and Classics--Laozi and Taoism (incl. Daodejing) --- Taoism. --- Daoism --- Taouism --- Religions --- Tao --- Laozi. - Dao de jing --- Wang, Bi, - 226-249