Preface

Summary

Wisdom. Sapientia. To know with insight and to act accordingly. When Europeans have been at a loss to describe Chinese civilisation, when they are not certain that it has either philosophy or religion, they fall back on the word ‘wisdom’. There is something about the concept ‘wisdom’ that makes it the representation of an integrated whole, an all-encompassing unity that cannot be divided, a seamless web, if we wish to use the metaphor. And there is also something about wisdom that gives it as well a practical dimension, making it more than theory.

China appears to accept this designation. Throughout its history, Chinese civilisation has shown utmost veneration for the wise man, the sage (sheng-jen / shengren). Indeed, the one Chinese best known to the world is the figure of Confucius, to his own people the sage par excellence. And the Chinese mind has been characterised more by intuition than by analysis. There has always been the desire to know the whole of things, such as the meaning of life (Confucianism) and of the universe (Taoism), and to act accordingly. Even when Buddhism entered China, the Chinese reacted to its manifold variety of doctrines by harmonising the contradictions. They thereby created what has been called Chinese Buddhism, with its strength lying in its harmony of opposites, and its concern for praxis.

I plan to probe the origins of the Chinese tradition, to examine the matrix of its wisdom, and to see how the various parts have grown and become merged into a complex whole.