Abstract:

The talk explores the original meaning of time through an examination of the philosophy of time in the Daode Jing. Permanence and transience are separated into two different realms in Plato, which, contrary to a hasty critique, is nonetheless significant in that it depicts our common existence. As a contrast, I would argue that in early Daoist philosophy time is the unity of permanence and transience, which I call the sameness of them. The sameness of permanence and transience is explored through the perspective of being and nonbeing in the Daode Jing, wherein the interrelatedness of time, nature and self is revealed. The unfolding of the sameness is the course of nature (ziran 自然) itself.  The meaning of time will be illustrated by a close reading of some essential chapters in the DDJ and Zen poems.

Biography:

Jing Liu is an Associate Professor and the Director of Interdisciplinary Studies in Classics at Department of Chinese Literature at Sun Yat-sen University (Zhuhai). She earned her PhD at Department of Philosophy at University of Hawaii in 2018. Her areas of specialization are in Daoism, Buddhism, and Comparative Philosophy. Her areas of competence include Feminism, Environmental Philosophy, Continental Philosophy (Existentialism and Heidegger) and Political Philosophy.

Her PhD thesis “Nature Naturing: Ziran in Early Daoist Thinking” questions the meaning of nature and explores the concept of ziran 自然 (nature, self-soing, self-going) in early Daoism in order to offer us an alternative to the objectification of nature under modern metaphysics.

She has published peer reviewed journal articles both in English and Chinese as well as book chapters. Her writings focus on Daoism, also covering important questions in Buddhism, the Yijing, Ecofeminism and so on.