In Search of the Dao: Process Cosmology, Epistemology, and Ritual in the Xunzi and the Xici zhuan

Abstract

This paper investigates, in a comparative fashion, the common quest for the Dao by authors of the Xunzi and the Xici zhuan of the Book of Changes to come to terms with political and social crises in Warring States China. Since the two texts adopted both similar and divergent methodologies in their search of the Dao, this paper first examines their similarities in terms of process cosmology, epistemology, and practice of ritual, and then analyzes the divergences in their approaches to the Dao. In particular, the practice of ritual is unveiled as the marker of the Dao within the philosophical framework of both texts, albeit with differing connotations. In the final analysis, this paper discusses both the underlying pragmatic applications of the two approaches in the nuanced philosophical insights they provide into the coordination of human beings with the processes of the cosmos, and their implications in understanding what A.C. Graham calls “the disputers of the Dao”.