Ieong Weng si*

Abstract

Previous studies on Wei-Jin metaphysics were mostly based on the theory of reconciling Confucianism and Taoism. This paper will revisit the relationship between Confucianism and Taoism by analysing the representatives of Wei-Jin metaphysics - Wang Bi and Guo Xiang’s view of sages. Contemporary interpretation of the two isms is expected to be re-examined in this paper by analysing original texts and research studies on related topics. This paper also attempts to review the relationship between Confucianism and Taoism from the perspective of Scholasticism and Nature, and also from the views of sages, so as to discuss the suspense of studying Wei-Jin metaphysics based on the theory of reconciling Confucianism and Taoism.

Three major directions will be employed in the discussion of this paper, they include:

1. to re-discuss the way how Wang Bi and Guo Xiang position Confucianism in the relationship between itself and Taoism
2. by interpreting Wang Bi and Guo Xiang’s works on sages to understand their theory regarding sages, self-cultivation, and the social ideal state achieved by self-cultivation; in this way to clarify the distinction between the ideology of Confucianism and Taoism, which will further affirm the two metaphysicians’ argumentation on the relationship between Confucianism and Taoism
3. to analyse the way how Wei-Jin metaphysicians interpret the ideology of Taoism by the method of “expressing feeling by literary language”, so as to re-evaluate the significance of reconciling Confucianism and Taoism in times

Keywords: Wang Bi, Guo Xiang,sage, Reconciling Confucianism and Taoism,Expressing feeling by literary languages