Reversal Is the Movement of the Way: The Deleuzian Reconceptualization of Daoist Paradox

Abstract

This paper aims to unravel the underlying resonance between the Daoist Way and the Deleuzian idea of an aleatory point. The Daoist Way is explicated as the zhong dao 中道 or the Middle-Way, viewed in terms of interactivity between such Daoist-seeming polarities as you/wu (determinate/indeterminate) and Yin and Yang. The first part of the paper approaches the Daoist Way in terms of the concept of zhong 中 or the “Middle”, to explore the functionality of the Way and to comprehend the Chinese philosophical concept of the Middle, using the Deleuzian lens of the “aleatory point”. The “Middle” here is understood as process, change, or flux, whose volatility is not representational or repeatable. It is this irrepresentability that renders the concept of the “Middle” comparable with the Deleuzian notion of aleatory point. The second part of the paper probes the most fundamental paradoxes revolving around the Daoist Middle-Way to unveil the relationship between the Way and Chaos and to deconstruct the traditional misconception of Yin/Yang dynamics as unity.