The Renewal of Western Philosophy: On Heidegger’s Expropriation of Lao Tzu’s Thought Through Xiao Shiyi

Abstract

ABSTRACT In Martin Heidegger's late philosophical works, he showed great interest in translating Tao Te Ching and expropriating Lao-Tzu’s thought with the help of Xiao Shiyi, who was a translator and philosopher from China. Influenced by Xiao Shiyi, the relationship between “Tao” and “saying” originated from Lao-Tzu’s thought has become the key point to trigger Heidegger’s philosophical thought on the development of “Ereignis” in his late period. First, Heidegger expropriated three dimensions of “Tao” and linked them to construct the relationship between “way” (Weg), “saying” (sagen) and “Tao” (Ereignis). Second, Heidegger described the tripartite relation of “Weg,sagen, Ereignis ” as Lao Tzu did with “way, saying, Tao”. However, unlike some researchers have asserted, Heidegger was not just copying or translating Lao Tzu’s thought in the common sense; instead, he defined translation as a philosophical way to awaken and renew the old metaphysics in western history. Heidegger shows a unique strategy of absorbing Chinese thought and providing another way of entering the philosophical path with the perspective of Chinese thought. Therefore, the influence of Xiao Shiyi has gone far beyond the simple “stimulus–response” model.