Ancient Chinese Texts Research Articles

Conceptual blending, somatic marking, and normativity: a case example from ancient Chinese

Abstract One purpose of this article is to support the universalist claims of conceptual blending theory by documenting its application to an ancient Chinese philosophical text, and also to provide illustrations of complex multiple-scope blends constructed over the course of conceptual blending by suggesting that, in many cases, the primary purpose of achieving human scale is not to help us apprehend a situation, but rather to help us to know how too feel about it. This argument is essentially an attempt to connect the insights of conceptual blending theorists with those of neuroscientists such Antonio Damasio who argues for the importance of somatic states and emotional reactions in human value-creation and decision-making.

Oriental Approaches to Masculine and Feminine Subtle Energy Principles

According to ancient Indian and Chinese texts the subtle energy (prana or chi) flows through several thousand anatomically indistinguishable channels or meridians (nadis). Three channels are especially important (ida, pingala, and sushumna). The ida and pingala channels correlate with left and right uninostril breathing, respectively. Like yin and yang, they are considered to represent the masculine and feminine principles present in all creation irrespective of sex. From this perspective these principles are assumed to be present simultaneously in persons of both sexes. This suggests that any sex-specific effects of uninostril breathing may be associated with sex-based physiological differences, not with 'masculine' and 'feminine' attributes of the channels (and the corresponding nostrils).

Synchronicity and the I Ching: Jung, Pauli, and the Chinese Woman

The capacity of the human mind to discover and invent both imagistic analogies and mathematical structures to represent reality is strikingly juxtaposed in the ancient Chinese text of the I Ching. Its emphasis on containing all sorts of opposites and its plastic appeal to multi-valenced experience has kept it alive through millennia and across cultures. Jung was introduced to its Taoist wisdom by the Sinologist Richard Wilhelm. The Nobel Laureate quantum physicist Wolfgang Pauli became familiar with its philosophy and mathematics through his reading of Schopenhauer and Leibniz. In their correspondence about the nature of the unconscious and synchronicity, Pauli and Jung also exchanged their musings on Pauli's dreams of a Chinese woman, her role in his psyche and his scientific theories(1).

Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen: Nature, Knowledge, Imagery in an Ancient Chinese Text (review)

Reviewed by: Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen: Nature, Knowledge, Imagery in an Ancient Chinese Text Aerin Caley Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen: Nature, Knowledge, Imagery in an Ancient Chinese Text. By Paul Unschuld. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2003. Pp. ix + 520. $75.00. As a student in my final year of formal training in Zen Shiatsu, I am looking to my future. While I will soon begin my practice, I also intend to continue my studies, particularly with respect to the history of Chinese and Japanese medicine. My biggest [End Page 130] challenge will be that I don't understand either of these languages, leaving me at the mercy of translators, in a field where meaning is often dependant on nuance. I was, therefore, very interested to read Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen: Nature, Knowledge, Imagery in an Ancient Chinese Text by Paul Unschuld. Although it is considered a seminal text, the Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen is not a unified manual of medicine but the accumulation of writing and experience that predated its compilation. In his efforts to translate this book, Unschuld attempted to take into consideration the broad variety of influences that would affect its intent and meanings. The body of work that is known by this name underwent many revisions through the years, attaining the form we recognize today approximately twelve hundred years ago. Even working within the original language this presents several challenges. The first is that language and meanings change, and this sometimes obscures the intended connotation even for a scholar conversant in the original language. Unschuld also took into consideration the fact that the book had many editors, each working within a different social, political, and religious milieu. Medical knowledge grew with each generation, based on and referring to the writings of the time, many of which are no longer extant but are assumed to have been available to readers of the Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen. If one were to postulate that this work was perfectly understood in Chinese, Unschuld would still face a challenge in his attempt to translate it into English. There are concepts in Chinese that have no equivalent in English and therefore present a challenge for someone trying to remain true to the original intent. He explains that this difficulty begins with the title itself, which is normally given as "The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Chinese Medicine." Although Huang Di is usually translated as Yellow Emperor, there are implications of the word emperor that are not part of huang, and, in fact, Unschuld prefers to leave the word untranslated, as there is no English option that does not alter the intent of the original. Like most important books, the Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen cannot be fully grasped in one reading. I expect to revisit it many times throughout my life, as my experience in life and my practice leaven my understanding. I truly believe that texts such as Unschuld's will be an important part of my developing perception. Knowledge that is examined divorced from its formative circumstances loses the heart of its meaning, and Unschuld has made important progress in revealing the keys to the essence of the Su Wen. Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen: Nature, Knowledge, Imagery in an Ancient Chinese Text is a dense but fascinating read. Unschuld has done a good job of providing the information needed to be clear and thorough without getting bogged down in what are probably intriguing details. The layperson in Chinese history and textual analysis will likely find it occasionally rough going, but I found it an inspiration to learn more. Overall, I believe Paul Unschuld's work to shows him to be a worthy disciple of Wang Bing, one of the Su Wen's editors, who wrote: "I hope to elucidate the message of the sages and to make their mysterious sayings shine. They should resemble the stellar constellations hung up on high.... [T]hey should resemble the crystalclear water in a deep spring where scales and shells can be distinguished." [End Page 131] Copyright © 2005 University of Hawai'i Press

Review Of Clinical Features Of Malaria

Malaria has had a major impact on the life and economies of affected populations since antiquity. Ancient Assyrian, Chinese and Indian religious and medical texts made references to intermittent and seasonal fevers. Hippocrates in 500Bc first described the clinical features of malaria and some of its complication. Association of fever with stagnant water and swamps, led to the drainage of such waters by the Greeks and Romans in the 4th, 5th and 6th century BC. In the early 17th century, the “Peruvian Bark” or Jesuits Powder” was discovered to be of value in the treatment of certain fevers. The tree was later to be named cinchona from which quinine was extracted in 1820. Such fever was known as the agues in England, in Italy as mal'aria and in France as Palludisme due to their association with the fetid air of marshlands. Malaria was an effective obstacle to the colonization of the African heartland by the European Powers in the 16-19th centuries; till quinine chemoprophylaxis was introduced in 1850. Significant progress was made in the understanding of malaria with the description by Laveran of malaria parasites in blood film in 1880. Ronald Ross in 1891 demonstrated the development of malaria parasites in mosquitoes. Patrick Mansion in a series by field experiments confirmed the transmission of malaria by the bite of Anopheles mosquitoes in 1900. The worldwide distribution of malaria peaked by the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th country. Apart from the tropics and subtropics, it was common in the temperate lands including the USA, Europe, Northern Eurasia and Asia. In the early part of the 20th century larvicidal and natural methods were engaged to control vector breeding. The ravages of malaria during the World Wars, and the scarcity of quinine stimulated research into discovery of synthetic antimalarials. This resulted in the introduction of pamaquine in 1924 (Germany), mepecrine 1930 (Germany), chloroquine1934 (Germany), proguanil 1944 (England) amodioquine 1946, primaquine 1950 and pyrimethamine in 1952 (USA). DDT, (dichlorodiphenyl –trichloroethane ) with residual insecticidal action was discovered in Switzerland in late 1940 raising great hopes for the prospect of global malaria eradication. In 1957 the world health organization launched the Global Malaria Eradication Campaign. The programming went on for the next 15 year with excellent results in North America, Europe, Former USSR, part of Asia and Australia. The result in tropical countries was less dramatic. Malaria continues to be a major cause of human morbidity and mortality. It is the world's largest killer of all parasitic diseases and a major public health problem. Although malaria has been eradicated in most temperate zones, it still affects 40% of the world population living in endemic zones of the tropics and subtropics namely; Central and South America, Hispaniola, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian subcontinent, South East Asia, Middle East and Oceania [Fig. 1]. Current malaria facts and figures are daunting: worldwide, 2.4 million people are at risk of malaria, with 300 to 500 million people affected annually. Malaria results in 1 to 3 million deaths annually with 90% of the deaths occurring in sub-Saharan Africa. Most of the deaths are of under 5-year old children. In Africa, malaria is the leading cause of under 5 mortality as it kills an African child every 30seconds. It makes up 10% of the disease burden, contributing 30% to 50% of inpatient admissions and 50% of outpatient consultation. Malaria accounts for 40% of public health expenditure and reduces the annual GDP by 1-4%. Key Words: malaria, severe disease, resistance Orient Journal of Medicine Vol.16(2) 2004: 38-58

Huang Di Nei Jing Su We^n: Nature, Knowledge, Imagery in an Ancient Chinese Medical Text

The Journal of Alternative and Complementary MedicineVol. 10, No. 1 Book ReviewsHuang Di Nei Jing Su We^n: Nature, Knowledge, Imagery in an Ancient Chinese Medical TextPublished Online:30 Jun 2004https://doi.org/10.1089/107555304322849156AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB Permissions & CitationsPermissionsDownload CitationsTrack CitationsAdd to favorites Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited byInvestigations from a TCM perspective Volume 10Issue 1Feb 2004 To cite this article:Huang Di Nei Jing Su We^n: Nature, Knowledge, Imagery in an Ancient Chinese Medical Text.The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.Feb 2004.191-196.http://doi.org/10.1089/107555304322849156Published in Volume: 10 Issue 1: June 30, 2004PDF download

When Cyberfeminism Meets Chinese Philosophy: Computer, Weaving, and Women

Through a theoretical discussion of cyberfeminism especially focused on Donna Haraway and Sadie Plants texts this article traces the interrelationship of women weaving computer and technology from the point of constructing a of technology. This herstory is woven together by threads of small stories such as A da Lovelaces biography Charles Babbages creation of Difference Engine the fables of weaving in mythologies tales of weaver in poetry etc. I try to overcome the dualist framework implicit in Sadie Plants work by contrasting the vision of cyberfeminism on the representation of the digits with that of ancient Chinese philosophy. Unlike Plant who sees zero and one--the only digits in the digital form of computer--as representative of the binary system in western civilization ancient Chinese philosophical texts offer multiple possibilities embodied in the interaction between the ones and the zeros. As this is the first ever attempt of its kind I have chosen only a couple of texts to begin with--Lao Zi and l- Ching or Book of Change. (authors)

The Termshenming- Its Meaning in the Ancient Chinese Thought and in a Recently Discovered Manuscript

In-depth research of the scope of meaning of the term shenming is essential for the better understanding of several important ancient Chinese texts and the ancient Chinese thinking. One of the recently discovered texts, in which the term appears in cosmogonical context, has made it more obvious for us. Altough former studies threw light on several meanings of the term, I will demonstrate that on the basis of the ancient Chinese written sources (including both transmitted and recently discovered texts) we can explore even more extensively the scope of meaning of the term shenming, and we are able to determine some of its previously unknown connotations.

When Cyberfeminism Meets Chinese Philosophy: Computer, Weaving, and Women

Through a theoretical discussion of cyberfeminism, especially focused on Donna Haraway and Sadie Plant ’s texts, this article traces the interrelationship of women, weaving, computer, and technology from the point of constructing a ’herstory’ of technology. This ’herstory’ is woven together by threads of small stories, such as Ada Lovelace’s biography, Charles Babbage’s creation of Difference Engine, the fables of weaving in mythologies, tales of weaver in poetry, etc. I try to overcome the dualist framework implicit in Sadie Plant’s work by contrasting the vision of cyberfeminism on the representation of the digits with that of ancient Chinese philosophy. Unlike Plant, who sees zero and one—the only digits in the digital form of computer—as representative of the binary system in western civilization, ancient Chinese philosophical texts offer multiple possibilities embodied in the interaction between the ones and the zeros. As this is the first ever attempt of its kind, I have chosen only a couple of texts to begin with—Lao Zi and IChing or Book of Change.

Feng Shui: Therapy for the New Millennium

Feng Shui the ancient, 5,000-year-old Chinese Art of Placement, also known as the art and science of healing spaces, has captured the imagination of the western world. Based on lessons and the wisdom of an ancient Chinese text, the I Ching or Book of Changes, one's proper placement within the cosmological forces can support one's health, balance, sense of harmony, prosperity and thereby affect one's destiny. The therapeutic benefit of working with feng shui principles begins with a personal conversation, an evaluation, of how one is doing with respect to the energies expressed in the I Ching and its 64 hexagrams. The fundamental energies are Water (Career), Mountain (Wisdom), Thunder (Elders/Health), Wind (Prosperity), Reputation (Fire), Relationships (Earth), Creativity/Children (Lake), Benefactors/Travel (Metal) and the tai chi, the complementary opposite forces of yin and yang in perfect balance. The goal is to create a sacred space of home where chi, the cosmic breath or life force, can flow smoothly ...

由死而觀生的中醫學

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.本文論述了傳統中醫對待死亡本質的看法，對待死亡的態度和死從世界觀的基本觀點，比較了中醫生死概與西醫生死觀的差異及其在安樂死、養生觀等問題上的反映。本文認為，傳統中醫的生死觀點的特點是：在死亡概念上重人的精神特徵和社會特徵的喪失；在對待死亡態度上，樂天知命，安時而處順；對待惡疾等迫生狀況，認為迫生不如死，如命當夭折，便不以人助天；中醫亦關注死亡的判斷問題，但它的目的在於遠於死而近於生；中醫貴生重己，但以向死的生，未死先死為養生之策略。雖天道自然，但人道自己，人壽可以力移，死可以被超越。作者認為，中醫的死亡觀將為世界性的死亡觀的討論提供有益的啟示。The theoretical basis of traditional Chinese medicine lies in Confucianism and Daoism. Hence traditional Chinese medicine's perspectives on death have continuity with both the Confucian and the Daoist views on death. This essay analyzes many ancient Chinese medical texts and tries to articulate their views on death and dying.Concerning the definition of death, traditional Chinese medicine offers two theories. One theory sees death as the loss of shen (spirit) or the separation of shen (spirit) from the body. Shen is located in our vital organs, not just in the brain. Another theory sees death as the dispersion of qi (vital force) away from human body. Both theories regard human death as not just a biological event; it is regarded as more spiritual and social than physiological. In other words, human death is not defined in the same way as death of other organisms is defined.Chinese medicine aspires not only to cure diseases but also to enhance health. In order to achieve this goal, medicine often uses death as a threat to remind people to keep fit and to cultivate healthy life styles. Only when one is constantly death-conscious will one be able to stay away from death. ln traditional idiom, the goal of medicine is to cure a disease before the disease arises.Many traditional Chinese medical codes of practice stipulate that doctors should terminate treatment when the patient is in a terminal condition rather than prolong the agony. A tormented life is considered worse than death and is detestable. Hence there has been a strong interest to detect vital signs other than breathing and heartbeat so that an early detection of death can be possible. One can then avert death when it just starts to arise. However, once death is diagnosed as inevitable traditional Chinese medicine deems that it is unfitting for human beings to meddle with nature through strenuous efforts to avert death.Though traditional Chinese medicine fully acknowledges human mortality, it also advises people to transcend death. While Confucianism emphasizes the cultivation of virtue, Daoism stresses the oneness with nature so that one does not fear death when death arrives and does not delight in life while one is enjoying life. In so doing, the negating and annihilating effect of death will be mitigated.DOWNLOAD HISTORY | This article has been downloaded 29 times in Digital Commons before migrating into this platform.

The Language in Chinese Mathematical Texts Before AD 1300: A Case for Logical Abstraction

While there seems to be a general consensus that literacy should include the ability to deal with basic reading, writing, and arithmetic, a view is growing that literacy is in fact more than equipping learners with sets of essential skills (Wells, 1981; Schoenfeld, 1985; Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1987; Cumming, 1990; Wells & Chang-Wells, 1992). Olson (1994) reviews in his book The World on Paper a large number of studies in the field of psychology, sociology, history, and linguistics and concludes that modern literacy in the West is characterized by a new way of looking at written texts and the representation the texts project. In the contemporary East, while many countries including China are striving for economic development and modernization, the question of why science and modernity did not first develop in some oriental cultures such as China, which used to be the most advanced, remains interesting but unanswered. In the light of Olson's discussion regarding literacy and Western modernity, this paper adopts a cognitive-linguistic perspective and examines the social conditions in which ancient Chinese mathematics struggled to develop. Examples and experiences in ancient Chinese mathematical texts are presented to reveal the close relationship between modernity, literacy, and written language. In response to a new interest in a context-rich approach to mathematics teaching, the paper also discusses its implications for the mathematics curriculum.

The rhetorical power of naming: The case of regicide

The traditional reading of ancient Chinese texts focuses on their content rather than their modes of expression: truth is considered a given, of which language is merely the expression. This approach misses out on a predominant way of arguing in Chinese texts, namely to evaluate the situation by (re) naming it. A discussion of four textual fragments (up to the 2nd century BC) concerning the topic of regicide illustrates different degrees of this type of argumentation. Among philosophers discussion occurs in a subtle play of specifying terms such as ‘regicide’ or ‘reign’, rather than in an explicit defence of regicide by appeal to higher principles.

Indian Astronomy in Ancient China

Indian astronomy was introduced into China along with the intrusion of Buddhism. This process lasted about one thousand years in the Mediaeval age. For the study of this process, there are a lot of materials in ancient Chinese historic texts, while the Buddhist scriptures in Chinese translation are very important first-hand materials.

Conflict and Tao

This essay suggests a 4‐part approach for addressing interpersonal strife by exploring what philosophical Taoism can teach us about managing interpersonal conflict. The method used is a selective exegesis of an ancient Chinese text, coupled with other sources of information and personal narratives of representative events.

No-Man’s Land on the Common Borders of Linguistics, Philosophy & Sinology

This paper treats polysemy as the driving force of ancient Chinese rhetoric, inherent in the language and its system of writing, not just as an embellishment but as the very basis of discourse, and intrinsic to the multiple meanings expressed by the text; in this way, texts may represent a woridview that is radically different from the Western one and that is encoded syntactically, semantically, rhetorically, and visually (in the case of the Chinese written character) in the language. This challenges the comprehension of ancient Chinese texts by translators and their reproduction in languages that share neither the woridview nor the multiple codes involved. From the no-man’s land on the common borders of linguistics, philosophy and sinology, the translator may glimpse the horizon of understanding within which the original operates, while knowing that the readership of a translation is looking at a different horizon. Better understanding of this fact by the translator should contribute to a better interpretation of the multiple meanings contained in the original and to a translation that maintains as many meanings as possible.

Ucheniye o simvolakh i chislakh v kitaiskoi klassicheskoi filosofii (The teaching of symbols and numbers in classical Chinese philosophy) (review)

332 China Review International: Vol. 3, No. 2, Fall 1996 Artyom I. Kobzev. Ucheniye 0 simvolakh i chislakh ? kitaiskoi klassicheskoi filosofii (The teaching of symbols and numbers in classical Chinese philosophy ). Moscow: Nauka [Science], Vostochnaya Literatura [Eastern Literature ] Publishers, 1993. 432 pp. Because Russian is not commonly understood by Occidental scholars, it may prove difficult to try to introduce a good sinological book written in this language . But even under the present difficult conditions, Russian sinologists have continued to produce some truly important works, and I hope that this review will contribute to the process ofreestablishing communication and understanding between Russian and Western sinological circles. Artyom I. Kobzev (b. 1953) now holds the position ofLeading Research Fellow at the Institute of Orientology in the Russian Academy of Science. His new book offers a comprehensive study of the logical and methodological foundations for philosophical and scholarly knowledge as they developed in the Chinese spiritual tradition. The publication of this comprehensive study of ancient Chinese logic and methodology (or, to use the author's terms, protologic and numerology ) may be said to constitute an essential logical stage in the development of Russian studies in the history of Chinese philosophy. During the postwar period, Russian scholars have concentrated primarily on studying individual thinkers and examining classical texts, thus creating a sort of critical mass of translations and descriptive research monographs. Kobzev's previous book on Neo-Confucianism also contributed to this body ofresearch (Ucheniye Van Yanmina i klassicheskaya kitaiskayafilosofiya [The teaching ofWang Yangming and classical Chinese philosophy ] [Moscow: Nauka Publishers, 1983]). Recently, Russian scholars of Chinese thought have become more interested in analyzing philosophical categories and terms and their interpretations, and this has resulted in a turn toward studies in methodology and metatheory. As a theoretical prerequisite for Kobzev's book, we should mention the first high-quality text published on this topic, by V. Spirin of the St. Petersburg Division of the Institute of Orientology of the Russian Academy of Science (see his Postroyeniye drevnekitaiskih tehtov [Construction of ancient Chinese texts] [Moscow, 1976]). His development of a unique structural-textological method used to analyze Chinese texts has since been further developed by other scholars (Kobzev, A. Karapetyants, and S. Zinin). 6 by UniversityKobzev describes this method ofresearch in Chinese methodology as "basically a way of singling out and analyzing the nonlinear (two-dimensional, as a rule, but possibly also three-dimensional) structure of a canonical, or canon-congruous , text with a theory-pertinent semantics of its own that constitutes an inofHawai 'i Press Features 333 alienable component ofthe given work's general contents" (p. u). The book focuses on the study of the conceptual and methodological basis ofthis kind of structure treated within the framework ofthe numerological "Teaching ofSymbols and Numbers." The author dedicates his work to the "reconstruction of the complete system ofthe 'symbols and numbers teaching' (xiangshu zhi xue IMS.^-^), the widelyaccepted formal methodology ofphilosophical and scholarly knowledge in traditional China—that is, an original conception of Chinese numerology as a specific methodological theory ofsymbolizational spatial-numerical patterns; the explication ofthe standard content interpretation ofnumerological theory; the elucidation ofits origin and the main stages ofits historical evolution; the analysis ofthe interaction of the theory with the alternative and defeated methodological system —protologic; the comparison with analogous phenomena in European philosophy , that is, the contradiction ofAristotelian-Stoic formal logic and the Pythagorean-Platonic numerology of structurology (arithmology)" (p. 425). The book examines three types ofobjects that make up the foundations of Chinese numerology. They are geometric shapes or "symbols" represented by the trigrams and hexagrams of the Book ofChanges; "numbers" found in the numerical diagrams he tu ?»G? and luo shu &?; and the "ontological hypostases" ofthe "symbols" and "numbers" expressed in ideographic forms of the "yin-yang" binary and the "five elements" (wu xing i-fr) (see pp. 1, 339-340). Kobzev regards these "symbols" and "numbers" as the result of a formal combinatorial thinking. They can function as variables allowing for different interpretations of content, and combine to form complete linear sequences and spatial patterns, that is, graphic schemes ofa higher order, with the help ofrigidly formalized procedures (PP· 339-340), whereas the numerological methodology that relied on them used...

DUAL SYMBOLIC CLASSIFICATION AND THE PRIMARY EMOTIONS: A PROPOSED SYNTHESIS OF DURKHEIM'S SOCIOGENIC AND PLUTCHIK'S PSYCHOEVOLUTIONARY THEORIES OF EMOTIONS

Durkheim's and Mauss's proposal that emotions play a causal role in the emergence of dual-symbolic classification schemes is evaluated by analysing two of their three case studies of dual classification - that of the Australian Aborigines and the `divinatory compass' of trigrams associated with the ancient Chinese text I Ching. Because Durkheim and Mauss attempted no classification of the emotions, their model remains conceptually underspecified and untested. Plutchik, in contrast, provides a psychoevolutionary classification of the emotions but does not provide for his `stimulus' social content. Through a theoretical synthesis of the sociogenic and psychoevolutionary perspectives of Durkheim and Plutchik, respectively, it is argued that a model sufficient for analysis of the classification-emotion linkage can be obtained and applied to two Durkheim-Mauss case studies. A study of Durkheim's Elementary Forms supporting his hypothesis that interaction rituals result in an effervescence of sentiment is explicated in terms of at least seven of Plutchik's eight primary emotions. The divinatory compass of eight trigrams is found to be structurally isomorphic to Plutchik's `wheel' of primary emotions.

Emotions and the Actions of the Sage: Recommendations for an Orderly Heart in the "Huainanzi"

In this article I want to formulate a general 'theory' of emotions, as it is found in the Huainanzi, a book of political philosophy written at the royal court of Liu An and presented to Emperor Wu of the Han in 139 B.C. There is no term in the Huainanzi that corresponds exactly to our word 'emotion', but the text makes ample reference to mental states that in Western discourse would be classified as emotions: anger, joy, hate, love, desire, sadness, and so on.1 I will use 'emotions' as a term designating such mental states. Nu 'anger' and yu 'desire' are the two emotions that will figure prominently in my discussion. The Huainanzi is a post-Warring States text that in terms of goals, methodology, and the sources upon which it draws connects closely with many of the pre-Han traditions.2 It shares with these traditions an ambivalent attitude toward emotions. Emotions, in most ancient Chinese texts, are seen and accepted as facts of life, as properties shared by all human beings.3 They are also found to be deeply disturbing. The power they can exert over human judgment and action is seen as a hindrance for humans as they strive to attain sagehood. Thus, for example, in a conversation with Gongsun Chou, in Mencius 2A2, Mencius posits having an unmoved or unmoving heart (bu dong xin) as a conditio sine qua non for sagehood.4 Mencius' statement about the unmoved heart bears directly on the topic of emotions. The verb dong 'to move' in his phrase resonates nicely with the 'motion' contained in the English word 'e-motion' (and its Latin roots). The organ affected in Mencius' phrase is the 'heart' xin, for ancient Chinese the locus of all mental processes, including those involved in judgment and action. I will interpret Mencius' statement as a general recommendation not to allow states such as anger, joy, hate, love, and desire to interfere with the judgments of one's heart and actions that are based thereupon. A view such as Mencius' raises two major questions. How does the recommendation to emancipate oneself from one's emotions relate to assertions made elsewhere that emotions are common to all of us? Secondly, how can someone who has freed himself from the burden of emotions still be moved to act? Is the emotion-free sage not doomed to be a cool and passive contemplator of things? If not, where can he derive the impetus for his actions? I will search for an answer to these questions in the Huainanzi. Griet Vankeerberghen

New Thoughts on the Use of Chinese Documents in the Reconstruction of Early Swahili History

For a long time, scholars have known that the ancient Sino-East Africantrade relationship produced valuable accounts of East Africa in the Chinese imperial archives. Particularly, the historical documents compiled during the T'ang, Sung, and Ming dynasties contain several insightful snapshots of East Africa over the span of 800 years. Unfortunately, due to the difficulty of translating ancient Chinese texts, scholars have not been able to utilize these documents fully. In other cases, scholars have misused the translations to derive conclusions that may not be supported by the original text. In this essay I propose to re-examine the original Chinese sources and the way these sources have been used by subsequent scholars. Furthermore, I shall explore the real or potential contribution of these texts to our understanding of East African coastal history.The primary source of Chinese knowledge about East Africa during the T'ang dynasty (618-907) comes from Ching–hsing Chi (“Record of Travels”) and Yu–yang Tsa–tsu (“Assorted Dishes from Yu–yang”). During the Sung dynasty (960-1279), most of the information is recorded in Chu-fan-chih (“Gazetteer of Foreigners”) and Ling–wai Tai–ta (“Information from Beyond the Mountains”). Finally, the record of the Ming (1368-1644) naval expedition into the western Indian Ocean is preserved in Wu–pei–chih (“Notes on Military Preparedness”), Hsing–ch'a Sheng–lan (“Triumphant Vision of the Starry Raft”), and Ming Shih (“History of the Ming Dynasty”).