On some dimensions of the Zhongyong

摘要

Since I am neither a philosopher nor a Sinologist, I have to assume that myrnresponsibility, as usual, is to speak for dilettantism. There are undoubtedlyrnmany occupational advantages to academic specialization. Still, I don't seernhow a student of ancient thought can understand the ideas of, say, thernLao~, if you ignore the language, part poetic and part aphoristic, that it isrnwritten in, or the circumstances in which persons unknown wrote its parts.rnIts historical and literary dimensions are no less (but no more) problematicrnthan its politics or its constantly debated mysticism. Making sense of it becomesrnmuch easier if we try to see the writings it contains and their circumstancesrnas unitary wholes.