Lecture | China Seminar
Daoism on the Irrelevance of Books
- Date
- Wednesday 4 March 2026
- Time
- Serie
- LIAS China Seminar
- Address
-
Lipsius
Cleveringaplaats 1
2311 BD Leiden - Room
- 1.48
Abstract
Books have been an invaluable source of knowledge since their inception. In ancient China, the school of Daoism was skeptical of language (and books) to convey the true nature of reality or the knowledge needed to fulfill one’s life. One of the best-known examples of this attitude appears in chapter 13 of the Zhuangzi in a story involving wheelwright Bian and Duke Huan. When Bian dismissed the book being read by the Duke as nothing more than the dust and dregs of its author, we observe two things: one, those who rely on the knowledge contained in books are falsely guided through life; two, those who able to perceive the interconnectedness of things forgo books and enrich themselves with Nature. If words are fixed in meaning and books are a collection of their author’s thoughts, how are they useful to others? Rather than clinging to such partiality, Zhuangzi argues, it would be better to follow what is innate to life itself and change along with it. Books, therefore, are only relevant in pointing us in the direction of knowledge; they are irrelevant when it comes time to implementing it!
Biography
David Chai is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He works in the areas of ancient and medieval Chinese philosophy, Chinese aethetics, and comparative philosophy. Chai is the Series Editor of Daoism and the Human Experience (2022–) and the author of Reading Ji Kang’s Essays: Xuanxue in Early-Medieval China (2022), and Zhuangzi and the Becoming of Nothingness (2019). He is also the editor of Daoist Resonances in Heidegger: Exploring a Forgotten Debt (2022), Dao Companion to Xuanxue (2020), Daoist Encounters with Phenomenology (2020), and editor and translator of A Collated and Critical Study of the Xiang'er Commentary to the Laozi by Jao Tsung-i (2024).