Unlocking the Chinese Gate: Manifestations of the Space "In-Between" in Early China (Suny Chinese Philosophy and Culture)

Dor, Galia

ISBN 10: 1438497539 / ISBN 13: 9781438497532

Published by State University of New York Pre, 2024

About this Item

Seller Inventory # mon0003470298

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Unlocking the Chinese Gate: Manifestations of the Space "In-Between" in Early China (Suny Chinese Philosophy and Culture)
• Publisher: State University of New York Pre
• Publication Date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1438497539
• ISBN 13: 9781438497532
• Binding: hardcover
• Condition: Fine

About this title

Synopsis

Offers an innovative analysis of gates―as architectural components, visual images, and mental constructs―in early Chinese thought and material culture.

Unlocking the Chinese Gate offers an innovative analysis of gates in early Chinese thought and material culture. Observing gates from various perspectives-including philosophy, architecture, and psychology-and through the conceptual lens of Chinese correlative thinking, Galia Dor conceptualizes the Chinese gate as a membrane-like apparatus that, from the space "in-between," efficaciously manifests (de) the Way (dao) into the "ten thousand" forms of actualized life. This methodology exposes an open-to-closed gradation between pairs of inside/outside (wai/nei) that resonates throughout the Chinese model of psychocosmic concentric circles. The consequential strategies (e.g., continuity/break, chaos/order) demonstrate how early Chinese cosmological, philosophical, and political idealities, as well as afterlife religious beliefs, were applied-including the various approaches to and practices of self-cultivation. The book sheds new light on ancient Chinese thought and material culture and offers points of comparison to Western thought and modern science, including a model of "decision-gating" that carries relevant implications and insights to our current lives.

About the Author

Galia Dor received her doctorate in East Asian Studies from Tel Aviv University, where she has lectured on Chinese and Japanese philosophy, art, and material culture.