Skill and Mastery

Philosophical Stories from the Zhuangzi

Karyn Lai editor Wai Wai Chiu editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Published:11th Jul '19

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Skill and Mastery cover

Skill and Mastery: Philosophical Stories from the Zhuangzi presents an illuminating analysis of skill stories from the Zhuangzi, a 4th century BCE Daoist text. In this intriguing text that subverts conventional norms and pursuits, ordinary activities such as swimming, cicada-catching and wheelmaking are executed with such remarkable efficacy and spontaneity that they seem like magical feats. An international team of scholars explores these stories in their philosophical, historical and political contexts. Their analyses’ highlight the stories’underlying conceptions of agency, character and cultivation; and relevance to contemporary debates on human action and experience. The result is a valuable collection, opening up new lines of inquiry in comparative East-West philosophical debates on skill, cultivation and mastery, as well as cross-disciplinary debates in psychology, cognitive science and philosophy.

The book contains expert contributions from fifteen recognized researchers of Chinese philosophy and religion from all over the world. Thanks to its captivating themes and the accessible language it employs, it will likely become a popular anthology among undergraduates in religion and philosophy, and it also provides a good up to date introduction to the Zhuangzi for the more general reading public. * Religious Studies Review *
The essays assembled in this outstanding and unusually well-integrated volume all address the role played by “skill” across many chapters of the Zhuangzi, drawing both on evocative stories and on more explicit theorizing. Collectively, the chapters establish a new state-of-the-art understanding of this central theme, relevant not just to China scholars but also to all students of performance, embodied knowing, and the cultivation of good lives. -- Stephen C. Angle, Professor of Philosophy and East Asian Studies, Wesleyan University

ISBN: 9781786609137

Dimensions: 227mm x 153mm x 17mm

Weight: 422g

308 pages