On Zhangzhan's The Annotation Of Liezi And Metaphysics Of Wei And Jin Dynasty

The Annotation of Liezi was written by Zhangzhan in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Itnot only reflects Zhangzhan's personal idea, but also develops the metaphysics to anew stage. It shows the merging trend of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism,which is highly valuable to today's studies on Eastern Jin thought.By researching the content of this book and related materials of metaphysics inWei and Jin Dynasty, it can be seen that the Annontation of Liezi was a theoreticalsummary of the theme of metaphysics by synchronizing Confucianism, Taoism andBuddhism and inheriting the earlier metaphysics research findings. Zhangzhan firstlyproposed the ontology based on the core concept of"modesty". He also applied thistheory to the outlook on life. As a result, he came up with the thought of"let nameand nature be"; the idea of"beyond words and meaning", the sage view of"wise bothinside and outside"and the living and death viewpoint claiming to achieve"modesty"beyond living and death..Although Zhangzhan's the Annotation of Liezi did't exceeds other thinkers interms of theoretical and logic depth, he saw the internal contradiction of metaphysicsand incorporated Buddhism into his theory and he tried to coordinate and harmonizethe earlier thinkers'theoretical defects. He is our good example due to his unremittingendeavor in his theoretical searching.The main characteristic of Zhangzhan's metaphysics is synchronizing. On theone hand, he continued mission of the earlier metaphysics thinkers and deepened thesynchronization of Confucianism and Taoism. On the other hand, he synchronizeddomestic metaphysics and foreign Buddhism. The synchronizing of The Annotation ofLiezi shows containable of our traditional culture. It has a profound enlightening forour treatment of foreign and local civilization.