On-cho Ng
Penn State University, History, Faculty Member
- I am Professor of History, Asian Studies and Philosophy, and Head of the Asian Studies Department at the Pennsylvania... moreI am Professor of History, Asian Studies and Philosophy, and Head of the Asian Studies Department at the Pennsylvania State University. A student of late imperial Chinese intellectual history with expertise in Confucian ethics, religiosity, hermeneutics, and historiography, I have published numerous book chapters and articles in flagship journals such as Journal of the History of Ideas, Journal of World History, Dao, Journal of Chinese Religions, Journal of Chinese Philosophy, and Philosophy East and West. My authored and edited books include Philosophy of the Yi (2009), The Imperative of Understanding (2008), Mirroring the Past (2005), Cheng-Zhu Confucianism in the Early Qing (2001), and Imagining Boundaries (1999). I am co-editor of the Book Series, “History of Chinese Thought,” National Taiwan University Press, and a member of the editorial board of the Book Series, “Overseas China Studies,” Guangxi Normal University Press. I am also vice-president of the International Association of Yijing Studies (Beijing), serve as associate editor of the Journal of Chinese Philosophy, sit on the editorial board of Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy, and co-chair the monthly University Seminar on Neo-Confucian Studies at Columbia University.edit
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... Under the auspices of the K'ang-hsi emperor, he took charge of the compilation of the Chu-tzu ch'uan-shu (Complete Works ... in terms of individual beings, hsing is Heaven."20 Thus, hsing-cum-Heaven, the ultimate... more
... Under the auspices of the K'ang-hsi emperor, he took charge of the compilation of the Chu-tzu ch'uan-shu (Complete Works ... in terms of individual beings, hsing is Heaven."20 Thus, hsing-cum-Heaven, the ultimate substance in humanity, was good (shan), not beyond ... On-cho ...
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... Page 8. 568 On-cho Ng Second, rather than moving toward interiorization, Huang's position tended ... 32 Wang Fu-chih, Ssu-shu hsun-i, 8.12b, in Ch'uan-shan i-shu (hereafter CSIS) (Shanghai, 1935), v.34; Chang-tzu... more
... Page 8. 568 On-cho Ng Second, rather than moving toward interiorization, Huang's position tended ... 32 Wang Fu-chih, Ssu-shu hsun-i, 8.12b, in Ch'uan-shan i-shu (hereafter CSIS) (Shanghai, 1935), v.34; Chang-tzu Cheng-meng-chu, "Chih-tang pien," 5.1b, in CSIS, v. ...
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Li Guangdi 李光地 (1642–1718), whose literary and style names were respectively Jinqing 晉卿 and Hou’an 厚庵, was a native of the Anxi 安溪 district of Fujian. He attained jinshi status in 1670 and worked as a bachelor in the Hanlin Academy, given... more
Li Guangdi 李光地 (1642–1718), whose literary and style names were respectively Jinqing 晉卿 and Hou’an 厚庵, was a native of the Anxi 安溪 district of Fujian. He attained jinshi status in 1670 and worked as a bachelor in the Hanlin Academy, given the assignment to learn Manchu. The Kangxi Emperor, impressed by his plans for the pacification of Fujian, promoted
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This paper discusses an exploratory approach to understanding the relationship between Whole Number Arithmetic (WNA) and early algebraic thinking. In particular, the inclusive materialist framework offered by de Freitas and Sinclair... more
This paper discusses an exploratory approach to understanding the relationship between Whole Number Arithmetic (WNA) and early algebraic thinking. In particular, the inclusive materialist framework offered by de Freitas and Sinclair (2014) is used to reconceptualise learning as occurring in the relations amongst human, pattern and mathematics. We examine a mathematical activity where children interacted with patterns in a classroom setting. We show that focussing on the relations amongst human, pattern and mathematics provides insights on the role of pattern and WNA for developing early algebraic thinking. This paper calls attention on the embodied nature of mathematical thinking and learning as well as its relationship with the learners’ material surrounding.
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... 32, 40-41; and Richard H. Popkin, The History of Scepticism from Erasmus to Spinoza (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979), pp. 18-41. 14 RA Markus, "St. Augustine," in Paul Edwards, ed., The Encyclopedia of... more
... 32, 40-41; and Richard H. Popkin, The History of Scepticism from Erasmus to Spinoza (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979), pp. 18-41. 14 RA Markus, "St. Augustine," in Paul Edwards, ed., The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, vol. ...
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... 8 Ng and Chow The last two of these strategies tended to blur the boundaries between vari-ous heresies instead of clarifying them ... Introduction 9 as a "profane cult" (yin-tz'u), Wang... more
... 8 Ng and Chow The last two of these strategies tended to blur the boundaries between vari-ous heresies instead of clarifying them ... Introduction 9 as a "profane cult" (yin-tz'u), Wang reinterpreted the legend of Hsiang, making him a paragon of a morally transformed figure, and in ...
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In the Confucian tradition, few students of the classics read canonical writings without the aid of some form of gloss or commentary. Not only was commentary necessary to illuminate the numerous obscurities in the canonical texts, but... more
In the Confucian tradition, few students of the classics read canonical writings without the aid of some form of gloss or commentary. Not only was commentary necessary to illuminate the numerous obscurities in the canonical texts, but also to defend against heterodox interpretations that might arise from “naive” explanations of the “plain meaning” of the text. But however valuable the services that commentators performed in illuminating obscurities in the canonical texts, this was not the only and perhaps not even the principal function of commentaries. Commentaries to the Analects also served a polemical purpose, to establish that the text lived up to a fairly universal set of criteria.
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The review essay critically evaluates, synoptically presents, and admiringly celebrates Chung-ying Cheng latest work, The Primary Way: Philosophy of Yijing. It sees the book’s publication as an emblem of an intellectual jubilee – a... more
The review essay critically evaluates, synoptically presents, and admiringly celebrates Chung-ying Cheng latest work, The Primary Way: Philosophy of Yijing. It sees the book’s publication as an emblem of an intellectual jubilee – a half-centenary of scholarly lucubration and achievement in Chinese and comparative philosophy by Cheng, who was trained at Harvard in American pragmatism and analytic philosophy. The essay reveals why Cheng returns to the Yijing time and again. The principal reason is that this ancient classic, to his way of thinking, offers us “the primary Way,” the anchoring normative criteria, perspectives, and values in a nutshell, whereby reality may be deciphered, discerned, and distinguished. To put it in metaphoric terms, the Yijing is the fount of Chinese philosophy. Whether interpreting Chinese thoughts in general or reading the Yijing in particular, Cheng brings western theoretical perspectives to bear on the understanding of the Chinese texts, which are, in an...
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All the rich and insightful hermeneutic theories we have had in our possession so far are attempts to apply some local knowledge stemming from some native culture to circumstances and situations everywhere, as theories, with their... more
All the rich and insightful hermeneutic theories we have had in our possession so far are attempts to apply some local knowledge stemming from some native culture to circumstances and situations everywhere, as theories, with their universalist pretensions and aspirations, are wont to do. But to date, insofar as the “local” is mainly the West, the Euro-American world, it begs the question of how empirically tenable is a locally incubated theory when it is applied to extra-local conditions. In fact, even within the local, as it were, differences and tensions abound. And if we introduce into this welter another local world, say, the Chinese one, the picture gets, needless to say, messier. But then we have no choice but to muddle up the picture, if we are already inescapable denizens of a global city, a cosmopolis which is our current multicultural, intertwined world. Consequently, place and space, that is, varied and varying locality, must intervene in any effort of theory-building in the realm of hermeneutics that purports to explain some general modes of operation in the process of reading and understanding. To more effectively shed light on the other worlds of reading and understanding requires some re-situation of place and space, such that new and broad perspectives may be developed. By redirecting the theoretical gaze from the Euro-American site to the Chinese (specifically, the Confucian) locale, I argue that we should grant the self-explanation and self-identity of thinking agents other than those in the Western world their rightful place in theoretical inquiries into what I call the hermeneutic dictum of human existence, namely, that human living inevitably involves thinking that is interpretation, which is relative to contingent culture-historical dynamics molding the interpreter’s preunderstanding. In other words, if the imperative of interpretation and understanding is what ultimately constitutes human authenticity in the sense of apprehending the meanings of life, how the Confucians read may serve as inspiration, option, and even in some cases, alternative for a more general, more nimble, and interculturally more sensitive inquiry into the ways we read and conceive the self and the world. In short, to take seriously place and space in any hermeneutic project is to argue on behalf on intercultural hermeneutics, of which comparative thinking is integrally a part.
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