Books by On-Cho Ng

This volume, an assemblage of essays previously published in the Journal of Chinese Philosophy, conveniently and strategically brings together some of the trenchant interpretations and analyses of the salient, structural aspects of the philosophy of the Yijing.

• Key essays published in the Journal of Chinese Philosophy brought together in a single volume
• The book offers incisive interpretations and analysis of the most significant aspects of the philosophy of Yi
• Provides insights into the ways in which the natural and human worlds work in conjunction with one another

As a tribute to the original thinking and scholarship of Chung-ying Cheng, this volume engages some timely and notable issues in Chinese philosophy and comparative philosophy, with special reference to the hermeneutic project, especially "onto-hermeneutics," which counts as one of Cheng s most significant and influential philosophical achievements. The chapters either directly address or indirectly illustrate the fact that all thoughts, and their apprehension, are in some crucial respects hermeneutic expressions and reflections. Acknowledging and capitalizing on the interpretive possibilities opened up by Cheng's critico-creative engagement with the imperative of understanding, the assembled essays reconstruct and rehearse the distinct Chinese conceptions of texts, reading, and truths by situating them in comparative contexts. In so doing, they are at once contemplation of, companion with, and complement to Western hermeneutic theories. Contributors: John Berthrong, Nicholas Bunnin, Chung-ying Cheng, Jess Fleming, Joseph Grange, Jay Goulding, Yong Huang, Robert Cummings Neville, On-cho Ng, Richard E. Palmer, Galia Patt-Shamir, Lauren Pfister, Vincent Shen, Richard J. Smith, Kwong-loi Shun, John Allen Tucker, Kuang-ming Wu.

This first book-length study of the Cheng-Zhu School of Confucianism in the early Qing period explores the thought of Li Guangdi, a powerful official in the court of the Kangxi emperor. On-cho Ng undertakes close readings of Li s ideas of ultimate truths and first principles, while situating them in the context of the intellectual concerns of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century China. Addressing philosophical issues neglected in scholarship on early Qing learning, the author offers a new angle from which to view the Ming-Qing intellectual transition and the formation of early Qing thought. He argues that Cheng-Zhu learning, far from being out of step with the epochal climate of thought because of its putative preoccupation with the ultimate and the transcendent, was actually a dated reflection of, and active contributor to, early Qing thought. By tracing the contour and development of Li Guangdi s thought formulated within the bounds of inherited Cheng-Zhu teachings, this book reveals how philosophic discourses in traditional China were often dynamic, hermeneutic endeavors of reinterpreting and renewing received tradition."

Imagining Boundaries explores the mapping of the intellectual tradition of Confucianism in Chinese history. The authors show that the Confucian tradition is not a neatly packaged organic whole in which the constitutive parts fall naturally into place, but rather that it displays the ruptures of all cultural constructions. Accordingly, Confucianism has been configured and reconfigured in time in response to changing intellectual and historical circumstances.
This anthology addresses the constant negotiation of the boundaries of Confucianism within itself and in relation to other intellectual traditions, the fluidity of the Confucian canon, the dialogical relations between text and discourse in establishing boundaries for the Confucian tradition, and the textual and discursive strategies employed in the imagining of boundaries, which expanded or restricted the intellectual space of Confucianism.
Rejecting an interpretation of Confucianism as a homogenous master-narrative and worldview, the book uses the variegated histories of Confucianism to interrogate the tradition itself, unpacking and highlighting its complexity and diversity.
Imagining Boundaries is an excellent anthology. The time is long overdue to read Confucian texts as historical artifacts, yet still appreciate the philosophical complexity of them. Matthew Levey, Birmingham-Southern College
This work is more than sound it is on the leading edge of the best work being done in the field. John Berthrong, author of All Under Heaven: Transforming Paradigms in Confucian-Christian Dialogues
[Contributors include Kai-wing Chow; Kandice Hauf; John B. Henderson; Tze-ki Hon; Hsiung Ping-chen; Yuet Keung Lo; On-cho Ng; Michael Nylan; and Lauren Pfister]"

China is known for its deep veneration of history. Far more than a record of the past, history to the Chinese is the magister vitae (teacher of life): the storehouse of moral lessons and bureaucratic precedents. "Mirroring the Past" presents a comprehensive history of traditional Chinese historiography from antiquity to the mid-qing period. Organized chronologically, the book traces the development of historical thinking and writing in Imperial China, beginning with the earliest forms of historical consciousness and ending with adumbrations of the fundamentally different views engendered by mid-nineteenth-century encounters with the West. The historiography of each era is explored on two levels: first, the gathering of material and the writing and production of narratives to describe past events; second, the thinking and reflecting on meanings and patterns of the past. Significantly, the book embeds within this chronological structure integrated views of Chinese historiography, bringing to light the purposive, didactic, and normative uses of the past. Examining both the worlds of official and unofficial historiography, the authors lay bare the ingenious ways in which Chinese scholars extracted truth from events and reveal how schemas and philosophies of history were constructed and espoused. They highlight the dynamic nature of Chinese historiography, revealing that historical works mapped the contours of Chinese civilization not for the sake of understanding history as disembodied and theoretical learning, but for the pragmatic purpose of guiding the world by mirroring the past in all its splendor and squalor.