Knowra Xuanxue Xuanxue Xuanxue was a Chinese philosophical movement of the third and fourth centuries that reinterpreted Daoist and Confucian classics through metaphysical inquiry.
Dao De Jing : A Chinese classic associated with Laozi that explores the Dao, virtue, rulership, and naturalness. Xuanxue thinkers treated its account of the Dao as a source for metaphysical inquiry.
Being and nonbeing : A philosophical distinction between what exists or is manifest and what is absent, indeterminate, or without form. Xuanxue thinkers used this distinction to explain how the unformed could ground the formed world.
Wang Bi : A third-century Chinese philosopher and commentator whose readings of the Dao De Jing and I Ching shaped xuanxue. His account of nonbeing became the movement’s most influential metaphysical position.
Bamboo Grove Seven Sages : A group of third-century literati remembered for unconventional conduct, literary achievement, and engagement with Daoist ideas. Later accounts linked their intellectual style and social image with xuanxue discourse.
Zhuangzi : A Daoist classic of philosophical writings, parables, and dialogues traditionally associated with Zhuang Zhou. Its reflections on language, transformation, and perspective shaped xuanxue readings of the Dao.
Benwu : A xuanxue doctrine that treats nonbeing as the fundamental source underlying beings and their transformations. Wang Bi’s influential interpretation made nonbeing central to explaining the Dao and the world.
He Yan : A third-century statesman and thinker associated with early xuanxue and commentary on the Analects. His writings helped establish metaphysical interpretation of Confucian classics within the movement.
Chinese Buddhism : Buddhist traditions that developed in China through translation, adaptation, and interaction with Chinese religious and philosophical thought. Xuanxue concepts supplied terms through which some early Chinese readers approached Buddhist teachings.
Analects : A collection of sayings and conversations attributed to Confucius and his followers. Xuanxue interpretations brought this Confucian classic into conversation with Daoist metaphysics.
Geyi : A method of interpreting unfamiliar Buddhist ideas by matching them with established Chinese concepts. Its contrast with xuanxue highlights the movement’s own classic-based metaphysical interpretation.
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