Tang Yijie汤一介

Period

Modern

Dates

1927 — 2014

Role

PhilosopherProfessor, Peking University

Birthplace

Tianjin (ancestral home in Huangmei, Hubei)

Life

Tang Yijie, son of the philosopher Tang Yongtong, was a professor in the Department of Philosophy at Peking University and founding dean of the Institute of Chinese Culture; in his later years he directed the Confucian Canon (Ru Zang) Project. His representative work in Daoist studies is Daoism during the Wei, Jin, Northern and Southern Dynasties (1988), which analyzes, from the perspectives of intellectual history and religious studies, the process by which Daoism was transformed from a popular religion into a mature institutional religion during the Wei–Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties, discussing the thought of Ge Hong, Kou Qianzhi, Lu Xiujing, Tao Hongjing and others, as well as the relationship between Daoism, Xuanxue (Neo-Daoist metaphysics) and Buddhism; it is an important work on the intellectual history of Daoism in this period. He also wrote A History of Early Daoism and edited the series Studies in Daoist Culture. He was also an advocate of comparative studies of Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism, and of topics such as a 'Chinese hermeneutics,' in contemporary China.

Contributions & Influence

• Wrote Daoism during the Wei, Jin, Northern and Southern Dynasties, advancing the study of early Daoist intellectual history
• Promoted comparative studies of Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism and the Confucian Canon (Ru Zang) Project
• Edited the book series Studies in Daoist Culture

Works

• Daoism during the Wei-Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties
• A History of Early Daoism
• Guo Xiang and Wei-Jin Metaphysics (Xuanxue)