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A Daoist Theory of Chinese Thought: A Philosophical Interpretation. By CHAD HANSEN. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. xv, 448 pp. $79.00. Hansen provides a unified treatment of the classical period of Chinese philosophy, challenging what he sees as the mainstream of interpretation. The mainstream, he argues, has a bias toward Confucianism, dismisses Mozi as shallow and unimportant, interprets Daoism as an incomprehensible, antirational mysticism about the metaphysical absolute Dao, and generally interprets Chinese philosophy against a backdrop of Western presuppositions about mind and language. Hansen's book aims to correct the mainstream by rewriting the history of the classical period from a Daoist perspective. He sometimes succeeds in challenging the orthodoxy, and sometimes does not, but the book is always refreshing and surely will be a reference point for discussion of the classical period for many years to come.
Hansen sees the Chinese tradition as centrally concerned with the conflict of daos, which he defines as sets of behavior-guiding practices, including discourses. He criticizes the mainstream for papering over weaknesses in the Confucian dao and for denigrating and misunderstanding the daos of other philosopher. For example, he argues that the early Confucian dao and Confucius in particular unreflectively endorsed tradition in the form of li, the rules of ritual and propriety (pp. 82, 88) and that Mohism challenged that endorsement through unprecedented philosophical argumentation and theory-building. Mozi challenged Confucianism for its "hypertraditionalism" and proposed an alternative dao based on the (purportedly) natural, clear and measurable utilitarian standard of benefit and harm. Hansen is vulnerable to the criticism that he oversimplifies his portrait of Confucius as bound to tradition. He overlooks some textual evidence in the Analects (9:3) indicating a certain kind of critical reflection on li. On the other hand, Hansen is right to the extent that Confucius did not say nearly enough about this subject and that Mozi attacked...