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Papers by Lisa Raphals

East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine, 2002

Han shu 99B: 4145-6 several treatises in the Huang Di neijing: "Cardinal Waters" (Jing shui , Lin... more Han shu 99B: 4145-6 several treatises in the Huang Di neijing: "Cardinal Waters" (Jing shui , Lingshu 12), "Dimensions of the Bones" (Gu du , Lingshu 14), "Dimensions of the Pulsating Vessels" (Mo du , Lingshu 17), "Intestines and Stomach" (Chang wei , Lingshu 31), and "A Normal Person Abstains from Cereals" (Ping ren jue gu , Lingshu 32), all as discussed in Yamada 1991. 12 For example, the Song Neo-Confucian thinker Zhu Xi (1130-1200), in a reported conversation with the polymath Cai Yuanding (1135-98) about the inaccuracy of calendrical systems, remarked that "if it were studied with enough precision to yield a definitive method of computation, there would be no further discrepancies ... the astronomical techniques of the Ancients were imprecise (shukuo , lit. `loose') but there were few discrepancies. The more precise (mi , lit. `tight') the systems of today are, the more discrepancies appear!" (Zhuzi yu lei 57: 14a-17a, trans. Sivin 1986, 163). In the foregoing interpretation, increases of precision led to greater expectations of accuracy. An alternative reading is to retain the literal meanings of "tight" and "loose." Read thus, the looser systems of the sages of antiquity showed fewer discrepancies than the overly tight systems of Zhu Xi's day, with the implication that the looser systems were preferable because of their greater overall consistency (Vogel 1996, especially 80-82). Concepts of precision also played an important part in sixteenth-and seventeenth-century Chinese critiques of traditional cosmology. One of Xu Guangqi's (1562-1633) priorities in adopting the astronomy of Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) was to introduce more accurate astronomical knowledge based on precise observation (Hashimoto 1988, especially 1-6, 49-52 and 227-28). Fang Yizhi (1611-1671) and Wang Fuzhi (1619-1692) held that discrepancies and irregularities were an inherent part of the cosmos and are therefore not predictable. The astronomical version of this view was that indeterminacy was inherent in the fabric of the cosmos, and a corresponding imprecision in human knowledge of the world, regardless of care or precision in observation and calculation (Henderson 1984: 246).

Early China, 2009

With the major exception of theYi jing, we have neither formal canons nor commentaries for most e... more With the major exception of theYi jing, we have neither formal canons nor commentaries for most early Chinese mantic traditions. Indirect reflections on these traditions appear in scattered commentaries, in biographical narratives, and, importantly, in excavated texts. The major source for mantic materials from the received textual tradition is the lists of their titles inHan shu30, the “Yiwen zhi” or Bibliographic Treatise. It is a guide to the categories of knowledge used by Han thinkers, and created an influential paradigm for the classification of texts and knowledge. The present study provides a necessarily selective survey of mantic texts in the “Yiwen zhi,” with a specific view to: (1) how it underscored the authority of some techniques and marginalized others; (2) its relation to what we know of Han mantic practices; and (3) what it reveals about the role of the mantic arts as constituents of scientific observation and systematic inquiry in early China.

Comparing Ethics in Ancient China and Greco-Roman Antiquity, 2011

Dao Companion to the Analects, 2013

A central issue in early Confucian thought is the problem of “straightness,” specifically issues ... more A central issue in early Confucian thought is the problem of “straightness,” specifically issues of uprightness, indirection, and transparency in the Analects. A fundamental understanding of the “tradition” is the view that Confucius valued zheng 正 and completely rejected indirection in knowledge, language and ethics. I examine this claim critically, as a critical approach to the problem of “tradition,” beginning with an account of the two distinct senses of “uprightness” represented by zhen 真 and zheng. I then demonstrate the semantic continuity of zheng as alignment in such texts as the Shi jing (Book of Odes) and the “Inner Cultivation” (Nei ye 內業) chapter of the Guanzi. This leads to a new account of indirection in the Analects. It helps explain important differences between the Analects and later Confucian texts.

Divination was an important and distinctive aspect of religion in both ancient China and ancient ... more Divination was an important and distinctive aspect of religion in both ancient China and ancient Greece, and this book will provide the first systematic account and analysis of the two side by side. Who practised divination in these cultures and who consulted it? What kind of questions did they ask, and what methods were used to answer those questions? As well as these practical aspects, Lisa Raphals also examines divination as a subject of rhetorical and political narratives, and its role in the development of systematic philosophical and scientific inquiry. She explores too the important similarities, differences and synergies between Greek and Chinese divinatory systems, providing important comparative evidence to reassess Greek oracular divination.

Philosophy East and West, 2003

In The Consequences of Modernity, sociologist Anthony Giddens suggests that new notions of risk a... more In The Consequences of Modernity, sociologist Anthony Giddens suggests that new notions of risk and trust are distinctly modern developments that supplant earlier notions of fate, fortune, and fortuna; nowadays, the unexpected comes not from turns of fate or divine intervention but from risk. 1 From the ''Fei Ming'' chapters of the Mohist Canon to modern attacks on theological fatalism and scientific determinism, fatalism (as distinct from a belief in fate) has a long history of disrepute. As a modern critic puts it: If time confers respectability on philosophical problems, there are few issues in the history of philosophy with more right to be carefully and charitably considered than fatalism. Yet in the twentieth century, at least, this approach has certainly not been adopted. Contemporary discussions of fatalism have been scattered and perfunctory, almost always concluding with a summary dismissal of the fatalist's argument. Typically, the fatalist is seen as making some rather sophomoric blunder-mistaking a tautology for a substantive thesis about necessity, misunderstanding the scope of a 'model operator', misrepresenting facts about the future as facts about the past, and the like. 2

Journal of Chinese Philosophy, 2002

... Gender and Virtue in Greece and China. Lisa Raphals. Article first published online: 17 DEC 2... more ... Gender and Virtue in Greece and China. Lisa Raphals. Article first published online: 17 DEC 2002. DOI: 10.1111/1540-6253.00091. Issue. ... Cited By. Get PDF (656K). Get PDF (656K). More content like this. Find more content: like this article. Find more content written by: Lisa Raphals ...

Journal of Chinese Philosophy, 2010

History is written by the victors. Much of the philosophical discussion of excavated texts has ce... more History is written by the victors. Much of the philosophical discussion of excavated texts has centered on the Guodian and Shanghai Museum texts, which augment or comment on the texts of the received tradition. This perspective omits the counterparts and competitors of the Warring States philosophers: the technical experts. The technical expertise traditions (medicine, the mantic arts, and astrocalendrics) were the counterparts and competitors of the philosophers, and far outnumber them in the perhaps narrow context of tomb texts. Both the received tradition and excavated texts attest to contact and competition between mantic experts and the "schoolmen" associated with Masters texts. Both livelihoods relied on literacy and specialist expertise. Both claimed access to divine knowledge and authority. Their competition thus involved career choice, patronage, students, and the status of modes of knowledge. In addition, it is now widely agreed that the bases of cosmological speculation first appeared in the ideas and methods of Warring States technical specialists, whose terms and techniques were later incorporated into the yin-yang and Five-phase theories of Han cosmology. This view was first argued by Angus Graham some twenty years ago, and third-century excavated texts on these technical arts have reinforced it by supplementing the sparser record in the received tradition. 1 In particular, technical experts were responsible for several developments that contributed to systematic thought and cosmology. These include (i) interest in symmetry, already visible in the oracle bone inscriptions; (ii) the articulation of a yin-yang polarity, abstracted as patterns of change, represented by numbers. These patterns were elaborated and nuanced in the hexagrams of the Zhouyi ; (iii) interest in astronomy and calendrics as systematic models of space and time; and (iv) systematic theories of physiognomy. All were based on observation of natural phenomena.

The Journal of Asian Studies, 2006

Dao, 2011

I address YU Jiyuan's The Ethics of Confucius and Aristotle: Mirrors of Virtue (MV) from a specif... more I address YU Jiyuan's The Ethics of Confucius and Aristotle: Mirrors of Virtue (MV) from a specifically comparative perspective, under the rubrics of methodology, the relations of individuals to traditions, and categories of comparison. 1 Methodology 1.1 Two Methods YU Jiyuan juxtaposes two methods, both derived from Aristotle. The first is the idea of friendship as a mirror, constructing an analogous relation of "friendship" between Confucius and Aristotle. When we wish to see our own face, we do so by looking into the mirror, in the same way when we wish to know ourselves we can obtain that knowledge by looking at a friend. For the friend is, as we assert, a second self. If, then, it is pleasant to know oneself, and it is not possible to know this without having someone else for a friend, the self-sufficing man will require friendship to know himself. (MM 1213a20-26) 1

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 1994

the Indian wealth deity Vaisravana (Bisman tngri) in the Oirat incense-offering to Eternal Heaven... more the Indian wealth deity Vaisravana (Bisman tngri) in the Oirat incense-offering to Eternal Heaven (p. 269). Only the slaughtering dalalya, which nevertheless opens with the lamaist formula om sain amuyulang boltuyai (p. 273), and the very short 9and 55-word incantations on pp. 280-1, are without ' lamaist' references. Given this the reader is entitled to ask: how much of a text had to be ' lamaist' for it to have been rejected by the author? The phenomenology of this work may also disappoint many readers though some will doubtless consider it fitting. One consequence of a descriptive—in fact almost materialistic— approach is a lack of information on the spiritual side of the dalalya. Since the rite is a 'means of making contact with the supernatural or "other" dimension' (p. 290) a chapter on that ' " other " dimension' would have helped remedy an already incomplete picture. Nor is this an unreasonable request when the stick has seven pages devoted to it (162-3; 186-90). As it is the reader is left in the dark as to the nature of the spirits involved in the process and the exact way in which they fulfil their ritual roles. Practitioners of the dalalya do it because of their acceptance of this 'other dimension'; it is thus central to the rite and its discussion can in no way be seen as optional. Anna-Leena Siikala's Rite technique of the Siberian shaman (Helsinki, 1987) shows what can be achieved when the spiritual side is taken into account. These observations do not invalidate the information presented in the book which is of intrinsic interest. Time and again, however, this book shows clearly the dangers of attempting to disentangle Lamaism from native Mongol religion thereby creating categories of discussion which are not central to the understanding of the rituals themselves. A large part of Mongolian dalalya literature consequently remains uninvestigated in this work; this omission is only compounded by the refusal or inability to discuss spiritual aspects of the dalalya.