Quotes from Bryan W. Van Norden

These passages don't just lay out a cyclic view of history, they specify a philosophy of history that explains those cycles. The founder of a dynasty is given a mandate (mìng ) to rule by Heaven (ti?n ).

If reading the Bible intently and seriously gives breadth and depth to one's mind (and it certainly does), why not also the Mengzi? or the Bhagavad Gita? or Ch?shingura? There is more than one "great conversation" in the world, and more than one way to furnish a soul.

Even in modern Chinese, the word for "revolution" (as in "Cultural Revolution") is gémìng , which is literally "stripping of the mandate.

would that turtle rather have its bones treasured in death, or be alive dragging its tail in the mud? … Go! I'll keep my tail in the mud, too" (247). So Zhuangzi recommends that we do not seek prominence.