This engaging work of comparative philosophy brings together American pragmatism and Chinese philosophy in a way that generates new interpretations of Chinese philosophy and a fresh perspective on issues in process philosophy. Through an analysis of key terms, Haiming Wen argues that Chinese philosophical terminology is not simply a retrospective language that through a process of stipulation promises us knowledge of an existing world, but is also an open, prospective vocabulary that through productive associations allows philosophers to realize a desired world. Relying on this productive power of Chinese terminology, Wen introduces a new term: 'Confucian pragmatism.' Wen convincingly shows that although there is much that distinguishes American pragmatism from Confucian philosophy, there is enough conceptual overlap to make Confucian pragmatism a viable and exciting field of study.

In a historical moment when cross-cultural communication proves both necessary and difficult, the work of comparative philosophy is timely. Philosophical resources for building a shared future marked by vitality and collaborative meaning-making are in high demand. Taking note of the present global philosophical situation, this collection of essays critically engages the scholarship of Roger T. Ames, who for decades has had a central role in the evolution of comparative and nonwestern philosophy. With a reflective methodology that has produced creative translations of key Chinese philosophical texts, Ames-in conjunction with notable collaborators such as D.C. Lau, David Hall, and Henry Rosemont Jr.-has brought China's philosophical traditions into constructive cross-cultural dialogue on numerous ethical and social issues that we face today. The volume opens with two parts that share overlapping concerns about interpretation and translation of nonwestern texts and traditions. Parts III and IV - "Process Cosmology" and "Epistemological Considerations" - mark the shift in comparative projects from the metaphilosophical and translational stage to the more traditionally philosophical stage. Parts V and VI - "Confucian Role Ethics" and "Classical Daoism" - might best be read as Chinese contributions to philosophical inquiry into living well or "ethics" broadly construed. Lastly, Part VII takes Amesian comparative philosophy in "Critical Social and Political Directions," explicitly drawing out the broader dimensions of social constitution and the ideal of harmony. The contributors-scholars working in philosophy, religious studies, and Asian studies-pursue lines of inquiry opened up by the work of Roger Ames, and their chapters both clarify his ideas and push them in new directions. They survey the field of Chinese philosophy as it is taking shape in the wake of Ames's contributions and as it carries forward a global conversation on the future of humanity.

In this illustrated introduction Wen Haiming explores the characteristics of different philosophers in Chinese history and distinguishes the 'Chinese philosophical sensibility' motivating their thoughts. Employing Western philosophical categories to describe significant issues in the history of philosophy, Wen Haiming considers Chinese political philosophy in the pre-Qin era, Chinese metaphysics from Han to Tang dynasties, Chinese epistemology from Song to Ming dynasties and modern Chinese-Western comparative philosophy. Chinese Philosophy provides a clear, accessible conception of the Chinese philosophical sensibility and its evolution throughout history.

The Book of Changes (Yijing, also known as I Ching) is generally recognized as the oldest among the ancient Chinese classics, tracing back to the yin-yang symbolic system that, according to traditional mythology, was created by the legendary Fu Xi (mid-29th century BCE). The Yijing's mystical origins and the dynamic nature of its image-numbers-the various diagrams, trigrams, and hexagrams-gave rise to subsequent interpretations by sages over millennia, along with differences in understanding. Ever since the Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE), there have been debates between two schools of thought: the image-number school, which focuses on the symbols as a means to divination; and the philosophy school, which values the work for its cosmological and ontological insights. Assimilating ideas from both schools, Ma Baoshan reestablishes the logical image-number system and reaffirms that this image-number logic is the foundation for understanding the Book of Changes in the context of contemporary research. As Ma explains in his introduction, ""the aim of Cosmology and Logic in the Dao of Changes is not to study the image-number logic itself, but to discover the symbolic system inherent in the Book of Changes, and the image-number logic behind this system."" His interpretations of the moving numbers and images: the Taiji, Hetu, and Luo-shu Diagrams, the Pre-heavens and Post-heavens Trigrams, as well as the 64 hexagrams, is always in the context of the continuity of mind and events. He renders this ontological existence as five onto-generative-beings (benti), which is a pioneering theory in the hermeneutical history of the Book of Changes. His theory is crucial in reminding researchers of this classic that without understanding its image-number foundation, it is impossible for anyone to comprehend it as a properly philosophical work.