Unlocking the Chinese Gate: Manifestations of the Space "In-Between" in Early China

By Galia Dor

Book Overview

Offers an innovative analysis of gates-as architectural components, visual images, and mental constructs-in early Chinese thought and material culture.

Unlocking the Chinese Gate offers an innovative analysis of gates in early Chinese thought and material culture. Observing gates from various perspectives-including philosophy, architecture, and psychology-and through the conceptual lens of Chinese correlative thinking, Galia Dor conceptualizes the Chinese gate as a membrane-like apparatus that, from the space "in-between," efficaciously manifests (de) the Way (dao) into the "ten thousand" forms of actualized life. This methodology exposes an open-to-closed gradation between pairs of inside/outside (wai/nei) that resonates throughout the Chinese model of psychocosmic concentric circles. The consequential strategies (e.g., continuity/break, chaos/order) demonstrate how early Chinese cosmological, philosophical, and political idealities, as well as afterlife religious beliefs, were applied-including the various approaches to and practices of self-cultivation. The book sheds new light on ancient Chinese thought and material culture and offers points of comparison to Western thought and modern science, including a model of "decision-gating" that carries relevant implications and insights to our current lives.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1438497520
• ISBN13: 9781438497525
• Release Date: November 2024
• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Length: 322 Pages
• Weight: 0.96 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher