There are 8 chapters in the whole book. Apart from the introduction, the abstract is as below.
〈Chapter 2‧Contemporary Issues in Guo Xiang’s Annotation of Zhuang Zi〉: This chapter is to discuss what contemporary subjects were faced by the times of Guo Xiang, and what kinds of attitudes Guo was holding when interpreting Zhuang Zi.
〈Chapter 3‧Contemporary Guo Xiang Philosophy- The Investigation of Various Interpreting Systems〉: The chapter reflects on the contemporary research, putting emphasis on the problems unsolved by the predecessors in the academic field and awaiting us to keep making efforts.
〈Chapter 4‧ Fusion of “X-ing,” “Allotment,” and “Circumstances”: Guo Xiang’s Reinterpretation of “So-of Itself”〉: The chapter looks into Guo Xiang’s definition of “So-of Itself,” further coming up with three issues:
1、Reestablishing Guo Xiang’s definitions of “X-ing,” “Allotment,” and “Circumstances.”
2、Deciding what kind of system is suitable to be interpreted with Guo Xiang’s “Ontology.”
3、Managing to make the relationships between the three concepts of “Du Hua,” “Xiang Yin,” and “Xuan Ming” coherent.
〈Chapter 5‧ From “ Following Its Own Nature” to “Governing by Actionless Activity”:Rereading Guo Xiang’s Theory of “Xiao-Yao”〉: Guo Xiang reversed the meaning of Zhuang Zi’s Xiao-Yao You, but this “Creative Interpretation” has caused the stirs among the past scholars, and opinions towards Guo Xiang’s appropriateness on interpreting Zhuang Zi have also been polarized. The chapter seeks to analyze the values and possibilities of actually realizing Guo Xiang’s “Following Its Own Nature,” unfolding the text with three aspects:
1、Interpreting the values and self-cultivating accounts of “Following Its Own Nature.”
2、Analyzing the differences between Guo Xiang and Zhuang Zi upon their theories of cultivation.
3、Outlining the rules of ethics in “Following Its Own Nature.”
〈Chapter 6‧Reconciling Confucianism with Taoism? Taoist Political Philosophy? : Reevaluating Guo Xiang’s «“Code of ethics” is “So-of Itself”»〉: In this chapter, we believe, instead of mixing Confucianism and Taoism, Guo Xiang followed Zhuang Zi ’s judgments towards the “Code of ethics” of Confucianism and reestablished the definition of it. From this main issue, we composed the chapter with three other extended topics:
1、Proposing the definitions Guo Xiang used to construct the “Authoritative Conduct,” “Appropriate,” and “Ritual Propriety” of Taoism.
2、Explaining Zuang Zi’s social institutions that were slightly different from those of Confucianism.
3、Clarifying if Guo Xiang’s annotations inherited spirits of Zuang Zi which criticized and healed the Confucian ethics.
〈Chapter 7‧ Reevaluating « Qi Wu Lun » and Guo’s Annotations〉: This thesis is aimed at proposing further reflections upon academies’ current research results.
1、Exploring Guo Xiang’s theories to interpret Qi Wu Lun.
2、Considering the interpreting impacts of“ subjective Jingjie Xing Tai” on Qi Wu Lun and seeing if there’s a need to complement it.
3、Discussing if Guo Xiang’s various misunderstandings on Qi Wu Lun truly violate the theories of Qi Wu Lun itself.
〈Chapter 8‧ Conclusion〉: Reviewing and organizing the research results of all the chapters, further marking the differences of this thesis from the others.