The Wang Fuzhi’s treatise on the transformation of qi and life interprets the nature of life from the point of view of qi. The treatise is different from modern molecular biology, the former derives from the macroscopic scale of life and defines life from the aspect of the entire universe, but the latter derives from the microscopic scale and defines from the DNA. The treatise is formed with the melding of the neo-Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism. It is based on the Confucian school on qi and absorbs the exercise techniques of inner alchemy and the reincarnation concepts of Yogochara. Therefore, besides emphasizing the theory of mind that neo-Confucianists focus on, the treatise also puts emphasis on the human physiology and the ultimate destination of human beings. These new elements compose the unique content of the treatise.
The treatise contains two fundamental principles: one is the principle of entirety and the other is duality. The former principle is distinct from the principle of subject that most of the modern neo-Confucianism researchers adopt as the basis of their studying. The treatise not only accepts the principle of subject, but also pays more attention to the entirety that is constructed from subjectivity and objectivity. The latter principle originally comes from quantum mechanics; the author borrows the term from it to describe the characteristics of qi, two poles of everything is compatible to each other; therefore, the dichotomy can support each other. The principle believes qi meld heaven with human, subject with object, body with mind, individual with community, and birth with death.
The second chapter explains the Wang Fuzhi’s particular insights into human life. At first, he analyses the divergence among human, plants and animals, and recognizes human’s moral ability deriving from the superior structure of human body and mind. To some extent, the concept is related to biology. He thinks that there is interaction between body and mind, so the behavior of a body can influence the quality of its mind. In other words, he puts forward a unique body theory that human body can cultivate its mind. Furthermore, the ability of mind is the result that comes from the collaboration of every single part of a body and the perception of mind originates from all the physiological organs and tissues. According to these concepts, he proposes a mind theory that is rooted in body. Because the theory partly involves physical concepts, he quotes the notions from traditional Chinese medicine to formulate his thoughts. This means that his thoughts contain physiology to some degree. At last, he integrates the mind theory of neo-Confucianism with the Eight Consciousnesses(aṣṭa vijñānakāyāḥ) of Yogochara; thus, the content and quality of mind can be consistently renovated by energy exchange or activities of body and mind, so the metabolism not only works in body. Which food should be assimilated and what things should be done both depend on the ability of autonomy and measurement, and they can determine whether the moral stature is good or evil. This interpretation of the life abilities developed by life structure is depicted by Wang’s splendid metaphor of dizi(笛子).
The third chapter focuses on the cultivation techniques of human life which is both physiological and psychological. The author tries to discuss Wang’s practical theory of how to live a finite life and how to adjust one’s physical and mental conditions. In terms of the former, it is the essential question in relation to moral practice that all Confucianists emphasize. In terms of the latter, the question is related to the techniques of purification and transmutation on that Daoist scholars of inner alchemy concentrate. The various exercise techniques of inner alchemy form the infrastructure of life discourse and have become the interpretative foothold when he makes notes for many classics. As far as a single classic is concerned, his notes to Far-off Journey(遠遊) are the most detailed ones about exercise techniques, while the notes to Zheng Meng(正蒙注) is the most complicated. Briefly speaking, his theory of inner alchemy derives from the South school(南宗), but he eliminates some dross of it, and just reserves ‘the metamorphosis of qi into spirit’ (鍊氣化神). In the notes to Zheng Meng, he creates a new theorical system which consists of meditation, the investigation of things, and moral practice to protect the Confucianists’ standpoint. Because he regards the techniques of purification and transmutation as the auxiliary principle of moral practice, the meditation called ‘preserving spirit’(存神) is able to ‘fulfill the human ability’(盡性).
In the fourth chapter, the author discusses the Wang’s ethics of life messagess and tries to clarify the relation between activities of body and mind and life messages. In short, human behavior, whether good or evil, will transform into life messages, and these life messages will be written in the qi of life, influence the quality of qi, and then be stored up in the dispersing qi that comes from the dead in Taixu(太虛). The peculiar theory has absorbed the seed and perfumation(bīja and vāsanā) doctrines of Yogochara although he always thinks of it as an opposing force. When he refers to it, he strictly criticizes its fallacies to prove that the neo-Confucianism theory of qi is more reasonable. In order to dissertate the theme, the author chooses Wang’s four writings as examples, including the notes to the Book of Rites(禮記章句), the creative notes to the book of changes(周易外傳), the notes to Zheng Meng, and the notes to Zhuangzi(莊子解).
In the fifth chapter, the author discusses the Wang’s politics of the circulation of qi and interprets the life messages influence the circulation of qi within the cosmos after a dead person transforms into the qi that records the messages. To put it differently, this kind of qi is able to determine the eco-environment and the political situation in the future. On this matter, the author selects the creative notes to the book of changes, the notes to Zheng Meng, and the notes to Zhuangzi as the instances to investigate the questions in the politics of circulation. Among them, ‘the permanent effect of Emperor Yao and Jie’s life messages’(代堯國桀), ‘crossing the dichotomy without boundary’(兼體不累) , and ‘the auxiliary effect of qi of life on the cosmos’(能移相天), they are crucial to the Wang’s theory about the interaction of human life and the whole cosmos.
In a word, there are three different aspects in the Wang Fuzhi’s treatise on the transformation of qi and life: the cultivation techniques of human life, the ethics of life messages, and the politics of the circulation of qi. The first emphasizes the experience of body and mind can determine the quality of qi of life. The second focuses on the life messages within qi, which last forever. The third pays attention to the effect of life messages on the whole cosmos. As mentioned above, the life in Wang’s treatise is not only psychological but also physiological. This means that this kind of life contains the meaning of humanities and biology; hence, it is both the philosophy of life and the science of life. The author even regards the treatise as a religion of Confucianism which is centered on qi.