Welcome to
John Robert Williams WEBSITE
I am currently a lecturer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and was selected for the Shenzhen Peacock Talent Program. I obtained my Ph.D. from the Department of Philosophy at National University of Singapore, where I was awarded the President's Graduate Fellowship. Additionally, I studied at the International Chinese Language Program at National Taiwan University. My interest lies in Chinese philosophy, with a particular focus on traditional interpretations and literary criticism of the Zhuangzi 莊子 (ca. 4th through 3rd century BCE). My doctoral dissertation is a study of Yaodi pao Zhuang 藥地炮莊, exploring the Zhuangzi interpretations by the polymath Fang Yizhi 方以智 (1611-1671). My research interests include the philosophical interpretations of the Zhuangzi by thinkers such as Guo Xiang 郭象 (252-312), Hanshan Deqing 憨山德清 (1546-1623), Wang Fuzhi 王夫之 (1619-1692), and Zhang Binglin 章炳麟 (1869-1936) as well as the literary criticism of scholars like Lin Xiyi 林希逸 (1193-1271), Lin Yunming 林雲銘 (1628-1697), Xuan Ying 宣穎 (fl. 1721), and Liu Fengbao 劉鳳苞 (1826-1905).
Books:
o Hanshan Deqing [憨山德清; 1546–1623], Wang Fuzhi [王夫之; 1619–1692], and Lin Yunming [林雲銘; 1628–1697] on Zhuangzi [莊子; ca. 4th–3rd century BCE]: Impressions of Carefree Wandering, London: Routledge (forthcoming 2025)
o 莊子內篇匯評詮釋 The Inner Chapters of the Zhuangzi: With Copious Annotations from the Chinese Commentaries (with Christoph Harbsmeier), Lun Wen: Studien zur Geistesgeschichte und Literatur in China; 27 (edited by Hans van Ess, Roderich Ptak, and Thomas O. Höllmann), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag (2024) https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.16192349
Peer-Reviewed Articles & Book Chapters in English:
o “Imaginative Agency and Meaning in Life During Periods of Instability: Zhuangzi as a “Text for an Age of Decline” (shuai shi zhi shu 衰世之書)” (with Lucas Scripter), Moral and Public Agency in Early Chinese Philosophy (edited by Eirik Harris and Henrique Schneider), Sinica Leidensia, Leiden: Brill. (forthcoming)
o “論《莊子》傳統註釋中「庖丁」與「養生」關係的考察摘要” “A Note Concerning the Relationship between “Butcher Ding [庖丁]” and “Nourishing Life [養生]” in the Traditional Zhuangzi Commentaries,” Early China, 46 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1017/eac.2023.5
o “Zhuang Zi and the “Greatest Joyousness” [至樂]: Wang Fuzhi’s [王夫之 (1619-1692)] Approach,” Comparative Philosophy, 14(2) (2023) https://doi.org/10.31979/2151-6014(2023).140210
o “Qian Mu [錢穆 (1895-1990)] Reads Zhuangzi: Regarding “There Has Not Yet Begun to be a ‘There Has Not Yet Begun to be Nothing’” [有未始有夫未始有無也者],” Asian Philosophy, 32(2) (2022) https://doi.org/10.1080/09552367.2022.2044524
o “方以智注“莊周夢蝶” 故事的翻譯與注解” “An Annotated Translation of Fang Yizhi’s [方以智 (1611-1671)] Commentary on Zhuangzi’s “Butterfly Dream” Story,” Monumenta Serica, 70(2) (2022) https://doi.org/10.1080/02549948.2022.2131807
o “A Couple Nagging Interpretive Difficulties in Zhuangzi Studies vis-à-vis William James on the Ethics and Psychology of Belief,” Frontiers of Philosophy in China, 14(4) (2019) https://doi.org/10.3868/s030-008-019-0035-5
o “以何莫邪 (Christoph Harbsmeier) 的 論點否定賴蘊慧 (Karyn Lai) 與凱文· 德拉普 (Kevin Delapp) 所指出的早期儒家認識論的特性” “Christoph Harbsmeier contra Karyn Lai and Kevin DeLapp on the Epistemological Characteristics of Early Confucianism,” Journal of Confucian Philosophy and Culture, 30 (2018) https://jcpc.skku.edu/
o “Two Paradigmatic Strategies for Reading Zhuang Zi’s “Happy Fish” Vignette as Philosophy: Guo Xiang’s [郭象 (252-312)] and Wang Fuzhi’s [王夫之 (1619-1692)] Approaches,” Comparative Philosophy, 9(2) (2018) https://doi.org/10.31979/2151-6014(2018).090207
o “The Vanishing Wild Card: Challenges and Implications of Ziporyn’s Zhuangzi,” Philosophy East & West, 67(1) (2017) https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/pew.2017.0012
o “The Radiance of Drift and Doubt: Zhuangzi and the Starting Point of Philosophical Discourse,” Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy, 16(1) (2017) https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-016-9531-9
