Self-Cultivation through Self-Revelations: A Sketch of Li Zhi's "Authentic Self"

This thesis investigates conflicting scholarly interpretations of autobiographical fiction "A Sketch of Zhuowu"《卓悟论略》by late-Ming intellectual Li Zhi's 李贄 (1527-1602). By proposing a new way of reading this work, it reconciles these conflicts and examines his understanding of self-society relations. Situating his autobiography in the context of late imperial Chinese sociocultural history and analyzing it in relation with his other writings, it argues that his conception of self in this essay is both authorial and social. While his authorial self engages with Ming intellectuals and commoners through the written world, his social self provides guidance on individuals' moral conduct in a Confucian society. Whereas the former contributes the realm of ideas through creative expressions, the latter responds to Confucian traditions in the late-Ming. Li Zhi's writings frequently allude to Confucian classics, while challenging the state-endorsed readings of them. By doing so, he carved a discursive space that allowed diverse interpretations of classical texts to flourish. This thesis adopts an interdisciplinary approach, engaging in conversation with the scholarship on Confucian thought, the history of late Ming, and Chinese literature. It provides an entry point to grasp the intellectual and cultural life in the late Ming from Li Zhi's perspective, where different understandings of self-cultivation were put forward and discussed.