A Journey to the Way of Gongfu: An Intellectual Autobiography

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Published: Aug 3, 2023
Keywords:
Chinese philosophy, gongfu, Confucianism, comparative philosophy, the Analects

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Peimin Ni
Grand Valley State University

Abstract

Growing out of traumatic life experiences in youth, the author started his lifelong journey in studying and practicing philosophy during the turbulent Cultural Revolution in China. The path took him from a “secret library” in the Worker’s Union Office of a steel plant to universities in China and the US; from seeking personal healing to becoming a public intellectual; from pursuing enlightenment in western philosophies to re-discovering his own Chinese cultural heritage; and from learning to think for oneself to becoming an active scholar and formulator of a unique philosophical theory—the philosophy of the way of gongfu, or the art of life.  

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How to Cite
Ni, P. (2023). A Journey to the Way of Gongfu: An Intellectual Autobiography. Journal of World Philosophies, 6(2), 159–170. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.iu.edu/iupjournals/index.php/jwp/article/view/4922
Issue
Vol. 6 No. 2 (2021)
Section
Intellectual Journeys

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Author Biography

Peimin Ni, Grand Valley State University

Peimin Ni was born in Shanghai in 1954. He received his BA (1982) and MA (1985) from Fudan University, and PhD from the University of Connecticut (1991). He has taught, for the most of his career, at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, but also as a visiting professor at several other institutions such as the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the University of Hong Kong, Peking University, and Beijing Normal University. In addition to some 80 academic journal papers and book chapters, Ni has authored numerous books, including Wandering—Brush and Pen in Philosophical Reflection, Confucius—the Man and the Way of Gongfu, Understanding the Analects of Confucius—A New Translation of Lunyu with Annotations (MLA Scaglione book prize winner), and a forthcoming signature work, Philosophizing Gongfu through Confucianism. Ni served as president for the Association of Chinese Philosophers in America and the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy, Executive Vice Director of the Institute of Advanced Humanistic Studies at Peking University, and editor-in-chief of the ACPA book series on Chinese and Comparative Philosophy. Ni is also an accomplished Chinese calligraphy artist.