Unlocking the Chinese Gate

<p><b>Offers an innovative analysis of gates-as architectural components visual images and mental constructs-in early Chinese thought and material culture.</b></p><p><i>Unlocking the Chinese Gate</i> offers an innovative analysis of gates in early Chinese thought and material culture. Observing gates from various perspectives-including philosophy architecture and psychology-and through the conceptual lens of Chinese correlative thinking Galia Dor conceptualizes the Chinese gate as a membrane-like apparatus that from the space in-between efficaciously manifests (<i>de</i>) the Way (<i>dao</i>) into the ten thousand forms of actualized life. This methodology exposes an open-to-closed gradation between pairs of inside/outside (<i>wai/nei</i>) that resonates throughout the Chinese model of psychocosmic concentric circles. The consequential strategies (e.g. continuity/break chaos/order) demonstrate how early Chinese cosmological philosophical and political idealities as well as afterlife religious beliefs were applied-including the various approaches to and practices of self-cultivation. The book sheds new light on ancient Chinese thought and material culture and offers points of comparison to Western thought and modern science including a model of decision-gating that carries relevant implications and insights to our current lives.</p>