PhD student, UChicago Divinity School

This paper juxtaposes Martin Heidegger’s (1889–1976) and Xiong Shili’s 熊十力 (1885–1968) engagements with archaic thought to examine how each reconfigures the relationship between difference and non-duality in the mid-twentieth century. It traces Heidegger’s interpretations of Anaximander from his 1932 lecture The Beginning of Western Philosophy to his 1946 essay “The Saying of Anaximander,” alongside Xiong’s engagement with the Yijing (易經) and Mahāyāna Buddhism from the 1932 New Treatise on the Uniqueness of Consciousness (新唯識論) to the 1958 Ti yong lun (體用論). The analysis identifies a synchronic transition in both philosophers from a “paradoxical doubling” to a “self-reflexive fourfold,” where duality simultaneously inhabits both difference and non-duality. Section (iii) presents a diagram of their respective fourfold, not to establish a definitive comparative framework, but to expose the tension between philosophy and the history of philosophy. Finally, the paper situates these tensions within Heidegger’s entanglement with National Socialism and Xiong’s alignment with Revolutionary Confucianism (革命儒學), thereby grounding their philosophical configurations within specific political-historical contexts.

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