Chuk Tai Wai 祝大為

1155260199@link.cuhk.edu.hk

Undergraduate in Philosophy, New Asia College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

What I work on

One question runs through my work. How does a community keep what matters to it, and what can a person build when transmission begins to fail?

Two lines of research follow from that question. The first is methodological and asks how classical Chinese texts should be read, since a tradition survives partly through the way each generation interprets it. The second is historical and asks what Tang Junyi (唐君毅) and Mou Zongsan (牟宗三) took cultural continuity to require of individual moral cultivation. I plan to continue both lines in MPhil and PhD study in Chinese philosophy.

Work in progress

Extending Liu Xiaogan’s methodology of Chinese philosophy

Working title. Paper in preparation, under the guidance of Professor Cheng Chung-yi (鄭宗義).

Liu Xiaogan (劉笑敢) sorts interpretive work in Chinese philosophy using a binary distinction. Reading Wang Bi’s (王弼) commentary on the Laozi (老子), I found passages that the binary captures along one dimension and leaves undecided along another. The paper keeps Liu’s distinction and adds a second axis so that those cases can be placed as well. The argument began as four connected essays written for History of Chinese Philosophy I and II, each extending the framework to a further case. Professor Cheng invited me to develop the four into a single paper for publication.

Draft available on request.

A Laozian supplement to coexistence theory

Working title. Essay in revision.

Written in English for History of Chinese Philosophy II. The essay reconstructs Professor Cheng Chung-yi’s published account of coexistence, then argues that resources in the Laozi (老子) extend that account in a direction it leaves open.

Draft available on request.

Interests

Training

Coursework in Chinese philosophy and in the core areas that support it. Grades appear in my CV.

Completed

PHIL 2020History of Chinese Philosophy I
PHIL 2030History of Chinese Philosophy II
PHIL 2050History of Western Philosophy II
PHIL 2060Philosophy and Human Conditions
PHIL 1310Logic
PHIL 1110Introduction to Philosophy
GENA 1114Service Learning, Chinese Culture
UGFH 1000In Dialogue with Humanity

Current, 2026–27 Term 1

PHIL 4371Seminar on Chinese Philosophy
PHIL 3541Topics in Ancient Chinese Philosophy
PHIL 3211Indian Buddhist Philosophy
PHIL 3000Ethics
PHIL 3383Philosophy of Death
PHIL 2040History of Western Philosophy I