Chinese Philosophy and Nature as a Place

This chapter will discuss the concept of place in Chinese philosophy. Confucianism and Daoism’s interpretation of the concept of Heaven and Earth has a deep influence on the concept of place in Chinese culture. I explore the two dimensions of the concept of place in this chapter which include aesthetic appreciation of nature and loving attitude towards nature. Compared with Emerson, Chinese philosophy nurtures an attitude of attachment to cultivated nature instead of attachment to wilderness, which includes agricultural land, gardens, and so on.