“Original Body” and Metaphysical Dimension of Body

Body conception has been an important theme in philosophy research. The Neo-Confucianism in the Song and Ming Dynasties was a summit of traditional Chinese philosophy, it means that how the Neo-Confucian scholars especially those of Yangming school thought about body is really worth paying attention. Analyzing Luo Rufang’s creative ideas about body with the theoretic tool of body phenomenology, we can find that, firstly, Luo reversed the traditional idea which means body is passive and mind is positive, he held that both body and mind are positive, this is different from body-mind dualism. Secondly, Luo proposed a new conception " original body” (" 原日身体”) and uncovered the intention structure between body and world, this new conception is very like Merleau Ponty’s " body intentionality” or Shusterman’s " body consciousness”. Thirdly, the original consciousness that " original body” has is filial piety and fraternal submission, the world is a world of filial piety, this viewpoint about world is very different from that of body phenomenology, but it is a viewpoint of Confucianism.