On the “wild Chan Buddhist thoughts” of the Taizhou School, see Mao Wenfang, Wan Ming ‘Kuangchan’ Tanlun, 171–200. The volume by Liu Mengxi (Zhongguo Wenhua de Kuangzhe Jingshen, esp. 52–82) offers the most systematic survey of the roles of “craziness” in Chinese culture, from Confucian kuangjuan 狂狷 (too ardent and too cautious) to chanlin 禅林 (Chan Buddhist). The wording kuangjuan appears in a passage of Mengzi (Jinxin II 盡心下, with specific reference to Lunyu, Zilu) where Confucius, being unable to find disciples who could wholeheartedly dedicate themselves to the practice of stillness, considered another class of men, and finally decided to take with him those who were impetuous and unrestrained, together with those who were precautious. “Mencius replied: ‘Confucius not getting men pursuing the true medium, to whom he might communicate his instructions, determined to take the ardent and the cautious-decided. The ardent would advance to seize their object; the cautious-decided would keep themselves from certain things. It is not to be thought that Confucius did not wish to get men pursuing the true medium, but being unable to assure himself of finding such, he therefore thought of the next class’” (孟子曰：「孔子『不得中道而與之，必也狂獧乎！狂者進取，獧者有所不為也』。孔子豈不欲中道哉？不可必得，故思其次也」) (Legge’s translation). Although the two characters form a dyad of two distinct polarities (“arrogant” vs “narrow-minded,” and “ardent” vs “precautious”), the former (kuang) often prevails over the latter (juan), and the compound is therefore used to designate a person who is either “arrogant,” “unrestrained and genuine” (狂狷朴野之人), or “independent, free and uncareful of conventions” according to circumstances.

58. Lei Sipei, Xiaobitang Xu 瀟碧堂叙 [Preface to the Clear Jade Hall], in Siku Quanshu, Jibu 集部, Zongjilei 總集類, Wenzhang Bianti Huixuan文章辨體彙選, juan 310, quoted in Lin Geng, Lin Geng Shiwenji, 75.

59. “我今信得這良知真是真非。信手行去。更不著些覆藏。我今繞做得箇狂者的胸次。使天下之人都說我行不掩言也罷」。尚謙出曰，「信得此過，方是聖人的真血脈」.” Chuanxilu, 312. Chan Wing-tsit’s translation modified (Instructions for Practical Living, 239). Wang asserts the indisputable autonomy of each individual owing to one’s innate conscience (人人自有定盤針, Wang Wencheng Quanshu 王文成全書, juan 20, in Siku Quanshu, Jibu 集部, Biejilei 別集類).

60. Lunyu, Zi Lu, 21: “Since I cannot get men pursuing the due medium, to whom I might communicate my instructions, I must find the ardent and the cautiously-decided. The ardent will advance and lay hold of truth;