De spil van de hemel, een weg om wel en niet te volgen

The title as well as the content of the book about Daoism written in 2006 by Patricia De Martelaere (1957-2009), contain a tension between a strong enthusiasm for the Daoist Way and a conscious incapacity to theoretically defend it. Both are connected to the metaphor of a powerful center surrounded by a rotating periphery. On the one hand, the Way promoted in the Zhuangzi and Laozi amounts to minimal and responsive action at the axis. The appreciation of the center’s amorphousness and its undivisible connection to the periphery, on the other hand, invalidate arguments and final conclusions. While De Martelaere’s use of imagery invokes the former, her philosophical analyses support the latter. As in the Zhuangzi, this combination creates a style that alternates imagery with theory. As a result, both authors fitted and misfitted their respective intellectual contexts.