Abstract
A striking and recurring theme in early Chinese philosophy is the idea that the perfect knowing of the sage is characterized by double-vision. Although different texts ascribe different combinations of perspectives to this doubleness – inside and outside, immediate and transcendent, emotionally engaged and detached – the basic idea is that the optimal point of view is provided by the capacity to embody two distinct vantage points, the one personal and particular, the other impartial and universal. Tracing this theme in early Daoist and Confucian writings (primarly the Zhuangzi and Xunzi) and in later philosophy and visual practice, I will discuss what such an account of sagely vision entailed, how it endeavored to negotiate between objective and subjective points of view, and what it reveals about the distinct character of early Chinese ethics and conceptions of knowing.