• Introduction:

A Short History of Chinese Philosophy by Feng Youlan is a brief historical introduction to Chinese Philosophy. Recently, I am re-reading it and create a mind map. I want to use Gephi to show the inner relationship of Confucianism, Neo-Confucianism, School of Ming, School of Dao, Buddhism, Dhyana, School of Yin Yang. Here is some inspiration for network map.

• Inspirations

1. The structural formulas of Design Colleges by He Ying/ Xiang Fan Studio

Professor Xiang Fan is Tsinghua University, Art and Design Department’s professor. She finds every Chinese University website’s homepage are boring and similar, so she and her students gathered International Art school’s administrative structure information from official websites. (Above Collage-Branch School-Department-Major-Teach-Research Section) Comparing Chinese Art School’s structure (left side of graph) with other countries’ Art School (right side), we have so many hierarchies inside.

It’s interesting to rethink our education structure and what’s the difference under the map (politics, cultural and the principle of distribution). I believe this network could beyond the traditional website model and give people more direct insight into college. Also, I could see Pratt Institute here:

2. The Network Behind the cosmic web by Kim Albrecht /Barabasi Lab

Cosmic Web is a 3D interactive network project to show the architecture of Galaxy as a whole, is based on the distribution of 24,000 galaxies, of which 100,000 are network links.

Albrecht used 3 models to display:

I. Fixed Length Model: All galaxies within a set distance of l are connected by an undirected link.

II.Varying Length Model: The length of each link is proportional to the “size” of the galaxy, l = a Ri^1/2

III. Nearest Neighbors Model: Each galaxy is connected to its closest neighbors with a directed links. In this model, the length of each link depends on the distance to the nearest galaxy.

The network breakthrough the assumption of gravity which holds galaxies together, illustrate three possible and easily understandable blueprints of cosmic. Even though right now we still could not figure out which power controls the discrete galaxies, the 3D interactive network could offer a chance for scientists and people to create an image of the galaxy of our mind.

3. Writing Without Words by Stefanie Posavec

“Writing Without Words” is a handmade network project that uses various relationship approaches to analyze the structure and themes of On the Road by Jack Kerouac. Posavec gathered language structure of quantifiable data by rereading, and create her own network method. As we could see from the poster:

• Each edge means one chapter of the book, and sub-branches show more details;
• The colors separate the main keywords of the book into 11 categories;
• The notes count each paragraph’s word numbers and display by the radian of circle.

This project is so pretty, interesting and different, for it made by self-read and drawing, I could feel the real passion of the book and it’s different from scrape data by programming. I think this network could give people an overview understands of the book, which part writer use more ink to describe what kind of things. I admit it is not only a network visualization map since the relationship is not the aim of the whole map.

• Background & Topic Reason

A Short History of Chinese Philosophy is one of the few books I brought to the US. It’s not only an annalistic style book but also with the genre comparison and inner-relationship between different philosophical schools and philosophers. However, I could not find a legible network map or even the data of Chinese Philosophers’ relationship from the Internet. For people who first time get touch with Chinese Philosophy may confuse about the use of words and the connection of groups. There is no superficial link between the Chinese philosophers’ speech and the article because these remarks and articles are not formal philosophical works, these remarks came from all periods of one’s life, and the quotations are not remembered by only one person. [1] The philosophy without connection between the ideas cannot be called philosophy, Chinese philosophy is not religion, which also has various schools and internal links.

I want to show an overview of the structure of Chinese Philosophy by network visualization method, by watching the network, people could know the main schools and connection between groups and characters.

• Goal & Target People

My goal is to show the overall glance of the relationship of Chinese Philosophy. For the people who want to get a first impression of Chinese culture and who cannot see the direct connection of philosophers. I may not have sufficient time to finish this database intensively, the school of Fa, Mo and Neo-Daoism are schools described without the out-degree connection from the book, there is less information about the representative, so I did not include. I will add information by future exploration and re-read.

• Methods & Resources

Gephi is a network visualization software which is easy to use and improve. I will explain my methods and procedures for the creation of network visualizations below.

Since I could not find appropriate database from Website, I gathered it by myself, so it’s not formally. I based on A Short History of Chinese Philosophy by Feng Youlan.

• The Details

Upload edges database contains Id, Source, Target, Type, and Weight. System could automatically generate nodes data(Id)

Show the Gephi graph page;

Change the edges color by category, in my network, category column shows the school of philosophers;

In Statistics table, run the Modularity to show the different clusters. Depend on Modularity, changing my nodes color;

According to the degree of philosophers, adjust the size of nodes;

Add the label to the data table for text on nodes. Change text size by degree;

I choose the “MultiGravity ForceAtlas 2” Layout, select Dissuade Hubs; Linlog Mode; Prevent Overlap.

In Preview section, I curved edges and change the edges thickness.

From the network map, we could see Monopoly by the Confucian situation(with purple edges). It is not difficult to understand this phenomenon. During the Spring and Autumn Period（770-221bc）, Taoists and legalists(School of Fa) were not good at cultivating talents, but instead, Confucianism trained a large number of disciples(headed by Yan) for Taoism, legalists, and School of Ming(Metaphysical sophistication of concepts). And it has potential influence for Buddhism.

We also could see Zhuang Zi and Lao Zi belong to the Taoist school, which shows by green edges, but they have no direct related with each other(for different generation), the connection mainly by their disciples. Zhuang Zi in some way has deep roots in Confucianism.

The orange part shows the Dhyana, which derived from India by Bodhidharma, it’s separate from other schools. More specificly, Chinese Dhyana with self revolution of epiphany is different from India’s Dhyana.[2]

• Further Exploration

The data should be rethink and add. I believe data is the main factor of showing network visualziation, the final effect could be completely effected by changing data. I will consider about other articles sources and revise the database more considerablly.

Otherwise, I am interesting about the animation effect, but do not understand the nodes growing based on what factor when I create the axis. And I want to know more about the meaning of different layout.

Gephi is a software which easy to manipulate, however, I find out it could not show more complicated network(more classes). And for my data, I want to show every philosopher’s idea or thought in network, that may need to consider further.

The final try contains hypergraph, display new network by Modularity. And summarize Pivot Table.

 

 

• Work Citing

[1]A Short History of Chinese Philosophy [M]. Peking University Press, Feng Youlan, 1985

[2]Biography of Hu Shi [M]. Jiangsu Literature and Art Publishing House, Hu Shi, 1995