7 Part II of the Double Issue on Nothingness Jana S. ROŠKER This special double issue of Asian Studies is dedicated to exploring the manifold meanings, implications, and philosophical functions of “nothingness” across di- verse Asian and transcultural traditions. The first part, titled Conceptual Foun- dations and Comparative Perspectives, published in May 2025, brought together foundational studies that clarified the concept’s terminological, historical, and philosophical structures in Chinese, Indian, Japanese, and Western traditions. It also introduced comparative approaches that situated nothingness as a key cate- gory in both metaphysical and ethical discourses. Papers such as Graham Priest’s “Paradox and Emptiness”, Selusi Ambrogio’s “Nothingness at the Crossroads of Minor Canons: A Dialogue between Wang Fuzhi and Charles de Bovelles”, Ta- mara Dietrich’s “The Notions of Absence, Emptiness and Nothingness from the Theravāda Buddhist Perspective”, and Raphaël Van Daele’s “From Nothingness to Nothing: Guō Xiàng’s Nominalist Reduction of the Ontological Performativ- ity of Wú 無”, exemplified the first issue’s focus on theoretical groundwork and conceptual articulation. In contrast, this second issue presents further developments through four thematic sections, deepening and diversifying the discourse by showing how “nothingness” functions within particular philosophical traditions, artistic expressions, and logical frameworks. While Part I focused on ontological and ethical architectures, Part II engages more directly with interpretive, aesthetic, and cross-cultural applications. In other words, this second part advances the inquiry by turning to specific con- stellations of thought in which nothingness plays a formative role. The issue is divided into four thematic sections: “Transcultural Comparisons”, “Freedom and Beauty”, “Analytical Approaches”, and “The Buddhist Legacies in Indian and Japanese Ideas on Nothingness”. Each section approaches the topic from a differ- ent angle: the first investigates how nothingness mediates philosophical exchange across cultures; the second examines its role in the constitution of axiology in artistic and moral experience; the third offers formal, logical, and epistemological perspectives; and the fourth returns to the Buddhist roots of many Asian philoso- phies of nothingness to explore their ongoing relevance. Together, these four sections demonstrate that nothingness is not an abstract ne- gation or lack, but an active conceptual force—manifesting across traditions, dis- ciplines, and modes of experience. DOI: 10.4312/as.2025.13.3.7-10 Azijske_studije_2025-3_FINAL.indd 7 6. 08. 2025 14:52:34 8 Jana S. ROŠKER: Part II of the Double Issue on Nothingness The opening section, “Transcultural Comparisons”, presents three essays that explore “nothingness” as a concept shaped through transcultural exchange and philosophical encounter. Eric Nelson maps the complex reception of Buddhist nothingness in 19th-century German philosophy, especially in the shift from Schopenhauer’s sympathetic pessimism to Nietzsche’s ambivalent critique of “European Buddhism”. In a similar context, Mario Wenning turns to literature, examining how Michael Ende’s The Neverending Story reflects Buddhist and Daoist resonances in its dual portrayal of “The Nothing” as existential threat and “nothing” as generative potential. Yang Xiaobo’s contribution uses Nishida Ki- tarō’s logic of basho to reinterpret Saussurean structuralism, proposing that lin- guistic structure can be understood as a dynamic system grounded in mu (無), or nothingness as “groundless ground”. Despite their disciplinary differences, all three papers highlight how nothingness becomes productive when seen not as mere absence, but as a horizon of open- ness—conceptually, linguistically, and imaginatively. In the following section, which is titled “Freedom and Beauty”, Téa Sernelj in- vestigates the notion of xu (虛, “emptiness”) as the metaphysical and aesthetic core of Chinese literati painting. Her article shows how emptiness functions not as negation but as a source of generative dynamism and artistic resonance. Luka Perušić, in turn, examines the philosophical convergence of freedom and noth- ingness. His analysis, grounded in Kantian and post-Kantian debates, proposes that any vigorous interpretation of freedom must account for its affinities with nothingness—an idea that finds deeper elaboration in Asian traditions. Both contributions thus connect nothingness with two of the most prized human values: artistic expression and existential agency. They argue that aesthetic cre- ation and moral responsibility may both depend on an engagement with what is not, rather than what is. The section “Analytical Approaches” contains three papers that offer formal and conceptual clarifications of the logic and ontology of nothingness. Rafal Banka pre- sents a mereological interpretation of Daoist metaphysics in the Daodejing, propos- ing that dao’s “nothingness” is not ontological void but a function of composition- al logic. Wai Lok Cheung challenges the ontological status of nothingness itself, treating it as a “fictionally fictional object” and offering semantic tools to navigate its paradoxical reference. Finally, Jana S. Rošker differentiates emptiness and noth- ingness through Zhang Dongsun’s panstructural epistemology, shedding light on how these terms are not interchangeable, even within a shared conceptual heritage. These analytical essays deepen the philosophical stakes of the issue by probing the formal structures and logical presuppositions that underpin our use of “noth- ingness” in both language and thought. Azijske_studije_2025-3_FINAL.indd 8 6. 08. 2025 14:52:35 9Asian Studies XIII (XXIX), 3 (2025), pp. 7–10 The final section, titled “The Buddhist Legacies in Indian and Japanese Ideas on Nothingness”, presents two essays that return to the Buddhist roots of many Asian discourses on nothingness. Hashi Hisaki reinterprets Nishida’s zettai-mu (絶対無) in light of both Western and Asian philosophical sources, arguing for a topos of “absolute nothingness” that exceeds binary thinking. Pankaj Vaishnav offers a comparative analysis of Advaita Vedanta and Madhyamaka Buddhism, showing how their respective ideas of non-duality and emptiness converge in their challenge to conventional ontology and epistemology. Both essays demonstrate that Buddhist traditions, in dialogue with other Indian philosophies and modern Japanese thought, provide some of the most complex and mature articulations of nothingness—not as mere absence, but as a relational or absolute ground for liberation. This second part of the double issue complements and completes the first by of- fering concrete analyses of how nothingness functions across aesthetic, ethical, logical, and transcultural domains. If the first issue established a conceptual and historical foundation, this volume shows how nothingness is lived, expressed, and rethought across cultures and traditions. Taken together, the two issues affirm the centrality of nothingness as a key con- ceptual axis in global philosophy. This thematic focus also reflects a broader ori- entation within our journal: over the 13 years of its existence, Asian Studies has regularly featured contributions engaging with notions of nothingness (e.g. Hashi 2015; Nelson 2023), emptiness (see Škodlar 2016; Moore, 2024), and absence (for instance Rošker 2016; Sernelj 2022). The commitment to this theme, therefore, is not limited to the current double issue—it is embedded in the journal’s sustained editorial trajectory. By highlighting nothingness not as a marginal or esoteric idea but as a generative ground for reflection on being, knowledge, beauty, and freedom, these volumes demonstrate its enduring philosophical relevance. Centring Asian traditions in these inquiries not only broadens the scope of the philosophical canon, but also invites contemporary thought to critically reexamine its metaphysical assump- tions in an authentically global and dialogical context. References Ambrogio, Selusi. 2025. “Nothingness at the Crossroads of Minor Canons: A Dialogue Between Wang Fuzhi and Charles De Bovelles.” Asian Studies 13 (2): 153–75. https://doi.org/10.4312/as.2025.13.2.153-175. Ditrich, Tamara. 2025. “The Notions of Absence, Emptiness and Nothingness from the Theravāda Buddhist Perspective.” Asian Studies 13 (2): 75–96. https://doi.org/10.4312/as.2025.13.2.75-96. Azijske_studije_2025-3_FINAL.indd 9 6. 08. 2025 14:52:35 10 Jana S. ROŠKER: Part II of the Double Issue on Nothingness Hashi, Hisaki. 2015. “Phenomenon of Life and Death by Dōgen and Heideg- ger––In View of ‘Embodied Cognition’ in Buddhist Philosophy and Phe- nomenology.” Asian Studies 3 (1): 105–28. https://doi.org/10.4312/ as.2015.3.1.105-128. Moore, Thomas. 2024. “Is Confucianism Compatible With a Laclauian Concep- tion of Democracy?” Asian Studies 12 (2): 195–220. https://doi.org/10.4312/ as.2024.12.2.195-220. Nelson, Eric S. 2023. “Martin Heidegger and Kitayama Junyū: Nothingness, Emp- tiness, and the Thing.” Asian Studies 11 (1): 27–50. https://doi.org/10.4312/ as.2023.11.1.27-50. Priest, Graham. 2025. “無: Paradox and Emptiness.” Asian Studies 13 (2): 13–27. https://doi.org/10.4312/as.2025.13.2.13-27. Rošker, Jana. S. 2025. “From Fundamental Absence to Absolute Nothingness: Sublating Nishida Kitarō’s and Wang Bi’s Meontologies.” Asian Studies 13 (2): 97–108. https://doi.org/10.4312/as.2025.13.2.97-108. Sernelj, Téa. 2022. “Anxiety, ‘Concerned Consciousness’ and Their Manifesta- tion in the COVID-19 Pandemic in China.” Asian Studies 10 (1): 155–82. https://doi.org/10.4312/as.2022.10.1.155-182. 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