Daoism

An Overview

Dao House

 

Early Taoism attempts to reveal the laws underlying the changes in the universe.

By understanding these laws, one can turn things to one's own advantage.

 

 

Yang Chu

 

Yang Chu lived between Mo Tzu and Mencius

Mencius: "The words of Yang Chu and Mot Ti fill the world."

In the Lieh-tzu, one chapter is entitled "Yang Chu."

Its authenticity is questioned by modern scholars.

It points to extreme hedonism.

Mencius,"The principle of Yang Chu is: each one for himself. Though he might have profited the whole world by plucking out a single hair, he would not have done it."

Another critic wrote, "Yang Sheng valued self."

Han fei tzu: "There is a man whose policy is not to enter a city which is in danger, nor to remain in the army. Even for the great profit of the whole world, he would not exchange one hair of his shank ... He is one who despises things and values life."

A second century critic: "Preserving life and maintaining what is genuine in it, not allowing things to entangle one's person: this is what Yang Chu established."

 

The first chapter of Chuang Tzu/Zhuang Zi tells the story of a legendary sage ruler Yao and a hermit named Hsü Yu. Yao wants to hand over rule of the world to Hsü Yu, but Hsü Yu declines saying;

 

You govern the world and it is already at peace. Suppose I were to take your place, would I do it for the name? Name is but the shadow of real gain. Would I do it for real gain? The tit, building its nest in the mighty forest occupies but a single twig. The tapir, slaking its thirst from the river, drinks only enough to fill its belly. You return and be quiet. I have no need of the world.

 

In the Yang Chu, the following story appears:

 

Ch'in Tzu asked Yang Chu: if by plucking out a single hair of your body you could save the whole world would you do it? Yang Chu replied "The whole world is surely not to be saved by a single hair." Ch'in tzu said 'But supposing it possible, would you do it? Yang Chu gives no answer. Ch'in Tzu then went out and told Meng sun Yang. The latter replied "you do not understand the mind of the master. I will explain it to you. Supposing by tearing off a piece of your skin, you were to get ten thousand pieces of gold, would you do it? Ch'in tzu said: 'I would' Meng sun Yang continued: 'Suppose by cutting off one of your limbs, you were to get a whole kingdom, would you do it? For a while Ch'in tzu was silent. Then Meng sun Yang said: 'A hair is unimportant compared with a limb, but my hairs put together are as important as a piece of skin. Many pieces of skin together are as important as a limb. A single hair is one of the ten thousand parts of the body. How can you disregard it.'

 

"Our life is our own possession and its benefit to us is very great. Even an empire once lost may be regained but once a life is lost it cannot be relived."

 

In Lü shih Ch'un-ch'iu, a chapter entitled "the importance of self" contains the following:

 

Our life is our own possession, and its benefit to us is very great. Regarding its dignity, even the honor of being Emperor could not compare with it. Regarding its importance, even the wealth of possessing the world would not be exchanged for it. Regarding its safety, were we to lose it for one morning, we would never again bring it back. These three are points on which those who have understanding are careful.

 

Lao Zi: He who in his conduct values his body more than he does the world, may be given the world. He who in his conduct loves himself more than he does the world, may be entrusted with the world.

Zhuang Zi: When you do something good, beware of reputation; when you do something evil, beware of punishment. Follow the middle way and take this to be your constant principle. Then you guard your person, nourish your parents, and complete your natural term of years'

 

Chuang tzu: Cinnamon is edible, therefore, the cinnamon tree is cut down. Ch'i oil is useful, therefore the ch'i tree is gashed.

 

 

Lao Zi

Once upon a time a woman in the village of Ch'u jen in the country of K'u and the kingdom of Ch'u gave birth to a child while leaning against a plum tree. The child had been conceived some 62 years before his birth. When he was born he would already speak and his hair was already snow white so most people called him Lao Zi (old boy) After he died they called him Lao Tan, meaning Old Long Lobed One (note: that this is a Buddhist characteristic of a great man not age) Of Old Boy's youth very little is known. In his later years, though, we are told that he worked as a Palace Secretary and then as keeper of the Archives for the Court of Chou at the capital city of Loyang. He married and had a son, Tsung, who became a successful soldier.

 

Though Lao Zi made no effort to start a school, people came of their own accord to become his disciples. Confucius himself who must have been many years Lao Zi's junior, according to legend, came to see Lao tzu and was scolded for his arrogant way and his many desires. Kongzi is picture in these Daoist legends as slinking away befuddled and humbled by Lao Zi.

 

At the age of 160 Lao Zi grew disgusted with the decay of the Chou dynasty and resolved to pursue virtue in a more congenial atmosphere. Riding a chariot drawn by a black ox, he left the middle kingdom through the Han-Ku pass which leads from Loyang. The keeper of the pass addressed him as follows "you are about to withdraw yourself from sight. I pray you to compose a book for me." Lao tzu thereupon wrote the 5,000 characters which we call the Tao te ching. After completing the book, he departed for the west. We do not know where he died.

 

 

We tend to thing that all things which have shape or features possess the possibility of having a name. If something exits, it must be nameable, definable.

In contrast Lao Zi speaks about the unnamable. Universals lie beyond shape and features and names.

 

The Dao that can be comprised in words is not the eternal Tao; the name that can be named is not the abiding name. The unnamable is the beginning of Heaven and Earth; the nameable is the mother of all things. 1

 

The Dao is eternal, nameless, the Uncarved block. Once the block is carved, these are names. 32

 

 

Since the Dao is unnameable it cannot be comprised in words, but we have to give it a designation in order to talk about it. Dao is not really a name.

 

 

From the past to the present, its name has not ceased to be and has seen the beginning [of all things]. The Dao is that by which anything and everything comes to be. Since there are always things, Dao never ceases to be and the name of Dao also never ceases to be. It is the beginning of all beginnings, and therefore, it has seen the beginning of all things. A name that never ceases to be is an abiding name, and such a name is in reality not a name at all. Therefore it is said; 'The name that can be named is not the abiding name.' 21

 

Something must give rise to things and this must be the Dao.

The term Dao does not provide a positive description.

 

This is ontology not cosmology.

 

From Dao there comes one (yu), from one there comes two . From two there comes three. From three there comes all things.

 

Tao te ching / Dao De Jing uses various examples and metaphors to suggest how one follows the Dao:

 

• raw silk
• the valley
• the new born child
• the uncarved block

 

One must seek to identify himself with the characteristics of these things or emulate their natures: return to simplicity, naivete and spontaneity.

 

The child does not know about manners, morality, rules and other modifications that men have imposed on themselves. Yet the child is essentially good, mild, and nonaggressive.

His needs are simple and he is easily satisfied and made content

Man must seek to recapture the innocence and lack of artificiality that characterizes the child and without which it is difficult to act in accordance with the Dao.

 

The more one modifies oneself throughout habit, custom, culture etc. the more one limits and restricts oneself, and becomes involved in situations where one can no longer move, grow and flow.

 

The Dao refers to the cycle of human events, it refers to the characteristic of the physical universe, the rhythmic and symbiotic harmony between such opposites as male and female, being and non-being. To know the Dao is to follow or be in harmony with the Dao to discern the essential nature and rhythm of things and not to try to improve, modify or alter them.

 

Those who know do not speak

Those who speak do not know

Block the passages

Shut the doors

Let all sharpness be blunted

All tangles untied

All glare tempered

All dust smoothed 56

 

Learning consists in adding to one's stock day by day

The practice of Dao consists in subtracting day by day

subtracting and yet again subtracting

till one has reached inactivity 48

 

The Sage: without leaving his door he knows everything under heaven

without looking out of his window, he knows all the ways of heaven

For the further one travels, the less one knows

Therefore the sage arrives without going

sees all without looking

does nothing yet achieves everything

 

 

Wu Wei

 

The sage has no set of opinions and feelings, but takes the people's as his own. He approves of the good man and also of the bad man: thus the bad become good.

 

It is because everyone under Heaven recognizes beauty as beauty that the idea of ugliness exist. And equally, if everyone recognized virtue as virtue, this would merely create fresh concepts of wickedness. For true being and non-being grow out of one another. Therefore the sage relies on actionless activity.

 

To deal with the hard while it is still easy. With the great while it is still small . 63

 

The sage does not wait till a problem is so immense or overwhelming, and so difficult that he is powerless to effect it. The sage avoids the use of aggression whenever possible because he knows how to act in a timely way, before aggression is necessary. Exertion, force, and aggression are never necessary, theoretically, if one's actions are consistantly timely or "just right"

 

Political theory

 

The More restrictions and prohibitions there are in the world the poorer people will be. The more sharp weapons the people have, the more trouble will be in the country. The more cunning craftsmen there are, the more pernicious contrivances will appear. The more laws are promulgated, the more thieves and bandits there will be.'

 

The Sage rulers should "Banish wisdom, discard knowledge, and the people will benefit a hundred fold.

Banish human heartedness, discard righteousness, and the people will be dutiful and compassionate.

Banish skill, discard profit, and thieves and robbers will disappear." 19

 

Do not exalt the worthies, and the people will no longer be contentious. Do not value treasures that are hard to get. And there will be no more thieves. If the people never see such things as excite desire, their minds will not be confused. Therefore the sage rules the people by emptying their minds, filling their bellies, weakening their wills, and toughening their sinews, ever making the people without knowledge and without desire."

 

Chuang Tzu

Later Taoism

Religious Taoism

Zhuang Zi

The Story of a Sea Bird

Of old when a sea bird alighted outside the capital of Lu, the Marquis went out to receive it, gave it wine in the temple, and had Chui shao music played to amuse it, and a bullock slaughtered to feed it. But the bird was dazed and to timid to eat or drink anything. In three days it was dead. This was treating the bird as one would treat oneself. Not the bird as a bird. Water is life to fish but is death to man. Being differently constituted, their likes and dislikes must necessarily differ. Therefore, the early sages did not make abilities and occupations uniform.

1. Natural

For duck's legs, though short, cannot be lengthened without dismay to the duck, and a crane's legs, though long, cannot be shortened without misery to the crane. That which is long in nature must not be cut off, and that which is short in nature must not be lengthened. Thus will all sorrow be avoided. I suppose charity and duty are surely not included in human nature. You see how many worries and dismays the charitable man has! Besides, divide your joined toes and you will howl: bite off your extra finger and you will scream. In the one case, there is too much, and in the other too little; but the worries and dismays are the same. Now the charitable men of the present age go about with a look of concern sorrowing over the ills of the age, while the non-charitable let loose the desire of their nature in their greed after position and wealth. Therefore I Suppose charity and duty are not included in human nature. Yet from the time of the Three Dynasties downwards what a commotion has been raised about them! Moreover, those who rely upon the arc, the line, compasses, and the square to make correct forms injure the natural constitution of things Those who use cords to bind and glue to piece together interfere with the natural character of things. Those who seek to satisfy the mind of man by hampering it with ceremonies and music and affecting charity and devotion have lost their original nature. There is an original nature in things. Things in their original nature are curved without the help of arcs, straight without lines, round without compasses, and rectangular without squares; they are joined together without glue. and hold together without cords. In this manner all things live and grow from an inner urge and none can tell how they come to do so.

Tung-kuo Tzu asked Chuang Tzu "Where is the Tao?"
`It is everywhere,' replied Chuang Tzu.
Tung-kuo Tzu said "You must be more specific."
"It is in the ant" said Chuang Tzu.
"Why go down so low?"
"It is in the weeds."
"Why even lower?"
"It is in a potsherd."
"Why still lower?"
"It is in the excrement and urine," said Chuang Tzu.

There is nothing that is not so-and-so. There is nothing that is not all right. [ii]

2. Spontaneity

Cook Ting

Prince Huei's cook was cutting up a bullock. Every blow of his hand, every heave of his
shoulders, every tread of his foot, every thrust of his knee, every whish of rent flesh, every chop of the chopper, was in perfect rhythm, --like the dance of the Mulberry Grove, like the harmonious chords of Ching Shou.

"Well done!" cried the Prince. "Yours is skill indeed!"

"Sire," replied the cook laying down his chopper, "I have always devoted myself to Tao, which is higher than mere skill. When I first began to cut up bullocks, I saw before me whole bullocks. After three years' practice, I saw no more whole animals. And now I work with my mind and not with my eye. My mind works along without the control of the senses. Falling back upon eternal principles, I glide through such great joints or cavities as there may be, according to the natural constitution of the animal. I do not even touch the convolutions of muscle and tendon, still less attempt to cut through large bones.

"A good cook changes his chopper once a year, -- because he cuts. An ordinary cook, once a month, -- because he hacks. But I have had this chopper nineteen years, and although I have cut up many thousand bullocks, its edge is as if fresh from the whetstone. For at the joints there are always interstices, and the edge of a chopper being without thickness, it remains only to insert that which is without thickness into such an interstice. Indeed there is plenty of room for the blade to move about. It is thus that I have kept my chopper for nineteen years as though fresh from the whetstone.

"Nevertheless, when I come upon a knotty part which is difficult to tackle, I am all caution. Fixing my eye on it, I stay my hand, and gently apply my blade, until with a hwah the part yields like earth crumbling to the ground. Then I take out my chopper and stand up, and look around, and pause with an air of triumph. Then wiping my chopper, I put it carefully away."

"Bravo!" cried the Prince. "From the words of this cook I have learned how to take care
of my life." Lin Yutang Translation

3.. Rejection of Logic
4. The Finite Point of View

Chou's Dream

Once upon a time, I, Zhuang Zhou {18}, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and
thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a
butterfly, unaware that I was Chou. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself
again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or
whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man. Between a man and a butterfly there
is necessarily a distinction. The transition is called the transformation of material things{19}.

Zhuang Zi's Wife

When Zhuang Zi's wife died he banged on a drum and sang. His colleagues questioned the propriety of this. `If I were to fall sobbing and wailing for her,' he replied, `I should think that I did not understand what was appointed for all. Therefore I restrained myself.' [xviii]

5. The Usefulness of Uselessness

Carpenter Shih

A certain carpenter Shih was traveling to the Ch'i State. On reaching Shady Circle, he
saw a sacred li tree in the temple to the God of Earth. It was so large that its shade could cover a herd of several thousand cattle. It was a hundred spans in girth, towering up eighty feet over the hilltop, before it branched out. A dozen boats could be cut out of it. Crowds stood gazing at it, but the carpenter took no notice, and went on his way without even casting a look behind. His apprentice however took a good look at it, and when he caught up with his master, said, "Ever since I have handled an adze in your service, I have never seen such a splendid piece of timber. How was it that you, Master, did not care to stop and look at it?"

"Forget about it. It's not worth talking about," replied his master. "It's good for nothing. Made into a boat, it would sink; into a coffin, it would rot; into furniture, it would break easily; into a door, it would sweat; into a pillar, it would be worm-eaten. It is wood of no quality, and of no use. That is why it has attained its present age."

When the carpenter reached home, he dreamt that the spirit of the tree appeared to him in his sleep and spoke to him as follows: "What is it you intend to compare me with? Is it with fine-grained wood? Look at the cherry-apple, the pear, the orange, the plum, and other fruit bearers? As soon as their fruit ripens they are stripped and treated with indignity. The great boughs are snapped off, the small ones scattered abroad. Thus do these trees by their own value injure their own lives. They cannot fulfill their allotted span of years, but perish prematurely because they destroy themselves for the (admiration of) the world. Thus it is with all things. Moreover, I tried for a long period to be useless. Many times I was in danger of being cut down, but at length I have succeeded, and so have become exceedingly useful to myself. Had I indeed been of use, I should not be able to grow to this height. Moreover, you and I are both created things. Have done then with this criticism of each other. Is a good-for-nothing fellow in imminent danger of death a fit person to talk of a good-for-nothing tree?" When the carpenter Shih awaked and told his dream, his apprentice said, "If the tree aimed at uselessness, how was it that it became a sacred tree?"

"Hush!" replied his master. "Keep quiet. It merely took refuge in the temple to escape from the abuse of those who do not appreciate it. Had it not become sacred, how many would have wanted to cut it down! Moreover, the means it adopts for safety is different from that of others, and to criticize it by ordinary standards would be far wide of the mark."

The Useless Tree

Tsech'i of Nan-po was traveling on the hill of Shang when he saw a large tree which astonished him very much. A thousand chariot teams of four horses could find shelter under its shade. "What tree is this?" cried Tsech'i. "Surely it must be unusually fine timber." Then looking up, he saw that its branches were too crooked for rafters; and looking down he saw that the trunk's twisting loose grain made it valueless for coffins. He tasted a leaf, but it took the skin off his lips; and its odor was so strong that it would make a man intoxicated for three days together. "Ah!" said Tsech'i, "this tree is really good for nothing, and that is how it has attained this size. A spiritual man might well follow its example of uselessness."

In the State of Sung there is a land belonging to the Chings, where thrive the catalpa, the cedar, and the mulberry. Such as are of one span or so in girth are cut down for monkey cages. Those of two or three spans are cut down for the beams of fine houses. Those of seven or eight spans are cut down for the solid (unjointed) sides of rich men's coffins. Thus they do not fulfill their allotted span of years, but perish young beneath the axe. Such is the misfortune which overtakes worth. For the sacrifices to the River God, neither bulls with white foreheads, nor pigs with high snouts, nor men suffering from piles, can be used. This is known to all the soothsayers, for these are regarded as inauspicious. The wise, however, would regard them as extremely auspicious (to themselves).

Hunchback Su

There was a hunchback named Su. His jaws touched his navel. His shoulders were higher than his head. His neck bone stuck out toward the sky. His viscera were turned upside down. His buttocks were where his ribs should have been. By tailoring, or washing, he was easily able to earn his living. By sifting rice he could make enough to support a family of ten. When orders came down for a conscription, the hunchback walked about unconcerned among the crowd. And similarly, in government conscription for public works, his deformity saved him from being called. On the other hand, when it came to government donations of grain for the disabled, the hunchback received as much as three chung and of firewood, ten faggots. And if physical deformity was thus enough to preserve his body until the end of his days, how much more should moral and mental deformity avail!

6. A Life Generated by Heaven