one of the two great indigenous philosophical traditions of China. As
an English term, Daoism corresponds to both Daojia ("Dao family" or
"school of the Dao"), an early Han dynasty (c. 100s BCE) term which
describes so-called "philosophical" texts and thinkers such as Laozi
and Zhuangzi, and Daojiao ("teaching of the Dao"), which describes
various so-called "religious" movements dating from the late Han
dynasty (c. 100s CE) onward. Thus, "Daoism" encompasses thought and
practice that sometimes are viewed as "philosophical," as "religious,"
or as a combination of both. While modern scholars, especially those
in the West, have been preoccupied with classifying Daoist material as
either "philosophical" or "religious," historically Daoists themselves
have been uninterested in such categories and dichotomies. Instead,
they have preferred to focus on understanding the nature of reality,
increasing their longevity, ordering life morally, practicing
rulership, and regulating consciousness and diet. Fundamental Daoist
ideas and concerns include wuwei ("effortless action"), ziran
("naturalness"), how to become a shengren ("sage") or zhenren
("realized person"), and the ineffable, mysterious Dao ("Way") itself.
1. What is Daoism?
Strictly speaking there was no Daoism before the literati of the Han
dynasty (c. 200 BCE) tried to organize the writings and ideas that
represented the major intellectual alternatives available. The name
daojia, "Dao family" or "school of the dao" was a creation of the
historian Sima Tan (d. 110 BCE) in his Shi ji (Records of the
Historian) written in the 2nd century BCE and later completed by his
son, Sima Qian (145-186 BCE). In his classification, the Daoists are
listed as one of the Six Schools: Yin-Yang, Confucian, Mohist,
Legalist, School of Names, and Daoists. So, Daoism was a retroactive
grouping of ideas and writings which were already at least one to two
centuries old, and which may or may not have been ancestral to various
post-classical religious movements, all self-identified as daojiao
("teaching of the dao"), beginning with the reception of revelations
from the deified Laozi by the Celestial Masters (Tianshi) lineage
founder, Zhang Daoling, in 142 CE. This entry privileges the formative
influence of early texts, such as the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi, but
accepts contemporary Daoists' assertion of continuity between
classical and post-classical, "philosophical" and "religious"
movements and texts.
2. Classical Sources for Our Understanding of Daoism
Daoism does not name a tradition constituted by a founding thinker,
even though the common belief is that a teacher named Laozi founded
the school and wrote its major work, called the Daodejing, also
sometimes known as the Laozi. The tradition is also called
"Lao-Zhuang" philosophy, referring to what are commonly regarded as
its two classical and most influential texts: the Daodejing or Laozi
(3rd Cent. BCE) and the Zhuangzi (4th-3rd Cent BCE). However, this
stream of thought existed in an oral form, passed along by the masters
who developed and transmitted it before it came to be written in these
texts. There are two major source issues to be considered. 1) What
evidence is there for Daoist beliefs and practices prior to the two
classical texts? 2) What is the best reconstruction of the classical
textual tradition upon which Daoism was based?
With regard to the first question, Isabelle Robinet thinks that the
classical texts are only the most lasting evidence of a movement she
associates with a set of writings called the Songs of Chu (Chuci), and
that she identifies as the Chuci movement. This movement reflects a
culture in which male and female masters called fangshi, daoshi, or
daoren practiced techniques of longevity and used diet, meditation and
generated wisdom teachings. While Robinet's interpretation is
controversial, there are undeniable connections between the Songs of
Chu and later Daoist ideas. Some examples include a coincidence of
names of immortals (sages), a commitment to the pursuit of physical
immortality, a belief in the epistemic value of stillness and
quietude, abstinence from grains, breathing and sexual practices used
to regulate internal energy (qi), and the use of dances that resemble
those still done by Daoist masters (the step of Yu).
In addition to the controversial connection to the Songs of Chu, the
Guanzi (350-250 BCE) is a text older than both the Daodejing and
probably all of the Zhuangzi, except the "inner chapters" (see below).
This is a very important work of 76 "chapters." Three of the chapters
of the Guanzi are called the Neiye, which can mean "inner
cultivation." The self-cultivation practices and teachings put forward
in this material may be fruitfully linked to several other important
works: the Daodejing; the Zhuangzi; a Han dynasty Daoist work called
the Huainanzi; and an early commentary on the Daodejing called the
Xiang'er. Indeed, there is a strong meditative trend in the Daoism of
late imperial China known as the "inner alchemy" tradition and the
views of the Neiye seem to be in the background of this movement. Two
other chapters of the Guanzi are called Xin shu (Heart-mind book). The
Xin shu connects the ideas of quietude and stillness found in the
Daodejing to longevity practices. The idea of dao in these chapters is
very much like that of the Daodejing. Its image of the sage resembles
that of the Zhuangzi. It uses the same term (zheng) that Zhuangzi uses
for the corrections a sage must make in his body, the pacification of
the heart-mind, and the concentration and control of internal energy
(qi). These practices are called "holding onto the One," "keeping the
One," "obtaining the One," all of which are phrases associated with
the Daodejing (chs. 10, 22, 39).
As for a reasonable reconstruction of the textual tradition upon which
Daoism is based, we should not try to think of this task so simply as
determining the relationship between the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi as
though they were not composite. Zhuangzi repeats in very similar form
sayings found in the Daodejing. However, we are not certain whether
this means that Zhuangzi knew the Daodejing and quoted it, or if they
both drew from a common source, or even if the Daodejing in some way
depended on the Zhuangzi. In fact, one theory about the mythological
figure Laozi is that he was created first in the Zhuangzi and later
associated with the Daodejing.
We could offer the following summary of the sources of early Daoism.
Stage One: Zhuang Zhou's "inner chapters" (chs. 1-7) of the Zhuangzi
(c. 350 BCE) and some components of the Guanzi, including perhaps both
the Neiye and the Xin shu. Stage Two: Some parts of the "mixed
chapters" (chs. 23-33) of the Zhuangzi and the final redaction of the
Daodejing. Stage Three: the Huang-Lao manuscripts from Mawangdui (see
below); the "outer chapters" (8-22) of the Zhuangzi, and the Huainanzi
(180-122 BCE).
3. Is Daoism a Philosophy or a Religion?
In the late 1970s Western and comparative philosophers began to point
out that an important dimension of the historical context of Daoism
was being overlooked because the previous generation of scholars had
ignored or even disparaged connections between the classical texts and
Daoist religious belief and practice. We have to lay some of the
responsibility for such neglect at the feet of the eminent translator
and philosopher Wing-Tsit Chan, who spoke of Daoist religion as a
degeneration of Daoist philosophy arising from the time of the
Celestial Masters (see below) in the late Han period. He was an
instrumental architect of the view that Daoist philosophy (daojia) and
Daoist religion (daojiao) are entirely different traditions.
Our interest in trying to separate philosophy and religion in Daoism
is more revealing of the Western frame of reference we use than of
Daoism itself. Daoist ideas fermented among master teachers who had a
holistic view of life. These daoshi (Daoist masters) did not
compartmentalize practices by which they sought to influence the
forces of reality, increase their longevity, have interaction with
realities not apparent to our normal way of seeing things, and order
life morally and by rulership. They offered insights we might call
philosophical aphorisms. But they also practiced meditation and
physical exercises, studied nature for diet and remedy, practiced
rituals related to their view that reality had many layers and forms
with whom/which humans could interact, led small communities, and
advised rulers on all these subjects. The masters transmitted their
teachings, some of them only to disciples and adepts, but gradually
these became more widely available as is evidenced in the very
creation of the Daodejing and Zhuangzi themselves.
The agenda that provoked Westerners to separate philosophy and
religion, dating at least to the classical Greek period of philosophy
was not part of the preoccupation of Daoists. Accordingly, the
question whether Daoism is a philosophy or a religion is not one we
can ask without imposing a set of understandings, presuppositions, and
qualifications that do not apply to Daoism. But this is not a reason
to discount the importance of Daoist thought. Quite to the contrary,
it may be one of the most significant ideas classical Daoism can
contribute to the study of philosophy in the present age.
4. The Daodejing
The Daodejing (hereafter, DDJ) is divided into 81 "chapters"
consisting of slightly over 5,000 Chinese characters, depending on
which text is used. In its received form from Wang Bi (see below), the
two major divisions of the text are the dao jing (chs. 1-37) and the
de jing (chs. 38-81). Actually, this division probably rests on little
else than the fact that the principal concept opening Chapter 1 is dao
(way) and that of Chapter 38 is de (virtue). The text is a collection
of short aphorisms that were not arranged to develop any systematic
argument. The long standing tradition about the authorship of the text
is that the "founder" of Daoism, known as Laozi gave it to Yin Xi, the
guardian of the pass through the mountains that he used to go from
China to the West. But the text is a composite of collected materials,
most of which probably circulated orally perhaps even in single
aphorisms or small collections. Insufficient study of the text has
been done to formulate any consensus about whether the text was
composed using smaller written collections.
For almost 2,000 years, the Chinese text used by commentators in China
and upon which all except the most recent Western language
translations were based has been called the Wang Bi, after the
commentator who used a complete edition of the DDJ sometime between
226-249 CE. Although Wang Bi was not a Daoist, his commentary became a
standard interpretive guide, and generally speaking even today
scholars depart from it only when they can make a compelling argument
for doing so. Based on recent archaeological finds at Guodian in 1993
and Mawangdui in the 1970s we are certain that there were several
simultaneously circulating versions of the Daodejing text.
Mawangdui is the name for a site of tombs discovered near Changsha in
Hunan province. The Mawangdui discoveries consist of two incomplete
editions of the DDJ on silk scrolls (boshu) now simply called "A" and
"B." These versions have two principal differences from the Wang Bi.
Some word choice divergencies are present. The order of the chapters
is reversed, with 38-81 in the Wang Bi coming before chapters 1-37 in
the Mawangdui versions. More precisely, the order of the Mawangdui
texts takes the traditional 81 chapters and sets them out like this:
38, 39, 40, 42-66, 80, 81, 67-79, 1-21, 24, 22, 23, 25-37. Robert
Henricks has published a translation of these texts with extensive
notes and comparisons with the Wang Bi under the title Lao-Tzu, Te-tao
Ching. Contemporary scholarship associates the Mawangdui versions with
a type of Daoism known as the Way of the Yellow Emperor and the Old
Master (Huanglao Dao), since the Yellow Emperor was venerated
alongside of Laozi as a patron of the teachings of Daoism. The
prevailing view is that the present version of the DDJ probably
reached its final form at the Qixia Academy of the Ji kingdom
associated with Huanglao Daoism around the beginning of the 3rd
century BCE.
The Guodian find consists of 730 inscribed bamboo slips found near the
village of Guodian in Hubei province in 1993. There are 71 slips with
material that is also found in 31 of the 81 chapters of the DDJ and
corresponding to Chapters 1-66. It may date as early as c. 300 BCE. If
this is a correct date, then the Daodejing was already extant in a
written form when the "inner chapters" (see below) of the Zhuangzi
were composed. These slips contain more significant variants from the
Wang Bi than the Mawangdui versions.
5. Fundamental Concepts in the Daodejing
The term Dao means a road, and is often translated as "the Way." This
is because sometimes dao is used as a nominative (that is, "the dao")
and other times as a verb (i.e. daoing). Dao is the process of reality
itself, the way things come together, while still transforming. All
this reflects the deep seated Chinese belief that change is the most
basic character of things. In the Yi jing (Classic of Change) the
patterns of this change are symbolized by figures standing for 64
relations of correlative forces and known as the hexagrams. Dao is the
alteration of these forces, most often simply stated as yin and yang.
The Xici is a commentary on the Yi jing formed in about the same
period as the DDJ. It takes the taiji (Great Ultimate) as the source
of correlative change and associates it with the dao. The contrast is
not between what things are or that something is or is not, but
between chaos (hundun) and the way reality is ordering (de). Yet,
reality is not ordering into one unified whole. It is the 10,000
things (wanwu). There is the dao but not "the World" or "the cosmos"
in a Western sense.
The Daodejing teaches that humans cannot fathom the Dao, because any
name we give to it cannot capture it. It is beyond what we can
conceive (ch.1). Those who wu wei may become one with it and thus
"obtain the dao." Wu wei is a difficult notion to translate. Yet, it
is generally agreed that the traditional rendering of it as
"nonaction" or "no action" is incorrect. Those who wu wei do act.
Daoism is not a philosophy of "doing nothing." Wu wei means something
like "act naturally," "effortless action," or "nonwillful action." The
point is that there is no need for human tampering with the flow of
reality. Wu wei should be our way of life, because the dao always
benefits, it does not harm (ch. 81) The way of heaven (dao of tian) is
always on the side of good (ch. 79) and virtue (de) comes forth from
the dao alone (ch. 21). What causes this natural embedding of good and
benefit in the dao is vague and elusive (ch. 35), not even the sages
understand it (ch. 76). But the world is a reality that is filled with
spiritual force, just as a sacred image used in religious ritual might
be (ch. 29). The dao occupies the place in reality that is analogous
to the part of a family's house set aside for the altar for venerating
the ancestors and gods (the ao of the house, ch. 62). When we think
that life's occurrences seem unfair (a human discrimination), we
should remember that heaven's (tian) net misses nothing, it leaves
nothing undone (ch. 37)
A central theme of the Daodejing is that correlatives are the
expressions of the movement of dao. Correlatives in Chinese philosophy
are not opposites, mutually excluding each other. They represent the
ebb and flow of the forces of reality: yin/yang, male/female;
excess/defect; leading/following; active/passive. As one approaches
the fullness of yin, yang begins to horizon and emerge. Its teachings
on correlation often suggest to interpreters that the DDJ is filled
with paradoxes. For example, ch. 22 says, "Those who are crooked will
be perfected. Those who are bent will be straight. Those who are empty
will be full." While these appear paradoxical, they are probably
better understood as correlational in meaning. The DDJ says,
"straightforward words seem paradoxical," implying, however, that they
are not (ch. 78).
What is the image of the ideal person, the sage (sheng ren), the real
person (zhen ren) in the DDJ? Well, sages wu wei, (chs. 2, 63). In
this respect, they are like newborn infants, who move naturally,
without planning and reliance on the structures given to them by
others (ch. 15). The DDJ tells us that sages empty themselves,
becoming void of pretense. Sages concentrate their internal energies
(qi). They clean their vision (ch. 10). They manifest plainness and
become like uncarved wood (pu) (ch. 19). They live naturally and free
from desires given by men (ch. 37) They settle themselves and know how
to be content (ch. 46). The DDJ makes use of some very famous
analogies to drive home its point. Sages know the value of emptiness
as illustrated by how emptiness is used in a bowl, door, window,
valley or canyon (ch. 11). They preserve the female (yin), meaning
that they know how to be receptive and are not unbalanced favoring
assertion and action (yang) (ch. 28). They shoulder yin and embrace
yang, blend internal energies (qi) and thereby attain harmony (he)
(ch. 42). Those following the dao do not strive, tamper, or seek
control (ch. 64). They do not endeavor to help life along (ch. 55), or
use their heart-mind (xin) to "solve" or "figure out" life's apparent
knots and entanglements (ch. 55). Indeed, the DDJ cautions that those
who would try to do something with the world will fail, they will
actually ruin it (ch. 29). Sages do not engage in disputes and
arguing, or try to prove their point (chs. 22, 81). They are pliable
and supple, not rigid and resistive (chs. 76, 78). They are like water
(ch. 8), finding their own place, overcoming the hard and strong by
suppleness (ch. 36). Sages act with no expectation of reward (chs. 2,
51). They put themselves last and yet come first (ch. 7). They never
make a display of themselves, (chs. 72, 22). They do not brag or
boast, (chs. 22, 24) and they do not linger after their work is done
(ch. 77). They leave no trace (ch. 27). Because they embody dao in
practice, they have longevity (ch. 16). They create peace (ch. 32).
Creatures do not harm them (chs. 50, 55). Soldiers do not kill them
(ch. 50). Heaven (tian) protects the sage and the sage becomes
invincible (ch. 67).
Among the most controversial of the teachings in the DDJ are those
directly associated with rulers. Recent scholarship is moving toward a
consensus that the persons who developed and collected the teachings
of the DDJ played some role in civil administration, but they may also
have been practitioners of ritual arts and what we would call
religious rites. Be that as it may, many of the aphorisms directed
toward rulers seem puzzling at first sight. According to the DDJ, the
proper ruler keeps the people without knowledge, (ch. 65), fills their
bellies, opens their hearts and empties them of desires (ch. 3). A
sagely ruler reduces the size of the state and keeps the population
small. Even though the ruler possesses weapons, they are not used (ch.
80). The ruler does not seek prominence. The ruler is a shadowy
presence (chs. 17, 66). When the ruler's work is done, the people say
they are content (ch. 17). This is all the more interesting when we
remember that the philosopher and legalist political theorist named
Han Feizi used the DDJ as a guide for the unification of China. Han
Feizi was the foremost counselor of the first emperor of China, Qin
Shihuangdi (r. 221-206 BCE). It is a pity that the emperor used the
DDJ's admonitions to "fill the bellies and empty the minds" to justify
his program of destroying all books not related to medicine, astronomy
or agriculture.
6. The Zhuangzi
The second of the two most important classical texts of Daoism is the
Zhuangzi. This text is a collection of stories and imaginary
conversations known for its creativity and skillful use of language.
The text contains longer and shorter treatises, stories, poetry, and
aphorisms. It dates to the late 4th century BCE and originally had 52
"chapters." These were reduced to 33 by Guo Xiang in the 3rd century
CE. Unlike the Daodejing which is ascribed to the mythological Laozi,
the Zhuangzi may actually contain materials from a teacher known as
Zhuang Zhou who lived between 370-300 BCE, according to Sima Qian.
Chapters 1-7 are those most often ascribed to Zhuangzi himself (which
is a title meaning "Master Zhuang") and these are known as the "inner
chapters." The remaining 26 chapters had other origins and they
sometimes take different points of view from the inner chapters. They
are divided into the "outer chapters" (chs. 8-22) and "mixed
chapters," (chs. 23-33). The full text probably did not reach its
completed form until about 130 BCE.
7. Basic Concepts in the Zhuangzi
Zhuangzi taught that a set of practices, including meditation, helped
one achieve unity with the dao and become a "true person" (zhen ren).
The way to this state is not the result of a withdrawal from life.
However, it does require a disengagement from conventional values and
the demarcations made by society. In Chapter 23 of the Zhuangzi, a
character inquiring of Laozi about the solution to his life's worries
was answered promptly: "Why did you come with all this crowd of
people?" The man looked around and confirmed he was standing alone,
but Laozi meant that his problems were the result of all the baggage
of ideas and conventional opinions he lugged about with him. This
baggage must be discarded before anyone can be zhen ren. As we see in
this case, the Zhuangzi often employs apparently nonsensical remarks
and questions, as well as humor to make its points.
Like the DDJ, Zhuangzi also valorizes wu wei. For his examples of such
living Zhuangzi turns to analogies of craftsmen, athletes (swimmers),
woodcarvers, and even butchers. One of the most famous stories in the
text is that of Ding the Butcher, who learned what it means to wu wei
through the perfection of his craft. When asked about his great skill,
Ding says, "What I care about is dao, which goes beyond skill. When I
first began cutting up oxen, all I could see was the ox itself. After
three years I no longer saw the whole ox. And now—now I go at it by
spirit and don't look with my eyes. Perception and understanding have
come to a stop and spirit moves where it wants. I go along with the
natural makeup, strike in the big hollows, guide the knife through the
big openings, and follow things as they are. So I never touch the
smallest ligament or tendon, much less a main joint. A good cook
changes his knife once a year—because he cuts. A mediocre cook changes
his knife once a month—because he hacks. I've had this knife of mine
for nineteen years and I've cut up thousands of oxen with it, and yet
the blade is as good as though it had just come from the grindstone.
There are spaces between the joints, and the blade of the knife has
really no thickness….[I] move the knife with the greatest subtlety,
until—flop! The whole thing comes apart like a clod of earth crumbling
to the ground." (Ch. 3, The Secret of Caring for Life)
Persons who exemplify such understanding are called sages, zhen ren,
and immortals. Zhuangzi describes the Daoist sage in such a way as to
suggest that he possesses extraordinary powers. This is the result of
a way of living that cannot be dichotomized into philosophical and
religious categories. Early Daoism makes no such demarcation. Being
able to have union with the dao means to see from the viewpoint of the
dao, and not by the limits of the conceptual and sensory apparatus
that confines us (the way Ding moves his knife through the meat
without looking).
Zhuangzi is drawing on a set of beliefs that were probably regarded as
literal by many, although some think he meant these to be taken
metaphorically. For example, when Zhuangzi says that the sage cannot
be harmed or made to suffer by anything that life presents, does he
mean this to be taken as saying that the zhen ren is physically
invincible? Or, does he mean that the sage has so freed himself from
all conventional understandings that he refuses to recognize poverty
as any more or less desirable than affluence, to recognize blindness
as worse than sight, to recognize death as any less desirable than
life? As the Zhuangzi says in Chapter One, Free and Easy Wandering,
"There is nothing that can harm this man." This is also the theme of
Chapter Two, On Making All Things Equal. In this chapter people are
urged to "make all things one," meaning that they should recognize
that reality is one. It is human judgment that what happens is
beautiful or ugly, right or wrong, fortunate or not. The sage knows
all things are one (equal) and does not judge. Our lives are snarled
and jumbled so long as we make conventional discriminations, but when
we set them aside, we appear to others as extraordinary and enchanted.
An important theme in the Zhuangzi is the use of immortals to
illustrate various points. Did Zhuangzi believe some persons
physically lived forever? Well, many Daoists did believe this. Did
Zhuangzi believe that our substance was eternal and only our form
changed? Almost certainly Zhuangzi thought that we were in a constant
state of process, changing from one form into another (see the
exchange between Master Lai and Master Li in Ch. 6, The Great and
Venerable Teacher). In Daoism, immortality is the result of what is
called a wu xing transformation. Wu xing means "five phases" and it
refers to the Chinese understanding of reality according to which all
things are in some state of combined correlation of wood, fire, water,
metal, and earth. This was not a "Daoist" physics. It underlay all
Chinese "science" of the classical period, although Daoists certainly
made use of it. Zhuangzi wants to teach us how to engage in
transformation through meditation, breathing, and experience (see ch.
6). And yet, perhaps Zhuangzi's teachings on immortality mean that the
person who is free of discrimination makes no difference between life
and death. In the words of Lady Li in Ch. 2, "How do I know that the
dead do not wonder why they ever longed for life?"
Huangdi (the Yellow Emperor) is the most prominent immortal mentioned
in the text. He had long been venerated as a cultural exemplar and the
inventor of civilized human life. Daoism is filled with accounts
designed to show that those who learn to live according to the
according to the dao have long lives. Pengzu, one of the characters in
the Zhuangzi, is said to have lived eight hundred years. The most
prominent female immortal is Xiwangmu (Queen Mother of the West), who
was believed to reign over the sacred and mysterious Mount Kunlun.
The Daoists did not think of immortality as a gift from a god, or an
achievement in the religious sense commonly thought of in the West. It
was a result of finding harmony with the dao, expressed through
wisdom, meditation, and wu wei. Persons who had such knowledge were
reputed to live in the mountains, thus the character for xian
(immortal) is made up of two components, the one being shan "mountain"
and the other being ren "person." Undoubtedly, some removal to the
mountains was a part of the journey to becoming a zhen ren "true
person." Because Daoists believed that nature and our own bodies were
correlations of each other, they imagined their bodies as mountains
inhabited by immortals. The struggle to wu wei was an effort to become
immortal, to be born anew, to grow the embryo of immortality inside. A
part of the disciplines of Daoism included imitation of the animals of
nature, because they were thought to act without the intention and
willfulness that characterized humans. Physical exercises included
animal dances (wu qin xi) and movements designed to enable the
unrestricted flow of the cosmic life force from which all things are
made (qi). Other movements designed to channel the flow of qi are
called tai qi or qi gong. Daoists practiced breathing exercises, used
herbal remedies, and they employed an instruction booklet for sexual
positions and intercourse, all designed to enhance the flow of qi
energy. They even practiced external alchemy, using burners to modify
the composition of cinnabar and mercury into potions to drink and
pills to ingest for the purpose of adding longevity. Many Daoist
practitioners died as a result of these alchemical substances, and
even a few Emperors who followed their instructions lost their lives
as well.
The attitude and practices necessary to the pursuit of immortality
made this life all the more significant. Butcher Ding is a master
butcher because his qi is in harmony with the dao. Daoist practices
were meant for everyone, regardless of their origin, gender, social
position, or wealth. However, Daoism was a complete philosophy of life
and not an easy way to learn.
When superior persons learn the Dao, they practice it with zest.
When average persons learn of the Dao, they are indifferent.
When petty persons learn of the Dao, they laugh loudly.
If they did not laugh, it would not be worthy of being the Dao.
Daodejing, 41
8. Daoism and Confucianism
Arguably, Daoism shared some emphases with classical Confucianism such
as self-cultivation and a this-worldly concern for the concrete
details of life rather than on abstractions and ideals. Nevertheless,
it largely represented an alternative and critical tradition divergent
from that of Confucius. While many of these criticisms are
controversial, some seem clear.
One of the most fundamental teachings of DDJ is that human
discriminations, such as in morality (good, bad) and aesthetics
(beauty, ugly) generate the troubles and problems of existence (ch.
3a). The clear implication is that the person following the dao must
cease ordering his life according to human-made distinctions (ch. 19).
Indeed, it is only when the dao recedes that these demarcations emerge
(chs. 18; 38), because they are a form of disease (ch. 74). Daoists
believe that the dao is untangling the knots of life, blunting the
sharp edges of relationships and problems, and turning down the light
on painful occurrences (ch. 4). So, it is best to practice wu-wei in
all endeavors, to act naturally and not willfully try to oppose or
tamper with how reality is moving.
Confucius and his followers wanted to change the world and be
proactive in setting things straight. They wanted to tamper,
orchestrate, plan, educate, develop, and propose solutions. Daoists
take their hands off of life, and Confucians want their fingerprints
on everything. Imagine this comparison. If the Daoist goal is to
become like a piece of unhewn and natural wood, the goal of the
Confucians is to become a carved sculpture. The Daoists put the piece
before us just as it is found, and the Confucians polish it, shape it,
and decorate it.
Confucians think they can engineer reality, understand it, name it,
control it. But the Daoists think that such endeavors are the source
of our frustration and fragmentation (DDJ, chs. 57, 72). They believe
the Confucians create a gulf between humans and nature, that weakens
and destroys us. Indeed, as far as the Daoists are concerned, the
Confucian project is like a cancer that saps our very life. This is a
fundamental difference in how these two great philosophical traditions
think persons should approach life, and as shown above it is a
consistent difference found also between the Zhuangzi and
Confucianism.
9. Daoism in the Han
The teachings that were later called Daoism were first known under the
name of Huanglao Dao in the 3rd and 2nd cent. BCE. The thought world
transmitted in this stream is what Sima Tan meant by Daojia. The
Huanglao school was a center of Daoist practitioners in the state of
Qi (modern Shandong). Huangdi was the name for the Yellow Emperor,
from whom the rulers of Qi said they were descended. When Emperor Wu,
the sixth sovereign of the Han dynasty (r. 140-87 BCE) elevated
Confucianism to the status of the official state ideology and training
in it became mandatory for all bureaucratic officials, the tension
with Daoism became more evident. And yet, at court people still sought
longevity. Wu continued to engage in many Daoist practices, including
the use of alchemy, climbing sacred Taishan (Mt. Tai), and presenting
petitions to heaven. Wu forced his Daoist relative Liu An, the Prince
of Huainan to commit suicide. Liu's death meant the end of the Daoist
academy he had established and which was associated with the
production of the work called the Master of Huainan (Huainanzi,
180-122 BCE). The text was an attempt to merge cosmology, Confucian
ideals, and a political theory using "quotes" attributed to Huangdi,
although the statements are actually from the Daodejing and the
Zhuangzi. All this is of added significance because in the later Han
work, Laozi binahua jing (Book of the Transformations of Laozi) the
Chinese physics that persons and objects change forms was employed in
order to identify Laozi with Huangdi, and also with taiyi (the
ultimate reality or god whose residence was in the Big Dipper). This
explains also why the Han bureaucracy became identified with the Big
Dipper.
10. Celestial Masters Daoism
Even though Emperor Wu forced Daoist practitioners from court, Daoist
teachings were still able to create a discontent with the policies of
the Han. Popular uprisings sprouted. The Yellow Turban movement, that
tried to overthrow Han imperial authority in the name of Huangdi and
promised to establish the Way of Great Peace (Tai ping). The basic
moral and philosophical text of this movement was the Classic of Great
Peace (Taiping jing). The present version of this work in the Daoist
canon is a later and altered iteration of the original text dating
about 166 CE.
Easily the most important of the Daoist trends at the end of the Han
period was the wudou mi dao (Way of Five Bushels of Rice) movement,
best known as the Way of the Celestial Masters (tianshi dao). This
movement is traceable to a Daoist hermit named Zhang ling, or Zhang
Daoling, who resided on a mountain near modern Chengdu in Sichuan. The
story goes that Laozi appeared to Zhang (c. 142 CE) and gave him a
commission to announce the soon end of the world and the coming age of
Great Peace (taiping). The revelation said that those who followed
Zhang would become part of the Orthodox One Covenant with the Powers
of the Universe (Zhengyi meng wei). Zhang began the movement that
culminated in a Celestial Master state. The administrators of this
state were called libationers (ji jiu), because they performed
religious rites, as well as political duties. They taught that
personal illness and civil mishap were owing to the mismanagement of
the forces of the body and nature. The libationers taught a strict
form of morality and maintained registers of the moral conduct of the
people. They were moral investigators, standing in for a greater
celestial bureaucracy. The Celestial Master state developed against
the background of the decline of the later Han dynasty. Indeed, when
the empire finally decayed, the Celestial Master government was the
only order in much of southern China.
When the Wei dynastic rulers became uncomfortable with the Celestial
Masters' power, they broke up the state. But this backfired because it
actually served to disperse Celestial Masters followers throughout
China. Many of the refugees settled near X'ian. The movement remained
strong because its leaders had assembled a canon of texts [Statutory
Texts of the One and Orthodox (Zhengyi fawen)]. This group of writings
included philosophical, political, and ritual texts. It became a
fundamental part of the later authorized Daoist canon.
11. Neo-Daoism
The resurgence of Daoism after the Han dynasty is often known as
Neo-Daoism. Wang Bi and Guo Xiang who wrote commentaries respectively
on the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi, were the most important voices in
this development. Traditionally, the famous "Seven Sages of the Bamboo
Grove" (Zhulin qixian) have also been associated with the new Daoist
way of life that expressed itself in culture and not merely in
mountain retreats. These thinkers included landscape painters,
calligraphers, poets, and musicians. Among the philosophers of this
period, the great representative of Daoism in southern China was Ge
Hong (283-343 CE). He practiced not only philosophical reflection, but
also external alchemy, manipulating mineral substances such as mercury
and cinnabar. His work the Inner Chapters of the Master Who Embraces
Simplicity (Baopuzi neipian) is the most important Daoist
philosophical work of this period. For him, longevity and immortality
are not the same, the former is only the first step to the latter.
12. Shangqing and Lingbao Daoist Movements
After the invasion of China by nomads from Central Asia, Daoists of
the Celestial Master tradition who had been living in the north were
forced to migrate into southern China, where Ge Hong's version of
Daoism was strong. The mixture of these two traditions is represented
in the writings of the Xu family. The Xu family was an aristocratic
group from what is today the city of Nanjing. Seeking Daoist
philosophical wisdom and the long life it promised, many of them moved
to Mao Shan mountain, near the city. There they claimed to receive
revelations from immortals, who dictated new wisdom and morality texts
to them. Yang Xi was the most prominent recipient of the Maoshan
revelations (360-370 CE). These revelations came from spirits who were
local heroes named the Mao brothers, but they had been transformed
into deities. Yang Xi's writings formed the basis for High Purity
(Shangqing) Daoism. The writings were extraordinarily well done and
even the calligraphy in which they were written was beautiful.
The importance of these texts philosophically speaking is to be found
in their idealization of the quest for immortality and transference of
the material practices of the alchemical science of Ge Hong into a
form of reflective meditation. In fact, the Shangqing school of Daoism
is the beginning of the tradition known as "inner alchemy" (neidan),
an individual mystical pursuit of wisdom.
Some thirty years after the Maoshan revelations, a descendent of Ge
Hong, named Ge Chaofu went into a mediumistic trance and authored a
set of texts called the Lingbao teachings. These works were ritual
recitation texts similar to Buddhist sutras, and indeed they borrowed
heavily from Buddhism. At first, the Shangqing and Lingbao texts
belonged to the general stream of the Celestial Masters and were not
considered separate sects or movements within Daoism, although later
lineages of masters emphasized the uniqueness of their teachings.
13. Tang Daoism
As the Lingbao texts illustrate, Daoism acted as a receiving structure
for Buddhism. Many early translators of Buddhist texts used Daoist
terms to render Indian ideas. Some Buddhists saw Laozi as an avatar of
Shakyamuni (the Buddha), and some Daoists understood Shakyamuni as a
manifestation of the dao, which also means he was a manifestation of
Laozi. An often made generalization is that Buddhism held north China
in the 4th and 5th centuries, and Daoism the south. But gradually this
intellectual currency actually reversed. Daoism grew in scope and
impact throughout China.
By the time of the Tang dynasty (618-906 CE) Daoism was the
intellectual philosophy that underwrote the national understanding.
The imperial family claimed to descend from Li (the family of Laozi).
Laozi was venerated by royal decree. Officials received Daoist
initiation as Masters of its philosophy, rituals, and practices. A
major center for Daoist studies was created at Dragon and Tiger
Mountain (long hu shan), chosen both for its feng shui and because of
its strategic location at the intersection of numerous southern China
trade routes. The Celestial Masters who held leadership at Dragon and
Tiger mountain were later called "Daoist popes" by Christian
missionaries because they had considerable political power.
In aesthetics, two great Daoist intellectuals worked during the Tang.
Wu Daozi developed the rules for Daoist painting and Li Bai became its
most famous poet. Interestingly, Daoist alchemists invented gunpowder
during the Tang. The earliest block-print book on a scientific subject
is a Daoist work entitled Xuanjie lu (850 CE). As Buddhism gradually
grew stronger during the Tang, Daoist and Confucian intellectuals
sought to initiate a conversation with it. The Buddhism that resulted
was a reformed version known as Chan (Zen in Japan).
14. The Three Teachings
During the Five Dynasties (907-960 CE) and Song periods (960-1279 CE)
Confucianism enjoyed a resurgence and Daoists found their place by
teaching that principal thinkers of their tradition were Confucian
scholars as well. Most notable among these was Lu Dongbin, a Daoist
immortal that many believed was originally a Confucian teacher.
Daoism became a complete philosophy of life, reaching into religion,
social action, and individual health and physical well being. A huge
network of Daoist temples known by the name Dongyue Miao (also called
tianqing guan) was created through the empire, with a miao in
virtually every town of any size. The Daoist masters who served these
temples were appointed as government officials. They also gave
medical, moral, and philosophical advice, and led religious rituals,
dedicated especially to the Lord of the Sacred Mountain of the East
named Taishan. Daoist masters had wide authority. All this was obvious
in the temple iconography. Taishan was represented as the emperor, the
City God (cheng huang) was a high official, and the Earth God was
portrayed as a prosperous peasant. Daoism of this period integrated
the Three Teachings (sanjiao) of China: Confucianism, Buddhism, and
Daoism. This process of synthesis continued throughout the Song and
into the period of the Ming Dynasty.
Such a wide dispersal of Daoist thought and practice, taken together
with its interest in merging Confucianism and Buddhism, eventually
created a fragmented ideology. Into this confusion came Wang Zhe
(1113-1170 CE), the founder of Quanzhen (Total Truth) Daoism. It was
Wang's goal to bring the three teachings into a single great
synthesis. For the first time, Daoist teachers adopted monastic forms
of life, created monasteries, and organized themselves in ways they
saw in Buddhism. This version of Daoist thought interpreted the
classical texts of the DDJ and the Zhuangzi to call for a rejection of
the body and material world. The Quanzhen order became powerful as the
main partner of the Mongols (Yuan dynasty), who gave their patronage
to its expansion. Frequently the Mongol emperors favored the Celestial
Masters and their leader at Dragon and Tiger mountain in an effort to
undermine the power of the Quanzhen leaders. For example, the Zhengyi
(Celestial Master) master of Beijing in the 1220s was Zhang Liusun.
Under patronage he was allowed to build a Dongyue Miao in the city in
1223 and make it the unofficial town hall of the capital. But by the
time of Khubilai Khan (r. 1260-1294) the Buddhists were used against
all Daoists. The Khan ordered all Daoist books except the DDJ to be
destroyed in 1281, and he closed the Quanzhen monastery in the city
known as Baiyun Guan (White Cloud Monastery).
When the Ming (1368-1644) dynasty emerged, the Mongols were expulsed,
and Chinese rule was restored. The emperors sponsored the creation of
the first complete Daoist Canon (Daozang), which was edited between
1408 and 1445. This was an eclectic collection, including many
Buddhist and Confucian related texts. Daoist influence reached its
zenith.
15. The "Destruction" of Daoism
The Manchurian tribes that became rulers of China in 1644 and founded
the Qing dynasty were already under the influence of conservative
Confucian exiles. They stripped the Celestial Master of Dragon Tiger
Mountain of his power at court. Only Quanzhen was tolerated. Baiyun
Guan (White Cloud Monastery) was reopened, and a new lineage of
thinkers was organized. They called themselves the Dragon Gate lineage
(Long men pai). In the 1780s, the Western traders arrived, and so did
Christian missionaries. In 1849, the Hakka people of Guangxi province,
among China's poorest citizens, rose in revolt. They followed Hong
Xiuquan, who claimed to be Jesus' younger brother. This millennial
movement built on a strange version of Chinese Christianity sought to
establish the Heavenly Kingdom of Peace (taping). As the Taiping swept
throughout southern China, they destroyed Buddhist and Daoist temples
and texts wherever they found them. The Taiping army completely raised
the Daoist complexes on Dragon Tiger Mountain. During most of the 20th
century the drive to eradicate Daoist influence has continued. In the
1920s, the "New Life" movement drafted students to go out on Sundays
to destroy Daoist statues and texts. In the year 1926 only two copies
of the Daoist Canon (Daozang) existed and Daoist philosophical
heritage was in great jeopardy. But permission was granted to copy the
canon kept at the White Cloud Monastery, and so the texts were
preserved for the world. There are 1120 titles in this collection in
5,305 volumes. Much of this material has yet to receive scholarly
attention and very little of it has been translated into any Western
language.
The Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) attempted to complete the
destruction of Daoism. Masters were killed or "re-educated." Entire
lineages were broken up and their texts were destroyed. The miaos were
closed, burned, and turned into military barracks. At one time, there
were 300 Daoist sites in Beijing alone, now there are only a handful.
However, Daoism is not dead. It survives as a vibrant philosophical
system and way of life as its evidenced by the revival of its practice
and study in several new University institutes in the People's
Republic.
16. References and Further Reading
* Ames, Roger and Hall, David. (2003). Daodejing: "Making This
Life Significant" A Philosophical Translation. New York: Ballantine
Books.
* Ames, Roger. (1998). Wandering at Ease in the Zhuangzi. Albany:
State University of New York Press.
* Bokenkamp, Stephen R. (1997). Early Daoist Scriptures. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
* Boltz, Judith M. (1987). A Survey of Taoist Literature: Tenth to
Seventeenth Centuries, China Research Monograph 32. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
* Chan, Alan. (1991). Two Visions of the Way: A Translation and
Study of the Heshanggong and Wang Bi Commentaries on the Laozi.
Albany: State University of New York Press.
* Creel, Herrlee G. (1970). What is Taoism? Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.
* Csikszentmihalyi, Mark and Ivanhoe, Philip J., eds. (1999).
Religious and Philosophical Aspects of the Laozi. Albany: State
University of New York.
* Girardot, Norman J. (1983). Myth and Meaning in Early Taoism:
The Theme of Chaos (hun-tun). Berkeley: University of California
Press.
* Graham, Angus. (1981). Chuang tzu: The Inner Chapters. London:
Allen & Unwin.
* Graham, Angus. (1989). Disputers of the Tao: Philosophical
Argument in Ancient China. La Salle, IL: Open Court.
* Graham, Angus. (1979). "How much of the Chuang-tzu Did
Chuang-tzu Write?" Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol.
47, No. 3.
* Hansen, Chad (1992). A Daoist Theory of Chinese Thought. New
York: Oxford University Press.
* Henricks, Robert. (1989). Lao-Tzu: Te-Tao Ching. New York: Ballantine.
* Ivanhoe, Philip J. (2002). The Daodejing of Laozi. New York:
Seven Bridges Press.
* Kjellberg, Paul and Ivanhoe, Philip J., eds. (1996) Essays on
Skepticism, Relativism, and Ethics in the Zhuangzi. Albany: State
University of New York.
* Kohn, Livia and LaFargue, Michael., eds. (1998). Lao-tzu and the
Tao-te-ching. Albany: State University of New York Press.
* Kohn, Livia and Roth, Harold., eds. (2002). Daoist Identity:
History, Lineage, and Ritual. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
* LaFargue, Michael. (1992). The Tao of the Tao-te-ching. Albany:
State University of New York Press.
* Lin, Paul J. (1977). A Translation of Lao-tzu's Tao-te-ching and
Wang Pi's Commentary. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.
* Lau, D.C. (1982). Chinese Classics: Tao Te Ching. Hong Kong:
Hong Kong University Press.
* Lynn, Richard John. (1999). The Classic of the Way and Virtue: A
New Translation of the Tao-Te Ching of Laozi as Interpreted by Wang
Bi. New York: Columbia University Press.
* Mair, Victor. (1990). Tao Te Ching: The Classic Book of
Integrity and the Way. New York: Bantam Press.
* Maspero, Henri. (1981). Taoism and Chinese Religion. Amherst:
University of Massachusetts Press.
* Robinet, Isabelle. (1997). Taoism: Growth of a Religion.
Stanford: Stanford University Press.
* Roth, Harold. (2003). A Companion to Angus C. Graham's Chuang
Tzu: The Inner Chapters. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
* Roth, Harold D. (1992). The Textual History of the Huai Nanzi.
Ann Arbor: Association of Asian Studies.
* Roth, Harold D. (1991). "Who Compiled the Chuang Tzu?" In
Chinese Texts and Philosophical Contexts, ed. Henry Rosemont, 84-95.
La Salle: Open Court.
* Schipper, Kristofer. (1993). The Taoist Body Berkeley:
University of California Press.
* Slingerland, Edward, (2003). Effortless Action: Wu-Wei As
Conceptual Metaphor and Spiritual Ideal in Early China. New York:
Oxford University Press.
* Waley, Arthur (1934). The Way and Its Power: A Study of the Tao
Te Ching and its Place in Chinese Thought. London: Allen & Unwin
* Watson, Burton. (1968). The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu. New
York: Columbia University Press
* Welch, Holmes. (1966). Taoism: The Parting of the Way. Boston:
Beacon Press.
* Welch, Holmes and Seidel, Anna, eds. (1979). Facets of Taoism.
New Haven: Yale University Press.
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