important interpreters of the classical Chinese texts known as the
Daodejing (Tao Te Ching) and the Yijing (I Ching). He lived and worked
during the period after the collapse of the Han dynasty in 220 CE, an
era in which elite interest began to shift away from Confucianism
toward Daoism. As a self-identified Confucian, Wang Bi wanted to
create an understanding of Daoism that was consistent with
Confucianism but which did not fall into what he considered to be the
errors of then-popular Daoist sectarian groups. He understood his
main task to be the restoration of order and a sense of direction to
Chinese society after the turbulent final years of the Han, and
offered the ideal of establishing the "true way" (zhendao) as the
solution. Although he died at the age of twenty-four, his
interpretations of Daoism became influential for several reasons. The
edition of the Daodejing that he used in his commentary on that work
has been the basis for almost every translation into a Western
language for nearly two centuries. Moreover, his interpretations of
Daoist material did not undermine Confucianism, making them palatable
to later Confucian thinkers. Finally, Wang Bi's work provided a way
of talking about indigenous Chinese beliefs that made them seem
compatible with the introduction of Indian Buddhist texts and ideas in
the decades to follow.
1. The Context of Wang Bi's Work
Wang Bi lived and worked during the period after the collapse of the
Han dynasty in 220 CE, an era in which elite interest began to shift
toward Daoism. A brief explanation of this transformation of
intellectual interests in early medieval China is necessary in order
to understand Wang Bi's thought in its original context.
Beginning with the reign of Emperor Wu (r. 140-187 BCE), the Han state
embraced Confucianism as its official ideology. Training in the
Confucian classics became mandatory for all officials, and there was
an active program of suppression of alternative thought, including the
persecution of Prince Liu An of Huainan, a prominent Daoist supporter.
Nevertheless, Daoism did not disappear. By the first century CE,
Daoist texts began to reappear in political discussion, and during the
following century, sectarian Daoist movements such as the tianshi
(Celestial Masters) became active. Although Confucian scholars were
still needed by the rulers of post-Han states such as the Wei because
of their knowledge and experience in state rituals and administrative
matters, by Wang Bi's time Daoism was "in the air" and exercising a
powerful influence on the thinking of commoner and aristocrat alike.
Accordingly, the interests of some members of the educated elite
turned toward Daoism. They labored to create a renaissance in Daoist
thought, but one that directly avoided following the religious beliefs
and practices of the Celestial Masters and the various permutations of
Daoism that had rapidly developed. These thinkers are generally
gathered loosely under the title of xuanxue (Dark Learning, Mysterious
Learning or Profound Learning), sometimes called Neo-Daoism. The term
xuanxue was derived from a line in the first chapter of the Daodejing,
according to which the dao (Way) is xuan zhi you xuan (darker than
dark). Among the principal xuanxue figures were Zhong Hui (225-264
CE), Xiang Xiu (223?-300 CE), Guo Xiang (d. 312 CE), and Wang Bi.
A Confucian rather than a sectarian Daoist, Wang Bi wanted to create
an understanding of Daoism that was consistent with Confucianism but
which did not fall into what he considered to be the errors of the
Celestial Masters and their popular religious practices. He understood
his main task to be the restoration of order and a sense of direction
to Chinese society after the turbulent final years of the Han. He
offered the ideal of establishing the "true way" (zhendao) as the
solution. Undoubtedly, his ultimate goal was to examine the mysterious
knowledge of creation and translate it into a viable political and
social program. Due to his untimely death, however, he had very little
impact on the politics of his day. Nevertheless, through his
commentarial work and the way in which his ideas were regarded as
congenial to early Chinese Buddhism, his philosophical influence was
profound.
2. Wang Bi's Commentaries
Wang Bi's best known commentaries are those on the Daodejing and
Yijing. What is often overlooked is that he also wrote a commentary on
the Confucian Analects (Lunyu Shiyi), some fragments of which still
survive. His writings have been collected and annotated in two volumes
entitled Wang Bi ji jiaoshi (Critical Edition of Wang Bi's Collected
Works). The bibliography below lists this work and other English
translations of his major commentaries (see References and Further
Reading).
a. On the Analects
What we know about the Analects commentary is that it was written as a
criticism of the texts that Wang's mentor He Yan (Ho Yen, d. 249 BCE)
considered to be most important. Wang's approach, as far as we can
tell from what remains of the commentary, was to focus on those
passages that stress the limited capacity of language, especially with
respect to the inability to define in language the nature of the sage.
His selection of passages and remarks sets up a substantial
rapprochement between Confucianism and his version of Daoism by
basically providing him with a kind of hermeneutical license. His
commentaries are in the zhangju ("chapter and verse") format, in which
a great deal of emphasis is placed on individual words and images in
the "verses" and the meaning that lies behind them, carefully avoiding
any sort of approach that regards philosophical concepts as
referential.
b. On the Yijing
Wang's commentary on the Yijing, a traditional Chinese divinatory text
of uncertain antiquity consisting of hexagrams and their
interpretations, cross-annotates it with the Daodejing. In this way,
he transforms the interpretive tradition concerned with the Yijing by
setting aside what he regards as an over-reliance on mathematical and
symbolic readings of the text (typical of Han scholars) and exposing
what he takes to be its xuanxue.For example, while Han thinkers such
as Ma Rong (79-106 CE) tried to make textual images referential, Wang
avoided this consistently. Alan Chan specifically mentions Ma's
explanation of the Yi jing comment, "the number of the great expansion
is fifty, but use is made only of forty-nine." Ma claims that "fifty"
refers to the polestar, the two forms of yin and yang, the sun and
moon, the four seasons, the five elements (wuxing), the twelve months,
and the twenty-four calendar periods. In Ma's interpretation, because
the polestar does not move, it is not used, and thus the number is
forty-nine, not fifty. In contrast to this approach, Wang looks behind
the language for underlying principles or xuanxue meanings.
Wang's commentary on the hexagrams draws heavily from passages in the
Daodejing and Zhuangzi . He uses major Daoist ideas to interpret the
Yijing, culminating in his theory that change and dao are unified and
his position that Laozi's ideas are already contained in the Yijing.
He appropriates the notions of being (you) and nothingness (wu) from
the Daodejing and uses them in his interpretation of divination.
c. On the Daodejing
Many of Wang's most basic ideas concerning the Daodejing are discussed
below. But with respect to his commentary on this work, he is probably
as well known for the text that was transmitted with the commentary as
he is famed for the commentary itself. This text became the basis,
first for Chinese scholarship on the Daodejing, and later for
translations of the text into Western languages. In his A Chinese
Reading of the Daodejing: Wang Bi's Commentary on the Laozi with
Critical Text and Translation, the best-known Western scholar of Wang
Bi, Rudolf Wagner, provides a careful study of Wang's work on the
text.
The recent translation of the Daodejing by Roger Ames and David Hall
is based on a conflation of the two Mawangdui (MWD) versions of the
text, supplemented by that of Wang Bi. Mawangdui is the name of a site
near Changsha in Hunan province in which some early Han tombs
containing texts were discovered in 1972. These discoveries include
two incomplete editions of the Daodejing on silk scrolls, now simply
called "A"and "B." Ames and Hall believe that Wang was actually
working from a textual source that was closer to their own conflated
version of the MWD materials than the received text that he had put in
his own commentary (Ames and Hall, 76). In contrast, another recent
translator of the Daodejing, P.J. Ivanhoe, believes that although the
MWD versions offer help with how one might translate certain passages,
there is nothing in them that fundamentally conflicts with or alters
our understanding of the core philosophical notions of the Wang Bi
text.
Wang's version of the Daodejing contains eighty-one chapters that are
divided into two books, but the actual division of the text into two
books predates the Wang Bi edition. Later versions of the text built
upon that of Wang and added book and chapter titles. In Wang's
edition, Book One consists of chapters 1 through 37, and later it came
to be called the dao half of the text. Book Two consists of chapters
38 to 81 and is known as the de half. One of the principal differences
between the MWD versions and that of Wang Bi is that the order of the
chapters is reversed, with 38-81 in the Wang Bi coming before chapters
1-37 in the MWD versions. 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.
3. Central Ideas in Wang Bi's Writings
a. On Language
A substantial part of Wang's interpretive philosophy is rooted in his
view of language. His view of language is consistent with that of the
Daodejing and the Zhuangzi. Both works teach that words are inadequate
for the expression of truth. As Daodejing 1 says, "The way that can be
spoken of is not the constant way. The name that can be named is not
the true name." For Wang, this means that the dao lies beyond language
He goes further, however, holding that words must always be
distinguished from their underlying meaning. Indeed, Wang claims that
taking words referentially is an obstacle to xuanxue – that words must
be forgotten in order to penetrate into the world of meaning. He finds
support for this view in classical Daoist texts. Specifically, he
makes use of the Zhuangzi's teaching about "forgetfulness" (chs. 4,
12, 24). This view of language gives Wang the freedom to uncover what
he believes to be the profound meaning that lies behind the words of
the classical texts of Daoism, which in turn makes it easier for him
to tie them to the Yijing and even to the Confucius of the Analects.
It also allows him to offer a construction of Daoist ideas that can be
distinguished sharply from that of the sectarian Daoism of his day.
b. On Non-Being
Wang's commentary on the Daodejing centers around his interpretation
of the concept of "nothing" (wu) or "non-being" as that out of which
the ten thousand things (e.g., all phenomena) arise. He believes that
"nothing" is pointed to in the text by means of its fundamental
analogies: valley, canyon, bowl, door, window, pitcher, and hub of a
wheel. There can be no doubt that Wang regards "nothing" as the dao.
When he explains the first sentence of Daodejing 6 ("The spirit of the
valley never dies; it is called the obscure female"), he says, "The
spirit of the valley is the Non-Being found in the center of a valley.
The Non-Being has neither form, nor shadow; it conforms completely to
what surrounds it….Its form is invisible: it is the Supreme Being."
c. On "The One"
In articulating his understanding of the dao, Wang appeals directly to
the Daodejing's comments on cosmogony, according to which the dao
gives birth to One, One gives birth to two, two to three, and three to
the ten thousand things. Yet Wang does not believe that the One is a
being. On the contrary, it is the mysterious center of things, like
the hub of a wheel. The dao is Non-Being. Dao is not an agent. It does
not have a will. To say that it lies at the "beginning" is not to make
a temporal statement, but a metaphysical one. On Daodejing 25, Wang
writes, "It is spoken of as 'Dao' insofar as there is thus something
[for things] to come from." Interpreting the fifty-first chapter, he
writes, "The Dao—this is where things come from." Wang makes his views
clearer when he offers a commentary on the word "One." Han thinkers
took the One referentially and identified it with the North Star. But
Wang takes a radically different approach. For him, the One is not
used referentially in terms of some external thing, nor is it a
number. It is that on which numbers depend.
The idea that the One underlies and unites all phenomena is also
vigorously stressed in Wang's commentary on the Yijing. In this work,
Wang makes it clear just how it is that dao as Non-Being is related to
the world of Being. The Yijing consists of hexagrams made up of six
broken lines (representing the yin cosmic force) and unbroken lines
(representing the yang cosmic force). Since ancient times, the text
has been used as a tool for divination. In Wang's day, the typical
interpretation of a hexagram associated it with a specific external
event, but Wang uses his theory of language to put forward the view
that the hexagram's meaning lies in identifying the general principle
(li) behind all particular objects. Wang thinks that the principle is
discoverable in one of the six lines of a hexagram, so that the other
five become secondary. These principles constitute the fiber of the
One.
d. On Wuwei
Wang Bi's views on the sage reveal his understanding of wuwei
(effortless action). He believes that the sage rises above all
distinctions and contradictions. According to Wang, although the sage
remains in the midst of human affairs, he accomplishes things by
taking no unnatural action. Thus, the sage's conduct is an example of
wuwei. Wang is clear that this does not mean that the sage "folds his
arms and sits in silence in the midst of some mountain forest." It
means that the sage acts naturally. To such a sage, all life
transformations are the same and one must not impose value judgments
on them. In making decisions, the sage should have "no deliberate mind
of his own" (wuxin) but instead should respond to life events
spontaneously, without any discrimination. In short, this means that
the sage puts aside desires because they are corrupting and
destructive. Strictly speaking, the sage's wuwei is not a strategy to
diminish desire; it is evidence of the absence of desire — emptiness,
or Non-Being. In Wang's view, Confucius was such a sage because his
life had broadened the dao. (Analects 15.29) Such interpretations
created fertile ground in which Buddhism could take root, thereby
entering the Chinese intellectual stream through Daoism.
e. On Ziran
The Daoist concept of ziran (usually translated as "spontaneity" or
"naturalness") is interpreted by Wang Bi to mean "the real." Likewise,
in his commentary on the Daodejing, de is not a reference to virtue
(as it usually is understood), or even less to specific virtues, but
to that which persons obtain from dao (see ch. 51). Yet, for Wang, the
text teaches that dao moves spontaneously and accomplishes its tasks.
Providing for all, "nothing is done, but no thing is left undone."
Thus, Wang thinks that humans have created disorder by their thought
and action. If they return to dao in wuwei, then de will become
available as ziran. De will not be the result of human action,
politics, or contrivance. If the ruler becomes a sage and embraces
wuwei, he will transform the people and broaden the dao, just as
Confucius (not Laozi) did.
4.Wan. Bi's Influence on Chinese Philosophy
Wang Bi's metaphysics has influenced the development of Chinese
philosophy in at least two important respects.
First, after Wang Bi, some Chinese literati began to distinguish
"philosophical" Daoism (daojia) from "religious" Daoism (daojiao), a
distinction that was reinforced by the geographical relocation of the
tianshi movement and elite attempts to devalue it as a legitimate
extension of classical Daoist thought. This distinction has persisted
throughout the history of Chinese thought, but it is an unfortunate
one, and moreover one without any basis in the historical practice of
Daoist communities (Kirkland, 2). In constructing his interpretive
framework, Wang avoided sectarian Daoism and did not take seriously
the philosophical roots of tianshi thought. He made no serious attempt
to consider how Daoism was practiced before the Han. Thus, Wang's
typology of Daoism laid the groundwork for what is arguably not only
the most influential, but also the most systematically misleading, way
of thinking about the development of Chinese philosophy.
Second, Wang's commentary on the Daodejing was crucial for the process
by which the Mahayana Buddhist dharma (doctrine, teaching) began to
gain a foothold in China. The most obvious example of Wang's influence
can be seen in the way the Mahayana notion of emptiness was
assimilated into Chinese thought. According to Wang, the Daodejing
(ch. 40) asserts that being comes from nonbeing, and that nonbeing is
the ultimate substance of being. As we have seen, he exploited the
Daodejing's analogies for emptiness, reading their meaning in terms of
xuanxue. As Buddhist texts such as the Prajnaparamita (Transcendental
Wisdom) Sutra were translated, clear connections were made between its
teaching that all forms are empty and Wang's reading of the dao. So,
it became widely believed, or at least widely proclaimed, by early
Chinese Buddhists that Laozi and Buddha had both taught the need for a
return to non-being. Wang's commentarial work played a strategic role
in making this interpretation more convincing.
5. References and Further Reading
* Ames, Roger and David L. Hall, trans. Daodejing — Making This
Life Significant: A Philosophical Translation. New York: Ballantine
Books, 2003.
* Chan, Alan. Two Visions of the Way: A Study of the Wang Pi and
Ho-shang Kung Commentaries on the Lao-tzu. Albany, NY: State
University of New York Press, 1991.
* Chang, Chung-yue. "Wang Pi on the Mind." Journal of Chinese
Philosophy 9 (1982): 77-106.
* Henricks, Robert, trans. Lao-Tzu: Te-Tao Ching. New York:
Ballantine, 1989.
* Ivanhoe, P.J., trans. The Daodejing of Laozi. New York: Seven
Bridges, 2002.
* Kirkland, Russell. "Understanding Taoism." In Kirkland, Taoism:
The Enduring Tradition (New York and London: Routledge, 2004), 1-19.
* Kohn, Livia. Early Chinese Mysticism: Philosophy and Soteriology
in the Taoist Tradition. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992.
* Lin, Paul, trans. A Translation of Lao-tzu's Tao-te-ching and
Wang Pi's Commentary. Ann Arbor, MI: Center for Chinese Studies,
University of Michigan, 1977.
* Lou, Yu lie. Wang Bi ji jiaoshi (Critical Edition of Wang Bi's
Collected Works). 2 vols. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1980.
* Lynn, Richard, trans. The Classic of Changes: A New Translation
of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi. New York: Columbia
University Press, 1994.
* Lynn, Richard, trans. 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, 1999.
* Rump, Arian and Wing-tsit Chan, trans. Commentary on the Lao-tzu
by Wang Pi. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1979. .
* Wagner, Rudolf. The Craft of the Chinese Commentator: Wang Bi on
the Laozi. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2000.
* Wagner, Rudolf, trans. A Chinese Reading of the Daodejing: Wang
Bi's Commentary on the Laozi with Critical Text and Translation.
Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2003.
* Wagner, Rudolf. Language, Ontology, and Political Philosophy in
China: Wang Bi's Scholarly Exploration of the Dark (Xuanxue). Albany,
NY: State University of New York Press, 2003.
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