This passage becomes more intelligible if compared to a parallel statement in the second masterpiece of Taoist philosophy, the Chuang Tzu [Zhuangzi], (the book of) Master Chuang (third century BC): ' In the great beginning ,there was non-being . It had neither being nor name. The One originates from it, it has oneness but not yet physical form. When things obtains it and come into existence, that is called virtue (which gives them their individual character).'(Chuang Tzu,Chapter 12,Chan Wing-tsit's version). The one, then, is that which has Being but no form: the best analogue in Western terms is that of Chaos, being but without order or definiteness . From the One or Chaos arise individuals, i.e. the 'two' entities with identifiable, discriminable forms, and so on up to the richness and multiplicity of the universe as we know it. (The extremely difficult logical question of quite how not-Being can give rise to Being, in Western terms the problem of the One and the Many, is not addressed in the Tao te ching : the text is in philosophical terms a summary of conclusions. The arguments on which they are based must be sought elsewhere.)
The passage from the Chuang Tzu book refers to 'virtue' which gives to things 'their individual character'. The Chinese term translated as 'virtue' is te [de], the other term in the Han title for our present text. The word is rendered by Waley in this translation as 'power'. The discrepancy between this version and that of Professor Chan just quoted is more apparent than real : as is usually the case in versions of ancient Chinese texts, differences of this kind indicate a conceptual non-alignment between that language and modern English. There is no single concept in modern English which covers quite what the ancient Chinese concept of te covers. 'Virtue', not in the moral sense as the opposite of vice ,but in the value-neutral sense of 'specific property',captures part of what is meant, and 'power' does justice to the idea of which a thing is what it is ,conceived of as a nature which has a certain force or driving power ,and which individual things receive from the Tao (cf.Chapter 51). Despite the fact that te occurs in the Han title for the present text,it does not have the degree of importance in it which this prominence might at first sight suggest.
So far ,we have been concerned with the metaphysics of Taoism as presented in the Tao te ching . Before moving on to look at the other main themes of the work, namely the implications of this outlook in and moral and political spheres,it is as well to sum up these abstract and unobvious ideas:the bedrock metaphysical assertion is that things'(i.e. all there is )there lies an ultimate and everlasting reality,the Tao . Strictly speaking,the Tao is ineffable. It is that which is prior to all individuation (the Nameless) and to which no conceptual descriptions apply. Its nature can only be hinted at by largely negative terms such as 'not being' 'elusive' 'rarefied' and the like. It gives rise to the world of Being ,i.e. of individuals,and can be described metaphorically as their mother.Each individual thing in the universe has a nature te, which it receives from the Tao.
The easiest way to see how these ideas might affect the way we conduct ourselves in the world is via the concept of action. An action, as distinct from a mere event, is a change initiated by an agent ,an agent being an individual who has the property of self-conscious-ness. (let us leave out of account the complex issue of whether certain animals can be regarded as either self-conscious or agents) In order for there to be actions at all ,then, there must be self-conscious individuals in a world which permits of modification. Further,actions are manifestations of purposes. We have motives, desires,wishes and so on which direct our actions, manifesting themselves as our purposes,and purposes are properties of individual selves. Now, as we have seen, the Tao is not an individual of any kind and is not within the realm of the changeable; therefore the Tao cannot be said,even metaphorically,to act. Hence is arrived at a further key doctrine of Taoism, namely that the way of the Tao is wu-wei, non-action:it 'acts without action, does without doing'(Chapter 63),or again:
Tao never does ;
Yet through it all things are done.
(Chapter 37)
Because the Tao is not an individual,it logically cannot be said to act; yet,because it is the mother of all there is, whatever is done is done ultimately because ti is the mother of all there is ,whatever is done is done ultimately because of the Tao. The way in which the Tao gives rise to the universe cannot be described as an action: the nearest metaphorical description which can be given is the notion of pure spontaneity. Occasionally,we cry or jump for joy and so on in a way which surprises even ourselves:the ego which has purposes is as much astonished as the rest of the world when such things occur,and to call such events actions at all is to stretch the concept, since they are not manifestations of purposes. The Tao, of course, is not an ego; to say that whatever it brings about is done utterly spontaneously is merely the least misleading way there is, in a language designed to articulate how human beings act ,of describing how the Tao brings things about. (Those familiar with the Vedanta school of Hindu thought will be aware of a reasonable analogue in that philosophy.The ultimate reality in Vedanta is Brahman manifest itself as a universe at all,the best answer that can be given is lila , the Sanskrit term for sport or play,by which is meant sheer spontaneity.)
The next major assertion in the Taoist outlook is this:human beings may so conduct themselves as to be in accord with the Tao is the Sage,sheng or sheng jen [sheng ren]. Since the way of the Tao is wu-wei,that is what the Sage must seek to emulate :hence,as is stated in a number of places in the Tao te ching , 'the Sage relies on actionless activity'(Chapter 2;cf.Chapter 43 or Chapter 27).Since the whole of the moral and political philosophy of the Tao te ching rests on this assertion,it is necessary at this point to spend some time working out what it means to do this. What must a Taoist Sage be like, and what precisely is it like to carry out 'actionless activity'?
As we have seen,the way of the Tao is wu-wei because the Tao is not an individual. Therefore,if the Sage is to accomplish the attainment of wu-wei,then he (or she )must become as much like the Tao ,and therefore as little like an individual,as possible:this is what is meant by 'returning.' To the Tao (Chapter 25;cf.Chapter 40).The actions of individuals involve purposes ,and purposes are the result of the desires and wishes of the ego. Accordingly,the fewer the desires and wishes of the ego, the closer we come to the Tao ,and the less individual we become. Hence,the Sage does not strive for any personal end (Chapter 7); diminishes personal desire to the greatest possible degree and so knows 'the contentment that comes simply through being content'(Chapter 46); day by day subtracts from knowledge (since knowledge of things stimulates desire for them) and so arrives at 'inactivity'(Chapter 48). The sage speaks very little, for words embody conceptual distinctions and so lead us further from the Tao (Chapters 17,23 and 56); desires nothing and so has a mind which simply,like a mirror ,reflects impartially and desirelessly what idot (Chapters 10,20 and 49). The further the Sage progresses along the path of diminishing the force and role of the ego, the closer his approach to the Tao. Whatever the Sage does will not be the result of selfish desires, since these desires have been eliminated. Accordingly,whatever the Sage does will not be 'action' in a proper sense at all,but wu-wei, activity which is not action, a purely spontaneous manifestation of the Tao .
When the ego has been thoroughly subdued, the Sage arrives at the mystical experience which lies at the root of Taoism, an experience referred to in the Tao te Ching as illumination, ming (Chapters 16,33 and 55). This is direct acquaintance with reality,the Tao . Ordinarily, when we are in the condition in which our life is directed to the satisfaction of our desires, we are more or less constantly unquiet: no sooner is one desire satisfied than another arises, and then another, and so on, relentlessly. The Sage, by subduing or perhaps even destroying the ego, breaks this sequence, and arrives at a condition of inner peace or quietness of an intensity which the non-illumined cannot even guess at . Hence:
Quietness is called submission to Fate;
What has submitted to Fate has become part of the always-so is to be illumined;
Not to know it, means to go blindly to disaster.(Chapter 16)
The Sage has no personal desires,and so submits unprotestingly to the course of events (Fate ); those in this condition know the Tao ('the always-so') and they know it by illumination. Elsewhere, Waley translates ming as the 'inner light' (e.g. Chapter 52)and this indicates an important point about mystical experience:the reality which is encountered is found within us, not outside us. The Tao can be experienced. The Tao is like a wireless signal and the person listening to it; whereas,in mystical experience ,there is no meaningful distinction to be made between the Tao and the Sage.
The text of the Tao te ching does not tell us by means of what discriplines or techniques the ego is to be subdued,and for the answer one must look to other Taoist works. In common with other philosophical systems based on a mystical experience, like advaita Vedanta or Zen, what is involved is a long and testing set of yogic practices designed to dissipate the ego. This is why we are exhorted to 'Block the passages,shut the doors'(Chapter 52),i.e.cut ourselves off from outer stimuli by means of meditational techniques. (For a short and accessible account of Taoist yoga, see the work by Odier listed in the bibliography.)Nor does the Tao te ching give us a descrption of what it is like to be a Sage , to engage in actionless activity. The reason is largely that it is a condition almost impossible to describe in language which has evolved precisely to describe ordinary purposive action. Yet some mystics do try to give us a clue as to what it is like. One such was the Japanese Zen master Bankei (AD 1622-93).Bankei's word for the ultimate reality is the Unborn (in Japanese fusho) and those who are illumined (have experience what in Zen is called satori),like the Taoist Sages, manifest pure spontaneity. Bankei describes to an acquaintance who was a devotee of the martial arts what it would be like to fight after satori: 'when ,without thinking and without acting deliberately, you manifest the Unborn, you won't have any fixed form. When you are without fixed form, no opponent will exist for you in the whole land. Not holding on to anything, not relying one-sidely on anything, there is no 'you' and no 'enemy'. Whatever comes you just respond, with no traces left behind.' (Bankei:Instructions to layman Gesso in Pete r Haskel [ed and tr]:Bankei Zen, Grove Weidenfeld, New York 1984,pp.138-9). The Sage has no ego and so does not deliberate. What the Sage does is to respond with absolute spontaneity to the conditions in the world .
All the ideas considered so far form the basis of the moral and political views set out in the Tao te ching . The state of Chinese society at the time these ideas were formulated was such as to make these issues matters of the most urgent concern . At the time of the Warring States, China as a unified country did not exist, and as this description suggests,consisted of a set of smaller states unceasingly engaged in wars of conquest against one another . Human life in such times of constantly threatening chaos and death is not to be overcome. For the Taoist , not unexpectedly,such a condition is interpreted as the result of a serious departure from the way of the Tao, and therefore what the Sage seeks to do ,both as private citizen and as ruler, is to return people as closely as possible to conformity with the Tao, and this principle underlies all the moral and political recommendations of the Tao te ching.
In the moral sphere, the Sage seeks to diminish the knowledge and the desires of the people: as has been seen, these concepts are intimately linked, since it is knowledge of things which usually causes us to desire them : hence: ' In te days of old those who practiced Tao with success did not, by means of it, enlighten the people,but on the contrary sought to make them ignorant' (Chapter 65;cf.Chapter 19).The less people desire,the less they will be unquiet and unhappy:not everyone can attain sagehood, but all can be made less greedy and less envious than they are. Further, the Sage regards the cultivation of morality in the form of virtues or rules -in the Confucian manner, for example-as evidence of serious failure to be in accord with the Tao. This is the thought behind the remark,
It was when the Great Way declined
That human kindness and morality arose .
(Chapter 18;cf.Chapter 38)
Human kindness or benevolence,jen [ren],is the key virtue in Confucianism. The Taoist criticism of Confucianism is that the latter deals only with symptoms, as it were, and does not go to the heart of the matter. The whole Confucian apparatus of cultivation of virtue and observance of the rites operates at the level of the surface ego. Confucianism does not include the concept of the Tao as ultimate reality, nor the possibility of direct acquaintance with it when the surface ego disintegrates after yogic training . Confucianism therefore embodies complete ignorance of the most significant truths about the universe.
Closely related to these points is the distinction between learning and wisdom:
True wisdom is different from much learning;
Much learning means little wisdom.(Chapter 81)
This is because learning is concerned with the everyday world and how it works:the more one becomes involved in fineness of conceptual discrimination and the more remote ,therefore ,one becomes from the divisionless way of the Tao . The Sage ,of course ,has wisdom and this is why, to repeat a point mentioned above ,he appears dull and speaks little. Anyone who is glib or fluent, the Taoist would say, can be assumed with certainty to be no Sage, but merely caught in the web of conceptual discriminations which conceals reality.
The political disorder of the time the Taoists saw as what happens when the desires of the surface ego are reinforced by access to political power:greed, envy,lust for glory and the wish for one ego to triumph over another generate war and all the evils that come with it. The path to peace and to the Taoist vision of utopia lies in simplifying society to the greatest possible extent:rid society of institutions and structures which promote greed ,envy and artificial desires (i.e. desires for goods or statuses which it would not have occurred to anyone to want had not some scheming politician invented them )and the people will more closely approach true contentment,i.e. not the state in which desires are satisfied ,but the state in which the desires to be satisfied have been diminished to the greatest possible degree. This is the belief behind such recommendations as these:
The more prohibitions there are, the more ritual avoidances,
The poorer the people will be .
The more cunning craftsmen there are ,
The more pernicious contrivances will be invented.
The more laws are promulgated,
The more thieves and bandits there will be.
(Chapter57 and 3)
The Sage rules ,
By emptying their hearts
And filling their bellies ,
Weakening their intelligence
And toughening their sinews,
N Ever striving to make the people
Knowledgeless and desireless.
(Chapter 3)
unenlightened rulers are those at the mercy of the desires of the ego . They are unquiet, unable to leave things alone,constantly valueless and artificial. Constant political activity is an index and result of departure from the Tao, and will surely end in disaster (Chapters 37,59,60 and 61). Left to themselves in a state of simpilicity,the people are easy to handle (Chapter 75). Best of all for them is to live in a Taoist utopia , a small and simple community without hierarchies or any of the artifices of so-called civilization. In such a community, the people would be truly content just to have enough to eat, to be simply clad and to be occupied with rustic work. They would have nothing to desire, and so would be at peace;and this is to be close to the Tao. War is the result of desire (Chapters 30 and 31):destroy the desire, and you banish war.
Such in outline is the Taoist philosophy of the Tao te ching , but before concluding this brief survey two important points remain to be made. The first is that the philosophical Taoism discussed here should not be confused with the Taoist religion which developed in the second century with the Taoist religion which developed in the second century AD. Chinese historians distinguish the two , the philosophical school being tao chia [dao jiao]. The religion of Taoism produced an enormous body of scripture and related texts , the Tao Tsang [Dao zang] or Taoist Canon numbering some 1,464 titles. A great deal of attention is devoted in this religion to the quest for immortality, and the search for an alchemical elixir was pursued with great vigour .
Secondly, it would be difficult to overstress the role Taoist philosophy has played in Chinese spiritual, artistic and intellectual life. In the description of the Tao given above, in order to furnish a clear line of exposition the emphasis was placed on the strictly philosophical properties of the Tao -its ineffability, divisionlessness and so on. Yet it would be quite misleading not to make clear that the Tao was at the same time conceived far less abstractly. Taoists do not make a radical distinction between the Tao and the order of Nature in general; or, put another way , would regard the Tao as in some sense present in all things. Thus for the Taoist, Nature is (as we would say) divine, and once Nature is regarded as divine it becomes at once an object of reverence and worthy of the most careful attention. This belief lies behind a good deal of Chinese aesthetics and also stimulated the scientific study of the natural order :see the works by Chang and Needham in the bibliography below, for detailed discussions of these consequences of Taoism.
Philosophical ideas do not last so long or affect so many aspects of life unless they are of considerable profundity. Works which we call profound have, among other properties , the ab ility to touch some deep and abiding chord in human nature, and further to stimulate creativity and insightful reflection apparently without end. The terse and often beautiful statements of the Tao te ching do both these things to this day. The view of the universe and of how we should respond to it summaries in this short book remains one of the major options open to us.
ROBETWILKINSON Senior Lecturer in Philosophy
The Open University in Scotland |
