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Taoism (Daoism): How can we define it?

The two big important schools of thought from early China ought to be Confucianism and Taoism. It seems like they ought to be talked about together, as if one were ying and the other were yang. Talking about Daoism is impossible for two reasons:

1) Taoism believes itself cannot be talked about
2) The term is anachronistic: no one called themselves a Taoist in the warring states period. In the Han dynasty the term began to be used as a textual classifier.

Taoism is best defined as the teachings of ?? and ??:

Laozi (??), wrote the Dao de jing.
Zhuangzi, wrote the inner seven chapters.

His name literally means something along the lines of “old sir” and is not an actual name. An unlikely Han dynasty story goes that Confucius went to Laozi for instruction in the old rituals, although the Dao de jing clearly has no taste for ritual. This is the only biographical information we have about Laozi. However, since Laozi lived in the 6th century and there is no mention of his book until late 4th century (320 - 300 BC), it is hard to know who he is or where he came from precisely.

Religious Daoism from late 1st to 2nd C. AD

The author seems to be anti-Confucian and shares only that with the Zhuangzi. Late in the Han, around 2nd century AD, there emerges a religious cult of Taoism, which is very different from the material in the Laozi/Zhuangzi. Forever after, there are many proliferating competing Taoist sects who read the Laozi, Zhuangzi, and many other “heavenly transmitted” texts of their own inventions.

Even though the term is masked in myth, we still want to know what is a good definition of what Taoism could have been. There are three important components:

• The Dao (The Way) as the underlying essence & process of the Cosmos
• Possibility of intuitive or mythical insight
• Spontaneity, naturalness

The metaphysical use of the term Tao does not exist before the Zhuangzi/Laozi. What they seem to have done is to unify all of the little paths of life into a subsuming path they called the Tao, the fundamental way of life. They also allow for a mystical intuition into the Tao, because regular language and logic will not suffice. Language and logic were invented as tools of the micro earthly realm, but do not pertain to the greater path. Thus, there is some way to gain mystical insight into the workings of the universe, and the Taoists seem to do this. A final characteristic is an emphasis on naturalness and spontaneity in opposition to the artificialness of human civilization, particularly as embodied in Confucianism. The contrived rituals of the Confucians drove the Taoists mad, who just wanted to live simply.

Zhuangzi compares human to fish, and civilization to what happens when you drain the water from a lake. He claims that fish will gather together and spit on each other to keep each other moist. Thus, in absence of the moisture needed to keep fish alive, all humans have accomplished is to spit on each other in a sad parody of the natural.

Oddly, a ruler walks by the kitchen and sees the master chef carving through beef like butter. Wow, he thinks, that’s masterful!! Tell me about your Tao with the knife. The cook says, when I first started, I had to replace my knife every few months, but over time, I learned if you let the knife find its own way through the soft sinews, it cuts easier. Now, after 19 years, I have applied my full mystic concentration to the beef chopping and haven’t had to replace my knife. The point is that you can learn about the way from the lowest possible corner of society, and that you can learn to follow the Tao without thinking.

However, this quality has to be trained over time, and is thus not spontaneous in the modern sense. To learn to be in tune with the Tao, you must expend much effort.

Michelle Kwan every four years we’ve been waiting for her to win her gold medal in Olympic skating. And, four years ago was her last chance, and we all tuned in to watch her win it. There was great competition with Russians and Americans, and a 15 year old kid Sarah Hues from central New York, who went into the first round of the championships with poor placement. However, she gave up, with no hope of winning, and performed from her heart to win the gold. When the reporters asked her, she said, “I had just given up my goals, and went out to have fun.” Laozi and Zhuangzi agreed. Everyone else was Confucian, and were concentrating hard on winning, got stiff and nervous, and eliminated themselves from the competition. Thus, by getting to a place of stillness, you can transcend the normal way.

There are themes in the Laozi that suggest one of the main reasons to learn the Tao is to then become a political leader of men and quietly lead the country to perfection and idealism. In the end, their goals are identical to the Confucians’, just by different means. There’s a strong strain in Confucianism that likes the idea of the effortless government, because the day will come when you transcend your ritual training, and the proper virtue will come effortless to you. However, the Taoists are amoral and believe in a set of natural processes. Human civilization is unnatural to Taoists, but to Confucians, civilization is simply the normal state of the world.

Confucians and music

For the Confucians, ritual and music were not divided; music was an integral part of traditional behavior. This notion that you can divide out music from ritual from poetry and all is artificial and a misunderstanding of their curriculum, which is a set of processes that will lead you to understand the way of the world through self-cultivation. Confucius says, “Don’t come to me about the spiritual realm when you haven’t mastered the human realm.” This makes Confucianism world-bound and not particularly concerned with afterlife.

The Taoists talk about losing themselves in everyday activities, the Confucians want to lose themselves in music, as an image of ideal society. The musicians are subjected to strenuous technical training until they can join a room of other musicians and come together harmoniously. This involves each one accepting their natural born roles to become the best at what they are born to be, their own particular role in society. Then, coming together harmoniously will create a result larger than the sum of its parts.

Zhuangzi above all others says, “leave me alone to play by my self with my flute.”

Solve the problem of casting perfect two-toned sets of 64 bells all a fifth apart and in tune with every other bell in the set. So, it must be trial and error, but not on a per-bell basis. Professor Robert Bagley suggests that several bells in older sets are in tune with each other, even though the bells have separate origins. Then you can create molds from the previous bells that happen to be in tune, stealing them from your enemies as you go. This was a phallic musical status symbol.

Through a state’s musical performances, and the spirit you feel from the music performed, you could judge the morality of the ruler and the desires of his subjects. This was a cornerstone of early Chinese. The Chinese recognized the power of music to affect mood, to mobilize men to war, to spur the national spirit, and to generally persuade.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006 at 6:12 pm and is tagged with daoism taoism, taoism daoism, religious daoism, warring states period, dao de jing, religious cult, early china, zhuangzi, han dynasty, naturalness, confucian, classifier, confucianism, 4th century, schools of thought, confucius, taoist, spontaneity, sects, biographical information. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback.

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