Daoism

The main early Daoist text is the Daode jing (Scripture of the way and its virtue), a short work consisting of aphorisms attributed to Laozi (the Old Master, or Old Child). Although some scholars have suggested that other sources might be slightly earlier, virtually all movements and lineages within Daoism consider this as the founding scripture of the entire tradition, even though they may venerate their own texts and their own founders. Another early work, the Zhuangzi (Book of Master Zhuang), has provided Daoism with doctrines, notions, and technical vocabulary throughout its history.

The present general consensus among scholars is that the Daode jing was not written by a single author, and that Laozi is the appellation of the symbolic Daoist sage whose doctrines are reflected there. The text appears to have existed in a form close to the present one between 350 and 300 B.C.E., but many of its statements likely derive from oral traditions whose dates are impossible to determine. The Zhuangzi, which is deemed to be one of the masterpieces of Chinese literature, is different from the Daode jing from the point of view of its formal features and consists mainly of stories, anecdotes, and reflections. Zhuangzi himself probably authored the seven so-called Inner Chapters in the late fourth century B.C.E., with the other portions dating from one or two centuries later. Despite differences in emphasis, the two texts present the same view of the Dao and its relation to the world, outlined below on the basis of the Daode jing (references in parentheses are to the number of sections in this text).

The Dao.

The word dao has two main meanings, "way" and "method." These two meanings refer, respectively, to the way in which something is or the way it functions, and to the way of doing something (including the extended meaning of "practice" in a religious sense). The early Daoist texts are the first ones to use this word to mean the Absolute (Robinet, p. 26). For the Daode jing, the Dao has no name and is beyond any description or definition; the word dao itself is used only because one "is forced" to refer to it (25). The Dao is unknowable, has no form, and therefore does not undergo change (41), is "constant" (1), and is "invisible, inaudible, and imperceptible" (14). The two principles of Non-being (wu) and Being (you) are contained within it. Yet the Dao, in spite of its being "indistinct and vague" (huanghu), contains an "essence" (jing) that is the seed of the world of multiplicity (21). Under this second aspect—which can be distinguished from the previous one only within the domain of relativity—the Dao is the "origin" of the world and its "mother" (1).

The faculty that the Dao has to give life to the particular objects is its de, or "virtue," and is described as "a mystery within a mystery" (1). The Daode jing outlines this process, which happens spontaneously and has no cause or purpose, in a famous statement: "The Dao generates the One, the One generates the Two, the Two generate the Three, the Three generate the ten thousand things" (42). According to this formulation, which like all similar outlines found in Daoist texts is meaningful only from a relative point of view, the Dao first generates the One (yi), the principle of the unity of existence in which the individual entities defined by forms and names are included, but have not yet emerged. The One differentiates itself into the two polar and complementary principles, Yin and Yang. The Three is the product of the joining of Yin and Yang; it represents the One reestablished at the level of each individual entity. The "ten thousand things" (wanwu) are the sum of entities generated by the joining of Yin and Yang. The sentence of the Daode jing quoted above therefore formulates both a metaphysics, by arranging the single items in a hierarchical sequence designed to show their ultimate origin in the Dao, and a cosmogony, which does not take place once and for all in illo tempore but is continuously reiterated within each of the cosmic cycles that the Dao brings into existence.

Both the Dao and the manifested world model themselves on ziran (25), a term that literally means "to be so of its own." In reference to the Dao, the principle of ziran means that the Dao only regulates itself upon itself; in reference to the world generated by the Dao, ziran means that there is no ultimate reason for things being as they are: the Dao generates the "ten thousand things," but while for the relative the Absolute is its "mother," for the Absolute the relative does not even exist. Aside from generating the world, therefore, the Dao does nothing else: it does not act in it, it is not affected by the transformation, decay, and disappearance of the forms it generates, and it neither rejoices in nor is hurt by what is, in a relative sense, good or bad.

The saintly person.

Just as the Dao does nothing, so is "non-doing" or "non-action" (wuwei) the way to attain to it. Non-action is the practice of ziran in the human world: one fully responds to circumstances and events, doing no more and no less than what is required, without taking the initiative unless there is an immediate need to do so, and without being moved by personal desire, interest, or advantage (3, 19, 34, 37, 57). In particular, there is no need of striving to perform what is "good," and even less so of attempting to impose it on others, for "when everyone knows the good as good, evil is already there" (2).

The person who has "returned to the Dao" (28, 40, 52) is called in the Daode jing the shengren, a term that in a Daoist context may be translated as "saint" to distinguish him from the Confucian "sage." As the highest realized human being who has achieved liberation in life, the Daoist saint has transcended the limitations of individuality and form; he continues to remain in the world of multiplicity until he has completely fulfilled his function in it, but from an absolute point of view, which is the one in which he constantly dwells, his self-identity is already null, for he is identified with absolute principle. Death for him, therefore, is not even a change of state, for he has attained the state in which no change can occur. In the human world, he "practices the teaching without words" and "makes it possible for the ten thousand things to function, but does not start them" (2). He does not take an active leading role in society but benefits his fellow human beings by his mere presence. This is so even when the saint is the ruler, a figure to whom the Daode jing devotes much attention. In that position, the saint governs according to the principle of non-action, and that is how he ensures the well-being of his country and his subjects. In the ideal description given by the Daode jing, no one even needs to know who the ruler is. "Therefore the saint in his government empties their heart [i.e., their mind], fills their belly, weakens their will, and strengthens their bones. He always wants people to be without knowledge and without desires." He does so because "not exalting the worthy prevents people from competing, not valuing goods hard to obtain prevents people from becoming thieves, and not seeing desirable things prevents the people's heart from becoming confused" (3).