Professor Fang Guanghua(Northwest University, 710069 Xi’an, Shaanxi)

Lao Tzu the Man and The Book of Tao Teh Chin

Lao Tzu, born in the Ku County, the State of Chu (now Luyi County of Henan Province), served once as head of the imperial library of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770 BC—256BC). It is said that Lao Tzu read widely and had a striking memory and that Confucius, his contemporary, once asked him for advice on the rites of the Zhou Dynasty as well as on the spiritual essence of the ancient Chinese civilization. Upon departing, Lao Tzu remarked to Confucius that the people belonging to that perfect era had long been dead with their bones decayed and with only their remarks passed down. Born and living at correct time, righteous men can practice what they preach; while at wrong time, they can merely fly over in the wind like rootless grass. Clever businessmen would rather hide their valuables and act as if they had nothing. Righteous men seem stupid from the appearance but highly accomplished and self-possessed in reality. Throw off your impulsive whim, off your excessive desires, off your blind confidence, and off your empty fantasies, for all of these will do nothing but harm to you. The above talk actually shows the great disparities between the two sages. In the first place, they hold differing perspectives on the value of history and culture. Confucius is fascinated by historical traditions while Lao Tzu does not regard them as the sole meaning of life. In the second place, they develop disparate views on the social functions of Man. While Confucius is rather positive and optimistic about Man’s roles, Lao Tzu is convicted that whether Man’s roles could be brought into full play depends on the conditions and opportunities of a given period and that under harsh circumstances, Man should not go to extremes. Later, Lao Tzu saw the Eastern Zhou Dynasty decline and left for Hangu Pass, at which he stayed at the request of the local authority to compose The Book of Tao Teh Chin. Unfortunately, no historical evidence shows the whereabouts of Lao Tzu after the completion of the master piece. It’s around the Western Han Dynasty that there were discussions about who authentically was Lao Tzu. In Recordings of History, Sima Qian accounted not only this reliable Lao Tzu but also two other Lao Tzus: Lao Laizi and Zhan, an imperial historian of the State of Qin, who were probably two of the advocates of Taoism.

The prevalent edition of the 5, 000-word The Book of Tao Teh Chin before 1973 was mainly edited and compiled by Wang Bi (of the State of Wei), which comprises 81 chapters in total with in 38 chapters and The Book of Teh in 43 chapters respectively to form the Taoist system of Lao Tzu. In December 1973, large quantities of books on silk slips were unearthed in No.3 tomb at Mawangdui and two silk texts of The Book of Tao Teh Chin were among them, respectively called The Book of Tao Teh Chin (A) and The Book of Tao Teh Chin (B). Different from Wang Bi’s edition, the two texts are arranged with 43-chapter The Book of Teh put before 38-chapter The Book of Tao. It can therefore be inferred that Wang Bi, in the process of edition, took into account of his philosophical preference and addressed first the more profound and abstruse. In October 1993, the bamboo slips of The Book of Tao Teh Chin were extracted in Tomb No.1 of the Guodian tombs in Jingmen, Hubei Province, which are divided by scholars into three parts or three bundles and regarded as earlier texts than the silk ones. At “The First International Symposium on Guodian Lao Tzu” held at Dartmouth College in May 1998 it was generally considered that the composition of Guodian Chu Slips was “probably no later than 300 BC and about 100 years earlier than the oldest codex transcribed in the latter half of the Warring States or in early Han Dynasty and uncovered at Mawangdui.”  Since it usually took a long period of time for a piece of work to get well known and become funeral objects, it can be concluded that the author of The Book of Tao Teh Chin could not live later than the Warring States but in the late period of Spring and Autumn as one of Confucius’ contemporaries.

The Cultural Reflective Features of Lao Tzu’s Philosophy

An initial reading of The Book of Tao Teh Chin may strike a strong feeling of Lao Tzu’s sharp criticism of the then social phenomena which were taken for granted by the people. He says, for example, “The advocating of benevolence and rectitude / Stem from the disuse of the great Tao. / The great hypocrisy / Follows the emergence of cleverness and wisdom. / Filiality and benevolence come / Along with the family feud. / The loyal subjects show themselves / When the state is in great disorder”  (Chapter 18, The Book of Tao Teh Chin); “Discard cleverness and wisdom / And the people will benefit themselves a hundredfold” (Chapter 19); “The more prohibitions there are in the world, / The poorer the people are; / The more weapons the people own, / The more chaotic the state is; / The more skills the people have, / The more strange things occur; / The more laws and orders are issued, / The more thieves and robbers there are” (Chapter 57); “The people are unruly / Because they are too clever” (Chapter 65), to name but a few. In a word, the critical consciousness and spirit of Lao Tzu prevail in the classic at issue.

Lao Tzu believes that there were profound social contradictions at his time. According to him, the ancient “sages” actually did not exploit their people even though they were endowed with ruling power by the contracts between them and their subjects. It was until later that the rulers started to take advantage of the covenants to their own benefit. The society was easy to govern in that people worked for life necessities only even though at less advanced level and in smaller quantities and used them with considerable care so as to avoid unnecessary damaging or wasting. This helped the society run and function. Nevertheless, the development of society witnessed increasingly complex social structures, detailed rules and regulations, sophisticated people, improved skills to enhance labor productivity, as well as varied products more than necessary. Logically speaking, people in this situation should have lived more harmoniously with more wealth and freedom. Nonetheless, the augmented wealth was owned not by the whole society but by the privileged few and the majority of the producers financially went from bad to worse. With the real generators of social wealth turned into the ruled and exploited laborers, “the Abandoned” (Chapter 27) appeared. When social wealth converged in the hands of the advantaged few, they merely indulge themselves in pleasure and “longevity” (Chapter 50) seeking. In Chapter 53, Lao Tzu explicitly points out the social conflicts, “While the court is corrupt, / The fields lie waste; / The granaries are empty; / There are persons who are still dressed gaudily, / Wearing ornamented swords, / Satiated with fine food and drink, / In possession of extravagant goods.” Accordingly, Lao Tzu perceives that such society is a hotbed for “the great enmity” and that the enmity is so great that it is nearly impossible to be dissipated. “When the great enmity is allayed, / There must be some remaining hostility./ … / How can that be considered perfect” (Chapter 79)? “The great enmity”, though able to be alleviated, can never be entirely removed and some “remaining hostility” persists and lingers. There is no way leading to perfection.

Lao Tzu, however, goes beyond criticizing the social alienation and reflects upon the rationale for the alienating phenomenon. From his point of view, the aggravation of social contradictions originates from the overconfidence of Man in both his sensibility and his rationality, which are equally scrutinized by Lao Tzu and consequently considered unqualified to be the basis for life and political principles. For instance, Man’s avarice for wealth and power knows no bound and what he obtains from the pursuit is merely numb senses and disturbed mind. Lao Tzu remarks, “The five colors make Man blind; / The five sounds make Man deaf; / The five tastes make Man lose his sense of taste; / Riding and hunting make Man wild with excitement; / Rare goods goad Man into stealing” (Chapter 12). And the so-called ethics and morals, in the eyes of Lao Tzu, cannot build up harmonious social relations either. Various kinds of benevolence in daily life except that among family members, which accords with human nature to some extent, are rather hypocritical and highly likely to complicate and confuse social relations. As regards wisdom, Man’s cognitive ability, it is stated, “The great hypocrisy / Follows the emergence of cleverness and wisdom” (Chapter 18). Man is inclined to magnify his cognitive ability whereby he produces objects and establishes rules, but history shows that the objects and rules in return make Man lose his fundamental nature. Lao Tzu accordingly suggested that it would be unwise to view human beings too great.

With regard to restoring a turbulent society to peace and harmony, Lao Tzu’s approach is to contemplate the existing political and ethical creeds. He states,

A man of the great virtue (Teh) does not claim to be of virtue,

Thus he is of the true virtue.

A man of the small virtue always holds fast to the virtue in form.

Thus he is actually of no virtue.

A man of the great virtue remains inactive,

Without deliberately Manifesting his virtue;

A man of the small benevolence keeps being active,

Always deliberately Manifesting his virtue.

A man of the great benevolence acts but never deliberately shows his benevolence;

A man of great justice acts and also deliberately shows his justice.

A man of rigid rites acts and even rolls up his sleeves to force people to conform to rites when no one responds to him.

Therefore

Virtue comes after the loss of Tao;

Benevolence comes after the loss of virtue;

Justice comes after the loss of benevolence;

Rites come after the loss of justice.

Thus rites result from the lack of loyalty and good faith,

And function as the beginning of the great disorder. (Chapter 38)

That is to say, a man of the great virtue not only understands the essence of virtue but also knows how to remain passive wisely, whereas a man of the small virtue can neither comprehend the meaning of virtue nor possess virtue in a true sense and therefore, his perceptions and actions are significantly restricted. In the light of current ethical and moral principles, if benevolence is somewhat connected to virtue and to be perfectly benevolent and virtuous can achieve wise inaction (“A man of the great benevolence acts but never deliberately shows his benevolence”), the benevolence and rites immensely distant from virtue can never be equated with the latter. In reality, the existing politics, ethics and morals have resulted in universal hypocrisy and chaos.

Lao Tzu holds the belief that we should assume a new way of living, which in his description is discordant with the prevailing perceptions. For instance, it’s widely revered to keep being strong whereas Lao Tzu advocates of being weak instead. “The perfect goodness is like water. / Water approaches all things instead of contending with them. / It prefers to dwell where no one would like to stay” (Chapter 8). “Nothing in the world is more supple than water, / Yet nothing is more powerful than water in attacking the hard and strong” (Chapter 78). “The most supple in the world / Can go through the hardest in the world. / What consists of no substance can enter what has no crevices. / I thus know the benefit of inaction” (Chapter 43). Three most valuable principles held and treasured by Lao Tzu are mercy, thrift, and unwillingness to take the lead in the world (Chapter 67), which are substantially different from the generally accepted views at his time. He also noticed, “Bent down and you are preserved; / Bend and you can be straight; / Hollow, then new; / Worn, then full; / Seek a little and you get a lot; / Seek a lot and you get perplexed” (Chapter 22).

Moreover, Lao Tzu insists that a new political principle should be introduced and practiced. His ideal politics is to govern the people by Tao and the quintessence of this approach is inaction. He prefers “ruling a large state” in the way of “frying a small fish” (Chapter 60) to complex and tedious politics. He is also in favor of moderating people’s desires. “Keep the people from the disturbed state of mind by concealing what is desirable. / That is why in governing the people / The sage simplifies their minds, fills up their stomachs, weakens their wills, and strengthens their bones. / By keeping the people from knowledge and desires, / He disables wise men from taking any ill action” (Chapter 3). Lao Tzu’s advocacy of less taxes and levies is explicitly expressed in the following lines: “The hunger on the part of the people / Is the result of exorbitant taxes on the part of the ruler; / Thus the people are hungry. / The unruliness on the part of the people / Is the result of meddlesome actions on the part of the ruler; / Thus the people are unruly. / Making light of life on the part of the people / Is the result of setting too much store by life on the part of the ruler; / Thus the people make light of life” (Chapter 75). The essence of governing the people by Tao is actually in sharp contrast with the existing political principles. For example, while ethics were generally emphasized, Lao Tzu held fast to reason and logic. “When the governor is magnanimous, / The people will become simple; / When the governor is harsh, / The people will become cunning” (Chapter 58). While public education is universally worshiped, Lao Tzu emphasizes the importance of personal enlightenment. “If I prefer inaction, / The people will naturally crave for peace; / If I act a little, / The people will be naturally rectified; / If I am not meddlesome, / The people will naturally become riche; / If I get rid of desires, / The people will naturally become simple” (Chapter 57). While communities are valued, Lao Tzu stresses the significance of individuals. “Which is dearer, / Your name or your body? / Which is more important, your body or your goods? / Which is more harmful, gain or loss” (Chapter 44)? Accordingly, in an ideal society depicted in The Book of Tao Teh Chin, the people neither have highly developed material civilization nor enjoy the fruits of science and technology supposing there are some. They live a content life through cultivating and regulating himself both physically and psychologically.

The Cultural Reflective Philosophy of Lao Tzu

The greatness of Lao Tzu lies not only in his original thinking but also in his unprecedented philosophy. The starting point from which Lao Tzu develops his philosophy is the priority of Tao over Man as well as the inevitable bond connecting every individual to Tao. In the words of Lao Tzu, “Man takes Earth as his model; / Earth takes Heaven as its model; / Heaven takes Tao as its model; / Tao takes what is natural as its model” (Chapter 25). Tao is therefore laws and rules whereby the universe operates and functions. In accordance with Lao Tzu, Man should place themselves in the system of natural laws and apprehend the principles of living from the angle of unifying and harmonizing the natural laws and the human society.

Prior to Lao Tzu, there had been studies on the changes and movements in nature. However, Lao Tzu distinguishes himself from his predecessors in following respects:

Lao Tzu describes the natural changes and movements in more succinct language. As he remarks, “Tao begets the One; / The One consists of Two in opposition (the Yin and Yang); / The Two begets the Three; / The Three begets all things of the world. / All things connote the Yin and Yang. / The Yin and Yang keep acting upon each other / And thus things keep changing and unifying themselves” (Chapter 42). All things in the nature keep changing due to the continuous interaction between the Yin and Yang. Contradictions are universal. A lot of contradictory concepts in pairs thus frequently appear in The Book of Tao Teh Chin: beautiful and ugly, difficult and easy, long and short, high and low, front and back, to name but a few.

Lao Tzu believes that there are laws underlying all things of the universe. The cycling of the nature seems disordered, but Tao makes it harmonious and marvelous. Tao indeed exists usually without being easily perceived. “Tao as a thing / Is vague and indefinite. / Vague and indefinite, / It presents images; / Indefinite and vague, / It embodies substance. / Distant and dark, / It embraces semen-like essence. / The essence is a genuine existence / That can be tested as true” (Chapter 21).

Lao Tzu holds that the determining role in the nature is played by the supple and weak rather than the hard and strong. He takes grass and trees for instance to elaborate on his idea. When spring comes, the sprouting grass and trees swing in the breeze and how tender and feeble they look, but they, full of life, are at their best time to grow and flourish. When autumn approaches, the grown grass and tress stand in the wind strongly and proudly, not knowing their life is running out (Chapter 76). In addition, Lao Tzu observes that the two opposite sides in a contradiction develop and finally transform into their opposites, which is illustrated through instances of cart producing, vessel making, and house building. To make a vessel requires selecting clay and controlling heating, but it’s not the clay but the space within the vessel that makes a vessel as a vessel (Chapter 11). From the point of view of Lao Tzu, Man usually misunderstands the law of nature simply because he fails to see that the weak and negative aspects are actually more powerful than the strong and positive ones. Lao Tzu defines the strong and positive as “Existence” whereas the weak and negative “Nothingness”. “Cycling is the movement of Tao; / Being weak is the function of Tao. / All things of the world are born from Existence (Being), / And Being from Nothingness” (Chapter 40). In other words, Tao enables the weak and negative to generate life and contain infinite possibilities.

In conclusion, two most important revelations provided by the philosophy of Lao Tzu on the secrets of life can be summarized as follows. Firstly, Man ought to realize his limitations and act according to the law of nature. Secondly, Man should apprehend the importance of perceiving things from an opposite angle and acquire the ability of reverse thinking, for “cycling is the movement of Tao”. These ideas developed by Lao Tzu have refreshed and reenergized Chinese culture considerably and thus exerted significant impacts on its development.