Early Daoist Research Articles

The Development and Varieties of “Oneness” in Early Daoism

Abstract Having both similarities with and differences from dao 道, yi 一 is an important concept which occupies an important position in early Daoist thought. As is the case with dao, “oneness” can also be traced back to the Laozi and subsequently went through a complex process of conceptual change. As a foundational concept, it serves as a description of dao while also referring to the innermost basis for the emergence and unity of everything that exists. As the foundation of the dao of political authority and effective governance, “oneness” refers to a basic principle and method which the ruler should grasp and put into practice 執一, but also designates an elementary goal and value in the ruler’s own process of self-cultivation 貴一. In comparison to the idea of dao, the concept of “oneness” approaches the relation between the one and the many as entailing a rich variety of relations of identity/difference and commonality/diversity which manifest themselves within the myriad things and affairs in the world in a more direct manner.

The negative words and religious turn of Laozi’s Dao theory

Besides concepts such as ‘being’ (有 [you]) and ‘non-being’ (无 [wu]), nature and the One to reveal the relationship between Dao and the phenomenal world from a positive perspective, Laozi used negative words, forming a speech system comprising ‘opposite words’ (反言 [fanyan]), ‘forcible words’ (强言 [qiangyan]) and ‘non-words’ (不言 [buyan]). Opposite words contradict common sense to indicate that Dao should be understood in an intuitive way. Forcible words, by analogy with natural experience, describe the perceptive factors upon seeing Dao, trying to restore the corresponding experience. Non-words declare the contradiction that Dao cannot be expressed by language and urge a leap beyond reason and speculation to encounter Dao. Early religious Daoist scholars understood the spiritual realm identified with Dao advocated by Laozi and combined the experience of seeing Dao with the belief in immortality (神仙 [shenxian]) and the alchemical arts (方术 [fangshu]) to enable the religious interpretation of Laozi’s Dao theory, thus constructing the theoretical correlation between the basic principles of religious Daoism and Laozi’s thought.Contribution: This article analyses Laozi’s negative words on Dao and the relationship thereof with the experience of seeing Dao, which is based on the interaction between an individual and Dao. Finally, it illustrates that the early Daoist classics studying Laozi understood the spiritual realm of Dao as underlined by negative words and combined the belief in immortality and the alchemical arts to transform Laozi’s thoughts to reveal the religious philosophy in Laozi’s Dao theory.

The Feminine Force in Early Daoist Thought

Abstract According to the Laozi one of the ways to cultivate and grasp Dao is through “remaining female” and “nourishing the mother.” The term mother is used in reference to the beginning of all existence—“the mother of all under heaven,” “the mother of all existences.” The mother is both an active force of generation and the concreteness of the generated beings. In this sense, the feminine attribute of motherhood is a living embodiment of Dao. In the world of myriad phenomena, the mother provides a location of interaction between “absence” and “presence,” between wu and you. In this paper, I suggest an analysis of the metaphor of mother and other “feminine roles” in early Daoist thought through a textual examination of the Laozi. Considering the intellectual background in Warring States period China in which the common understanding of the universe and all phenomena is revealed through the interactions of correlative and complementary forces, the esteem of one over the other—the feminine over the male, the mother over father—is outstanding and deserves serious investigation. The question is what can we learn from the feminine, what can femininity teach us about the world, its generation, and even political practice?

The evolution of Xuantong in early Daoist philosophy

ABSTRACT Xuantong 玄同 (tentatively translated as dark oneness) is a unique Daoist idea that represents an ideally mental and physical state as a result of cultivation. However, owing to limited context in the Laozi, there is no consensus on the interpretation of xuantong. Contemporary studies have also neglected xuantong’s evolution in early texts and assumed a homogeneous understanding, and hence, failed to provide a nuanced account. In this article, I investigate how xuantong evolves from the Guodian Laozi to the Huainanzi and Wenzi. I argue that although xuantong may originate from the Laozi, it is in the Wenzi that a coherent theory of xuantong is accomplished. This theory advocates an orderly process of cultivation that covers internal mental states, external acts, and integration with the whole universe. The cultivation would eventually lead people to adopt an undifferentiated perspective on, and reach oneness with, all things in the universe.

From Laozi to Lao-Zhuang and Huang-Lao Daoism: The Two Paths of Oneness in the Development of Early Daoist Thought

This paper proposes examining the central notion of Oneness (一 yi) in Daoist thought by offering an analysis of its uses in the early writings of the Daoist tradition, beginning with the Laozi 老子 and the Zhuangzi 莊子 before moving on to Huang-Lao 黃老 texts. While Oneness in the Laozi primarily appears as another “name” for Dao, it was used in discussions of cosmogony and cosmology, political governance, and personal cultivation. These multiple aspects of Oneness in the Laozi were later developed along two different paths in Daoist thought. The first, exhibited in the Zhuangzi, the Baopuzi 抱樸子, and other similar documents, treated Oneness as the ultimate source of all things and extended its meaning in the context of personal cultivation. In resonance with this path, their central teachings concerned “maintaining Oneness” (守一 shou yi). In the second path, expressed in the Huang-Lao tradition’s understanding and interpretation of the Laozi, Oneness acquired a certain concreteness and was singled out as the criterion and standard for social order, while the notion of Dao gradually devolved into abstraction. Huang-Lao writers hence emphasized Oneness in the sense of unification, uniformity, a singular decree, or law, which opened a theoretical gap between Oneness and Dao, and their central teachings concerned “utilizing Oneness” (用一 yong yi) and “holding Oneness” (執一 zhi yi).

On the Fiercely Debated Questions of a Chinese Metaphysics and a Tradition of Early Daoism: Western and Chinese Perspectives on the Daodejing and Huang-Lao Daoism

Two long-standing and fiercely debated issues remain central to contemporary studies on Chinese philosophy. The first concerns whether there was an early tradition of metaphysics, and the second concerns whether there was an early tradition of Daoism. This study engages with both issues simultaneously, since if there was a tradition of early Chinese metaphysics, then it is identifiable with Huang-Lao Daoism, and if Huang-Lao Daoism constituted an early Chinese tradition, then it is identifiable with the tradition of Chinese metaphysics. This study engages with these issues in two parts. The first part examines Western and Chinese perspectives concerning what is entailed by claims that there was or was not an early tradition of Chinese metaphysics and that there was or was not an early tradition identifiable as Huang-Lao Daoism. The second part is an analysis of contemporary Chinese scholarship that, deeply grounded in the growing collection of early Chinese excavated manuscripts, both affirms the dynamic existence of early Chinese metaphysics and the vibrant existence of an early tradition identifiable with Huang-Lao Daoism. Throughout, this study attempts to concurrently build on the work of contemporary Chinese scholars for reading certain early Chinese writings often held as Daoist, but instead of agreeing with them that Laozi’s Daodejing represents an early blossoming of metaphysics, it argues that his work is grounded in an originally non-metaphysical philosophy of the Dao that Huang-Lao Daoism transformed into a metaphysics, thereby originating the tradition of early Chinese metaphysics.

The Dao of One: A New Investigation into the Relation Between Dao and One

Abstract: Given they are the most important components of Daoist thought, it is not surprising that the relation between dao 道 and One ( yi 一) takes many forms. It is often presumed that dao is the higher-level concept and that One supplements dao . However, through studying ancient texts, such as the Huangdi sijing 黃帝四經 and the Heguanzi 鶡冠子, another form is discovered, namely that dao is the lower-level concept of One. Two schools may well have co-existed in early Daoism, one that "values the One" and one that "values the dao ." Whereas One refers to sameness or commonality, dao points to distinctness. The One can fully take the place of dao in terms of status and function, while also retaining functions that dao lacks. A fuller understanding of this complex relationship between dao and One is helpful for a more accurate grasp of early Daoism.

Philosophical Enactment and Bodily Cultivation in Early Daoism: In the Matrix of the Daodejing by Thomas Michael (review)

Philosophical Enactment and Bodily Cultivation in Early Daoism: In the Matrix of the Daodejing by Thomas Michael (review)

The Nature ( Ziran 自然) of Technological and Economic Development in Early Daoism

The Nature ( Ziran 自然) of Technological and Economic Development in Early Daoism

Boundary of the Sky

There are three good reasons why Daoism is a bad candidate for addressing contemporary environmental issues. First, the Laozi and Zhuangzi do not contain a concept of “nature” akin to ours today. Second, the philosophies of the Laozi and Zhuangzi are anything but revolutionary in spirit—and we need some revolutions. Finally, we need big changes from the top, and early Chinese thinkers did not conceive of political institutions in the way that we have them. Despite these reasons, or perhaps precisely because of them, early Daoist attitudes can provide insightful resources for reflecting on some of our most unreflected upon attitudes. In particular, the need for growth in nearly all areas of society is taken as a given, or even necessity, for our way of life. And while environmentalism and climate change are complex and tricky issues, growth has been identified by many as a common denominator when figuring out exactly what needs to change. This paper argues that if we shift our focus from seeking to find environmental concerns in the Laozi and Zhuangzi to philosophizing with these texts, then we can reflect on our environmental issues in interesting ways. To this end I will present “not contending” (不爭) “awareness of contentment” (知足), “not acting for” (無為) and “according to itself” (自然) as key Daoist attitudes which steer our thinking away from growth and along trajectories which can help human systems be better synchronized with non-human ones.

Nature Prescribes Laws to Humans: The Ziran of the Myriad Things in Early Daoism

This essay examines the nature of things in early Daoism via the lens of comparative philosophy. Daoism uses ziran 自然 (spontaneity) to express the nature of things. I explore the ziran or spontaneity of the myriad things through the analysis of de 德, sheng 生 (xing 性), and freedom (ziyou 自由). The sections on de 德 and sheng 生 reveal that the spontaneity of things is the ultimate reality, which contains the oneness of one and many, essence and appearance, change and changelessness. The section on freedom revolves around two essential questions in metaphysics: What are things? What is the relation between things and humans? Different from the motto of modern metaphysics, “humans prescribes laws to nature”, early Daoism believes that human existence belongs to the constant ziran. I call this “nature prescribes laws to humans”.

Celestial Masters: History and Ritual in Early Daoist Communities By Terry F. Kleeman. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, 2021. xiii, 425 pp. ISBN: 9780674737167 (cloth).

Celestial Masters: History and Ritual in Early Daoist Communities By Terry F. Kleeman. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, 2021. xiii, 425 pp. ISBN: 9780674737167 (cloth). - Volume 81 Issue 4

The Tripods in Daoist Alchemy: Uncovering a Material Source of Immortality

The tripod (ding 鼎) and the nine tripods (jiuding 九鼎) are significant in ancient China, appearing often in Daoist alchemy. However, they have been largely ignored by the scholarship on Daoism. Early Daoist alchemy saw the tripod and the nine tripods as critical elements in the production of immortality, but the outer alchemy (waidan 外丹) gave up refining the outer elixir by tripod due to technical reasons. The tripod was merely mentioned in the elaboration of outer alchemy. Later, in the Southern Song dynasty, inner alchemy (neidan 內丹) rebuilt the significance of the tripod and the nine tripods in inner refining, inventing new theories, such as the body-tripod metaphor, the nine orbits, and the lunar phases. This paper outlines the history of the (nine) tripods as a concept and implement in Daoist alchemy.

Korean Aesthetic Ideals: “Jayeon”

Abstract Korean art and music have a long history, but aesthetic research on them has only been around for a little over a hundred years. Critiques and discourses on traditional arts such as poetry, calligraphy, and painting can be traced back to the Joseon or even Goryeo dynasties, but the modern discussion on the common features of Korean aesthetics was conducted much later than that in Western Europe, where the field of aesthetics was established in the mid to late eighteenth century. Early aestheticists who tried to explain aesthetic consciousness in Korean culture and art converged on the concept of Jayeon, which can be translated provisionally as “nature,” seemingly diverging from western aesthetics’ focus on the concept of “beauty.” Jayeon shares the same Chinese characters as ziran (自然), an early Daoist concept, but jayeon in a Korean aesthetic context does not appear to be limited to the connotation of its Chinese origin. This article unpacks the different ways in which jayeon captures the key characteristics of Korean art and aesthetics.

호남 도교의 진인대망론(眞人待望論)과 강증산의 탄강(誕降)

This paper examines whether the dynamic and practical nature of Daoism has a significant relationship with the messianic figure Kang Jeungsan (姜甑山) via Honam (湖南) Daoism’s Jinindaemangron (眞人待望論, discourse on awaiting an immortal). To this end, the historical implementation of Daoism’s social transformation of consciousness in China and Korea is explored, and then the circumstances of Honam Daoism, in particular, are considered. Following that, analysis turns to the ‘Jinindaemangron’ in the late Joseon Dynasty that developed in Honam. As a result of the discussion, Daoism’s social transformation of consciousness was expressed in China through the anti-establishment activities of the early Daoist groups such as Wudoumidao (五斗米道) and Taipingdao (太平道), movements that sought to build utopias. Throughout this process, the term, zhenren (眞人, ‘jinin’ in Korean), that originally meant ‘master,’ was transformed into the idea of a future savior. In the case of Korea, the dynamic and practical nature of Daoism can be found in the preface of Nanrang tombstone (鸞郎碑序) written by Choi Chi-won (崔致遠) which was later inherited by the Danhak sect (丹學派) practitioners who struggled against Buddhist monastics. Additionally, examined is the Docham theory of geomancy (圖讖說) that rose after Goryeo, the prophecy of ‘Mokjadeuksul (木子得國說 a Lee clansman shall attain the kingdom)’ that appeared thereafter, and the Prophecies of Jeong Gam (鄭鑑錄)’s ‘Jinindaemangron’ in the Joseon Dynasty. Next, the circumstances of Honam Daoism can be considered with regards ti Choi Chi-won and Doseon (道詵) in ancient times, and it can be confirmed that Nam Gung-du (南宮斗) and Kwon Geuk-jung (權克中) were entangled behind Kang Jeungsan. The close relationship among the Daoist Jeong family of Onyang (溫陽鄭氏), the Koh family of Jangheung (長興 高氏), and Kwon Geuk-jung was also confirmed in this study. Finally, in dealing with the ‘Jinindaemangron’ of Honam in the late Joseon Dynasty and the birth of Kang Jeungsan, Honam Daoism’s intense consciousness of social transformation receives first focus, and this is expressed through Prophecies of Jeong Gam, and the religious ideologies of Donghak (東學) and Namhak (南學). These expressions are analyzed through Song of Gungeul (弓乙歌), composed by Jeongryeom (鄭磏), and through Daesoon Jinrihoe’s The Canonical Scripture (典經). As a result, it can be confirmed that the messianic significance of the Kang Jeungsan’s advent lay on the basis of the people’s desire for an ideal future, which is a notion that had been ripening for several centuries.

THE PERFORMANCE OF SILENCE IN EARLY CHINA: THE YANZI CHUNQIU AND BEYOND

AbstractThis article looks beyond the dichotomy between silence (mo 默) and speech (yan 言) and discusses the functions of and attitudes toward silence in the Yanzi chunqiu 晏子春秋 as a case representing the variety of ideas of silence in early China. In the West, silence has been widely explored in fields such as religion and theology, linguistic studies, and communication and literary studies. The consensus has moved away from viewing silence as abstaining from speech and utterance—and therefore absence of meaning and intention, toward seeing it as a culturally dependent and significant aspect of communication. However, beyond a number of studies discussing unspoken teachings in relation to early Daoism, silence has received little attention in early China studies. This article approaches the functions of silence by pursuing questions regarding its rhetorical, emotive, political, and ethical aspects. Instead of searching for the nature of silence and asking what silence is, this article poses alternative questions: How do ancient Chinese thinkers understand the act of silence? What are the attitudes toward silence in early China? How does silence foster morality? How does silence function as performative remonstrance? How is it used for political persuasion? How does silence draw the attention of and communicate with readers and audiences? How does silence allow time for contemplation, reflection, and agreement among participants? How is silence related to various intense emotional states? These questions lead us to reflect on previous scholarship which regarded silence in early China as the most spontaneous and natural way to grasp the highest truth, which is unpresentable and inexpressible through articulated speech and artificial language. In this sense, the notion of the unspoken teaching is not only understood in opposition to speech, but also as a means to reveal the deficiency of language and the limits of speech. However, through a survey of dialogues, stories, and arguments in Yanzi chunqiu, I show that silence is explicitly marked and explained within the text, and is used actively, purposefully, and meaningfully, to persuade, inform, and motivate audiences. In other words, silence is anything but natural and spontaneous. Rather, it is intentionally adopted, carefully crafted, and publicly performed to communicate, remonstrate, criticize, reveal, and target certain ideas. That is to say, silence is as argumentative as speech and as arbitrary as language. Finally, an awareness of and sensitivity to silence provides a new perspective to engage with other early Chinese texts.

An Onto-Hermeneutic Approach to Early Medieval Daoist Philosophy

Abstract This paper addresses the Buddhist terms and concepts in early medieval Daoist texts in the light of hermeneutic and onto-hermeneutic theory with an example from the Benji Jing. It argues that onto-hermeneutic strategies of interpretation allow us to understand Daoist texts with Buddhist terms and concepts as an expression of complex and creative philosophical thoughts without losing track of the essence of Daoism and thus as Daoist philosophy in its own right.

Traces of Darkness in Early Daoism: The Evolution of Vision Metaphors in the Laozi

Traces of Darkness in Early Daoism: The Evolution of Vision Metaphors in the Laozi

Translation as Citation: Zhuangzi Inside Out by Haun Saussy

Reviewed by: Translation as Citation: Zhuangzi Inside Out by Haun Saussy Junjie Luo Haun Saussy. Translation as Citation: Zhuangzi Inside Out. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2017. 150 pp. Haun Saussy's Translation as Citation: Zhuangzi Inside Out is a major contribution to translation studies and comparative literature. Saussy uses Zhuangzi, a collection of early Daoist writings, to show how Chinese culture, or more broadly, any culture, communicates with other cultures. The thesis of the book is that the fragmentary, piecemeal quotations from the Zhuangzi text, which occupy the outside position inside the Chinese cultural tradition, help facilitate the introduction of foreign texts and ideas. The book is divided into an introduction and five chapters. In the introduction, Saussy explains that this book examines "non-translation" (2), meaning translations that intentionally speak to certain currents of the target culture—which Saussy terms "citation" (3)—and introduce new expressions to the target language. The introduction then outlines the structure of the book. The chapters focus on the case studies of Chinese-language translations that refer to Zhuangzi to facilitate the entry of the source text into Chinese. These examples reveal that the "transliteration-and-citation" (5) model can offer new insight to translation studies. In addition, the process of "citation and rewriting" (6) plays a significant role in the formation of the Chinese text of Zhuangzi. The first chapter, entitled "Norns and Norms," begins with a discussion of the female divinity Norn. In Stefan George's poem, the being of foreign objects is contingent upon Norn's naming of the objects in her native language. Saussy disapproves of this act of "[n]ativizing translation" (13), but points out that his book goes beyond the concepts of binary opposites essential to translation theories and examines "language hybridity" (15). He proposes that hybridity takes place "in a territory askance of translation" (15; italics in original). By askance of translation, the author means that transliteration is a common form of exchanges between cultures and through digital media. Translation can be understood as part of this "transliteration relation" (22). The title of the second chapter, "Death and Translation," is closely related to the epigraph that Saussy quotes from Jacques Derrida—"Traduire, c'est perdre le corps (To translate is to lose the body)" (23). The chapter aptly begins with an example of Xu Zhimo's Chinese translation of Charles Baudelaire's "Une Charogne (a decaying carcass)." Saussy pays close attention to a quote from Zhuangzi regarding music in Xu's preface to his translation. He argues that this Zhuangzi reference is used to "digest" Baudelaire's poem, selectively assimilating and discarding the poem at the same time (39-40). This process of digestion gives a literary work different bodies in different languages and cultures, which is what is gained through translation (44). The third chapter, "Matteo Ricci the Daoist," begins with a question: "Who was Ricci…in a Chinese context?" (46). In analyzing Li Zhi's poem, Saussy argues that a reference to Zhuangzi in the description of Ricci presents him as a Daoist to the readers. Saussy further suggests that the word jiren [End Page 774] (strange man) in the title of Ricci's famous work Jiren shipian (Ten Chapters of a Strange Man) can be understood as a gesture indicating the "new and strange" of his identity and of the knowledge that he brings (54). The word also suggests his participation in the late-Ming intellectual currents that deviated from the mainstream Confucian tradition. In addition, Zhou Bingmo's preface to Jiren shipian places Ricci in the context of the "late-Ming counter-culture" (57). Allusions to Zhuangzi allow for the nativization of Ricci, but still indicate his foreignness (60). "The 'First Age' of Translation," the fourth chapter, deals primarily with the early translation and transmission of Buddhist writings. The first part of the chapter demonstrates that the term geyi, which can be roughly translated as "a method of borrowing concepts from existing Chinese philosophical discourse to explain Buddhist ideas," serves as an example of "translation-as-citation" (76-77). Saussy acknowledges the different assessments of the significance of geyi in the transmission of Buddhism in China and shows that it indeed played a role...

Meritocracy, Heredity and Worthies in Early Daoism

Abstract This study explores the principles of meritocracy and heredity as formulated in the three works of early Daoist philosophy, the Laozi, Zhuangzi and Wenzi. Because Daoist philosophy emerged in critical response to the Confucian worldview, this investigation is placed against the backdrop of pertinent Confucian propositions. To this end, the study begins with a review of Confucian positions on the issue of meritocracy and heredity as expressed in the main transmitted works, as well as newly excavated texts that can be associated with this intellectual tradition. The paper concludes that, while indeed rejecting the Confucian understanding of meritocracy, Daoist texts operated with their own concepts on human excellency. Moreover, the opposition between meritocracy and heredity characteristic of some Confucian works appears less pronounced in early Daoist philosophy.