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Laozi (Lao Tzu) LAOZI (LAO TZU) Bibliography Cua, A. S. Ethical Argumentation: A Study in Hsu¨n Tzu’s Moral Epistemology.Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, Austin, J. L. How to Do Things with Words.Oxford: Oxford 1985. University Press, 1962. Graham, Angus. Later Mohist Logic, Ethics, and Science. Hong Cheng, Chung-ying. “Aspects of Chinese Logic.” International Kong and London: Chinese University Press, 1978. Philosophical Quarterly, 15, 1971, pp. 213–235. Hansen, Chad. Language and Logic in Ancient China. Ann MMM.“AGenerative Unity: Chinese Language and Chinese Arbor: University of Michigan Press. 1983. Philosophy.” Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies,New Wang, Dianji. Zhongguo louji sixiang fengxi (Analysis of Series, 10(1), 1973, pp. 90–105. Chinese Logical Thought). Beijing, 1961. MMM. “Philosophical Significance of Gongsun Long: A New Interpretation of Zhi as Meaning and Reference.” Journal of Chinese Philosophy, 24(2), 1997, pp. 139–177. Laozi (Lao Tzu) Vincent SHEN Laozi (Lao Tzu, c. sixth century B.C.E.) seems to be the This story might have been told by the school of Guan Chinese philosopher best-known to the western world, Yin, which interpreted Laozi. In any case, Sima Qian through his short treatise the Laozi or Daodejing, con- writes quite hesitantly and mentions other related fig- sisting of some 5,000 Chinese characters. Beginning ures, such as “Lao Lai Zi” and “Taishi Dan,” without with its Sanskrit translation in 661 C.E., it has been seeming very sure of their identity. the most frequently translated Chinese book; indeed, Yet even in the absence of any complete historical it may be the second most frequently translated of all reconstruction of the author and his life (or the authors books, after the Bible. In a very limited space, and in and their lives), the texts attributed to Laozi show the very profound and appealing words, similar to but reader their own philosophical meaning. Therefore, for more systematic than the pre-Socratic fragments, the the purposes of philosophy, it is more important to Laozi or Daodejing offers the best summing-up of a consider “Laozi” as referring to a group of texts. In deep-layered way of thinking in traditional Chinese this respect, we have traditional texts in the commen- culture. As Wing-tsit Chan has put it: taries by Yan Zun (53–24 B.C.E.), Wang Bi (226–249 C.E.), and Heshang Gong (probably third–fourth cen- No one can hope to understand Chinese philosophy, reli- tury C.E.), and Fu Yi’s version from the Tang dynasty. gion, government, art, medicine—or even cooking—with- Apart from all these, we have texts of Laozi discovered out a real appreciation of the profound philosophy taught in this little book. (1963b, 136) recently, including the silk texts found at Mawangdui in 1973, whose transcription might date from a bit be- In fact, the name Laozi refers to one or a few fore the Han dynasty (version A) or during the early questionable historical figures and a group of texts. Han (version B); and the three Guodian bamboo slip First, as a historical figure, Laozi was the founder of texts discovered in 1993. The Guodian texts were tran- Daoism, although much about him remains unknown, scribed before 300 B.C.E.—this is the latest possible and the historical accounts we have are not very certain date of their burial, and the transcription must have about his identity and life. According to Sima Qian’s been earlier than the burial itself. Because of the dis- Records of the Historian, Laozi was a curator in the covery of the Guodian texts, it could be assumed that royal archive in the capital of Zhou, and Confucius Laozi’s texts must be earlier than works bearing the once visited him to ask about problems of li (rites). names of Zhuangzi, Mencius, and Xunzi, contrary to Sima Qian also narrates the legend that after retire- the claim of some scholars, such as Qian Mu, that ment, Laozi, on the demand of the barrier keeper Yin Laozi came later than Zhuangzi. It should also be men- Si (Guan Yin), wrote a work of more than 5,000 words. tioned that version C of the Guodian bamboo slips 355 LAOZI (LAO TZU) includes a text, The Great One Gave Birth to Water saying “The dao that could be said is not the con- (Taiyi sheng shui), that had never been included in any stant dao,” which can be found in all the texts of the traditional texts. except the Guodian bamboo slips. In the Guodian versions, Laozi’s texts were read together with Confucian texts; this suggests that Dao- In Laozi, the dao,asthe ultimate reality, is said to be ism and Confucianism were not then considered antag- an undifferentiated whole, either as a “state of undiffer- onistic schools of thought. In particular, the vehe- entiated whole” (you zhuang hun cheng)inGuodian mently critical words referring to basic Confucian text A, or as a “thing of undifferentiated whole” (you concepts such as ren (humanness) and yi (righteous- wu hun cheng)inChapter 25 of all the other texts. ness)—for example, in Chapters 19 and 20 of the tradi- Since the dao is that which makes all things as beings, tional versions—are minimized in the Guodian ver- and that which make all things as beings is not itself sion. It could be said that the Mawangdui silk texts a thing, the Guodian text seems to be better in this show an intermingling of Daoist and legalist thought, sense. In any case, the dao is seen as the undifferen- especially in the case of Huanglao boshu,whereas the tiated whole existing before heaven and earth. It is very Guodian texts show a certain intermingling, or at least much like the Heideggerian Ilya. a peaceful coexistence, of Daoist and Confucian In Chapter 25 of all versions and its corresponding thought. part in the Guodian text, the dao is said to be inaudible, In the two Mawangdui silk versions of the Laozi, invisible, independent of all beings, and self-sub- both version A and version B consist of a first part on sisting. The Guodian text uses “boundless,” which is de (virtue) and a second part on the dao,anorder that a better term than the traditional “changeless” because is just the reverse of existing versions such as Wang it avoids a possible contradiction between the dao as Bi’s, Heshang Gong’s, and Fu Yi’s. This fact has led changeless and the dao as the original dynamism push- to many historical hypotheses and arguments. But in ing all things into an unending process of change. Also, the earlier Guodian Laozi, there is no order of this kind. the Guodian text corresponds better with the following It does not have divisions into chapters, and sometimes passage: “If I am forced to name it, then, reluctantly even the order of sentences is quite different from Iwill call it ‘the great.’ ‘Great’ means departing from either the silk Laozi or other traditional versions. all boundaries, which means being far off; and being far off means turning back.” Here we have other attri- Dao, Its Attributes, and the Great Categories butes of dao, such as “great,” “departing from all Laozi posits dao as the most important concept in his boundaries,” “far off,” and “turning back,” indicating system of thought, replacing heaven in ancient Chinese a circular cosmic process quite different from the linear thought as representing the ultimate reality. Etymol- cosmic process in modern western science. Laozi made ogically, the Chinese word dao means a way on which it clear that these were not ostensive or real attributes, one could work out a direction and a way out. It could but rather fictitious or figurative attributes constructed also mean “to say,” “to speak,” or “to discourse,” for the understanding of human beings. though this aspect is generally denied by Laozi, for Concerning the “great categories” of existence, we whom the function of discourse is always taken in its find an interesting consensus among all versions in negative sense. Chapter 25, the text that reads: “Man models himself Philosophically, the following meanings of dao upon earth. Earth models itself upon heaven. Heaven are the most important: models itself upon dao. Dao models itself upon what • First, dao as laws of becoming or laws of nature, is of itself.” Apart from its decentralizing progression especially when combined with heaven or heaven from man to earth, and then from earth to heaven, and and earth, as in tian dao (heavenly dao)ortiandi then from heaven to the dao itself, we can see an onto- zhi dao (the dao of heaven and earth). logical categorization into four realms: man, earth, • Second, dao as the origin that gives birth to all heaven, and the dao.Inthese four interrelated categor- things, as in Laozi’s saying, “The dao gave birth ies, man models himself on the earth, say, the environ- to one. One gave birth to two. Two gave birth to ment; and earth, the environment, should follow the three. Three gave birth to all things.” laws of nature or the cosmic process. And the whole • Third, the dao as the always self-manifesting ulti- cosmic process, being itself produced by the dao, mate reality. The self-manifesting dao is “reality should model itself on the dynamism of the dao,which itself,” whereas all we say about the dao is but has no other model than that coming from itself. “constructed reality,” which is not and never could Since these sentences are the same in all versions, it be reality itself.
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