Wu-Wei) Can You Play the Part of the Female? Can You Renounce All Knowledge?

Welcome!

Huanying!

Daoism and the Mind of China

MVUC Class 1 November – 13 December, 2016 David J. Keegan

2 Daode Jing Part 1 – The Universal Way & Nature’s Virtue

ENCORE LEARNING November 1, 2016

3 Ju Ming

Tai-ji This Week: • INTRO – Daoism, small “d” • The Dao that can be Dao’d • Name, Mother, and Ten Thousand things • Water is strong because yielding • Emptiness matters • Mystic Virtue • The Classic of the Universal Way & Personal Virtue

5 tao道 dao X & Q & ZH • D v T v T’ – Dao v. Tao v. T’ang (in Wade Giles) • X v. sh – Xi Jin Ping (pronounced she) -- shen (shun) • Q v. ch – Qin (chin) -- Chen (chun as in “chump”) • Zh v. j -- Zhou (Joe) -- ji (as in “jeep”) • Zi pronounced like “ds” in “ads” (Laozi)

(each character is one syllable)

道 dào

1. Direction 7. Reason 2. Way 8. Skill 3. Road, path 9. Method 4. Principle 10. Dao (of Daoism) 5. Truth 11. To say, to speak, 6. Morality to talk The Old Guy DAODEJING, chapter 1 道可道，非常道。名可名，非常名。無名天地之始；有名萬物之母。

THE POSSIBLE IS FALSE

道可道，非常道。名可名，非常名。

道可道，非常道。 Dao ke dao, fei chang dao Dao can dao, not constant dao

名可名，非常名。 Ming ke ming, fei chang ming Name can name, not constant name

NAMELESS & MOTHER 無名天地之始; Without name, heaven earth ‘s beginning

有名萬物之母。 Has name, ten thousand thing s’ mother

1st Perceptions •Dao •Name & knowledge •Eternal and constant •Beginning •Heaven & Earth •Mother, the female Water Conquers Rock YIELDING WATER Nothing under heaven is softer or more yielding than water, but . . . the yielding conquers the resistant and the soft conquers the hard is a fact known by all men, yet utilized by none.

IT’S IN THE HOLE EMPTINESS We put thirty spokes together and call it a wheel; . . . We turn clay to make a vessel; . . We pierce doors and windows to make a house; And it is on these spaces where there is nothing that the usefulness . . . depends. Therefore just as we take advantage of what is, we should recognize the usefulness of what is not. TAOIST SAGE MYSTIC VIRTUE

Can you forever hold fast to the Tao? Can you become as the new-born babe? Can you be free from all dross? Can you practice nonaction (wu-wei) Can you play the part of the female? Can you renounce all knowledge? . . . This is called the Mystic Virtue (te)

WU-WEI 無為 non action/without action wuwei erh wei無為而為 without premeditated action then it is done ZIRAN 自然 “self so” not “natural” 道德經 - Dao De Jing

Jing - Classic (of) Dao - Universal Way De - Personal Virtue

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25 Review • The Dao that can be Dao’d • Name, Mother, and Ten Thousand things • Water is strong because yielding • Emptiness matters • Mystic Virtue • The Classic of the Universal Way & Personal Virtue

NEXT WEEK:

Laozi Part 2 – Simple Natural Government

27 Thank You! 谢谢

Xiexie!

28 Resources • Wm. Theodore DeBary, Wing-tsit Chan, Burton Watson, Sources of Chinese Tradition, vol. 1 (Columbia Univ., 1960), ch. IV, Taoism, pp. 48- 61. • Arthur Waley, The Way and its Power, A Study of the Tao Te Ching and its Place in Chinese Thought, (New York: Grove Press, 1958 • Holmes Welch, Taoism, The Parting of the Way (Boston: Beacon Press, 1957)