Chinese Greatest Philosophy (Part 1-Taoism & Nature)

Chinese society had been long known as one great source of philosophy thinking since B.C. era. The two most popular teaching which are still continuously studied and cultivated until now indeed come from the two greatest Chinese teachers born in B.C. era. Lao Zi (571 BC–unknown) with his Taoism teaching encourage people to consistently seek for peace of mind by understand everything as nature force which should not be opposed. Each person peace of mind will bring greatest harmony of life without additional needs of human-created tools of life, such as morality concept, courtesy rules, country law, etc. The other widespread teaching comes from Confucius (551-479 BC) with his Confucianism philosophy which mainly consists of life wisdom concept manifested in a set of moral values and conducts as a guideline for those who eager to contribute for a better living society. The two philosophers may seems extremely different in their basic principle as Lao Zi emphasizes on nature point of view to obtain life harmony while Confucius underlined the importance of moral values and conducts (which Lao Zi consider as too humanly made) to gain life wisdom. However, both teaching actually are aim for one same purpose of a better life quality. Therefore, we certainly will be able to gain great benefit by study them and understand to flexibly implement each teaching in the most appropriate situation.

Since the original literature of Taoism and Confucianism teaching is somewhat hard to find here (I’m not quite sure have the capability to read if it’s available anyway since I supposed it will be written in Chinese), I study them based on various resources available. My main resources are based on comic books series written by Tsai Chih Chung, Taiwan cartoonist who considered as pioneer in popular literature visualization into comic books. It becomes easier to understand and entertain at once.

TAOISM & NATURE

There are three popular teachers of Taoism. Lao Zi (571 BC-unknown) as the Tao founder with his book ‘dao de jing’, Zhuang Zi (369-286 BC) who inherits Lao Zi teaching through his book and latter write the longest Tao book titled ‘nan hua zhen jing’, and Lie Zi who sometimes considered as fairytale figure since no one clearly knows his living period.

Lao Zi (571 BC-unknown) real name is Li Er. He was born in the end of West Zhou dynasty and lives his life modestly in Luoyang as an administrator in palace archives room. He likes to read various history books while at work and that enables him to gain deeper understanding of humanity. In the 23^rd year of King Zhao government, Lao Zi left Luoyang and head to the Han Gu border gate in the west since he feels that the government is about to collapse. In the border gate, a Tao seeking gate keeper named Lin Yinxi asks Lao Zi to write about Taoism before leave. Upon this request, Lao Zi writes Taoism book which divided into two parts, one titled ‘dao’ which literally means ‘way’ and the other titled ‘de’ which literally means ‘virtue’. He left the borderline after finish the book and no one knows his whereabouts after that. His ‘dao de jing’ becomes one of the most important Tao books until nowadays.

Lao Zi is the Taoism founder from whom we could, or maybe couldn’t, understand what Tao actually is. I said that we could, or maybe couldn’t, understand since Lao Zi himself always said that no one can truly understand Tao. One who declares understands Tao is actually doesn’t understand and one who admits that he/she doesn’t understand Tao maybe is actually the most Tao person. The complexity of this concept can be truly understand since, in my opinion, Lao Zi concept of Tao actually is a near attempt to explain about God. It is said in the ‘dao de jing’:

“Something exist,

Before universe created,

Silent and empty,

One and eternal,

And always moving,

Worth to be universal mother,

I don’t know what its name, so I called it Tao.”

Above phrase clearly shows an almost God definition. Even though I will not talk about religion matters here, I couldn’t resist for being dazzled while read those phrase above. Not because of the concept that God creates universe since it does almost a common beliefs, but because of the concept of one God which is still uncommon in many religion nowadays. In my religion, we indeed believe that God is definitely only one, but not many other religions are share those same believe. Instead, I found this concept in Taoism, and that fact is fascinated me. Lao Zi also realize mind limitation and human tendency to conceptualized things will be a great barrier to understand Tao, therefore he makes a clear warning sentences in the first part of ‘dao de jing’:

“Anything that declared as Tao is definitely not the real Tao.

The name that could be given is not the real name.”

Based of this definition of Tao, Lao Zi strongly believes that everything created and exists in the universe is a natural cause which should never be opposed. A nature creation never serves any harmful purposes unless human try to against it according to their selfishness to achieve personal benefit. When everything in the universe being left as the way it should be, the greatest harmony of life will be achieved and benefits many instead of only certain selfish person. Therefore, Lao Zi strongly denied human made values, rules, laws, etc which blindly created based on human limited knowledge. Instead, he builds his teaching values based on observation of nature phenomenon.  Taoism explains how sun and moon alternately shines, how sky and ground kept in its place, and how cloud makes rain or vice versa, which all silently controlled by nature. Therefore in the governmental area, Tao believes that government should follow nature silent control to lead the country. They should not interfere people’s personal matters, imposed many prohibitions, or enforced hard punishment, in order to get the country in harmony states.

Taoism favors natural approach for everything as it believes that it is the most correct way, approved by the universe creator, to do things. Two persons maybe gain the same achievement in their life, but a person with Tao would maintain his/her pure inner soul, while a person without Tao may wouldn’t. Not only maintain one’s soul, Taoism also cares for human body. Since it’s created at its best shape by nature, human should never sacrifice their own body in order to pursue personal ambition. Work or study too hard until the body get sick is against Tao.

Depart from the good believe of nature and denial of human created things, Taoism also strongly opposed the concept of duality. Duality concept is only a human creation occurs during comparison process. Nature doesn’t recognize duality concept since everything created with specific benefit & purpose and no need to compare between one another. Lao Zi explains the Tao essence as ‘the emptiness with unlimited benefit’ while Tao manifestation is ‘the real comes from unreal’. The universe is created in an empty space. Without empty space, there is no place for universe to be created. Therefore, the real universe comes from unreal (emptiness). This concept challenge one human duality concept of useful and useless. Empty is not always useless and full is not always useful. Sometimes the emptiness benefit is greater than the real one as Lao Zi give some examples in his ‘dao de jing’:

·          A furnace must have an empty space inside to burn a wood or coal

·          A wheel can rotate since there is an cavity to attach an axle

·          A cup can contain water because of its concave shape

·          We take benefit from window due to its hollow part

·          We can live in a house since there is empty room inside

Furthermore, Zhuang Zi in his ‘nan hua zhen jing’ also explain the relativity of usefulness and the useful of uselessness.

Zhuang Zi (369-286 BC) name is Zhuang Zhou. He lives in what now called as Henan province as a small officer in Song country during China Warring States period. Zhuang Zi’s book is given a title of ‘nan hua zhen jing’ due to the change of his birthplace name to Nanhua (only for that time) during Tang dynasty period in the year of 742. Taoism had been highly valued and protected during the Tang dynasty since the Tang dynasty founder, Li Yuan, has the same family name with Lao Zi. Therefore, Zhuang Zi had given a title of ‘Nanhua Real Man’ and his book ‘nan hua zhen jing’ which literally means ‘Nanhua True Book’.

Zhuang Zi indicates that like another kind of duality, the duality concept of useful versus useless is also very relative. A man named Hui Zi tells Zhuang Zi about a useless giant tree which its trunk is full of bulge and its branch is so twisted so it’s very difficult even just to cut down. Zhuang Zi said, “Instead of worrying about a useless giant tree, why not staying under that tree and take shelter comfortably in the sunny day?” The tree may seems useless for a carpenter, but become very useful for a traveler in the sunny day. It’s relative. Moreover, the giant tree can only be useful for the traveler since it’s useless for carpenter. If carpenter decide that the tree is useful for them, they will definitely cut it down, and there is no more place for a traveler to take a shelter from the sun. That’s called the useful of usefulness. The same logic of useful versus useless could be widely applied in another human made duality concept, such as rich and poor, high and low, long and short, etc. The near fairytale Tao figure, Lie Zi, even explains the intricacy of duality concept so that it should not ever be believed through the more abstract way, awake versus dreaming.

Lie Zi is considered as one of popular Tao teachers even when his true existence is actually doubted. No one clearly knows in what period Lie Zi was lived. Some sources mention that he lives around 600 BC, while another declare that it should be around 400 BC. The real fact is that a book which mentions Lie Zi’s name exists around the year of 300. Lie Zi believes that human mind and body can’t be apart and always affect each other. What we’re imagined or experienced during the day will be a dream in the night. Therefore, to differentiate which the real one is between awake and dreaming is actually beyond human capability to understand.

“Life is like a dream. In the reality and illusion that influence each other, how could you be so sure that you’re not dreaming now and what happens in the dream is actually closer to the reality?”

(Lie Zi)

By understand the relativity of duality concept, Taoism emphasized on the importance of internal essence instead of external factor. The fact that the giant tree physical shape (external factor) that makes it seems useless for the carpenter doesn’t prevent the traveler who able to understand the essence of those tree existence to gain the true benefit from it.

There is one story in Zhuang Zi’s book, ‘nan hua zhen jing’, from with we could understand how every human could protect the Tao inside his/her heart. The story tells about Confucius and his fellow students that meet a Tao fisherman in the black wood. The fisherman criticizes that Confucius will be slip further and further from Tao, so that Confucius chases him and eagerly ask the fisherman to explain the meaning of his words. The fisherman answered that a human will never be able to protect Tao if he/she still has one of eight weaknesses and four flaws. Eight weaknesses according to the fisherman are:

1.       Do things that should not be done

2.       Keep talking even if others don’t’ listen

3.       Use sweet words to please others

4.       Agree without deep consideration

5.       Criticize behind other’s back

6.       End a friendship

7.       Praise the bad & get rid of the people that we hate

8.       Not tell the truth about the right and wrong

Moreover, four flaws mentioned by the Tao fisherman are:

1.       Hunger for praise and fame

2.       Arrogant

3.       Defend our mistake & hate other’s advice

4.       Support one who agree & condemn one who disagree

In ‘dao de jing’, Lao Zi explains the Tao degeneration concept as a sign of society deterioration instead of advancement.

Tao --> Morality --> Kindness --> Justice --> Courtesy

If Tao neglected, morality appears; If Morality neglected, Kindness appears; If Kindness neglected, Justice appears; If Justice neglected, Courtesy appears.

“If courtesy or rules of conduct for human relationship required, hypocrisy and lies appears. That is the sign of chaos.”

(Lao Zi, 571 BC-unknown)

It doesn’t necessarily conclude that Lao Zi opposed any concept of morality, kindness, justice, or courtesy. In fact, from Taoism teaching, indeed we could obtain various moral values. Lao Zi simply wants to emphasize solely on the essence of those morality, kindness, justice, and courtesy, which is the Tao itself. Morality developed based on Tao, therefore based on natural cause, is also Tao. However, morality developed based on limited human knowledge, neglects the nature phenomenon, definitely is not Tao. That kind of morality doesn’t come from the heart and only bring hypocrisy and lies which is a sign of society chaos. One story in Zhuang Zi’s ‘nan hua zhen jing’ about a famous robber could help us to gain better understanding of this view.

Dao Zhi is a famous robber in ancient era. One day, one of his subordinates asks him a question, “Tell me, does a robber also implement Tao?” Dao Zhi answered, “Yes, of course!” He explains, “As a robber leader, I need to be able to predict where the valuables are stored. It called wisdom. I lead the robbers to break into a victim house. It called courage. When the mission complete, I’ll be the last who leave the crime scene to ensure everyone is safe. It called loyalty (to friends). I carefully consider the whole situation before take action. It called intelligence. I distribute the stolen valuables fairly between all my subordinates. It called virtue. No one capable to become a robber leader without implement these five ethics.”

From the story above, we could see that what Dao Zhi claims as Tao is actually not Tao. Nature will never do harm to the others just to fulfill personal desires. A human with Tao heart will not become a robber. What Dao Zhi practiced is just morality ethics without Tao, which is definitely not Tao. Further, Zhuang Zi said that both good and bad person could benefits from morality ethics. A good person needs morality ethics to do his/her goodness. A bad person needs morality ethics to do his/her badness. If Tao neglected in a society and bad is outnumbered good, then morality ethics will do more harm than benefit to the society.

The ten main moral values that could be obtained from inside of Tao teaching are as below:

1.   Be Grateful

Tao believes that everything provided by nature is at its best shape to serve a certain purpose for universe greatness. There is no reason for sadness or regret due to our imperfect condition. Be grateful and optimized our strengths instead of struggling with our weaknesses.

“Born with six fingers in one hand is natural. It’s not too much or too little. However, desire to have six fingers in one hand is a sign of greed and it’s not natural.”

Zhuang Zi (369-286 BC)

2.   Flexibility of Mind

Everything in the universe exists for a good reason, even if sometimes human mind capability is too limited to understand. Mind should be flexible to see beyond human made knowledge since everything created by human is not eternal, always changing, and therefore relative.

“We could point to where a moon is with a finger. To see a moon, we should see beyond a finger. A word is like a finger who pointed to the truth. However, human commonly only see the finger. They don’t see beyond the finger to find the truth.”

(Lao Zi, 571 BC-unknown)

“Good and bad, black and white, everything depends on human definition. They don’t have objective standard. If everyone said that white is black, isn’t you who believe the opposite will be considered crazy?”

(Lie Zi)

A flexible mind will enables us to think deeply before make a judgment and carefully consider before take an action. It will lead us to success as Taoism believes that the soft will defeat the hard. The hardest part of human body is teeth and it will be gone in old age, while tongue as the softest part will still remains. When a storm attacks, a giant tree fallen while a grass will still survive. A storm which destroys giant trees and big houses consists of wind that is very soft, even doesn’t have a body or shape.

3.   Courage and Confidence

By understand that follow the principal of nature is the best way to live a life, ones will have a courage and confidence to face any obstacles in his/her life. Even life and death is a natural cause that shouldn’t, and definitely couldn’t, be opposed.

“Human must face life and death in balance and live a life with courage and confidence. A human who hopes for eternal life and fear of death is like a lost traveler that couldn’t find a way back.”

(Lie Zi)

4.   Sincerity

One of water special characteristics is its ability to support life for everything. It gives a great benefit to many without requires anything in return. It’s sincere and unselfish.

5.   Kindness

Water is soft, it doesn’t fight anything that stands in its way. It will always find another way, through the rock and mountain crack, and let everything else as the way it should be. A kind heart will try any possible way to avoid confrontation and thinks for the good of many, not only ours.

6.   Modesty

Naturally, water always flows from the higher to the lower place, never the opposite. The lower its position, the higher its volume, and the greater it could benefit others. It perfectly describes an ocean. It has a lower position, a higher volume, and a greater benefit than a river. A modest person will not boast his/her ability, appreciate others’ capability, and therefore always has an opportunity to learn and improve.

“Ability to realize our ignorance or lack of knowledge is wisdom. Think that you understand what you don’t understand is a big mistake.”

(Lao Zi, 571 BC-unknown)

7.   Honesty

Before a mirror was found, we could see our reflection in clear water. Water always shows our reflection exactly the same with our real shape and condition. Water is honest.

8.   Self Introspection

Instead of criticize others, Tao strongly encourage us to do a self introspection.

“How others treat us will depends on how we treat others. Like a shadow, it will be straight if you straight. Or like an echo, it will always resonance back what you just said.”
(Lie Zi)

9.   Listen to the Heart

Many common people struggle to deal with more external than internal factors. External factors such as how to meet family expectations, how to be appreciated by the society, how to get a job that generates a lot of money, etc. Every action performed is triggered by external factors. These people are unlikely to gain the true success in their life. Even if they seem to be success, they may still unable to feel fulfillment in their heart. They trapped in an unhappy life since they attached in many external factors and neglect the most valuable Tao inside them, the heart. Once someone starts to listen to their heart, every action will greatly benefit others and self.

“If someone’s mind is full with external things, he/she will be bridled and unsettled.”

Zhuang Zi (369-286 BC)

“What comes from inside our heart will be greatly influence others. Time will never be able to erase that influence.”

(Lie Zi)

The book of Lie Zi narrate one story about a woman named Han Er whose voice able to influence many other people, either through her singing or crying. Han Er, a woman who lived in the Han Kingdom, run-out of supplies during her journey to the Qi Kingdom. She enters the capital through the Concord Gate and start singing to get a food. When she left, the voice of her singing remains and swirls back and forth in the gate for three days. People feel like Han Er is still there. When Han Er pass through in front of an inn, one of inn’s servant humiliate Han Er and she cries with deep melancholy in a long sad tone. People who listen to Han Er cries become very sad and drop their tears. They feel a great pressure and couldn’t eat anything for three days so that they chase Han Er and ask her to come back to the inn. Feels very happy, Han Er starts to sing a happy song and everyone, old and young, couldn’t resist to excitedly dance and forget about their previous sadness. They even give Han Er a precious gift before she leaves. Han Er influences not only stop there. After that, people of Concord Gate become a very expert singer because of Han Er example.

10. Passion for Improvement

Previously clear water can become dirty and muddy when it stuck in one place and unable to flow.

We could clearly see how Taoism always use nature phenomenon to explain about its teachings. Various values above maybe totally new and different or indeed the same and overlapping with Confucianism values. The key to get a harmony for both teaching is to understand and practice moral values of both Taoism and Confucianism teaching flexibly, without forget the essence of Tao. 

(To be continued)