Perhaps the most inflammatory claim of this work was its teaching that when Laozi left China through the Western pass he went to India, where he transmorphed into the historical Buddha and converted the barbarians. The basic implication of the book was that Buddhism was actually only a form of Daoism. This work inflamed Buddhists for decades. In fact, both of the Tang Emperors Gaozong C.
However, as bitter contention continued between Buddhism and Daoism, the Daoists actually expanded the Classic of the Conversion of the Barbarians , so that by C. Four of these were recovered in the Dunhuang cache of manuscripts. The much extended work came to include the account that Laozi entered the mouth of a queen in India and the next year was born from her right arm-pit to become the Buddha. In the course of the production of polemical writings on the Buddhist side of the debate, attempts were made to turn the tables on the Daoists.
Laozi was portrayed as a bodhisattva or disciple of the Buddha sent to convert the Chinese. This theory had other desirable extensions from a Buddhist viewpoint, because it was also applied to Confucius, enabling Buddhist rhetoricians to hold that Confucius was an avatar of Buddhism and that Confucianism was actually a form of distorted Buddhism. In this text, Laozi has three births: as the manifestation of the dao from pure energy to become a deity in heaven; in human form as the ancient philosopher author of the DDJ; and as the Buddha after his journey to the West.
At birth he had white hair and so he was called laozi here meaning something more like lao haizi or Old Child. This birth is set in the time of the Shang dynasty, several centuries before the date Sima Qian reports.
But the purpose of such a move in the Laozi legend is to allow him time to travel to the West and then become the Buddha. The third birth takes place in India as the Buddha. In the Yuan dynasty C.
Once again, though, the text and its story of Laozi seemed quite resilient. It reappeared in the form of an illustrated work entitled Eighty-one Transformations of Lord Lao Laojun bashiyi hua tushuo. The Buddhist thinker Xiangmai wrote a detailed, but polemical, history of this text and few scholars trust its reliability. The first few depict his existence in cosmic time. It is not until the 11 th transformation that he enters historical time during the era of Fu Xi by the name Yuhuazi.
In his 34 th transformation, Laozi sends Yin Xi to explain the sutras to the Indian barbarians. In this text, Ge Hong reports that in a state of visualization he saw Laozi, seven feet tall, with cloudlike garments of five colors, wearing a multi-tiered cap and carrying a sharp sword. According to Ge Hong, Laozi had a prominent nose, long eyebrows, and an elongated head. This physiological type was the template for portraying immortals in Daoist art.
He attributes to Laozi what is called the alchemy of the nine cinnabars and eight minerals, as well as a vast knowledge of herbology and dietetics. Ge Hong also tells a story about one Xu Jia who was a retainer of Laozi. When replaced, Xu Jia lives again. In all this, Laozi is portrayed as a master of life and death by means of talismanic power, a practice used by the Celestial Masters and continued by Daoist masters as late as the Ming dynasty, if not into the present era.
Other reported manifestations of Laozi gave authority to new Daoist lineages or modifications of practice. He wrote down the revelation in a text that became known as Classic on Precepts of Lord Lao Recited to the Melody of the Clouds Laojun yinsong jiejing.
Yoshiko Kamitsuka has done a study of how views about Laozi changed and been reflected in material culture, especially sculpture and inscription. Laozi was also often looked to for political validation. Throughout most of the Tang dynasty C. The hagiography of Laozi has continued to develop, down to the present day. There are even traditions that various natural geographic landmarks and features are the enduring imprint of Lord Lao on China and his face can be seen in them.
Ronnie Littlejohn Email: ronnie. Laozi Lao-tzu, fl. Laozi and the Daodejing The ways in which expressions of Laozi in the seventeen passages in which he occurs in the Zhuangzi sound like sentiments in the Daodejing hereafter, DDJ represent collectively one basis for the traditional association of Laozi as author of the text.
References and Further Reading Ames, Roger. Wandering at Ease in the Zhuangzi. Bokenkamp, Stephen R. Early Daoist Scriptures. Berkeley: University of California Press. Boltz, William.
Mitchell does a remarkable job of interpreting the more abstruse metaphors of the fourth-century mind for modern audiences - although, this does of course leave the possibility that it is actually the wisdom of Mitchell, not Laozi, shining through these words. Many readers derive more anger than comfort from the philosophy of the Tao Te Ching. If that first line resembles the famous zen koan "what is the sound of one hand clapping? It's the compulsive need to answer unanswerable questions that is, in Taoist philosophy, the mind's great dysfunction.
Naming is the origin of all particular things. We're accustomed to perceiving our world and all the objects in it by naming them. But what if we stop obsessively naming everything and instead just - pardon me while I slip in to full on hippy mode for a moment - rest in awareness? What the Tao Te Ching does, time and time again, is attempt to show us how we might see things if we could spend more time in awareness, and less in naming.
Perhaps if we were more aware, we would worry less, and could see better what actually needs doing. But the central thing the Tao Te Ching asks us to be aware of is not the world, but our self.
We all know the term, but do we really know what it means? What would it be like to care for all things as much as we cared for our self? In the words of David Foster Wallace , whose literary philosophy is a natural mirror of Taoist thought, the default setting for people is to be "uniquely, completely, imperially alone day in and day out".
Later versions reversed this order and in so doing subsumed politics under a broader philosophical vision of Dao as the beginning and end of all beings. As distinguished from a linear evolutionary model, what is suggested here is that there were different collections of sayings attributed to Laozi, overlapping to some extent but each with its own emphases and predilections, inhabiting a particular interpretive context.
Although some key chapters in the current Laozi that deal with the nature of Dao e. This seems to argue against the suggestion that the Laozi , and for that matter ancient Chinese philosophical works in general, were not interested or lacked the ability to engage in abstract philosophic thinking, an assumption that sometimes appears to underlie evolutionary approaches to the development of Chinese philosophy.
The Guodian and Mawangdui finds are extremely valuable. They are syntactically clearer than the received text in some instances, thanks to the larger number of grammatical particles they employ. Nevertheless, they cannot resolve all the controversies and uncertainties surrounding the Laozi. In my view, the nature of Dao and the application of Daoist insight to ethics and governance probably formed the twin foci in collections of Laozi sayings from the start.
They were then developed in several ways—e. The demand for textual uniformity rose when the Laozi gained recognition, and consequently the different textual traditions eventually gave way to the received text of the Laozi.
As mentioned, the current Laozi on which most reprints, studies and translations are based is the version that comes down to us along with the commentaries by Wang Bi and Heshanggong. Three points need to be made in this regard. First, technically there are multiple versions of the Wang Bi and Heshanggong Laozi —over thirty Heshanggong versions are extant—but the differences are on the whole minor.
Second, the Wang Bi and Heshanggong versions are not the same, but they are sufficiently similar to be classified as belonging to the same line of textual transmission. Third, the Wang Bi and Heshanggong versions that we see today have suffered change. Prior to the invention of printing, when each manuscript had to be copied by hand, editorial changes and scribal errors are to be expected.
Boltz and Wagner have examined this question in some detail. The Sibu beiyao and Sibu congkan are large-scale reproductions of traditional Chinese texts published in the early twentieth century. The former contains the Wang Bi version and commentary, together with a colophon by the Song scholar Chao Yuezhi — , a second note by Xiong Ke ca. The Heshanggong version preserved in the Sibu congkan series is taken from the library of the famous bibliophile Qu Yong fl.
Older extant Heshanggong versions include two incomplete Tang versions and fragments found in Dunhuang. Reportedly, this version was recovered from a tomb in C.
There are some differences, but these two can be regarded as having stemmed from the same textual tradition. Manuscript fragments discovered in the Dunhuang caves form another important source in Laozi research. Among them are several Heshanggong fragments especially S.
It is signed and dated at the end, bearing the name of the third-century scholar and diviner Suo Dan, who is said to have made the copy, written in ink on paper, in C. While manuscript versions inform textual criticism of the Laozi , stone inscriptions provide further collaborating support. Over twenty steles, mainly of Tang and Song origins, are available to textual critics, although some are in poor condition Yan Students of the Laozi today can work with several Chinese and Japanese studies that make use of a large number of manuscript versions and stone inscriptions notably Ma , Jiang , Zhu , and Shima Boltz offers an excellent introduction to the manuscript traditions of the Laozi.
Lou and Lynn A major contribution to Laozi studies in Chinese is Liu Xiaogan , which compares the Guodian, Mawangdui, Fu Yi, Wang Bi, and Heshanggong versions of the Laozi and provides detailed textual and interpretive analysis for each chapter. In an article in English, Liu sets out some of his main findings.
Commentaries to the Laozi offer an invaluable guide to interpretation and are important also for their own contributions to Chinese philosophy and religion. Two chapters in the current Hanfeizi chs. Queen Nevertheless, Laozi learning began to flourish from the Han period. Some mention will also be made of later developments in the history of the Daodejing.
The late Isabelle Robinet has contributed an important pioneering study of the early Laozi commentaries ; see also Robinet Traditionally, the Heshanggong commentary is regarded as a product of the early Han dynasty. The name Heshanggong means an old man who dwells by the side of a river, and some have identified the river in question to be the Yellow River. An expert on the Laozi , he caught the attention of Emperor Wen, who went personally to consult him.
Chan Recent Chinese studies generally place the commentary at the end of the Han period, although some Japanese scholars would date it to as late as the sixth century C. It is probably a second-century C.
Chan a. A careful diet, exercise, and some form of meditation are implied, but generally the commentary focuses on the diminishing of selfish desires. In this way, self-cultivation and government are shown to form an integral whole. Yan Zun is well remembered in traditional sources as a recluse of great learning and integrity, a diviner of legendary ability, and an author of exceptional talent.
The famous Han poet and philosopher Yang Xiong 53 B. The Laozi zhigui abbreviated hereafter as Zhigui , as it now stands, is incomplete; only the commentary to the Dejing , chapters 38—81 of the current Laozi , remains.
The best edition of the Zhigui is that contained in the Daozang Daoist Canon, no. Judging from the available evidence, it can be accepted as a Han product A. Like Heshanggong, Yan Zun also subscribes to the yin-yang cosmological theory characteristic of Han thought. It describes the nature of the Dao and its manifestation in the world. It also points to an ethical ideal. The way in which natural phenomena operate reflects the workings of the Dao. In this way, the Laozi is seen to offer a comprehensive guide to order and harmony at all levels.
Although it is mentioned in catalogues of Daoist works, there was no real knowledge of it until a copy was discovered among the Dunhuang manuscripts S.
The manuscript copy, now housed in the British Library, was probably made around C. The original text, disagreement among scholars notwithstanding, is generally traced to around C.
A detailed study and translation of the work in English is now available Bokenkamp This underscores the central thesis of the commentary, that devotion to the Dao in terms of self-cultivation and compliance with its precepts would assure boundless blessing in this life and beyond. Spiritual discipline, however, is insufficient; equally important is the accumulation of moral merit. These include general positive steps such as being tranquil and yielding, as well as specific injunctions against envy, killing, and other morally reprehensible acts.
The word xuan denotes literally a shade of dark red and is used in the Laozi esp. Alarmed by what they saw as the decline of Dao, influential intellectuals of the day initiated a sweeping reinterpretation of the classical heritage. Wang Bi, despite his short life, distinguished himself as a brilliant interpreter of the Laozi and the Yijing see A.
Rather, Wang seems more concerned with what may be called the logic of creation. The ground of being, however, cannot be itself a being; otherwise, infinite regress would render the logic of the Laozi suspect. We will come back to this point later. The transcendence of Dao must not be compromised. Nonaction helps explain the practical meaning of naturalness. In ethical terms, Wang Bi takes nonaction to mean freedom from the dictates of desire. This defines not only the goal of self-cultivation but also that of government.
The concepts of naturalness and nonaction will be discussed further below. The authority of the Heshanggong commentary can be traced to its place in the Daoist religion, where it ranks second only to the Daodejing itself. From the Tang period, one begins to find serious attempts to collect and classify the growing number of Laozi commentaries.
An early pioneer is the eighth-century Daoist master Zhang Junxiang, who cited some thirty commentaries in his study of the Daodejing Wang Du Guangting — provided a larger collection, involving some sixty commentaries Daode zhenjing guangshengyi , Daozang no. According to Du, there were those who saw the Laozi as a political text, while others focused on spiritual self-cultivation. There were Buddhist interpreters e. This latter represents an important development in the history of interpretation of the Daodejing Assandri Daoist sources relate that the school goes back to the fourth-century master Sun Deng.
Through Gu Huan fifth century and others, the school reached its height during the Tang period, represented by such thinkers as Cheng Xuanying and Li Rong in the seventh century. The Laozi has been viewed in still other ways. The diversity of interpretation is truly remarkable see Robinet for a typological analysis. The Daodejing was given considerable imperial attention, with no fewer than eight emperors having composed or at least commissioned a commentary on the work. By the thirteenth century, students of the Daodejing were already blessed, as it were, with an embarrassment of riches, so much so that Du Daojian — could not but observe that the coming of the Dao to the world takes on a different form each time.
Is the Laozi a manual of self-cultivation and government? Is it a metaphysical treatise, or does it harbor deep mystical insights? The Laozi is a difficult text. Its language is often cryptic; the sense or reference of the many symbols it employs remains unclear, and there seems to be conceptual inconsistencies.
Traditionally, however, this was never a serious option. Consider, first of all, some of the main modern approaches to the Daodejing cf.
Hardy One view is that the Laozi reflects a deep mythological consciousness at its core. Chapter 25, for example, likens the Dao to an undifferentiated oneness. The myth of a great mother earth goddess may also have informed the worldview of the Laozi Erkes ; Chen , which explains its emphasis on nature and the feminine Chen A second view is that the Laozi gives voice to a profound mysticism. According to Victor Mair , it is indebted to Indian mysticism see also Waley According to Benjamin Schwartz , the mysticism of the Daodejing is sui generis , uniquely Chinese and has nothing to do with India.
Indeed, as one scholar suggests, it is unlike other mystical writings in that ecstatic vision does not play a role in the ascent of the Daoist sage Welch , It is possible to combine the mystical and mythological approaches. Broadly, one could carve out a third category of interpretations that highlights the religious significance of the Laozi , whether in general terms or aligned with the tenets of religious Daoism. A fourth view sees the Laozi mainly as a work of philosophy, which gives a metaphysical account of reality and insight into Daoist self-cultivation and government; but fundamentally it is not a work of mysticism W.
The strong practical interest of the Laozi distinguishes it from any mystical doctrine that eschews worldly involvement. Fifth, to many readers the Laozi offers essentially a philosophy of life.
Remnants of an older religious thinking may have found their way into the text, but they have been transformed into a naturalistic philosophy.
The emphasis on naturalness translates into a way of life characterized by simplicity, calmness, and freedom from the tyranny of desire e. Sixth, the Laozi is above all concerned with realizing peace and sociopolitical order. It is an ethical and political masterpiece intended for the ruling class, with concrete strategic suggestions aimed at remedying the moral and political turmoil engulfing late Zhou China.
Self-cultivation is important, but the ultimate goal extends beyond personal fulfillment Lau , LaFargue , Moeller The Laozi criticizes the Confucian school not only for being ineffectual in restoring order but more damagingly as a culprit in worsening the ills of society at that time. This list is far from exhaustive; there are other views of the Laozi. Different combinations are also possible. Graham, for example, emphasizes both the mystical and political elements, arguing that the Laozi was probably targeted at the ruler of a small state , The Laozi could be seen as encompassing all of the above—such categories as the metaphysical, ethical, political, mystical, and religious form a unified whole in Daoist thinking and are deemed separate and distinct only in modern Western thought.
This concerns not only the difficulty of the Laozi but also the interplay between reader and text in any act of interpretation. But, it is important to emphasize, it does not follow that context is unimportant, that parameters do not exist, or that there are no checks against particular interpretations.
While hermeneutic reconstruction remains an open process, it cannot disregard the rules of evidence. Questions of provenance, textual variants, as well as the entire tradition of commentaries and modern scholarship are important for this reason.
And it is for this same reason that the present article leaves the discussion of the Laozi itself till the end. The following presents some of the main concepts and symbols in the Laozi based on the current text, focusing on the key conceptual cluster of Dao, de virtue , ziran naturalness , and wuwei nonaction. I propose that the two readings represented by the Heshanggong and Wang Bi commentaries both bring out important insight from the Laozi.
To begin with Dao, the etymology of the Chinese graph or character suggests a pathway, or heading in a certain direction along a path. This is also how most commentators in traditional China have understood it: the many normative discourses that clamor to represent the right way are seen to be fickle, partial and misleading. The concept of dao is not unique to the Laozi. A key term in the philosophical vocabulary, it informs early Chinese philosophy as a whole. It is interpreted differently, signifying a means to a higher end in some writings and as an end in itself in others.
The Laozi underscores both the ineffability and creative power of Dao. This is distinctive and if one accepts the early provenance of the text, charts a new course in the development of Chinese philosophy.
Jacob Needleman in his introduction to the Feng and English version asserts that it is the world's most translated text after The Holy Bible. I have no idea how to go about verifying or debunking this absurd claim but I do know that there are tons of English "versions" around - scores actually published by reputable houses. Most that I've read are horrid. My personal favorite is an English translation of an apparently respected German translation.
It reads just as you might imagine. There are, arguably, any number which are worse but I am struck by the concept. The Dao part traditionally has thirty-seven chapters, the De part contains the other forty-four verses. And, aside from their extreme brevity, they have and on this I must trust those who do actually know something of Chinese frequently, the tone of nursery rhymes. They're playful, and childlike, and immensely powerful. Probably very easy to memorize. It appears, much of the time, to be a recital of suggestions for the Emperor now, in our era of compulsive political correctness, often translated as "leader" to follow in order to rule "lead" effectively.
But they are invariably counter-intuitive and take on the quality of Alice's encounters as she wandered through her looking-glass. The most effective course of action is always Slaughter the talented, suggests Lao Zi , And everybody will benefit. Wisdom is the understanding that knowledge is useless. The failure to understand that knowledge is useless is sickness. Honor and disgrace are each to be avoided, he says, adding that: Good fortune and disaster are identical.
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