1. Chinese Philosophers Laozi
Instructor: Hua Wang
05/01/2015

2. About the movie
Discuss your answers on the worksheet and share your view!

3. Zero Funeral

4. Dao
The universe: “a self-contained organism functioning according to its own inherent pattern”.
Dao 道:
Road, way, method
To point out the the road, to tell
the Way things are (descriptive),
the path one ought to take (moral, prescriptive), the ultimately correct way of Heaven and of the human world
the cosmic pattern/order, the rhythm/pattern of the movement of qi, the life-giving force

5. Primary Concerns for Chinese Philosophers
Based on humanism, what is it that we can do?
Main focus: how to rule the state, how to conduct oneself, how to do the right thing – so that one does not disturb the cosmic order (Dao).
What is Dao? What should we do/How should we live in accordance with Dao?
What is human nature? Heavenly endowment of moral attribute? Does nature need regulation?

6. The Confucians: Confucius, Mencius, and Xunzi

7. Confucianism
Moral transformation through rites and music (and studying classics) to achieve ideal personhood: Be better, and help others – the virtue of humanity (ren仁)
Rites: a system of ritual codes in formal ceremonies and in daily life, transforming people
One aims to be proper in social contexts, and this also influences others
(Striving for) ritual propriety distinguishes human beings from beasts. Animal instincts lead us to mutual destruction.
Music: recite poetry and play instruments
Expression of one’s joy and bring joy to others, balance and regulate one’s emotions, transforming people internally

8. Daoists: Laozi, Zhuangzi

9. Daoism social reform vs. individual deliverance/liberation
Laozi: Dao is the source of all life forms as well as the totality of all existence; it is Nonbeing, silent; everything follow naturally from Dao – anti-social, anti- knowledge/language/conceptualization, anti-civilization.
Zhuangzi: no objective way to settle disputes; there are limits to human conception of reality; from the perspective of Dao, all particular truths are merely partial
The ideal: inaction, prehistoric primitive society, different form of humanism, rational detachment, eliminate desires

10. Laozi and Daodejing道德經
The things we are not sure about
Is there such a person?
The original title of the book? When is it written?
Is there only one author? Who is it?
The more accepted view: Daodejing is a compilation of various sayings of different people, completed around the 1st century AD.
Multiple (sometimes contrary) translations due to its style and the lack of punctuation.

11. There Main Philosophical Claims
The nature of Dao and the possibility of knowing and representing Dao
The ethical advice on virtues, in particular, the virtue of “inactivity” (wu-wei)
The political ideal and the best way to run a government

12. Laozi on Dao and Name/Language
The opening passage: “A Dao that can be followed is not a constant Dao. A name that can be named is not a constant name. Nameless, it is the beginning of Heaven and Earth; named, it is the mother of the myriad creatures.” (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 ultimate reality is nameless/ineffable, it cannot be depicted by language. It is the names that introduce the taxonomy of objects, and gives rise to multiplicity.

13. Liu : The world as we know it is the result of the combined contribution of the-reality-as-it-is and our human conception manifested in human language.
vs. the rectification of names to make sure language is in accordance with the truth of things (Confucianism)

14. Recall: Rectification of Names 孔子正名
If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things. If language be not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be carried on to success. When affairs cannot be carried on to success, proprieties and music do not flourish. When proprieties and music do not flourish, punishments will not be properly awarded. When punishments are not properly awarded, the people do not know how to move hand or foot. Therefore a superior man considers it necessary that the names he uses may be spoken appropriately, and also that what he speaks may be carried out appropriately. What the superior man requires is just that in his words there may be nothing incorrect. — Confucius, Analects, Book XIII, Chapter 3, verses 4-7 (descriptive vs. prescriptive roles of names)

15. Dao and language Different interpretations: Dao is ineffable
Laozi’s project of depicting Dao is self-defeating(?)
Dao is not really ineffable
There are different readings to these passages

16. Dao and the world
Is Dao the totality of the world, or is it an ontologically prior state of the world?
Some: the totality
Some: Dao is self-subsisting, the “Non-being”, which is prior to, and responsible for, the production of the “Being”. (temporal relation vs. logical relation)

17. Laozi’s depictions of Dao
Dao is Non-being: “all things in the world came from being. And being comes from non-being.” (天 下萬物生於有，有生於無。ch40)
Dao is empty and yet its function is inexhaustible: “Dao is empty, yet use will not drain it. Deep, it is like the ancestor of the myriad creatures.”(道沖而 用之，或不盈。淵兮似萬物之宗。ch4)
Dao has an ontological status as the foundation of things.

18. Laozi’s depictions of Dao
3. Dao is constant or eternal: “soundless and formless, it depends on nothing and does not change.” (寂兮寥兮，獨立而 不改。Ch25) “To return to destiny is called the eternal [Dao]. To know the eternal is called enlightenment.” (復命曰常，不 知常，妄作凶。知常容、容乃公，公乃全，全乃天，天乃 道，道乃久，沒身不殆。ch16） 4. Dao exists prior to the whole universe, including heaven and earth: “there was something undifferentiated and yet complete, which existed before heaven and earth … it may be considered the mother of the universe.” (有物混成，先天地生… 可以為 天下母。吾不知其名，字之曰道。ch25）

19. Laozi’s depictions of Dao
5. Dao generates the world: “Dao produces the myriad of things and virtue fosters them … Dao produces them but does not take possession of them.” (道生之，德蓄之… 生而弗有， 為而弗恃，長而弗宰，是謂玄德。ch51) “Dao produced the One and the One produced the two. The two produced the three. And the three produced the ten thousand things.” (道生一，一生二，二生三，三生萬物 ch42: 大道之生，渾淪 為一、「不可言說」，「不可言說」，分裂為二、轉為「可 說」；既為「可說」，參合天地、成就為「說」；「說」必 有指，指向對象，構成「萬物」。或用陰陽、兩儀四象八卦 萬物變化來解)

20. Reflection: From non-being (wu 無) to being
Wu, used as the negation of being, stands for “what is not there”, which is not an independent state, but complement the state “what is there”.
Laozi ch11: “By adding and removing clay we form a vessel. But only by relying on what is not there, do we have use of the vessel.”（埏埴以為器，當其無，有器之用。）
- Being and Non-being are independent of, and complementary to, each other. Non-being generates Being, but it is also immanent/inherent in Being.

21. Laozi’s depictions of Dao
6. Dao is one and undifferentiated – it cannot be carved up by human conception: “There was something undifferentiated and yet complete, which existed before heaven and earth.” (有物混成，先天地生。Ch25) 7. Dao is not perceivable by the senses, it does not have observable physical attributes: “We look at it and do not see it; its name is The Invisible … This is called shape without shape, form without object.” (視之不見名曰夷，此三者不可 致詰，故混而為一。繩繩不可名，復歸於無物。是謂無狀 之狀，無物之象，是謂惚恍。Ch14 )

22. Laozi’s depictions of Dao
8. Dao is ineffable, cannot be described through language. It cannot fit into our conceptual scheme. Human concepts is formed on the basis of detecting similarities and differences among categories of things. But Dao transcends all divisions. Hence, it cannot be captured by concepts. Combining 7 and 8, we can say that Dao is cognitively closed to us. 9. Dao is nameless. Because Dao is imperceptible, undifferentiated, and indescribable, we cannot even give it a name. “Dao is forever nameless … Only when it is cut are there names. As soon as there are names, one ought to know that it is time to stop.”(道常無名，樸… 始制有名，名亦既 有，夫亦將知止；知止，可以不殆。ch32)

23. Reflection: Dao and Language
Liu: In an abstract sense, we humans “produce” myriad things by naming them. Dao, on the other hand, had already produced myriad things without naming them. If there is such a pre-language world, to which Laozi assigns the title “Dao”, then this world is not constructed out of our conceptual schemes. In other words, Laozi did not entertain the possibility that it is we who created or constructed Dao. Dao is the way things “naturally are”. We can only copy from it through our observation of the operations of heaven and earth. The way the world naturally is exists prior to our own existence and is the source of our conception. Even if there were no humans, no languages, no concepts, there would still be the way the world naturally is.

24. Daodejing, a self-defeating project?
If Dao exists prior to language and cannot be spoken of, then how can Laozi even attempt to capture it in words?
If Dao exists independently of the human mind, then how can Laozi himself comprehend it?
If Dao is imperceptible and incognizable, then why can Laozi alone see it?
If our descriptions and our theories are bound to be inadequate, how can Laozi use such adjectives as “female”, “empty”, “inactive”, “constant”, etc. to describe Dao?

25. Laozi’s depictions of Dao
10. Dao models itself after “nature”. (人法地，地法天，天法 道，道法自然。Ch25） “Nature” cannot be the totality of the natural world as we know it (or contradiction). Wang: “nature” is a natural process of “self-becoming”. “Nature” is not a separate entity from Dao. Liu: Dao in this context may be a moral principle, not a metaphysical principle. 11. The Dao is the female principle, which represents the soft, the passive, the infant, and other similar attributes.

26. Reflection: The Moral Dimension of Dao
The way of heaven, the source or the ultimate guideline for human morals.
Morality consists in imitating Dao, acing in accordance with Dao, which transcends human conception of the good, not relative to different cultures.
The all-embracing quality of the great virtue [De] follows alone from the [Dao]. (ch21:孔德之容，唯道是從。) De may be understood as the application of Dao.
The moral virtues: being subtle, mysterious, yielding, receptive, and self-effacing.

27. Prefer passive to active? Nietzsche’s Slave Mentality?
2 interpretations:
Graham: Laozi advices to prefer passaive to active.
Hansen/Kaltenmark: Laozi’s point is not to advocate negative values, but to teach people to forget the actual distinction between the positive and the negatives. The Daoist considered all social values to be prejudices, and as such, wrong, because they cloud reality and land us in the vicious circle of contradictions. The point is to get out of this circle by transcending it. (Liu: Zhuangzi’s idea)

28. Wu-wei/non-action 3 interpretations, all compatible with the text:
Doing nothing! (not to interfere.)
The agent not having intentions/deliberative effort in actions (about attitude)
An action which does not force, but yields. (about attitude?? Also about the kind of action taken. Responding to natural patterns and not to impose)

29. Discussion
If everything originates from Dao, is one’s intention also from Dao? If yes, then why human actions would interfere nature? If not, then where do human intentions come from?

30. Confucius’ Effortless Rulership
The Master said, "May not Shun be instanced as having governed efficiently without exertion? What did he do? He did nothing but gravely and reverently occupy his royal seat.” (15.4) Ji Kang Zi asked Confucius about government, saying, "What do you think of killing the wicked and associating with the good?” Confucius replied, "In your government what is the need of killing? If you desire what is good, the people will be good. The character of a ruler is like wind and that of the people is like grass. In whatever direction the wind blows, the grass always bends.” (12.19)

31. Confucius’ Effortless Rulership
The Master said, "He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it.” (2.1) The Master said, "If the people be led by laws, and uniformity sought to be given them by punishments, they will try to avoid the punishment, but have no sense of shame. If they be led by virtue, and uniformity sought to be given them by the rules of propriety, they will have the sense of shame, and moreover will become good.” (2.3)

32. Compare Laozi’s and Confucius’ conception of ideal action

33. For Next Time Read assigned material for 5/8: Zhuangzi 1.pdf
Raise 2 thoughtful questions about the material and send them to our assistant (吳昱錡, due 5/7 Thursday at 5pm.