“How could things have been as they are, were not there an original, inherent principle of order somewhere, in thought or in matter?…Every thing is surely governed by steady, inviolable laws. ” – David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion.
In the last part we saw how Zhuangzi deconstructs human reasoning, inexact knowledge, and dogma and promotes one ultimate Truth, the Tao. Today we will look at his understanding of the Tao as the original source and underlying functioning of existence. He discovers it not through reason, but from his experience of reality – be it external, internal, or mystical.
A careful reading of Zhuangzi’s written record suggests his concept of Tao manifests four key features:
- Tao is the universal way of things, the all-pervading principle of all that exists and the virtue and power of individuals.1 Tao then is immanent and pervasive throughout the world. While it is indescribable, it is not hidden, but revealed in everything as Te (virtue or power).
- Tao is the beginning of all being – hence may be understood as non-being. “In the very beginning, there was non-being, and non-being has no name.” In other words Tao is wu or non-being from which originated all creation (the cosmos, earth, individual things), that is, yu or being.2
- Tao is responsible for Nature’s quintessential feature: ceaseless, spontaneous and unstoppable change which inculcates all existing things.3 In contrast change due to human interference creates conflict in the natural order, but in the end Tao will prevail.4 Tao then is the immutable law. Zhaungzi offers the following metaphorical story:
“A disciple said to Lu Chu: ‘Master I have got hold of the Way. I can heat the tripod under my furnace in the winter. I can make ice in summer.’ Lu Chu said: ‘That is using only the negative and positive principles in nature. That is not what I call the Way, I shall demonstrate it to you.’ He tuned two lutes and placed one in the hall and one in the adjoining room. And when he strung the kung note on one, the kung note on the other responded. When he strung the chio note on one, the chio note on the other sounded. But if he changed the interval of one string, all the strings jangled. The sound was there. The influence of the key-note as gone.”5
Because of Tao, everything is involved in a universal cyclic motion, but in one sense, humans are unique: by identifying with Tao they can attain the axis of the wheel from which to observe the perpetual disturbance in the universe with transcendental calm. 6
- Tao, for Zhuangzi, is also the highest ideal for all things or “Heaven” (tian) as compared to ren, the lower ideal prescribed by cultural institutions and philosophers. Ren includes abstract ideas as shelfei “right” and “wrong”7 which Zhuangzi discredits as relative, artificial, ultimately interchangeable. The Tao or “The Way” is the unchanging ideal of Heaven both for the world and for people who live in it.8 In Zhuangzi’s words:
“It is Heaven’s Tao to journey and gather no moss, thus all forms of life are brought to perfection.”9
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1Magill, Frank N. and McGreal, Ian P. (editors), Masterpieces of World Philosophy. HarperCollinsPublishers, 1990. ISBN 0-06-270051-0, page 97.
2Ibid., page 102.
3Ibid., page 98.
4Ibid., page 102.
5Beck, L. Adams, The Story of Oriental Philosophy. The New Home Library, New York, 1942. Page 369.
6Magill, Frank N. and McGreal, Ian P. (editors), Masterpieces of World Philosophy. HarperCollinsPublishers, 1990. ISBN 0-06-270051-0, page 98.
7Ivanhoe, Philip J. and Van Norder, Bryan W. (editors), Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., Indianapolis/Cambridge, 2001. ISBN-13: 978-0-87220-780-6, pages 207-208.
8Ibid., page 208.
9Palmer, Martin (translator), The Book of Chuang Tzu. Penguin Books, New York, 2006, ISBN-13; 978-0-140-45537-3, pages 106.
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