《道德經》的另類解讀

本人不是學文的，但對老子很著迷。我對他的理解也許太簡單，甚至荒唐。如你對《道德經》感興趣，請留言。

A new understanding on the political philosophy and ethics of Daoism

Introduction

Dao De Jing (道德經) or The book of Tao and Teh was written about 2500 years ago by Lao Zi (老子Lao Tzu) and there have been many translated versions to the West. The scripture is not considered to be an easy understand or comprehensible even to Chinese scholars because of the way of ancient Chinese writing (i.e., lack of punctuations, words with multiple meaning, and no grammar distinction in tense; Human errors in hand copying and possible arbitrary revisions by scholars over the history). Many philosophical arguments such as the anti-intellectualism, anti-technology, and anti-modernism in the scripture is hard to understand, often misinterpreted, and even harshly criticized largely due to its being against human intuition.

As a well-known story goes, a man went to ask for wisdom from a monk in monastery. The guest was received with a cup of tea. The master started pouring tea into guest's cup until it was completely filled up. To the guest's surprise, the master kept pouring so that water started overflowing out of the cup. So the guest asked for explanation. The master said that one cannot learn unless he unlearns, just like this full cup cannot hold any more tea unless it's emptied. This essay seeks a way of unlearning in interpreting the philosophy and ethics of Daoism from Dao De Jing through discussion of selected chapters from the scripture. As a result, some new insights on Daoism are hopefully produced.

Key Chinese characters

A few characters and definitions need to be clarified before discussion. First and foremost is Dao (道Tao). In modern Chinese, Dao has been combined with De (德Teh) into a phrase and Dao De normally means morality nowadays. Dao has the meaning of higher De (virtue) in Confucianism. In Daoism, however, Dao usually means something beyond the higher virtue. It means the Way, just like in the conventional translation for Daoism, the way nature (Heaven and Earth) runs, or in other words it stands for natural law (the law of nature). Therefore it has validity everywhere in the universe. There are two distinctive Dao's discussed in the scripture: Tian Dao (天道heaven Dao, i.e., Dao) and Ren Dao (人道human Dao). Human Dao is the way people understand and run their world (usually with their own diversified worldview). From epistemological point of view, human Dao can include or can be considered as so-called truth in higher intuition. At the age of modern science, scientific discoveries can be defined in a sense as the facts of nature or "natural truth", i.e., the ever-increasing understanding of natural law, not exactly "human truth". They include scientific theories, theorems, rules, or axioms, etc.

De (德Teh) is formed or generated from Dao in Daoism, and therefore De can be sometimes considered as human Dao (i.e., morality). Virtue in the Western definition is literally equivalent to higher (or wonderful, mystic玄) De in the scripture. Lao Zi also let De lose its morality and that is when De has a new meaning of "character" and "talent" (of people) without sense of good or evil. In addition, De has another meaning that is very different from morality and character. It's replaceable with another De (得) meaning "to gain, to obtain, or to acquire".

The scripture often refers Dao as Wu (無not being, nonexistence, or emptiness) and it is not "nothing" at all, as opposed to Wu (無) commonly used in the daily language. It represents substance that cannot be seen, heard, touched, smelled, and tasted. In other words, it's not the material of nature but substance, the law of nature. De is often referred as You (有being, existence or fullness).

As opposed to You, Wu (無) and sometimes One (一) represents Dao in the scripture. It also stands for the substance prior to the formation of Heaven and Earth. It can not be seen, heard, touched, smelled, or tasted. It's "Qi", similar in concept to the flow of qi (氣) in practice of qigong (氣功ch'i kung - a way of meditation). In another word, it is energy. Using Chapter 42 from the scripture as an example, we can interpret in such way as if Lao Zi is saying that all the matter things in the world (universe) were formed or converted from energy at the very beginning. It just happens that his understanding is consistent with some modern day scientific theory about formation of the universe at the beginning of space and time, i.e., the energy - matter conversion.

After Wu, there comes the most intriguing phrase Wu Wei (無為), which is confusing to and thus misunderstood by us. Wu Wei were often translated in the literature as "inaction" or "do nothing" as in "Do nothing yet through it all things are done." It may take more than Einstein to comprehend Lao Zi's philosophy. Wu Wei is the essence of Lao Zi's political philosophy and the most misinterpreted phrase in the scripture.

Wei (為) in Wu Wei also has multiple meaning. One of them is "to do" and another is "being of purpose" or "do for a purpose for something or somebody". For example, Chairman Mao's most famous quote goes, "Serve the people for the people (為人民服務)". Similarly, Wu Wei can be interpreted as "being not for a purpose" or "do it without a purpose". In fact, Lao Zi talks a lot about "to do", "what to do", and "how to do" in Chapters 8, 37, 63 and 64. As we go through the scripture and dive deep into his mystic and wondrous thoughts, the best interpretation for Wu Wei can be "not to interfere", "not to impose", "not to enforce", "to purposely free or liberate", in other words, "to run (government) with a manner of hands-off management". That is to say, "inaction" is not a good translation.

On Dao

If Chapter one of Dao De Jing is the code to construct Lao Zi's mystic philosophical program, his first sentence is the key to unlock the code. "The way that can be told of is not an eternal and absolute one." It's the typical literal translation of the first sentence. But what does it mean? It sounds like a word play or even nonsense. Let's replace "way" with its synonymies. As we know, the scripture defines two Dao's, i.e., heaven Dao and human Dao. If we replace "way" with heaven Dao in the sentence, it does not tell us much (more than we already know) based on our understanding through the modern day approach. This is because we know that the law of nature is eternal, which is consistent with Lao Zi's arguments about heaven Dao throughout the scripture. If we replace it with human Dao or truth, things become bit more intriguing: "The truth that can be told of is not an eternal and absolute one." What does it mean or imply? Does it imply that there was (is?) no absolute truth (in the human world) because the truth is by definition always (eternally) truthful? If this interpretation is indeed consistent with Lao Zi's implication, is it because that all the truth we learn and preach have been told and realized by human? Even many scientific discoveries (theories, to be exact) are not necessarily truth and they seem to be kept being rediscovered. If so, does it make sense? After all, the history of human civilization put this task on top: seeking the ultimate truth.

"The name (noun) that can be given is no absolute name." It's the second sentence in Chapter 1. Based on the fact that one Chinese character can have multiple meaning. Therefore Lao Zi can be also telling us through this sentence, "Caution, do not misinterpret the names (nouns like Dao) of my writing."

"With no desire, one can see the mystery and essence of Dao; With desire he can observe the scale and grandness of Dao." It's the fourth sentence in Chapter 1. With the assertion of seeking truth, human venture out and achieve great achievements like changing the world, only to learn the grand scale of Dao - knowledge is boundless and limitless. On the contrary, letting go of the desire of seeking out, following the way of nature is just like you already get the first principle and comprehend the essence of Dao.

On the ontological description of Dao in Chapter 42, Lao Zi put Dao ahead of Heaven and Earth because the formation of Heaven and Earth followed Dao, the law of nature. Dao also runs Heaven and everything on Earth after the formation of Earth, therefore, Dao is both transcendent and immanent. Compared with Confucianism that is a Chinese philosophy mainly on ethics, Daoism is well-known to be a complete philosophical system concerning ontology, political philosophy, dialectics, and ethics. The metaphysics of Daoism is believed to have helped in shaping the way of Chinese thinking of the universe, Heaven and Earth, nature and gods. Human being not gods or supernatural being have been the central idea of the Chinese philosophy and culture until today.

Interpretation of the first sentence proposed in this essay easily gets support from the scripture. Lao Zi points out that human Dao never obeys or follows heaven Dao in a number of Chapters 53, 72-77. For example in Chapter 53, "The great Dao (grand way) is broad and straight, yet some prefer the bypath; Government is corrupted, farm field is weeded, and granaries are running empty; Wearing elegant gowns with fancy swords, enjoying sumptuous banquets, and possessing excessive wealth. This is grand robbery, and this cannot be Dao!"

In Chapter 73, "Being brave to stand out is to get killed, and being brave not to stand out is to live. These two acts, gain or lose, both are condemned by Heaven; Who knows the reason? Heaven's net is coarse but vast without bound, and nothing slips through." In Chapter 74, "People don't fear death, how can one threaten them with death? Someone wants to take the executioner's place, is like handling hatchet for the carpenter. One can rarely escape hurting his own hands." In Chapter 77, "Heaven Dao is to take something away from the excessive to make up for the short; Human Dao is just the opposite, taking away from the short (poor) to feed the excessive (rich)."

It's apparent that Lao Zi targeted his detest and cynicism toward the oppressing rulers at his time, and yet his view of the existence of suffering and injustice in the human world is universal in place and time. Therefore Lao Zi declares his version of kingdom (world) order in Chapter 25, "Human obeys (follow the way of) Earth, Earth follows Heaven, Heaven follows Dao, and Dao follows itself, the law of nature."

The epistemology of Daoism

The epistemology of Daoism has been harshly criticized as being "idealism" in modern China. Chapter 47 gives away the hard evidence. "Saint knows the world without stepping out of his door, and he understands heaven Dao without peeping out of his window. The farther you travel, the less you know. For Saint, he knows without travelling, understands without seeing, and succeeds without action." While many of Lao Zi's thoughts are against intuition, this set of bold statements top them all.

How can anyone know the world without even stepping out (with no television and internet at home)? Common sense is that the more you learn, the wiser you get. If what Lao Zi says makes sense, is it because what you learn is always from the human sources and environment? Is it because what you're influenced by is always the colorful human knowledge and biased human experience? Based on Lao Zi's logic, therefore, the more you learn, the more biased your mind becomes, and the further you deviate away from Dao? If you stay home and learn nothing from the human sources, your mind stays as pure as a blank slate (like an infant) and you hold on to (yet like an infant you do not have to know) the fundamentals of natural law. And you're no different from Saint? Therefore in Lao Zi's way of philosophizing, knowing absolute nothing (about the human wisdom) is the same as knowing Dao. To use an overstretched analogy, a wise man (Saint) is always happy (being with Dao) because he knows everything about happiness (Dao), and an ignorant man (or an infant) is blissful (also being with Dao) because he knows nothing about unhappiness (human Dao). In an absurd sense of Daoism, Saint is no different from a completely ignorant man.

The epistemology of Daoism seems to rely on the 'absurd' extrapolation of Lao Zi's statement about truth, i.e., human Dao. Does it really imply that no absolute truth exists in the human world?

It is often said that human are not perfect or "deeply flawed" in the Western intelligence or theological wisdom. Does this mean that the truth told by human is inherently affected by the human way of thinking, which is therefore deeply flawed?

Looking back in the history of Western religion and philosophy, human have gone through a long way in their quest for the absolute and divine truth. It started with the original belief and understanding of the divine truth from great philosophers in the ancient Greek and Jewish civilization during the axis age, roughly the same era with Lao Zi and Confucius (500 BCE). And it then came through the long period of devout religious faith with great philosophers in the middle ages. The next critical period for Western philosophy was the age of Enlightenment in the 17th through 18th century. The philosophical breakthrough of Enlightenment aspired toward freedom for common people based on reason not faith, natural law and natural rights, and deism. These principles were revolutionary against theocracy and Enlightenment marks a departure from the middle ages of religious authority. While freedom and natural rights have been recognized as the universal values for all mankind, freedom and natural law are apparently consistent or compatible with the principles of Daoism, the classical Eastern philosophy. More recently, from nihilism at the end of the classic philosophy to the meaninglessness and absurdity in existentialism in modern Western philosophy, the divine truth has been in serious crisis more than ever at the age of modern science.

The political philosophy of Wu Wei

With their natural born curiosity and desire, human are hardwired to go out seeking truth, gaining knowledge and experience in an attempt to change themselves and change the world. In the mean time, their understanding of the nature particularly understanding of human themselves including their intra-relationship in society undeniably becomes more tribe-characteristic, opinion-oriented, belief-divided and politically biased. It should give us good ideas by looking into the differences and discrepancies between all religions, cultures and civilizations in the world. As a result of far travelling and ever-close tribe or ethnic interaction since the beginning of modern history, the clash of civilizations in the world has been a continuous unfortunate human affair. Huntington's theory can be a typical collective wisdom against Lao Zi's idea of Wu Wei (non-interference). Many conquests by great conquerors in short and long distance and endless wars both domestic and international over the world have been the inevitable outcome of human relentless effort in seeking so-called truth and frequent manifestation of ambitions in remaking the world order. Can Wu Wei be an antidote for this addiction?

As we go through the epistemology of Daoism, the political philosophy of Wu Wei is not hard to understand anymore. As rulers or superpower are all human (not Saint), anything they do can be most certainly off and against the way of Dao. Therefore they had better not interfere, impose, and enforce the people and rule the kingdom with their hands off. They should give the people maximal freedom and everything should go the way it's supposed to be. Lao Zi even set up a detailed standard for rulers in Chapter 17,

"The best ruler is whom the people hardly ever know about (his existence);
The next best is whom they adore and praise;
The next is whom they are afraid of;
The next is whom they curse.
Governing without trust, you earns no trust.
(Good governing is) Taking it easy and giving few command.
When succeeded, everyone says: we did it and that is the way it's supposed to be."

While we may argue that Lao Zi's Wu Wei idea is too naive and doomed to fail in the real world, the fact is that no rulers in the history of human civilization have ever experimented with Lao Zi's philosophy. With all the people are now "mind-contaminated" more than ever, however, such experiment is out of the question.

On the other hand, to successfully carry out the Wu Wei governance, rulers must implement the obscurant policy in public at the same time or beforehand. Because as soon as people learn and get smart, they gain unnatural desire, ambition, greed, and will to change others and change the world. In other words, if the knowledge we acquire, the experience we obtain, and the wisdom we figure are all human (not godly), the indication is nothing but clear: The more civilized we become, the farther we deviate away form Dao, the divine law of nature. As an inevitable result, social harmony is disturbed and disputes and disorder rise. This only means that rulers or superpower have to do something to interfere or enforce (Wu Wei turns to You Wei just like in today's world).

Nevertheless, the political philosophy presented in the scripture has been harshly criticized by both ancient and modern (Chinese) scholars as Lao Zi clearly preaches obscurantism in Chapters 3, 12, 18, 19, 57, 65, and 80.

In Chapter 19, "Abandon wisdom and discard knowledge, and the people benefit much more; Abandon love and discard moral behavior, people get back their family love; Abandon tools and skills, robbers and thieves vanish. Guide the people so that they keep their innocence, embrace their simplicity, reduce their selfishness, and cut their desire. Abandon learning and there will be no worry."

And in Chapter 3, "Empty their mind, fill their stomach, weaken their ambition, and toughen their bones. Always guide the people so that they live without knowledge and desire."

Is Lao Zi trying to turn human into animals? The most likely answer is yes. This is an implication of so-called "Heaven and human become one (天人合一)", which has been promoted in Daoism for millennium. There is unlikely other hidden messages or twisted philosophy involved in the expression.

In particular, Lao Zi's obscurant policy must be carried out with the rule of Saint in practice. As opposed to the universal value in the modern world, rule of law is not recommended by Lao Zi in the scripture. The result of obscurantism coupled with rulers with great ambitions or desires will be catastrophic - dictatorship coupled with absolute obedience. In general, (Chinese) obscurantism is explicitly associated with the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang (259 BCE - 210 BCE), who was considered as the most infamous ruling oppressor in the history of China. We need to understand that Lao Zi's obscurantism is fundamentally different from what is closely associated with Qin and other ruthless oppressors. Lao Zi's obscurant policy must be paired up with his Wu Wei governance. And integration of Wu Wei and obscurantism is the way of Dao. As described in Chapter 80, the ideal kingdom for Lao Zi is almost like a sweet dream of an innocent child:

"Small nation with a few people.
There are all the tools for men but not to use; lead the people so that they value their lives too much to travel far.
There are boats and vehicle but not to ride, and there can be weapons, but nowhere to use.
Guide the people so that they go back and live the old way of life and use knotted ropes for bookkeeping instead of writing.
Let them love their food, beautify their clothing, be satisfied with their homes, and be happy with their rural way of life.
Neighboring nation can be outlooked, and residents can hear roosters and dogs from the other side; but people would grow old and die without ever visiting one another."

The ethics of Daoism

From the perspective of Daoism, human being have long reached a point of no return in history since the beginning of civilization till modern day of globalization. With all the intellectual achievements, we can no longer return to the old way of life. Did Lao Zi know or envision that? He certainly did. The world 2500 years ago was not much different from today's world. Under the heaven then was only the middle kingdom known to its inhabitants. Now the world had become much larger in (square) distance since the opium war and yet the modern communication technology has made it small in time since the advent of digital age. The world changed from cube to round, round to flat, and flat to curve, and curve to more biased. However, something has not changed very much compared with the ancient middle kingdom 2500 years ago - people are still wedging wars against each other.

"Small nation and a few citizens" was Lao Zi's utopia and also his Plan A for mankind. However, he knew that we are born or created to be curious, to learn, to adventure, to discover, and to destroy. It's bound to happen because we all have beliefs and live with fellow human in a society. We're all political and social animals as Aristotle said. Lao Zi knew that Plan A does not work, so he had Plan B for us.

What is Lao Zi's Plan B? It's in the ethics of Daoism. Lao Zi use only one character or one phrase to represent his idea of ethics: yield (讓) or not to contend (不爭). A better translation for his idea is "be humble, be modest" or in the Western philosophical term for his ethics is "altruism". If we go through the scripture, Lao Zi used 20 out of 81 chapters in Dao De Jing to illustrate his altruism (2, 7-10, 13, 22, 44, 49, 51, 58, 61, 63, 64, 66, 68, 72, 79 and 81).

For example in Chapter 49, "Saint cares for the people prior to himself. When he is treated with the good, he repays with the good; When he is not treated with the good, he still repays with the good; (Everybody) gains the good. When he is treated with honesty, he repays with honesty; When he is not treated with honesty, he still repays with honesty; (Everybody) gains honesty."

In Chapter 63, "Big or small, many or few, repay hatred with virtue." It sounds like an echo of "Turn the other cheek". We need to mention that "Repay hatred with virtue" is not promoted in Confucianism. Confucius says, "Repay virtue with virtue. Repay hatred with righteousness."

Chapter 66,
"Why can rivers and seas be the king of valleys? By being humble and low;
To be on top of (lead) the people, Saint must speak with humility and modesty;
To be ahead of (lead) the people, Saint must stay behind them (for fame and interest).
Saint is on top yet the people feel no weight, and he is ahead yet they feel no harm.
Therefore, everybody supports him with satisfaction.
Not to contend and nobody will contend against you."

In Chapter 79, "Saint keeps the 'IOU' but never asks for payback. With virtue is like Saint, and without virtue is like the tax collector." From these statements we can clearly see Lao Zi is a devout advocate of altruism.

The discussion of egoism versus altruism has been going on for a long time in the West and East, and it's one of those great philosophical debates such as free will versus determinism in the West. Nobody can convince their opponents. Instead of trying to reason out why we should be altruistic, Lao Zi took a different approach. He used a number of chapters (e.g., 43, 76, and 78) to prove his point with facts of "softness defeating hardness" in the natural world, which is the main idea of his dialectics of Daoism.

For instance in Chapter 43, "The softest thing rides (overcomes) the hardest thing in the world. Formless (Dao) can penetrate the seamless, and so I realize the power and benefit of Wu Wei and let things run the way it's supposed to be."

Chapter 78,
"Nothing is as soft and weak as water, but none beats water in overcoming the hard and strong, for nothing can take its place.
Weak can defeat strong and soft can overcome hard;
Everybody knows it yet nobody acts on it.
Saint says,
'Only he who can bear humiliation for the nation can be leader of the nation;
Who can endure calamity for the nation can be king.'
Truthful words (sometimes) sound just like the opposite."

In the history of altruism versus egoism debate, philosophers went through Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Bentham, Mill, and Moore and tried to find an underlying structure that explains and justifies the human ethical intuition. And the question still remains. Recently, two areas of scientific research promise a great understanding of social ethics outside "the love of wisdom". The game theory and sociobiology may have helped us in sorting out the debate. Sociobiology was introduced in the work of E. O. Wilson and further developed by Richard Dawkins. The game theory invented by John von Neumann was applied to questions of social dynamics and further developed by Robert Axelrod in the iterated Prisoner's Dilemma. In a brief interpretation, both research areas may have alternatively provided an intellectual solution to the idea of ethics and found "the first or original cause" for us. It suggests that our ethical intuitions are nothing more than successful strategies and theory (law) of evolution.

Should we make a distant yet logic connection between these modern scientific achievements and the idea of ancient Daoism, theory (law) of evolution would clearly be a great subject for interdisciplinary study in the future. If evolution is a law of nature (yet to be proven to everybody), then evolution clearly belongs to Lao Zi's heaven Dao in a sense. Therefore, it indicates that Lao Zi had underlaid the structure for his and our social ethics within the area of philosophy and provided the inherent justification for our ethical intuitions in his Plan B 2500 years ago.

Concluding remarks

In conclusion, let's take home Lao Zi's three treasures from Chapter 67 as our free gift:

"I have three treasures (for you), keep and guard them:
First is love, second is less interference, and third is dare not to be the number one (for fame and interest);
Love for fortitude, less interference for more space (to win support), and not to be the number one can lead."
In a short interpretation, Lao Zi's three treasures are love, Wu Wei, and humility. They pretty much sum up all his ideas of humanitarianism, political philosophy and ethics in the scripture.