On Daoism

 A few weeks ago–while I was still a working man–Susan asked me if I’d do a post on Daoism once I became a man of leisure. Now that I am enjoying my (partial–I’ve stayed on as a contractor) retirement, I’m here to honor that request. ‘Cause I totally dig Susan and appreciate all she has contributed to this forum.

I “converted” to Daoism at the ripe young age of 20 or 21. I struggled to answer when people would ask, “What’s a Daoist believe.” By the time I came up with a decent answer, people had stopped asking. So thanks Susan for the opportunity to give my answer: A Daoist believes it doesn’t matter what you believe; what matters is how you live. 

OK then, so how shall we live according to Daoism?

A sampling: Pay attention to how things work. Don’t force square pegs into round holes. Don’t be too impressed with yourself, your beliefs, your opinions. Don’t force your way on others. Accept everything. Hang back; learn what matters.

A quick linguistic note:

“Taoism” and “Daoism” are two different spellings of the same word. Similarly, Lao Tzu = Laozi, and Chuang Tzu = Zhuangzi.  [Skip to the next section if you don’t care how we got there]. There are different systems of rendering Chinese words in a Western alphabet. An older system is called Wade-Giles, which renders a “T” sound as “T’” (T with an apostrophe) and a “D” sound as a “T” (T without an apostrophe). This has largely been replaced by Hanyu pinyin, in which a “T” sound is represented with a “T” and a “D” sound is represented with a “D.” So “Taoism” is Wade-Giles and “Daoism” is Hanyu pinyin. Either way, it’s pronounced “Dow-ism.” I generally use pinyin, but sometimes slip into Wade-Giles due to convention.

Two flavors of Daoism

There are (at least) two forms of Daoism, and they’re quite different. 

• Early philosophical Daoism draws on the early Daoist classics and is not explicitly religious, though it is often thought of as spiritual and mystical.

• Religious Daoism draws heavily on Chinese folk religion as well as the Daoist classics and has various gods.

I don’t know much about religious Daoism and will focus on early philosophical Daoism.  That’s what I’m more familiar with and what I  identify with.

Major texts

The primary texts of Daoism are:

• Tao Te Ching (Wade-Giles) aka Daodejing (pinyin)--pronounced “Dow-duh-jing.” This one is almost always referred to by the older spelling, Tao Te Ching. Attributed to Lao Tzu (aka Laozi, pronounced “Lao-dzuh”), it’s written in verse and dates from 4th to 3rd century BCE. It is short, composed of 81 short chapters.

• Chuang Tzu (Wade-Giles) aka Zhuangzi (pinyin)--pronounced “Jwong-dzuh.” Attributed to Zhuangzi, this one is prose and came a little while after Tao Te Ching. It’s a wild ride.

What is the Dao?

Dao translates roughly as “way” or “path.” It’s viewed as the source of everything as well as the way to live. So fancy that: maybe the source is an adverb, not a noun.

How about we close with a couple of quotes from the original sources?

Tao Te Ching:

The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.

The name that can be named is not the eternal name. 

Zhuangzi:

Uncle Lack-Limb and Uncle Lame-Gait were seeing the sights at Dark Lord Hill and the wastes of K'un-lun, the place where the Yellow Emperor rested. Suddenly a willow sprouted out of Uncle Lame-Gait's left elbow. He looked very startled and seemed to be annoyed.

"Do you resent it?" said Uncle Lack-Limb.

"No-what is there to resent?" said Uncle Lame-Gait. "To live is to borrow. And if we borrow to live, then life must be a pile of trash. Life and death are day and night. You and I came to watch the process of change, and now change has caught up with me. Why would I have anything to resent?"

OK then! I hope you’ve enjoyed this little primer on Daoism. Comment away!