A Short History of Chinese Philosophy (16 page)

King-sun Lung, too, discovered what lies beyond shapes and features, because the universals he discussed can likewise not be objects of experience. One can see a while something, but one cannot see the universal whiteness as such. All universals that are indicated by names lie in a world beyond shapes and features, though not all universals in that world have names to indicate them. In that world, hardness is hardness and whiteness is whiteness, or as Kung-sun Lung said: "Each is alone and true." (Kung-sun Lung-tzu, ch. 5.)

Hui Shih spoke of "loving all things equally, ' and Kung-sun Lung also wished to extend his argument in order to correct the relations between names and actualities, so as thus to transform the whole world. (Ibid., ch. 1.) Both men thus apparently considered their philosophy as comprising the

Too of sageliness within and kingliness without. But it was left to the Taoists fully to apply the discovery made by the School of Names of what lies beyond shapes and features. The Taoists were the opponents of this school, but they were also its true inheritors. This is illustrated by the fact that Hui Shih was a great friend ol Chuang Tzu.

148 THE SCHOOL OF NAMES

CHAPTER 9

D PHASE OF TAOISM: LAO TZU

ACCORDING to tradition, Lao Tzu (a name which literally means the "Old Master") was a native of the state of Ch'u in the southern part of the present Honan province, and was an older contemporary of Confucius, whom he is reputed to have instructed in ceremonies. The book bearing his name, the Lao-tzu, and in later times also known as the Too Te Clung (Classic of the Way and Power), has therefore been traditionally regarded as the first philosophical work in Chinese history. Modern scholarship, however, has forced us drastically to change this view and to date it to a time considerably after Confucius.

Lao Tzu the Man and Lao-tzu the Book

Two questions arise in this connection. One is about the date of the man, Lao Tzu (whose family name is said to have been Li, and personal name, Tan), and another about the date of the book itself.

There is no necessary connection between the two, for it is quite possible thai there actually lived a man known as Lao Tan who was senior to Confucius, but that the book titled the Lao-tzu is a later production. This is the view I take, and it does not necessarily contradict the traditional accounts of Lao Tzu the man, because in these accounts there is no statement that the man, Lao Tzu, actually wrote the book by that name. Hence I am willing to accept the traditional stories about Lao Tzu the man, while at the same time placing the book, Lao-tzu, in a later period. In fact, I now believe the date of the book to be later than I assumed when I wrote my History of Chinese Philosophy. I now believe it was written or composed after Hui Shih and Kung-sun Lung, and not before, as I there indicated. This is because the Lao-tzu contains considerable discussion about the Nameless, and in order to do this it would seem that men should first have become conscious of the existence of names themselves.

My position does not require me to insist that there is absolutely no connection between Lao Tzu the man and Lao-tzu the book, for the book may

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indeed contain a few sayings of the original Lao Tzu. What I maintain, however, is that the system of thought in ihe book as a whole cannot be the product of a time either before or contemporary with thai of Confucius. In the pages following, however, to avoid pedantry, 1 shall refer to Lao Tzu as having said so and so, instead of stating that the book Lao-tzu says so and so, just as we today still speak of sunrise and sunset, even though we know very well that the sun ilself actually neither rises nor sets.

Tan, the Unnamable

In the last chapter, we have seen that the philosophers of the School of Names, through the study of names, succeeded in discovering that which lies beyond shapes and features. Most people, however, think only in terms of what lies williin shapes and features, that is, the actual world. Seeing the actual, they have no diflieulty in expressing it, and though they use names for it, they are not conscious that they are names. So when the philosophers of the School of Names started to think aboul ihe names themselves, this thought represented a great advance. To think about names is to think about thinking. It is thought about thought and therefore is thought on a higher level.

All things that lie within shapes and features have names, or, at least, possess the possibility of having names. They are namable. But in contrast with what is namable, Lao Tzu speaks aboul ihe unnamable.

Not everything that lies beyond shapes and leatures is unnamable. Universals, for instance, lie beyond shapes and features, yet they are not unnamable. But on the other hand, what is unnamable most certainly does lie beyond shapes and features. The Tim or Way of the Taoists is a concept of this sort.

In the first chapter of the Lao-tzu we find the statement: "The Too that can be comprised in words is nol the eternal Too; the name that can be named is not the abiding name. The Unnamable is the beginning of Heaven and Earth; the namable is the mother of all things." And in chapter thirty-two: The Too is eternal, nameless, the Uncarved Block...Once the block is carved, there are names." Or in chapter forty-one: "The Too, lying hid, is nameless." In the Taoist system, there is a distinction between yu (being) and wu (non-being), and between yu—ming (having—name, namable) and wu— ming (having-no-name, unnamable). These two distinctions are in reality only one, for yu and wu are actually simply abbreviated terms for yu—ming and wu—ming. Heaven and Earth and all things are namables.

Thus Heaven has the name of Heaven, Earth the name Earth, and each kind of thing has the name of that kind. There being Heaven, Earth and all things, it follows that there are the names of Heaven, Earth, and all things. Or as Lao Tzu says: "Once the Block is carved, there are names." The Too, however, is unnamable; at the same time it is thai by which all namables come to be. This is why Lao Tzu says: 'The Unnamable is the beginning of Heaven and

152 THE SECOND PHASE OF TAOISM:LAO TZU

Earth; the namable is the mother of all things."

Since the Tao is unnamable, it therefore cannot be comprised in words. But since we wish to speak about it, we are forced to give it some kind of designation. We therefore call it Tao, which is really not a name at all. That is to say, to call the Tao Tao, is not the same as to call a table table. When we call a table table, we mean that it has some attributes by which it can be named. But when we call the Tao Tao, we do not mean that it has any such namable attributes. It is simply a designation, or to use an expression common in Chinese philosophy, Tao is a name which is not a name. In Chapter twenty-one of the Lao —tzu it is said: From the past to the present, its [Too's] name has not ceased to be, and has seen the beginning [of all things]." The Tao is that by which anything and everything comes to be. Since there are always things, Tao never ceases to be and the name of Too also never ceases to be. It is the beginning of all beginnings, and therefore it has seen the beginning of all things. A name that never ceases to be is an abiding name, and such a name is in reality not a name at all. Therefore it is said: "The name that can be named is not the abiding name."

"The Unnamable is ihe beginning of Heaven and Earth." This proposition is only a formal and not a positive one. That is to say, it fails to give any information about matters of fact. The Taoists thought that since there are things, there must be that by which all these things come to be. This "that" is designated by them as Tao, which, however, is really not a name. The concept of Tao, too, is a formal and not a positive one. Thai is to say, it does not describe anything about what it is through which all things come to be. All we can say is that Tao, since it is that through which all things come to be, is necessarily not a mere thing among these other things. For if it were such a thing, it could not at the same time be that through which all things whatsoever come to be. Every kind of thing has a name, but Tao is not itself a thing. Therefore it is "nameless, the Uncarved Block.

Anything that comes to be is a being, and there are many beings. The coming to be of beings implies that first of all there is Being. These words, "first of all," here do not mean first in point of time, but first in a logical sense. For instance, if we say there was first a certain kind of animal, then man, the word first in this case means first in point of time. But if we say that first there must be animals before there are men, the word "first" in this case means first in a logical sense. The statement about the origin oi the species" makes an assertion about matters of fact, and required many years observation and study by Charles Darwin before it could be made. But the second of our sayings makes no assertion about matters of fact. It simply says that the existence of men logically implies the existence of animals. In the same way, the being of all things implies the being of Being. This is the meaning of Lao Tzu's saying: "All things in the world come into being from Being (Yu); and Being comes into being from Non-being (Wu). (Ch. 40.)

This saying of Lao Tzu does not mean that there was a time when there 154 THE SECOND PHASE OF TAOISM:LAO TZU

was only Non—being, and that then there came a time when Being came into being from Non-being. It simply means that if we analyze the existence of things, we see there must first be Being before there can be any things. Too is the unnamable, is Non—being, and is that by which all things come to be.

Therefore, before the being of Being, there must be Non-being, from which Being comes into being.

What is here said belongs to ontology, not to cosmology. It has nothing to do with time and actuality.

For in time arid actuality, there is no Being; there are only beings.

There are many beings, but there is only one Being. In the Lao-tzu it is said: From Too there comes one. From one there comes two. From two there comes three. From three there comes all things."(Ch.

42.) The "one" here spoken of refers to Being. To say that "from Too comes one," is the same as that from Non-being comes Being. As for two and three, there are many interpretations. But this saying, that "from one there comes two. From two there comes three. From three there comes all things, may simply be the same as saying that from Being come all things. Being is one, and two and three arc the beginning of the many.

The Invarialile Law of NiUure

In the final chapter of the Chuang-tzu, "The World," it is said that ihe leading ideas of Lao Tzu are those of the T m Yi or Super One, and of Being, Non—being, and the invariable. The Super One is the Too. From the Too comes one, and therefore Too itself is the "Super One." The "invariable is a translation of the Chinese word ch ang, which may also be translated as eternal or abiding. Though things are ever changeable and changing, the laws that govern this change of things are not themselves changeable. Hence in the Lao-tzu the word ch'ang is used to show what is always so, or in other words, what can be considered as a rule. For instance, Lao Tzu tells us: "The conquest of the world comes invariably from doing nothing." (Ch. 48.) Or again: "The way of Heaven has no favorites, it is invariably on the side of the good man. (Ch. J<).)

Among the laws that govern the changes of things, the most fundamental is that "when a thing reaches one extreme, it reverts from it." These are not the actual words of Lao Tzu, but a common Chinese saying, the idea of which no doubt comes from Lao Tzu. Lao Tzu s actual words are: Reversing is the movement of the Tim" (Ch. 40), and: "To go further and further means to revert again." (Ch. 15.) The idea is that if anything develops certain extreme qualities, those qualities invariably revert to become their opposites.

This constitutes a law of nature. Therefore: "It is upon calamity that blessing leans, upon blessing that calamity rests. (Ch. 58.) Those with little will acquire, those with much will be led astray. (Ch. 2.2.) A hurricane never lasts the whole morning, nor a rainstorm the whole day." (Ch. 23.) "The most yielding things in ihe world master the most unyielding." (Ch. 43.) 156 . THE SF.COND PHASE OF TAO1SM:LAO TZU

"Diminish a thing and it will increase. Increase a thing and it will diminish." (Ch. 42-) All these paradoxical theories are no longer paradoxical, if one understands the fundamental law of nature. But to the ordinary people who have no idea of this law, they seem paradoxical indeed. Therefore Lao Tzu says: "The gentleman of the low type, on hearing the Truth, laughs loudly at it. If he had not laughed, it would not suffice to be the Truth." (Ch: 41)

It may be asked: Granted that a thing, on reaching an extreme, then reverts, what is meant by the word "extreme '? Is there any absolute limit for the development of anything, going beyond which would mean going to the extreme? In the Lao-tzu no such question is asked and therefore no answer is given.

But if there had been such a question, 1 think Lao Tzu would have answered that no absolute limit can be prescribed for all things under all circumstances. So far as human activities are concerned, the limit for the advancement of a man remains relative to his subjective feelings and objective circumstances.

Isaac Newton, for example, felt that compared with the total universe, his knowledge of it was no more than ihe knowledge of the sea possessed by a boy who is playing al the seashore. With such a feeling as this, Newton, despite his already great achievements in physics, was still far from reaching the limits of advancement in his learning. If, however, a student, having just finished his textbook on physics, thinks that he then knows all there is to know about science, he certainly cannot make further advancement in his learning, and will as certainly revert back. Lao Tzu tells us: If people of wealth and exalted position are arrogant, they abandon themselves to unavoidable ruin." (Ch. 9.) Arrogance is the sign that one s advancement has reached its extreme limit. It is the first thing that one should avoid.