EAI - 6 - Daoism

Daoism / Taoism

Main distinction

• Philosophical Daoism: daojia 道家.

• Religious Daoism: daojiao 道教.

Exam takeaway

• Do not automatically treat Laozi/Zhuangzi as organized religious Daoism.

Central concept: Dao 道

Point

• Dao = Way.

• Used in all schools, but interpreted differently.

Exam takeaway

• Always specify which Dao: Confucian moral Way, Daoist cosmic Way, Legalist Way, etc.

Three texts Daoism

Important Daoist texts

• Zhuangzi 莊子.

• Laozi 老子 / Daodejing 道德經.

• Liezi 列子.

Exam takeaway

• Zhuangzi and Laozi are the core for this exam.

Zhuangzi

Key facts

• ca. 369–286 BCE.

• Zhuangzi 莊子 = Master Zhuang.

• Original name: Zhuang Zhou 莊周.

• Little known about life.

• Probably from Song.

• Book: Zhuangzi.

Exam takeaway

• Zhuangzi is a Warring States thinker associated with Daoist thought, but his classification is later.

Zhuangzi’s relationship to Daoism

Main idea

• Zhuangzi’s relationship to “Daoism” is historically complicated.

Key points

• Han Daoism centered more on Laozi and Yellow Emperor: Huang-Lao school.

• Zhuangzi was classified under Dao category.

  • His thought differs from Huang-Lao tho.

• Later gradually connected to religious Daoism.

• Common link: focus on Dao.

Exam takeaway

• Daoism is a later umbrella; Zhuangzi was not simply part of one unified Daoist religion from the start.

Book Zhuangzi

Structure

• 33 chapters.

  • Inner chapters: first 7, possibly Zhuangzi’s own.

  • Outer chapters: 8–22, related to Zhuangzi school.

  • Miscellaneous/syncretic chapters: 23–33.

• Current editions based on Guo Xiang’s edition around 300 CE.

Exam takeaway

• Zhuangzi is layered and edited, not a simple single-author book.

Features of the book Zhuangzi

Features

• Humorous!

• Dialogues, anecdotes, parables, fables.

• Excellent language.

• Makes fun of logic.

• Values uselessness.

• Criticizes funeral rites.

• Poetic.

• Positive/relaxed about death.

Exam takeaway

• Zhuangzi uses stories and paradox to challenge ordinary values and rigid thinking.

Important topics Zhuangzi

Key themes

• Follow natural flow.

  • Become one with Dao.

• Reject debate and rigid right/wrong. No this or that, no right or wrong

  • Relativism of language.

  • Truth beyond dualism.

• Criticize profit/usefulness.

  • Alternative lifestyle outside state engagement.

• Relaxed attitude to death.

Exam takeaway

• Zhuangzi rejects rigid moral/political categories and promotes spontaneous alignment with Dao.

Criticism of reason and dualism

Main idea

• Right/wrong distinctions are unstable.

Key points

• Confucians and Mohists overvalue argument.

• What is wrong for one may be right for another.

• Truth cannot be settled by debate.

• Direct insight avoids “this/that.”

• Birth/death, acceptable/unacceptable, right/wrong arise together.

• Wise person does not cling to dualistic categories.

Exam takeaway

• Zhuangzi attacks dualism and rational debate as limited.

Relativism of statements

Main idea

• Language cannot convey ultimate truth.

Key points

• Truth is beyond duality.

  • A tree is only good from human perspective if it had fruit. if it doesnt have fruit it will survive so thats good for the tree.

• Similar later resonance with Buddhism.

Exam takeaway

• Zhuangzi treats language as useful but unable to capture Dao/truth fully.

About right and wrong

Main idea

• Debate cannot prove absolute truth.

Key points

• If you win a debate, does that make you absolutely right?

• Judges are biased depending on standpoint.

• No neutral judge solves the issue.

• Therefore right/wrong are perspectival.

Exam takeaway

• Zhuangzi undermines the idea that argument can establish absolute right and wrong.

Value of uselessness

Main idea

• Uselessness can be useful.

Key points

• Useful trees are cut down.

• Fruit trees are damaged for fruit.

• Useless tree survives peacefully.

• Critique of Mohist usefulness/profit logic.

Exam takeaway

• Zhuangzi reverses ordinary values: uselessness can protect life and freedom.

Ziran 自然 and free roaming

Main idea

• Follow natural flow and avoid losing yourself.

Terms

• 自然 ziran = naturalness / spontaneity.

• 逍遙遊 xiaoyao you = free and easy wandering / roaming freely.

Key points

• Choosing rigidly between this/that causes self-loss.

• Perfect man’s mind is like a mirror.

• He reflects things without clinging to them.

Exam takeaway

• Zhuangzi’s ideal is spontaneous, non-attached responsiveness to the natural flow.

Laozi 老子

Key facts

• Probably 3rd c. BCE, uncertain.

  • No reliable biography.

• Text: Daodejing 道德經.

  • Means “Scripture of the Way and its Power/Virtue.”

  • Extremely translated.

  • Difficult and open to interpretation.

Exam takeaway

• Laozi/Daodejing is central but ambiguous: cosmic, ethical, and political readings are possible.

Main ideas in Laozi

Key points

• Naturalness.

• Harmony with Dao.

• Non-action wuwei 無為.

• Freedom from desire.

Exam takeaway

• Laozi promotes alignment with Dao through simplicity, non-action, and reduced desire.

Dao 道

Main idea

• Dao cannot be fully defined.

Key points

• Cannot be expressed in words.

• Inherent in everything.

• Produces everything, including Heaven and Earth.

Exam takeaway

• In Laozi, Dao is the ineffable source of all reality.

Dao as ontological source

Main idea

• Dao produces all things.

Formula

• Dao → One.

• One → Two.

• Two → Three.

• Three → all things.

Key point

• All things emerge from Dao and are harmonized by qi/breath.

Exam takeaway

• Laozi’s Dao is not just a moral path; it is the ontological source of the cosmos.

Political dimension

Main idea

• Laozi may have a strong political dimension.

Key points

• Possible Legalist influence.

• Rule by non-doing, wuwei 無為.

• Keep people simple/ignorant.

• Easier to rule.

Exam takeaway

• Laozi is not just mystical; it can also be read as political theory of minimal intervention and soft control.

Qi 氣

Main idea

Qi 氣 is life-energy / primordial energy.

Key points

• Qi can mean energy, primordial power, breath, life force.

• It helps achieve ziran 自然, naturalness/spontaneity.

• Qi links body, cosmos, and cultivation.

Why it matters →

• Qi becomes a bridge between:

• Daoist self-cultivation;

  • Chinese cosmology;

  • medicine;

  • later religious Daoism;

  • correlative thinking.

Exam takeaway

Qi is the energetic substance/process that links human life with cosmic naturalness.

The sage / wise man

Main images

• Sage compared to a small child.

• Child is protected by innocence.

• Child contains everything, but undeveloped.

• Therefore: total harmony.

Other images

• Emphasis on female principle, yin 陰.

• Comparison with water:

  • flexible;

  • adaptable;

  • weak, but strongest.

• Soft/weak wins over strong/hard.

Exam takeaway

• The Daoist sage is childlike, soft, flexible, non-aggressive, and harmonized with Dao.

Critique of dualism

Point

• Knowing beauty creates ugliness.

• Knowing skill creates lack of skill.

Exam takeaway

• Laozi criticizes dualistic thinking: opposites define each other.

Opposites generate each other

Pairs

• existence / non-existence;

• difficulty / ease;

• long / short;

• high / low;

• musical notes / tones;

• before / behind.

Exam takeaway

• Laozi sees opposites as relational, not absolute.

Mingjia 名家, School of Names

Names

• School of Names.

• School of Designations.

• Sophists / Dialecticians.

Focus

• Relationship between:

  • shi 實 = object/reality;

  • ming 名 = name/designation.

Key points

• Argumentation/disputation important.

• Sometimes tendencies toward Legalism.

• Hui Shi and Gongsun Long are examples.

• No direct texts; known through other schools:

  • Zhuangzi;

  • Xunzi;

  • Hanfeizi;

  • Shiji.

• Important for development of logic in China.

Exam takeaway

• School of Names studies how names relate to reality and contributes to Chinese logic.

Hui Shi 惠施

Key facts

• ca. 370–310 BCE.

• Investigates relations between objects.

• Observes related opposites.

• Opposites contradict and depend on each other.

• School of names 名家

• Emphasizes equality of things.

• Uses paradoxes.

• Compared to Greek Sophists.

Exam takeaway

• Hui Shi uses paradox to show that distinctions are unstable and things are relational.

Gongsun Long 公孫龍

Focus

• Designation and relation to real objects.

• Our common thinking connects things artificially.

• Different senses cannot always create a unified concept.

White horse paradox

• “A white horse is not a horse” 白馬非馬.

• “Horse” = animal category.

• “White” = color category.

• “White horse” is not simply the concept “horse.”

Hard white stone

• “A white hard stone are two different things.”

• Eyes perceive white.

• Touch perceives hardness.

• One sense cannot perceive both.

Exam takeaway

• Gongsun Long separates names, qualities, and objects to expose problems in ordinary categorization.