EAST 211 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Yellow Emperor, Han Dynasty, Preqin
15 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Historical Background
Han Dynasty fell due to peasant rebellion - was divided into 3 kingdoms. 3 Kingdoms
were united briefly as Western Ji. Northern nomadic invaders forced emperor to
move to the South.
Important to remember:
Period of chaos
-
China was eventually divided into North and South
-
Southern dynasties: time of migration and controlled exchange of people and
culture
-
'time of ethnic fusion'
Therefore a period of cultural fusion
○
-
Sui united the empire in the 16th century
Lots of people had Chinese descent, Han Chinese descent and nomadic
descent
○
-
Migration/ethnic fusion breaks down divided between 'Han Chinese' and
'nomadic "barbarians"'
-
Understand Daoism
Philosophical Daoism (daojia ) Vs Religious Daoism (daojiao)?
Philosophical Daoism: way of thinking
○
Religious Daoism: practice of obtaining immortality?
○
There isn't actually much of a difference between the 2; there were
mingled in the teachings
○
-
Development of Daoism
Pre-Qin: Ancient thoughts (Laozi and Zhuangzi)
○
In Early Western Han (202-141 BCE) – Huang-Lao
State ideology in this period
§
Huang: refers to yellow emperor
§
"let the subject rest"
Means to let the subjects rule themselves and rest after the
continuous wars in the previous years
□
§
○
Towards the end of Eastern Han (184-205 ) – Yellow Scarf Rebellion
Confucianism replaced Daoism as the state ideology
§
Rebellion that led to the end of the Han dynasty; leaders were
followers of Dao. Rebellion continued for 20 years then was put
down
§
○
North and South dynasties (222-589 CE) -- dark learning
From family interested in philosophical Daoism
§
○
-
Daoism Today
Comparative studies between Daoist philosophy and European philosophy
-
Daoism as a religion still exists in China; still Daoist practitioners
-
Daoist symbols in pop culture: Kung Fu Panda
Pandas are black and white, which represents Yin and Yang
○
-
Main Themes for this Week
Part one:
Dark learning (also known as mysterious learning) Immortality and
longevity techniques
○
-
Part two:
Daoist Communities
○
Women, Gender, and Daoism
○
Daoism and Art
○
-
Discussion
Who are the thinkers of Daoism we have talked about in the lecture of one
hundred schools?
Laozi (c. 571-471) and Zhuangzi (370-287 BCE)
○
-
What are the most obscure concepts in their writings?
Notion of the Dao, non-duality and non-action: will dive in deeper in how
they were articulated by the early writers, the Han dynasty and the
Northern and Southern dynasty
○
-
Thinkers:
Early Thoughts Laozi (c. 571-471) and Zhuangzi (370-287 BCE)
Dao
○
Wuwei (non-action; effortless action)
○
-
Han Dynasties: Liu An (179-122 BCE) and Ge Hong (283-343CE)
Immortals and gods
○
-
North and South Dynasties: Wang Bi (226-249)
Wu (nothingness; non-being)
○
Ti-Yong (substance and function)
○
-
Laozi (c. 571-471BCE)
Legends of Laozi
-
Going to the west?
Stories of him going to the West (one involved him becoming Buddha)
○
-
Contemporary of Confucius
-
“Today I saw Laozi, he is the real dragon”
-
Confucianism and Daoism are not mutually exclusive
Like yin and yang
○
-
Daodejing
Book
○
-
Zhuangzi (c. 369-286BCE)
ZHUANG zhou
-
Contemporary of Mencius
Another important thinker
○
-
Minor official of the “lacquer garden”
-
Zhuangzi
-
The Nameless Dao
Daodejing (Laozi)
-
Ch1 “The Dao that can be talked/followed is not the eternal Dao. The name that
can be named, is not the eternal name. The nameless was the beginning of the
Heaven and the Earth. The named was the mother of all creatures”
No affirmatives here. Define Dao by what it is not
○
Ch41 “The Dao hides in the nameless”
Zhuangzi
-
Three in the morning (41):
-
When the monkey trainer was handing out acorns, he said, “You get three in the
morning and four at night.” This made all the monkeys furious. “Well, then,” he
said, “you get four in the morning and three at night.” The monkeys were
delighted. There was no change in the reality behind the words, and yet the
monkeys responded with joy and anger.
-
Daoist Goddesses
Mother of the Earth (Dimu)
-
West Queen Mother (xiwangmu)
-
Qingyang Gong, Chengdu
-
Daoist Goddesses:
Mural of Daoist Pantheon, 14C: Mother of the Earth and mother of the stars
-
Understanding Dao Through Metaphors:
It is invisible. Can we ever encounter time in our real life? We may encounter a
clock, watch, etc but can we encounter time? For the purpose of this discussion,
no. However, we can experience the passing of time. We observe the passing of
time through temporal representations and transitions. We experience time in
indirect ways through clocks, calendars, etc.
-
Dao: we cannot encounter Dao but we can observe it through manifestations of
Dao. Can be impermanence, death or sudden equation of certain things
Cannot encounter essence but can know it through the manifestation of
this essence
○
-
Children: are the manifestation of parents. When we see a child, we only see
the child, but we know that they are the product of two parents
-
Non-duality between the opposites
Daodejing
-
Ch2 “The whole world recognizes the beautiful as the beautiful, yet this is only
the ugly; the whole world recognizes the good as the good, yet this is only the
bad
Beautiful and ugly are a pair of opposites. But what is the standard of
beauty? Something beautiful could seem ugly to someone else; just as
with the dichotomy between good and bad
○
Zhuangzi
-
The short-lived and long-lived (30)
“The morning mushroom knows nothing of twilight and dawn; the summer
cicada knows nothing of spring and autumn. They are all the short-lived. South
of Chu there is a caterpillar which counts five hundred years as one spring and
five hundred years as one autumn. Long, long ago, there was a great rose of
Sharon that counted eight thousand years as one spring and eight thousand
years as one autumn. They are the long-lived. ”
Short-lived/long-lived: compared to who? Us
Standard of short/long is also relative
§
○
Wuwei (non-action)
*non-action doesn't mean 'do nothing'. It means doing things until they become your
second nature
Laozi
-
Ch37 “Dao eternally neither do something nor do nothing. Kings and Lords, if
they can keep it [the Dao], all creatures will transform themselves”
Cha2 Therefore, the Sage engages with matters by means of Wuwei, cultivating
by no words
Rulers still need to cultivate themselves in Daosim; just with no words
○
Cha 22 When you do not compete with others, the whole Tianxia can not
compete with you
Cha 44 “The sage does not consider himself/herself as great. Then, he/she will
become great”
Ch 65 “Running a state by knowledge, the ruler becomes the thief of the state.
Running a state not by knowledge, it is the state’s fortune”
Not asking people to change reality; but to change how they do things/how they
lead
-
Wuwei (non-action)
Zhuangzi
-
Cook Ding (50-51)
Background: Cook Ding invited vby lords to cut an ox. When he started cutting,
his knife moved naturally and all of a sudden, the ox was cut. He turned cutting
into an art so much that it was parallel to dancing. This is Cook Ding's reponse:
Cook Ding laid down his knife and replied, “What I care about is the Way, which
goes beyond skill. When I first began cutting up oxen, all I could see was the ox
itself. After three years I no longer saw the whole ox. And now—now I go at it
by spirit and don’t look with my eyes. Perception and understanding have come
to a stop and spirit moves where it wants. I go along with the natural makeup,
strike in the big hollows, guide the knife through the big openings, and follow
things as they are. So I never touch the smallest ligament or tendon, much less a
main joint.
What is he following? The Dao. The Dao is the way that things are
-
A good cook changes his knife once a year—because he cuts. A mediocre cook
changes his knife once a month—because he hacks. I’ve had this knife of mine
for over nineteen years and I’ve cut up thousands of oxen with it, and yet the
blade is as good as though it had just come from the grindstone. There are
spaces between the joints, and the blade of the knife has really no thickness. If
you insert what has no thickness into such spaces, then there’s plenty of
room—more than enough for the blade to play about it. That’s why after
nineteen years the blade of my knife is still as good as when it first came from
the grindstone.
“However, whenever I come to a complicated place, I size up the difficulties, tell
myself to watch out and be careful, keep my eyes on what I’m doing, work very
slowly, and move the knife with the greatest subtlety, until—flop! the whole
thing comes apart like a clod of earth crumbling to the ground. I stand there
holding the knife and look all around me, completely satisfied and reluctant to
move on, and then I wipe off the knife and put it away.”
When you first start something, like playing the piano or skating, it is very
difficult and unnatural. Then you practice and practice, until the
movements flow naturally. Wuwei is a kind of mental state. This state of
mind is acquired after a lot of practice. Practice until state of Wuwei is
second nature
-
“Excellent!” said Lord Wen-hui. “I have heard the words of Cook Ding and
learned how to care for life!”
Wuwei and psychiatry
Wuwei: Adaptive Strategies for a Chaotic World
Accept what you cannot control1.
Analyze your goals, values, and intentions2.
Assess without bias the reality of the situation, your capacities and
resources, and options
3.
Act (or don't act) strategically, when the timing is right4.
Allow: let nature take its course 5.
-
Helps people cope with anxiety and stress of everyday life. Strategies are
actually used in practice at hospitals (ex Chinese hospital in NYC)
-
*Wuwei is similar to how Confucius sees rituals (repeating something over and over
until what you are feeling matches what you are doing)
Qi, Spirit, Immortality
Han
Confucianism Vs. Daoism
○
Emperor Wu (r. 141-87BCE) Vs. Grand Empress Dowager Dou
Yin Yang: male/Confucian vs woman/Dao
§
○
-
Mandate of Heaven Vs. The Dao – Being Vs. Nothing
-
Confucianism: The Heaven does not change; neither is the Dao.
-
Daoism: Being arises from nothing.
Mandate of heaven arises from Dao
○
-
Qi, Spirit, Immortality
Daoism in Han
-
Liu An (179-122)
Intellectual, thinker and member of the royal family (lord)
○
-
Ch 3 “Heavenly Patterns”, Huainanzi
“When Heaven and Earth were shapeless (wuxing, ), all was ascending and
flying, diving and delving. Thus it was called the Great Inception. The Dao began
in the Nebulous Void (xukuo ). The Nebulous Void produced space- time. Space-
time produced the primordial Qi. A shoreline (divided) the primordial Qi. That
which was pure and bright spread out to form Heaven. The heavy and turbid
congealed to form Earth”
Body (shape) – the house of Qi
Material body of humans/animals/plants/objects is the vessel of the Qi
○
-
Spirit (shapeless) – the embodied Qi
Bestowed on every one of us
○
Death happens when the Qi leaves someone's body
○
Can you harness the Qi from something else? According to many Daoist
practitioners, yes. For example, you can harness the Qi from the trees into
a pill and then take it
○
-
Mount Qingcheng
Image of Qi
-
Many Daoist practitioners believe that mountains are the place where the Qi
gathers; why many Daoist temples are inside the mountains. Daoist
practitioners sometimes go into mountains to study Daoism (hermit culture in
China)
-
Pre-modern world: look at mountains and see mist, then understand it as the
movement of Qi. When it goes up towards the sky, it is the Qi going to heaven
-
Group Discussion
If our body is just the house or vessel of the Qi and our spirit (shen) is the
embodied Qi, how can we attain immortality?
-
The notion of Dao and Wuwei in Laozi and Zhuangzi:
Dao: principle of how things change in the cosmos and the origin of everything
Today: if we want to understand the universe, we use science. Ex, mist
above the mountains has meteorological explanation.
○
Pre-modern Chinese history: a very different worldview than the one we
have today. Daoists understand the world through the notion of the Dao.
Confucians understand things through the concept of the mandate of
heaven.
○
-
Dark Learning (xuanxue)
(or mysterious learning)
Dark Learning – inquiries about the ultimate nature of reality – metaphysics
Does not teach people how to rule or cultivate themselves
○
Metaphysical inquiry: study of the nature of reality (whether something is
real or not)
○
branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things,
including abstract concepts such as being, knowing, substance, cause,
identity, time, and space
○
-
Wang Bi (226-249)
-
Revere Nothingness (guiwu)
-
"Dao is the name of nothingness"
Laozi: Dao hides in the nameless (no name)
○
A lot of thinkers in the tradition of dark learning played with the suffix "-
less" and interpreted the Dao as nothingness
○
When Wang Bi was active, Buddhism was transferred into China. Scholars
couldn't read sanskrit so they interpreted Buddhist texts using Daoist
terms. See the term 'nothingness' was also used to explain the Buddhist
notion of 'emptiness'
○
The Non-duality between Ti-Yong
Ti: our body/substance/essence
○
Yong: function
○
Binary: sense of non-duality between 2 opposites
○
Issue with English translation: Ti is never immutable, it is in constant
change
○
Example from Wang Bi: see mother's children without mother being
present, we can still see traces of the mother (ex appearance,
personality). Function of the mother is giving birth and the substance is
the mother herself.
○
Example from Modern Era: substance of the Dao is like time (we cannot
encounter time, only temporal progressions). Temporal progressions are
manifestations of time, that tell us the function of time. The function of
time could be to age us
Manifestations of Dao: change in everyday life (ex birth, death)
§
○
-
"Although [the sages] revere the function of the nothingness, they shall not not
abandoning the substance
Wuwei
-
“Dao has no actions. If rulers can safeguard this [principle], everything in the
cosmos will transform themselves”
“[the ruler] shall follow the mandate of heaven from the above, and appease
his/her subjects from below”
9: Daoism, Dark Learning and Immortality
Monday, February 5, 2018
8:37 AM
Historical Background
Han Dynasty fell due to peasant rebellion - was divided into 3 kingdoms. 3 Kingdoms
were united briefly as Western Ji. Northern nomadic invaders forced emperor to
move to the South.
Important to remember:
Period of chaos
-
China was eventually divided into North and South
-
Southern dynasties: time of migration and controlled exchange of people and
culture
-
'time of ethnic fusion'
Therefore a period of cultural fusion
○
-
Sui united the empire in the 16th century
Lots of people had Chinese descent, Han Chinese descent and nomadic
descent
○
-
Migration/ethnic fusion breaks down divided between 'Han Chinese' and
'nomadic "barbarians"'
-
Understand Daoism
Philosophical Daoism (daojia ) Vs Religious Daoism (daojiao)?
Philosophical Daoism: way of thinking
○
Religious Daoism: practice of obtaining immortality?
○
There isn't actually much of a difference between the 2; there were
mingled in the teachings
○
-
Development of Daoism
Pre-Qin: Ancient thoughts (Laozi and Zhuangzi)
○
In Early Western Han (202-141 BCE) – Huang-Lao
State ideology in this period
§
Huang: refers to yellow emperor
§
"let the subject rest"
Means to let the subjects rule themselves and rest after the
continuous wars in the previous years
□
§
○
Towards the end of Eastern Han (184-205 ) – Yellow Scarf Rebellion
Confucianism replaced Daoism as the state ideology
§
Rebellion that led to the end of the Han dynasty; leaders were
followers of Dao. Rebellion continued for 20 years then was put
down
§
○
North and South dynasties (222-589 CE) -- dark learning
From family interested in philosophical Daoism
§
○
-
Daoism Today
Comparative studies between Daoist philosophy and European philosophy
-
Daoism as a religion still exists in China; still Daoist practitioners
-
Daoist symbols in pop culture: Kung Fu Panda
Pandas are black and white, which represents Yin and Yang
○
-
Main Themes for this Week
Part one:
Dark learning (also known as mysterious learning) Immortality and
longevity techniques
○
-
Part two:
Daoist Communities
○
Women, Gender, and Daoism
○
Daoism and Art
○
-
Discussion
Who are the thinkers of Daoism we have talked about in the lecture of one
hundred schools?
Laozi (c. 571-471) and Zhuangzi (370-287 BCE)
○
-
What are the most obscure concepts in their writings?
Notion of the Dao, non-duality and non-action: will dive in deeper in how
they were articulated by the early writers, the Han dynasty and the
Northern and Southern dynasty
○
-
Thinkers:
Early Thoughts Laozi (c. 571-471) and Zhuangzi (370-287 BCE)
Dao
○
Wuwei (non-action; effortless action)
○
-
Han Dynasties: Liu An (179-122 BCE) and Ge Hong (283-343CE)
Immortals and gods
○
-
North and South Dynasties: Wang Bi (226-249)
Wu (nothingness; non-being)
○
Ti-Yong (substance and function)
○
-
Laozi (c. 571-471BCE)
Legends of Laozi
-
Going to the west?
Stories of him going to the West (one involved him becoming Buddha)
○
-
Contemporary of Confucius
-
“Today I saw Laozi, he is the real dragon”
-
Confucianism and Daoism are not mutually exclusive
Like yin and yang
○
-
Daodejing
Book
○
-
Zhuangzi (c. 369-286BCE)
ZHUANG zhou
-
Contemporary of Mencius
Another important thinker
○
-
Minor official of the “lacquer garden”
-
Zhuangzi
-
The Nameless Dao
Daodejing (Laozi)
-
Ch1 “The Dao that can be talked/followed is not the eternal Dao. The name that
can be named, is not the eternal name. The nameless was the beginning of the
Heaven and the Earth. The named was the mother of all creatures”
No affirmatives here. Define Dao by what it is not
○
Ch41 “The Dao hides in the nameless”
Zhuangzi
-
Three in the morning (41):
-
When the monkey trainer was handing out acorns, he said, “You get three in the
morning and four at night.” This made all the monkeys furious. “Well, then,” he
said, “you get four in the morning and three at night.” The monkeys were
delighted. There was no change in the reality behind the words, and yet the
monkeys responded with joy and anger.
-
Daoist Goddesses
Mother of the Earth (Dimu)
-
West Queen Mother (xiwangmu)
-
Qingyang Gong, Chengdu
-
Daoist Goddesses:
Mural of Daoist Pantheon, 14C: Mother of the Earth and mother of the stars
-
Understanding Dao Through Metaphors:
It is invisible. Can we ever encounter time in our real life? We may encounter a
clock, watch, etc but can we encounter time? For the purpose of this discussion,
no. However, we can experience the passing of time. We observe the passing of
time through temporal representations and transitions. We experience time in
indirect ways through clocks, calendars, etc.
-
Dao: we cannot encounter Dao but we can observe it through manifestations of
Dao. Can be impermanence, death or sudden equation of certain things
Cannot encounter essence but can know it through the manifestation of
this essence
○
-
Children: are the manifestation of parents. When we see a child, we only see
the child, but we know that they are the product of two parents
-
Non-duality between the opposites
Daodejing
-
Ch2 “The whole world recognizes the beautiful as the beautiful, yet this is only
the ugly; the whole world recognizes the good as the good, yet this is only the
bad
Beautiful and ugly are a pair of opposites. But what is the standard of
beauty? Something beautiful could seem ugly to someone else; just as
with the dichotomy between good and bad
○
Zhuangzi
-
The short-lived and long-lived (30)
“The morning mushroom knows nothing of twilight and dawn; the summer
cicada knows nothing of spring and autumn. They are all the short-lived. South
of Chu there is a caterpillar which counts five hundred years as one spring and
five hundred years as one autumn. Long, long ago, there was a great rose of
Sharon that counted eight thousand years as one spring and eight thousand
years as one autumn. They are the long-lived. ”
Short-lived/long-lived: compared to who? Us
Standard of short/long is also relative
§
○
Wuwei (non-action)
*non-action doesn't mean 'do nothing'. It means doing things until they become your
second nature
Laozi
-
Ch37 “Dao eternally neither do something nor do nothing. Kings and Lords, if
they can keep it [the Dao], all creatures will transform themselves”
Cha2 Therefore, the Sage engages with matters by means of Wuwei, cultivating
by no words
Rulers still need to cultivate themselves in Daosim; just with no words
○
Cha 22 When you do not compete with others, the whole Tianxia can not
compete with you
Cha 44 “The sage does not consider himself/herself as great. Then, he/she will
become great”
Ch 65 “Running a state by knowledge, the ruler becomes the thief of the state.
Running a state not by knowledge, it is the state’s fortune”
Not asking people to change reality; but to change how they do things/how they
lead
-
Wuwei (non-action)
Zhuangzi
-
Cook Ding (50-51)
Background: Cook Ding invited vby lords to cut an ox. When he started cutting,
his knife moved naturally and all of a sudden, the ox was cut. He turned cutting
into an art so much that it was parallel to dancing. This is Cook Ding's reponse:
Cook Ding laid down his knife and replied, “What I care about is the Way, which
goes beyond skill. When I first began cutting up oxen, all I could see was the ox
itself. After three years I no longer saw the whole ox. And now—now I go at it
by spirit and don’t look with my eyes. Perception and understanding have come
to a stop and spirit moves where it wants. I go along with the natural makeup,
strike in the big hollows, guide the knife through the big openings, and follow
things as they are. So I never touch the smallest ligament or tendon, much less a
main joint.
What is he following? The Dao. The Dao is the way that things are
-
A good cook changes his knife once a year—because he cuts. A mediocre cook
changes his knife once a month—because he hacks. I’ve had this knife of mine
for over nineteen years and I’ve cut up thousands of oxen with it, and yet the
blade is as good as though it had just come from the grindstone. There are
spaces between the joints, and the blade of the knife has really no thickness. If
you insert what has no thickness into such spaces, then there’s plenty of
room—more than enough for the blade to play about it. That’s why after
nineteen years the blade of my knife is still as good as when it first came from
the grindstone.
“However, whenever I come to a complicated place, I size up the difficulties, tell
myself to watch out and be careful, keep my eyes on what I’m doing, work very
slowly, and move the knife with the greatest subtlety, until—flop! the whole
thing comes apart like a clod of earth crumbling to the ground. I stand there
holding the knife and look all around me, completely satisfied and reluctant to
move on, and then I wipe off the knife and put it away.”
When you first start something, like playing the piano or skating, it is very
difficult and unnatural. Then you practice and practice, until the
movements flow naturally. Wuwei is a kind of mental state. This state of
mind is acquired after a lot of practice. Practice until state of Wuwei is
second nature
-
“Excellent!” said Lord Wen-hui. “I have heard the words of Cook Ding and
learned how to care for life!”
Wuwei and psychiatry
Wuwei: Adaptive Strategies for a Chaotic World
Accept what you cannot control1.
Analyze your goals, values, and intentions2.
Assess without bias the reality of the situation, your capacities and
resources, and options
3.
Act (or don't act) strategically, when the timing is right4.
Allow: let nature take its course 5.
-
Helps people cope with anxiety and stress of everyday life. Strategies are
actually used in practice at hospitals (ex Chinese hospital in NYC)
-
*Wuwei is similar to how Confucius sees rituals (repeating something over and over
until what you are feeling matches what you are doing)
Qi, Spirit, Immortality
Han
Confucianism Vs. Daoism
○
Emperor Wu (r. 141-87BCE) Vs. Grand Empress Dowager Dou
Yin Yang: male/Confucian vs woman/Dao
§
○
-
Mandate of Heaven Vs. The Dao – Being Vs. Nothing
-
Confucianism: The Heaven does not change; neither is the Dao.
-
Daoism: Being arises from nothing.
Mandate of heaven arises from Dao
○
-
Qi, Spirit, Immortality
Daoism in Han
-
Liu An (179-122)
Intellectual, thinker and member of the royal family (lord)
○
-
Ch 3 “Heavenly Patterns”, Huainanzi
“When Heaven and Earth were shapeless (wuxing, ), all was ascending and
flying, diving and delving. Thus it was called the Great Inception. The Dao began
in the Nebulous Void (xukuo ). The Nebulous Void produced space- time. Space-
time produced the primordial Qi. A shoreline (divided) the primordial Qi. That
which was pure and bright spread out to form Heaven. The heavy and turbid
congealed to form Earth”
Body (shape) – the house of Qi
Material body of humans/animals/plants/objects is the vessel of the Qi
○
-
Spirit (shapeless) – the embodied Qi
Bestowed on every one of us
○
Death happens when the Qi leaves someone's body
○
Can you harness the Qi from something else? According to many Daoist
practitioners, yes. For example, you can harness the Qi from the trees into
a pill and then take it
○
-
Mount Qingcheng
Image of Qi
-
Many Daoist practitioners believe that mountains are the place where the Qi
gathers; why many Daoist temples are inside the mountains. Daoist
practitioners sometimes go into mountains to study Daoism (hermit culture in
China)
-
Pre-modern world: look at mountains and see mist, then understand it as the
movement of Qi. When it goes up towards the sky, it is the Qi going to heaven
-
Group Discussion
If our body is just the house or vessel of the Qi and our spirit (shen) is the
embodied Qi, how can we attain immortality?
-
The notion of Dao and Wuwei in Laozi and Zhuangzi:
Dao: principle of how things change in the cosmos and the origin of everything
Today: if we want to understand the universe, we use science. Ex, mist
above the mountains has meteorological explanation.
○
Pre-modern Chinese history: a very different worldview than the one we
have today. Daoists understand the world through the notion of the Dao.
Confucians understand things through the concept of the mandate of
heaven.
○
-
Dark Learning (xuanxue)
(or mysterious learning)
Dark Learning – inquiries about the ultimate nature of reality – metaphysics
Does not teach people how to rule or cultivate themselves
○
Metaphysical inquiry: study of the nature of reality (whether something is
real or not)
○
branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things,
including abstract concepts such as being, knowing, substance, cause,
identity, time, and space
○
-
Wang Bi (226-249)
-
Revere Nothingness (guiwu)
-
"Dao is the name of nothingness"
Laozi: Dao hides in the nameless (no name)
○
A lot of thinkers in the tradition of dark learning played with the suffix "-
less" and interpreted the Dao as nothingness
○
When Wang Bi was active, Buddhism was transferred into China. Scholars
couldn't read sanskrit so they interpreted Buddhist texts using Daoist
terms. See the term 'nothingness' was also used to explain the Buddhist
notion of 'emptiness'
○
The Non-duality between Ti-Yong
Ti: our body/substance/essence
○
Yong: function
○
Binary: sense of non-duality between 2 opposites
○
Issue with English translation: Ti is never immutable, it is in constant
change
○
Example from Wang Bi: see mother's children without mother being
present, we can still see traces of the mother (ex appearance,
personality). Function of the mother is giving birth and the substance is
the mother herself.
○
Example from Modern Era: substance of the Dao is like time (we cannot
encounter time, only temporal progressions). Temporal progressions are
manifestations of time, that tell us the function of time. The function of
time could be to age us
Manifestations of Dao: change in everyday life (ex birth, death)
§
○
-
"Although [the sages] revere the function of the nothingness, they shall not not
abandoning the substance
Wuwei
-
“Dao has no actions. If rulers can safeguard this [principle], everything in the
cosmos will transform themselves”
“[the ruler] shall follow the mandate of heaven from the above, and appease
his/her subjects from below”
9: Daoism, Dark Learning and Immortality
Monday, February 5, 2018 8:37 AM
Historical Background
Han Dynasty fell due to peasant rebellion - was divided into 3 kingdoms. 3 Kingdoms
were united briefly as Western Ji. Northern nomadic invaders forced emperor to
move to the South.
Important to remember:
Period of chaos
-
China was eventually divided into North and South
-
Southern dynasties: time of migration and controlled exchange of people and
culture
-
'time of ethnic fusion'
Therefore a period of cultural fusion
○
-
Sui united the empire in the 16th century
Lots of people had Chinese descent, Han Chinese descent and nomadic
descent
○
-
Migration/ethnic fusion breaks down divided between 'Han Chinese' and
'nomadic "barbarians"'
-
Understand Daoism
Philosophical Daoism (daojia ) Vs Religious Daoism (daojiao)?
Philosophical Daoism: way of thinking
○
Religious Daoism: practice of obtaining immortality?
○
There isn't actually much of a difference between the 2; there were
mingled in the teachings
○
-
Development of Daoism
Pre-Qin: Ancient thoughts (Laozi and Zhuangzi)
○
In Early Western Han (202-141 BCE) – Huang-Lao
State ideology in this period
§
Huang: refers to yellow emperor
§
"let the subject rest"
Means to let the subjects rule themselves and rest after the
continuous wars in the previous years
□
§
○
Towards the end of Eastern Han (184-205 ) – Yellow Scarf Rebellion
Confucianism replaced Daoism as the state ideology
§
Rebellion that led to the end of the Han dynasty; leaders were
followers of Dao. Rebellion continued for 20 years then was put
down
§
○
North and South dynasties (222-589 CE) -- dark learning
From family interested in philosophical Daoism
§
○
-
Daoism Today
Comparative studies between Daoist philosophy and European philosophy
-
Daoism as a religion still exists in China; still Daoist practitioners
-
Daoist symbols in pop culture: Kung Fu Panda
Pandas are black and white, which represents Yin and Yang
○
-
Main Themes for this Week
Part one:
Dark learning (also known as mysterious learning) Immortality and
longevity techniques
○
-
Part two:
Daoist Communities
○
Women, Gender, and Daoism
○
Daoism and Art
○
-
Discussion
Who are the thinkers of Daoism we have talked about in the lecture of one
hundred schools?
Laozi (c. 571-471) and Zhuangzi (370-287 BCE)
○
-
What are the most obscure concepts in their writings?
Notion of the Dao, non-duality and non-action: will dive in deeper in how
they were articulated by the early writers, the Han dynasty and the
Northern and Southern dynasty
○
-
Thinkers:
Early Thoughts Laozi (c. 571-471) and Zhuangzi (370-287 BCE)
Dao
○
Wuwei (non-action; effortless action)
○
-
Han Dynasties: Liu An (179-122 BCE) and Ge Hong (283-343CE)
Immortals and gods
○
-
North and South Dynasties: Wang Bi (226-249)
Wu (nothingness; non-being)
○
Ti-Yong (substance and function)
○
-
Laozi (c. 571-471BCE)
Legends of Laozi
-
Going to the west?
Stories of him going to the West (one involved him becoming Buddha)
○
-
Contemporary of Confucius
-
“Today I saw Laozi, he is the real dragon”
-
Confucianism and Daoism are not mutually exclusive
Like yin and yang
○
-
Daodejing
Book
○
-
Zhuangzi (c. 369-286BCE)
ZHUANG zhou
-
Contemporary of Mencius
Another important thinker
○
-
Minor official of the “lacquer garden”
-
Zhuangzi
-
The Nameless Dao
Daodejing (Laozi)
-
Ch1 “The Dao that can be talked/followed is not the eternal Dao. The name that
can be named, is not the eternal name. The nameless was the beginning of the
Heaven and the Earth. The named was the mother of all creatures”
No affirmatives here. Define Dao by what it is not
○
Ch41 “The Dao hides in the nameless”
Zhuangzi
-
Three in the morning (41):
-
When the monkey trainer was handing out acorns, he said, “You get three in the
morning and four at night.” This made all the monkeys furious. “Well, then,” he
said, “you get four in the morning and three at night.” The monkeys were
delighted. There was no change in the reality behind the words, and yet the
monkeys responded with joy and anger.
-
Daoist Goddesses
Mother of the Earth (Dimu)
-
West Queen Mother (xiwangmu)
-
Qingyang Gong, Chengdu
-
Daoist Goddesses:
Mural of Daoist Pantheon, 14C: Mother of the Earth and mother of the stars
-
Understanding Dao Through Metaphors:
It is invisible. Can we ever encounter time in our real life? We may encounter a
clock, watch, etc but can we encounter time? For the purpose of this discussion,
no. However, we can experience the passing of time. We observe the passing of
time through temporal representations and transitions. We experience time in
indirect ways through clocks, calendars, etc.
-
Dao: we cannot encounter Dao but we can observe it through manifestations of
Dao. Can be impermanence, death or sudden equation of certain things
Cannot encounter essence but can know it through the manifestation of
this essence
○
-
Children: are the manifestation of parents. When we see a child, we only see
the child, but we know that they are the product of two parents
-
Non-duality between the opposites
Daodejing
-
Ch2 “The whole world recognizes the beautiful as the beautiful, yet this is only
the ugly; the whole world recognizes the good as the good, yet this is only the
bad
Beautiful and ugly are a pair of opposites. But what is the standard of
beauty? Something beautiful could seem ugly to someone else; just as
with the dichotomy between good and bad
○
Zhuangzi
-
The short-lived and long-lived (30)
“The morning mushroom knows nothing of twilight and dawn; the summer
cicada knows nothing of spring and autumn. They are all the short-lived. South
of Chu there is a caterpillar which counts five hundred years as one spring and
five hundred years as one autumn. Long, long ago, there was a great rose of
Sharon that counted eight thousand years as one spring and eight thousand
years as one autumn. They are the long-lived. ”
Short-lived/long-lived: compared to who? Us
Standard of short/long is also relative
§
○
Wuwei (non-action)
*non-action doesn't mean 'do nothing'. It means doing things until they become your
second nature
Laozi
-
Ch37 “Dao eternally neither do something nor do nothing. Kings and Lords, if
they can keep it [the Dao], all creatures will transform themselves”
Cha2 Therefore, the Sage engages with matters by means of Wuwei, cultivating
by no words
Rulers still need to cultivate themselves in Daosim; just with no words
○
Cha 22 When you do not compete with others, the whole Tianxia can not
compete with you
Cha 44 “The sage does not consider himself/herself as great. Then, he/she will
become great”
Ch 65 “Running a state by knowledge, the ruler becomes the thief of the state.
Running a state not by knowledge, it is the state’s fortune”
Not asking people to change reality; but to change how they do things/how they
lead
-
Wuwei (non-action)
Zhuangzi
-
Cook Ding (50-51)
Background: Cook Ding invited vby lords to cut an ox. When he started cutting,
his knife moved naturally and all of a sudden, the ox was cut. He turned cutting
into an art so much that it was parallel to dancing. This is Cook Ding's reponse:
Cook Ding laid down his knife and replied, “What I care about is the Way, which
goes beyond skill. When I first began cutting up oxen, all I could see was the ox
itself. After three years I no longer saw the whole ox. And now—now I go at it
by spirit and don’t look with my eyes. Perception and understanding have come
to a stop and spirit moves where it wants. I go along with the natural makeup,
strike in the big hollows, guide the knife through the big openings, and follow
things as they are. So I never touch the smallest ligament or tendon, much less a
main joint.
What is he following? The Dao. The Dao is the way that things are
-
A good cook changes his knife once a year—because he cuts. A mediocre cook
changes his knife once a month—because he hacks. I’ve had this knife of mine
for over nineteen years and I’ve cut up thousands of oxen with it, and yet the
blade is as good as though it had just come from the grindstone. There are
spaces between the joints, and the blade of the knife has really no thickness. If
you insert what has no thickness into such spaces, then there’s plenty of
room—more than enough for the blade to play about it. That’s why after
nineteen years the blade of my knife is still as good as when it first came from
the grindstone.
“However, whenever I come to a complicated place, I size up the difficulties, tell
myself to watch out and be careful, keep my eyes on what I’m doing, work very
slowly, and move the knife with the greatest subtlety, until—flop! the whole
thing comes apart like a clod of earth crumbling to the ground. I stand there
holding the knife and look all around me, completely satisfied and reluctant to
move on, and then I wipe off the knife and put it away.”
When you first start something, like playing the piano or skating, it is very
difficult and unnatural. Then you practice and practice, until the
movements flow naturally. Wuwei is a kind of mental state. This state of
mind is acquired after a lot of practice. Practice until state of Wuwei is
second nature
-
“Excellent!” said Lord Wen-hui. “I have heard the words of Cook Ding and
learned how to care for life!”
Wuwei and psychiatry
Wuwei: Adaptive Strategies for a Chaotic World
Accept what you cannot control1.
Analyze your goals, values, and intentions2.
Assess without bias the reality of the situation, your capacities and
resources, and options
3.
Act (or don't act) strategically, when the timing is right4.
Allow: let nature take its course 5.
-
Helps people cope with anxiety and stress of everyday life. Strategies are
actually used in practice at hospitals (ex Chinese hospital in NYC)
-
*Wuwei is similar to how Confucius sees rituals (repeating something over and over
until what you are feeling matches what you are doing)
Qi, Spirit, Immortality
Han
Confucianism Vs. Daoism
○
Emperor Wu (r. 141-87BCE) Vs. Grand Empress Dowager Dou
Yin Yang: male/Confucian vs woman/Dao
§
○
-
Mandate of Heaven Vs. The Dao – Being Vs. Nothing
-
Confucianism: The Heaven does not change; neither is the Dao.
-
Daoism: Being arises from nothing.
Mandate of heaven arises from Dao
○
-
Qi, Spirit, Immortality
Daoism in Han
-
Liu An (179-122)
Intellectual, thinker and member of the royal family (lord)
○
-
Ch 3 “Heavenly Patterns”, Huainanzi
“When Heaven and Earth were shapeless (wuxing, ), all was ascending and
flying, diving and delving. Thus it was called the Great Inception. The Dao began
in the Nebulous Void (xukuo ). The Nebulous Void produced space- time. Space-
time produced the primordial Qi. A shoreline (divided) the primordial Qi. That
which was pure and bright spread out to form Heaven. The heavy and turbid
congealed to form Earth”
Body (shape) – the house of Qi
Material body of humans/animals/plants/objects is the vessel of the Qi
○
-
Spirit (shapeless) – the embodied Qi
Bestowed on every one of us
○
Death happens when the Qi leaves someone's body
○
Can you harness the Qi from something else? According to many Daoist
practitioners, yes. For example, you can harness the Qi from the trees into
a pill and then take it
○
-
Mount Qingcheng
Image of Qi
-
Many Daoist practitioners believe that mountains are the place where the Qi
gathers; why many Daoist temples are inside the mountains. Daoist
practitioners sometimes go into mountains to study Daoism (hermit culture in
China)
-
Pre-modern world: look at mountains and see mist, then understand it as the
movement of Qi. When it goes up towards the sky, it is the Qi going to heaven
-
Group Discussion
If our body is just the house or vessel of the Qi and our spirit (shen) is the
embodied Qi, how can we attain immortality?
-
The notion of Dao and Wuwei in Laozi and Zhuangzi:
Dao: principle of how things change in the cosmos and the origin of everything
Today: if we want to understand the universe, we use science. Ex, mist
above the mountains has meteorological explanation.
○
Pre-modern Chinese history: a very different worldview than the one we
have today. Daoists understand the world through the notion of the Dao.
Confucians understand things through the concept of the mandate of
heaven.
○
-
Dark Learning (xuanxue)
(or mysterious learning)
Dark Learning – inquiries about the ultimate nature of reality – metaphysics
Does not teach people how to rule or cultivate themselves
○
Metaphysical inquiry: study of the nature of reality (whether something is
real or not)
○
branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things,
including abstract concepts such as being, knowing, substance, cause,
identity, time, and space
○
-
Wang Bi (226-249)
-
Revere Nothingness (guiwu)
-
"Dao is the name of nothingness"
Laozi: Dao hides in the nameless (no name)
○
A lot of thinkers in the tradition of dark learning played with the suffix "-
less" and interpreted the Dao as nothingness
○
When Wang Bi was active, Buddhism was transferred into China. Scholars
couldn't read sanskrit so they interpreted Buddhist texts using Daoist
terms. See the term 'nothingness' was also used to explain the Buddhist
notion of 'emptiness'
○
The Non-duality between Ti-Yong
Ti: our body/substance/essence
○
Yong: function
○
Binary: sense of non-duality between 2 opposites
○
Issue with English translation: Ti is never immutable, it is in constant
change
○
Example from Wang Bi: see mother's children without mother being
present, we can still see traces of the mother (ex appearance,
personality). Function of the mother is giving birth and the substance is
the mother herself.
○
Example from Modern Era: substance of the Dao is like time (we cannot
encounter time, only temporal progressions). Temporal progressions are
manifestations of time, that tell us the function of time. The function of
time could be to age us
Manifestations of Dao: change in everyday life (ex birth, death)
§
○
-
"Although [the sages] revere the function of the nothingness, they shall not not
abandoning the substance
Wuwei
-
“Dao has no actions. If rulers can safeguard this [principle], everything in the
cosmos will transform themselves”
“[the ruler] shall follow the mandate of heaven from the above, and appease
his/her subjects from below”
9: Daoism, Dark Learning and Immortality
Monday, February 5, 2018 8:37 AM
Document Summary
Han dynasty fell due to peasant rebellion - was divided into 3 kingdoms. 3 kingdoms were united briefly as western ji. Northern nomadic invaders forced emperor to move to the south. China was eventually divided into north and south. Southern dynasties: time of migration and controlled exchange of people and culture. Sui united the empire in the 16th century. Lots of people had chinese descent, han chinese descent and nomadic descent. Migration/ethnic fusion breaks down divided between "han chinese" and. There isn"t actually much of a difference between the 2; there were mingled in the teachings. In early western han (202-141 bce) huang-lao. Means to let the subjects rule themselves and rest after the continuous wars in the previous years. Towards the end of eastern han (184-205 ) yellow scarf rebellion. Rebellion that led to the end of the han dynasty; leaders were followers of dao. Rebellion continued for 20 years then was put down.
