Following

the Dao
Week 6: Classical Daoism

Overview
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Recap
Background to classical Daoism
Inconstant ways
Distinctions and desires; reversal
Transformation
Doing nothing
Death

Recap
Spontaneous responses
o The child by the well
o King Xuan and the ox
o The origin of burial practices

The heart of shame

Ability, choice, and expansion
The human/animal distinction

Overview
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Recap
Background to classical Daoism
Inconstant ways
Distinctions and desires; reversal
Transformation
Doing nothing
Death

Background
Two texts, the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi
The Daodejing is also called the Laozi
o And Tao Teh Ching and Lao Tzu; Chuang Tzu

They represent what we can call Lao-Zhuang Daoism

(as opposed to either Huang-Lao Daoism or religious
Daoism)
Traditional view: Laozi wrote the Daodejing, Zhuangzi
wrote the Zhuangzi; Laozi came first (and may even
have taught Confucius)
In fact: both texts date from about the same time,
around 300 BCE, and no one knows who wrote them
o The Zhuangzi certainly includes texts by a bunch of different writers

Spontaneity
One of the core values of classical Daoism is
spontaneity
Not just: we should attend to and nurture our
spontaneous impulses (a Mencian view)
In the extreme: were best off if in everything we
do we just act spontaneously
Another difference: we find Mencian spontaneity
within ourselves; Daoist spontaneity involves
forgetting ourselves and going along with (other)
things

Overview
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Recap
Background to classical Daoism
Inconstant ways
Distinctions and desires; reversal
Transformation
Doing nothing
Death

Inconstant ways

Dao can be dao-ed, they are not constant dao. (1)

Dao as a verb: to use as a dao, to teach
o Not: to describe

Does this say there is a constant dao?

o At least: if there is a constant dao, you couldnt follow it
o Why? What does that mean?

Names can be name-ed, they are not constant names.

Name-ed: used as a name
What would a constant name be?

Inconstant ways

The world all know: when the beautiful acts as

beautiful, this is ugly. (2)
They all know: when the good act as good, this is
not good.
wei : to act as, to do, to act for the sake of
If you aim for something, you wont get it
So: you cant follow a way to get it; a way to be
beautiful or good wont work

Inconstant ways

People in life are soft and weak.

In death they are hard and strong.
Grass and wood in life are soft and
delicate.
In death they are dry and withered.
Thus the hard and the strong are the
disciples of death.
The soft and the weak are the disciples
of life.
Thus, armies when strong will perish.
Wood when strong will snap.
The strong and great stay below.
The soft and weak stay above. (76)

Kitchen Ding

Our lives have limits ( ), but knowledge has no

limits. Using what has limits to pursue what has no
limits is danger Taking oneself to have knowledge
is nothing but danger. (Book 3)
Does Kitchen Ding have knowledge?

Kitchen Ding

However, whenever I arrive at a knotty part, I see

that it is hard to do, and, afraid, I caution myself.
Seeing comes to a halt, I proceed slowly, moving
the knife very slightly, and, dismembered, it has
already come apart, like earth crumbling to the
ground. (Book 3)
What is going on here?

The swimmer
[]

Allow me to ask, does treading water have a dao?

It does not. I have no dao. [ I] follow the dao of
the water, and do not act on my own behalf.
No dao! No constant dao?
If he had his own dao, would that make it
impossible to follow the dao of the water?

The wheeler

There is a knack to it somewhere that I cannot show

to my son and that my son cannot receive from me.
Because of this I have grown old through seventy
years of carving wheels. The ancients are dead
along with what they could not transmit, so what
my ruler is reading is nothing more than the dregs
of the ancients.

Overview
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Recap
Background to classical Daoism
Inconstant ways
Distinctions and desires; reversal
Transformation
Doing nothing
Death

Distinctions and desires

Frequent background idea: we tend to draw
distinctions, and associate them with fixed
preferences, and that leads us into trouble
o E.g., beautiful vs ugly, strong vs weak, male vs female, good vs bad

A connection: mastering a dao would involve

learning a set of distinctions and the preferences
that are (supposedly) appropriate for them
One issue we already saw: aiming for something
can be a very bad way to get it
Another: no dao that you can master in advance
will be suitable for all situations you might
encounter

Reversal
The DDJ is famous for taking conventional distinctions
and reversing the preference conventionally
associated with them
o E.g., weak over strong, female over male

If you simply accepted these reversed preferences,

youd just be substituting one fixed dao for another,
which doesnt seem right
Maybe a more appropriate conclusion: must be
flexible, open, adaptive
Notice the way in which DDJ 76, 78 value softness and
weakness: you are less hard, so less brittle; you wont
break if you encounter a situation youre not already
prepared for

Reversal

Reversal is the movement of dao.

Weakness is the operation of dao. (40)

Reversal
We can think of this reversal as a reversal of
perspectives: you habitually look at things one
way, but you can benefit from switching to a new
perspective, and seeing things differently
In the Zhuangzi you often get this in the way it
presents its ideas: characters speaking from
novel and unusual perspectives
o animals such as the butterfly, Vast Cover, the skull, disfigured people,
menials like Kitchen Ding
o listening to what animals have to say vs taking animals to be a symbol
of immorality
o learning from Kitchen Ding vs the gentleman staying away from the
kitchen

Reversal

Dong Guozi asked Zhuangzi, What you call dao, where is

it? Zhuangzi said, There is nowhere it is not.
Dong Guozi said, You have to explain. Zhuangzi said, It
is in mole crickets and ants.
So low? It is in grass and weeds.
Even lower? It is in tiles and bricks.
Even more? It is in shit and piss. (Book 22)

Flexibility
Weve already seen in the Zhuangzi passages
emphasising that were better off not relying our
own fixed way of doing something: the butcher,
the swimmer
Another example: the story in Book 1 about the
man who made anti-turtle-hands medicine
Also: Huizi and the big gourd

Overview
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Recap
Background to classical Daoism
Inconstant ways
Distinctions and desires; reversal
Transformation
Doing nothing
Death

Transformation
A common theme in the Zhuangzi: things and
situations transform in unexpected ways
Possible implication: you cant figure out the best
way to act in advance, you have to respond
flexibly to actual situations
o E.g.: Huizi and his big gourd (ZZ 1)

Some of the transformations are extraordinary

o E.g.: the fish transforming into a bird (ZZ 1)

Transformation
Uncle Limbsplit was with Uncle Slipsmall, sightseeing
in the hills of the Dark Earl, in the wastes of Kunlun,
where the Yellow Emperor rested. Suddenly a willow
tree grew out of his left elbow. He seemed startled,
as if he hated it.
Uncle Limbsplit said, Do you hate it?
Uncle Slipsmall said, Not at all, what would I hate?
Life is something borrowed. What borrows it and
gives life to life is the dust. Death and life are
morning and night. Besides, you and I came to see
the transformations and the transformations caught
up with me. What could I hate in that?

Transformation
Once Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly,
carefree he was a butterfly, contently following his
intent. He did not know he was Zhou. Suddenly he
woke up, and, startled, he was Zhou. He did not
know whether Zhou had dreamed he was a
butterfly, or whether a butterfly was dreaming it
was Zhou.

Overview
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Recap
Background to classical Daoism
Inconstant ways
Distinctions and desires; reversal
Transformation
Doing nothing
Death

Wu-wei
An important value in both the Daodejing and the
Zhuangzi
Literally: do nothing; often translated non-action
One way to take this: just let things happen
Its not quite: just do what comes naturally for you
because that places the focus on you
Its more: go along with things
Contrast:
In the Mencius, you take charge of certain spontaneous
impulses within you, and achieve virtue
For Daoists, you stop trying to impose yourself on the
world, and just let things happen spontaneously

DDJ 48

With study, every day one has more.

With dao, every day one has less.
Less and still less,
Until one arrives at doing nothing.
Do nothing and nothing is left
undone.

DDJ 38

Lose dao, and only then get de.

Lose de, and only then get benevolence.

Lose benevolence, and only then get
Each step is adutifulness.
step to greater self-consciousness, more effort
focused on getting yourself to do the right thing
Lose dutifulness, and only then get
We lose an original unity with dao, and that is why we develop
ritual.virtues
increasingly artificial
Earlier the passage makes this point by saying that
benevolence, dutifulness, and ritual involve doing ( );
dutifulness also involves an ulterior motive; ritual also involves
the threat of force

No goals
Again were getting the idea that aiming at
something is often a bad way to get it
If youre trying to be good, then (a) that implies
youre not actually good, and (b) youre likely
going to fail
o E.g., Menciuss child by the well: suppose you saved the child because
you knew that would be the right thing to do; is that one thought too
many?
o Of course for Mencius you do have a goal, its not doing nothing

Big tree #1
At the end of ZZ 1, Huizi complains to Zhuangzi
about a big tree thats completely uselessnothing
can be built out of it
Zhuangzi: Why not plant it in a village where there
is nothing whatever, in fields of wide grass
undecided, do nothing by its side; free and easy,
sleep beneath it.
Also: It will not die young from axes, among things
there are none that will harm it. There is nothing it
can be used for, how could it meet with hardship?
Implication: doing nothing, you wont necessarily fit
in with other peoples plans or goals

Big tree #2
From ZZ 4:
Carpenter Shis apprentices are impressed with an enormous
tree, but he tells them it cant be used for anything: it is
worthless ( )
The tree appears in a dream: Will you compare me to a
cultured ( ) tree? Now the cherry apple, the pear, the
orange, and the pomelo, the sort with fruit or berries, when
the fruit ripens they are cut down and when they are cut
down they are disgraced. [] For a long time I have sought
to have nothing I can be used for, and now that I am almost
dead I have managed it. For me this is of great use. Suppose
that I had a use, would I have managed to have this size?
Is there an implied criticism here of people who aim to work
in government?

Gone fishing
We hope to make you responsible for affairs within
the borders.
I have heard that Chu has a holy turtle, dead
already for 3000 years. The king keeps it wrapped in
cloth and in a box, and stores it up in the ancestral
temple. This turtle, would it prefer to be dead with its
bones kept and honoured? Or would it prefer to be
alive, dragging its tail in the mud?
It would prefer to be alive, dragging its tail in the
mud.
Go! Im going to drag my tail in the mud. (Book 17)

Joining the animals

In ZZ 20, Confucius gets taught the way of not
dying. His response:
He abandoned his wandering, expelled his
followers, and escaped into a great marsh. He wore
rough cotton and ate wild grains. When he went
among the beasts he did not disrupt their flocks,
when he went among the birds he did not disrupt
their behaviour. Birds and beasts did not hate him,
much less did people!

Do-nothing politics
DDJ 2: The sage occupies himself with the business
of doing nothing.
DDJ 48: Seizing the world is always a result of
doing no work.
ZZ 9, horses hooves

Overview
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Recap
Background to classical Daoism
Inconstant ways
Distinctions and desires; reversal
Transformation
Doing nothing
Death

Death
Some ideas so far:
o The world is constantly transforming
o We are best off not trying to impose ourselves, but instead going along
with things
o There is no fixed way we can do this

Death: a particularly striking transformation

Appropriate response?

Zhuangzis wife
From ZZ 18:
Now again a change has occurred and she has gone
to death. These accompanied one another like
spring, autumn, summer, and winter, the four
seasons proceeding.

The empty skull

From ZZ 18:
In death there is no ruler above or subjects below.
Also there is none of the work of the four seasons.
Following along one takes heaven and earth as
spring and autumn, even the enjoyment of a king
facing south cannot surpass it.

The friends
From ZZ 6:
Quietly time passed, and Sir Sanghu died but had not
yet been buried. Confucius heard of it, and sent Zigong
to go to stand in attendance for him. One of them was
weaving frames for silkworms, one of them was
strumming a lute, and they sang, harmonizing with one
another: Ah, Sanghu! Ah, Sanghu! You have already
returned to the genuine, and we are still people, oh!
Zigong hastened up to them and said, I dare ask, to
sing while looking over the body, is that the ritual?
The two people looked at one another and smiled,
saying, How would he know about ritual, eh?

Zhuangzi dies
From ZZ 32:
Zhuangzi was about to die, and his disciples wanted to
give him a lavish funeral. Zhuangzi said, I will use
heaven and earth as my inner and outer coffins, use
the sun and the moon as my jade disks, the stars as
my pearls, and the ten thousand things as my farewell
gifts. Is anything not ready for my funeral? What could
be added to these?
We fear crows and hawks will eat you, master.
Up above I will be eaten by crows and hawks, down
below I will be eaten by mole crickets and ants. You
rob one to give to the other, why this one-sidedness?