We are living in trying times. Everyone seems to be less happy and less financially stable than before. Some people choose to deal with the financial pressures by taking on high-paying but relatively meaningless jobs. Other people aim for a life imbued with more meaning and freedom. The central questions are really, “What kind of person do I want to be?” and, “What will bring me true fulfillment?” To this end, we shall look eastward to the Taoists of ancient China. Here, you may find that you have a lot in common with the ancient Daoist philosopher, Lao Zi (AKA Lao Tzu).
Lao Zi most likely lived during the Spring and Autumn period (c. 770 – c. 481 BCE), which was a time when “[w]arfare was a constant fact of life […].” He knew what a hard time was and how to survive it.
What is Taoism?
The Chinese word for Taoism is 道教 (Dàojiào), meaning ‘teaching of the way’. So, before I get into the nuggets of wisdom from Lao Zi, let’s talk about what this ‘way’ means. As Wang Keping (1998) describes it:
The Dao of the universe ultimately follows ‘the way of spontaneity’ or naturalness. It begets all things without any practical purpose. Accordingly, it treats all things alike without making any distinction. And furthermore, it lets all things be what they can become.
Taoism sees people as being subordinate to the laws of nature and advises against trying to mess with these laws, because nature is big and we are small. As Chapter 7 of the Dao De Jing states (Lao Tzu 1997, 61):
Those that would gain what is under heaven by tampering with it – I have seen that they do not succeed. For that which is under heaven is like a holy vessel, dangerous to tamper with. Those that tamper with it, harm it. Those that grab at it, lose it.
Unlearn What You Have Learned
Am I alone in thinking that we have learned a bunch of ideas and perspectives that are not serving us as well as they served our parents or grandparents? What is the solution? For Lao Zi, it was all about unlearning (Lao Zi 1998, 91):
[T]he sage discards the extreme, the extravagant and the excessive. Meanwhile, he desires to have no desires. He does not value rare treasures. He learns what is unlearned. He returns to what is missed.
We can see from this quote that Lao Zi viewed the life of the sage as an undoing of conditioning – as a shedding of intellectualism and civilization to get to the natural (and best) state of being. This can be seen even more clearly in this passage (Lao Tzu 1997, 103):
Learning consists in adding to one’s stock day by day; the practice of Tao consists in subtracting day by day, subtracting and yet again subtracting till one has reached inactivity.
Lao Zi was not advocating for knowing nothing, but rather, was arguing against hoarding knowledge to show off – in other words, hoarding knowledge for knowledge’s sake. This is a useful reminder at a time when it is possible to either consume more information than at any other point in history or outsource all your thinking to a machine (or even do both at the same time!).
For those of us who are alive today who want to imagine a new way of living and coexisting, we need to unlearn what we have learned: we need to ‘subtract’ the ideas that are holding us back in order to step into a better future.
Despair is the Wrong Conclusion
As we watch the world get decimated by tyrants and jerks, it is easy to think that this is how things are going to be from now on. But Lao Zi warns us against such defeatist thinking (Lao Zi 1998, 198):
A whirlwind does not last a whole morning; A rainstorm does not last a whole day. What causes them to be so? It is Heaven and Earth. If Heaven and Earth cannot make them last long, how much less can man?
If even the all-powerful heavens cannot sustain storms for long, how can humans believe that any hardship or conflict is never-ending? That is not the way of the world. Lao Zi further states: “It is upon bad fortune that good fortune leans, and upon good fortune that bad fortune rests” (Lao Zi 2009, 55).
We cannot know in advance if something is good or bad fortune. It may look bad but turn out to be good; it may look good, but turn out to be bad. We are not fortune tellers, and it is useful to remember that we do not know.
Lao Zi also argues that things or people which look strong may not be (Lao Zi 1998, 100):
When alive, man is soft and tender. After death, he is hard and stiff. […] Hence an army will be shattered when it becomes strong. A tree will be broken when it grows huge. The hard and strong fall in the inferior position; The soft and tender stay in the superior position.
Furthermore, he states that the weak might not be as weak as they look (Lao Zi 2009, 129):
Nothing under Heaven is softer and weaker than water, but in attacking the hard and strong, no force can compare with it, for nothing can take its place.
What is true for water, which nourishes but can also flood and rupture, is also true for us, the common people. We, too, can nourish but also destroy. Our power is not to be underestimated.
So, be water, my friend. If Taoist philosopher Lao Zi could make it through the turbulent and violent times of ancient China, so can you. And remember that the bad guys may be weaker than they look, you’re stronger than you feel, and we cannot know if an event is good or bad until after it’s happened.
Works Cited
Lewis, M. E. 2000. The City-State in Spring-and-Autumn China. In M.H. Hansesn, ed. A Comparative Study of Thirty City-State Cultures: An Investigation Conducted by the Copenhagen Polis Centre. Denmark: The Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters. pp. 359-374.
Lao Tzu. 1997. Tao Te Ching 道德经. (Trans. by Waley, A). Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Lao Zi & Wang, K. 1998. The Classic of the Dao: A New Investigation. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press.
Lao Zi. 2009. Wise Men Talking Series: Lao Zi Says. (Trans. by Qin, W. & Fangzhen, Y). Beijing: Sinolingua.
By Gisela Zipp
Gisela Zipp has been a scholar of Chinese since 2009 and spent six and a half years living in China. She later lectured at Rhodes University, teaching both the Chinese language and Chinese history and philosophy. She also studied a number of modules through Jinan University, including Ancient Chinese, which extensively covered the works of Zhuang Zi, a later Taoist philosopher. She is now considering living in a forest – as Lao Zi would have wanted.