Unit 10 · The Daoist Texts

The oldest account of Laozi’s life is in Sima Qian’s Shiji, finished around 94 BCE. It says Laozi’s name was Li Er, that he came from the state of Chu and served as keeper of the archives at the Zhou court. It also tells that Confucius once visited him to ask about ritual.

The best-known part tells how Laozi, seeing the Zhou decline, rode west to leave China. At the border pass, the gatekeeper Yin Xi begged him to write down his teaching. Laozi wrote a book of more than 5,000 characters in two parts, on the Dao and on de, then left. No one knows where he went.

Yet Sima Qian himself hesitates. He mentions two other men who may have been Laozi, and says that some say Laozi lived over 160 years. He ends that no one in his day knew the truth. Historians today treat Laozi’s biography as uncertain.

The Daodejing has 81 short chapters and about 5,000 characters. Its name means the Classic of the Way and Virtue. Many chapters are rhymed poems. Some speak to rulers. Others describe the Dao as the nameless source of all things.

Tradition holds that Laozi wrote it in one sitting at the pass. Many modern scholars see it differently. They note repeated phrases, shifts in style and themes, and the evidence of early copies. They think it is an anthology: sayings gathered and shaped by several hands over time, probably finished by the 200s BCE.

For many readers, the question of authorship does not change the book’s value. Daoists honor Laozi as its author and, in religious Daoism, as a divine figure. Scholars study the text’s growth. Both groups read the same 81 chapters closely.

Many Daodejing chapters teach through images. Water is one of the most important. In chapter 8, the highest good is compared to water. Water benefits all things and does not compete. It settles in low places that people dislike.

In chapter 78, the text says nothing is softer or weaker than water, yet nothing is better at wearing away what is hard and strong. Readers connect this to wu wei, acting without forcing, and to the book’s praise of the soft over the rigid.

Readers have taken these images in different ways. Some read them as advice for rulers: govern gently and do not push. Others read them as a guide to personal calm. Religious Daoists also read them within practices of meditation and ritual.

In 1973, archaeologists excavated tombs at Mawangdui, near Changsha in Hunan. One tomb was sealed in 168 BCE, in the early Han. Inside were books written on silk, including two manuscripts of the Daodejing, now called copy A and copy B.

The silk copies surprised scholars. The received text begins with the Dao section (chapters 1–37) and then the De section (38–81). Both Mawangdui copies put the De section first. Some scholars suggest the book may have been called the Dejingdao at the time.

The copies also differ in many small words from the received text, the version handed down over centuries. For example, the silk copies often use slightly different characters. These differences help scholars see how the text changed through copying.

The Guodian tomb, opened in 1993, is dated to about 300 BCE. Its bamboo strips hold material matching parts of about 31 of the 81 chapters, roughly two-fifths of the text. They are divided into three bundles, which scholars call A, B and C.

Why is the copy shorter? Scholars offer several hypotheses. Some think the full book already existed and the owner copied selections. Others think the Daodejing was still growing, and Guodian shows an earlier stage. Others think the bundles were teaching materials.

One difference draws special attention. In the received chapter 19, the text says to cast off humaneness and rightness. The Guodian version at that place speaks of casting off different words, such as cleverness and calculation. Some scholars think the anti-Confucian tone of the received text was added later.

The Zhuangzi is named after Zhuang Zhou, called Zhuangzi (c. 369–286 BCE). He lived in the state of Song. Tradition says he once turned down an offer to serve as a king’s minister, saying he would rather drag his tail in the mud like a living turtle.

The version read today comes from the scholar Guo Xiang, around 300 CE. He cut an older 52-chapter version to 33 chapters. These are divided into the seven inner chapters, 15 outer chapters and 11 mixed chapters.

Most scholars think the inner chapters are closest to Zhuangzi’s own thought. The outer and mixed chapters include writings by followers and others, some with different views. Readers usually begin with chapters 1 to 7.

The Zhuangzi opens with a giant fish, Kun, that turns into a bird, Peng, whose wings are like clouds. Small creatures laugh at it and say they only fly to the next tree. Readers take the tall tale as a lesson about how size of view shapes what we understand.

The most famous story ends chapter 2. Zhuangzi dreams he is a butterfly, happily flying. He wakes and is Zhuang Zhou again. But he does not know whether he is Zhou who dreamed of being a butterfly, or a butterfly now dreaming it is Zhou.

In chapter 3, Cook Ding carves an ox so skillfully that his knife never dulls. He follows the natural gaps in the ox rather than hacking. The ruler who watches says he has learned how to nurture life. Readers see in Cook Ding a picture of spontaneity and skill.

Zhuangzi’s friend and rival in the book is Huizi, a thinker known for logic and careful argument. They often disagree. In chapter 1, Huizi complains of a huge gourd too big to use and a giant tree too gnarled for lumber. Zhuangzi answers that the "useless" tree can give shade and will never be cut down.

In chapter 17, the two walk on a bridge over the Hao River. Zhuangzi says the fish are happy. Huizi asks how he can know, since he is not a fish. Zhuangzi replies: you are not me, so how do you know I don’t know? The debate goes one more round.

Readers argue over who wins. Some see Zhuangzi dodging with wordplay. Others see him making a serious point about perspective. Zhuangzi’s grief at Huizi’s death, told in chapter 24, shows how much he valued their arguing.

The character dao can mean a road, a way of doing something, a teaching, or the verb "to speak." Daodejing chapter 1 plays on these: the dao that can be dao-ed is not the constant Dao. Legge chose "trodden"; other translators choose "spoken," "told" or "followed."

Classical Chinese has no fixed markers for past or present, singular or plural, and few pronouns. A line can be read as a command, a description or a question. So English versions of the Daodejing can differ widely.

This is why the Daodejing has been translated into English more than any other Chinese book, with well over a hundred versions. Readers who cannot read Chinese often compare two or three translations side by side.

Chinese writers have long used two terms. Daojia ("Dao school") often names the thinkers and texts, like the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi. Daojiao ("Dao teaching") often names the organized religion, with priests, temples, rituals and scriptures.

Western scholars in the 1800s and 1900s often treated these as two separate things. Some praised the early texts as pure philosophy and dismissed the religion as a later decline. That view is now widely criticized as unfair and inaccurate.

Many scholars today stress that Daoist priests read the Daodejing as scripture, and that the early texts already speak of long life, breath and inner calm. They describe one broad tradition with many lineages and practices. This chapter uses that approach.

According to Daoist tradition, in 142 CE a man named Zhang Daoling was living in the mountains of Sichuan. There, Daoists teach, Lord Lao, the divine form of Laozi, appeared to him and gave him a new covenant and teachings.

Zhang founded a community called the Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi Dao). Members confessed their faults, paid a tax of five pecks of rice, and were organized in parishes led by libationers. The movement created one of China’s first organized religions.

The title of Celestial Master passed down in Zhang’s family. The line was long linked to Mount Longhu in Jiangxi. In 1949 the 63rd Celestial Master moved to Taiwan, where the lineage continues. Zhengyi Daoism, which traces itself to Zhang, is one of Daoism’s main branches.

By the late Han, some Chinese began to honor Laozi as more than a wise man. In 166 CE, according to Han records, Emperor Huan offered sacrifices to Laozi at court. Religious texts described Laozi as the Dao taking form, appearing again and again to teach.

Daoists honor him as Taishang Laojun, the Most High Lord Lao. In many temples he is one of the Three Pure Ones, the highest deities, seen as forms of the Dao. His statue often shows an old man with a long white beard, holding a fan.

The Tang emperors, whose family name was Li, claimed Laozi as their ancestor and gave the Daodejing a place in exams. To Daoists, honoring Laozi is an act of reverence. Scholars describe how this devotion developed, without judging whether it is true.

Daoists gathered their scriptures into a canon, called the Daozang, or Treasury of the Dao. Several versions were made over the centuries. The one that survives was printed in 1445 under the Ming dynasty, with a supplement added in 1607.

The 1445 Daozang contains about 1,400 texts. It includes the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi with many commentaries, as well as ritual manuals, hymns, lives of immortals, medical and alchemy texts, and guides to meditation and breathing.

For centuries only a few printed sets existed. In the 1920s, it was reprinted in Shanghai, and scholars around the world began to study it. The canon shows how wide the tradition is: philosophy, scripture and practice in one library.

Daoism today has two main branches. Zhengyi priests, tracing their line to the Celestial Masters, may marry and often live at home, serving local temples. Quanzhen ("Complete Perfection"), founded by Wang Chongyang in the 1100s, is a monastic order whose members live in temples and do not marry.

Priests lead many rituals. The great jiao is a ceremony of offering and renewal for a whole community, which may last several days. Priests also perform rites for festivals, for blessing homes and for funerals. They chant scriptures, write petitions and move through set steps.

The White Cloud Temple in Beijing is the center of Quanzhen Daoism. Other famous sites include the Wudang Mountains and Mount Longhu. Visitors are welcome at many temples to watch respectfully.

Walk into many temples in Taiwan, Hong Kong or Singapore and you may find Daoist, Buddhist and local deities side by side. Families honor Mazu, protector of sailors, or Guan Di, admired for loyalty. Many honor the Kitchen God, who, by tradition, reports on the household to Heaven before New Year.

Temple festivals mark deities’ birthdays with processions, music and opera. Visitors bring offerings of fruit, flowers and incense. Some ask for guidance by casting a pair of crescent-shaped wooden blocks or drawing a numbered stick.

For the families who worship there, these acts express respect, gratitude and hope. Scholars describe them as part of Chinese popular religion, which often mixes Daoist, Buddhist and Confucian elements.

In Daoist tradition, an immortal (xian) is a person who, through practice and virtue, is believed to have gone beyond ordinary death. The most famous group is the Eight Immortals. Stories about them grew over centuries and became popular by the Ming dynasty.

Each immortal has a symbol. Lü Dongbin carries a sword. Li Tieguai leans on an iron crutch and carries a gourd. He Xiangu, the one woman, holds a lotus. Zhang Guolao rides a donkey. Others carry a fan, a flute, castanets or a flower basket.

The Eight Immortals appear on vases, paintings, embroidery and theater stages. A favorite tale shows them crossing the sea, each using a special object. For many families they stand for long life and good fortune; for Daoists, they are also teachers.

Early morning in many Chinese cities, and in parks in Chicago, people move slowly together through a set of flowing forms. This is tai chi (taijiquan). It began as a martial art, and its history is debated; many schools trace it to Daoist teachers such as Zhang Sanfeng, a figure of legend.

Qigong means "working with qi." Qi is a Chinese word for breath or vital energy. Qigong includes breathing, gentle movement and stillness. Daoist texts in the Daozang describe breathing and movement practices aimed at health and long life.

Today, people practice tai chi and qigong for many reasons: exercise, balance, calm or spiritual practice. Some see them as Daoist; others see them simply as exercise. Studies of tai chi’s health effects are ongoing, and scholars describe the practice rather than lead it.

Older Western books sometimes called religious Daoism "superstition." Scholars today reject that word as a judgment, not a description. They describe what Daoists believe and do, attributing each belief: "Daoists teach that..." or "practitioners believe...".

Respectful study also means seeing variety. A Quanzhen monk in Beijing, a Zhengyi priest in Taiwan, a family at a Singapore temple and a scholar reading the Zhuangzi may all call themselves Daoist, in different ways.

It also means seeing Daoism as a living tradition. Temples are rebuilt, priests trained and festivals held today in China, Taiwan and around the world. Students can learn most by listening to practitioners describe their own practice.