Heaven and earth arc ruthless, and treat the myriad creatures as straw dogs; the sage is ruthless, and treats the people as straw dogs. (14)
This is followed by
Is not the space between heaven and earth like a bellows?
It is empty without being exhausted:
The more it works the more comes out. (15)
It is a different point that is made in each passage. In the first passage, the point is that heaven and earth are unfeeling, while in the second it is that they are inexhaustible though empty. There is no connexion between the two passages other than the fact that they are both about ‘heaven and earth’.
Again, in chapter LXIV we find
Whoever does anything to it will ruin it; whoever lays hold of it will lose it.
Therefore the sage, because he does nothing, never ruins anything; and, because he does not lay hold of anything, loses nothing. (154, 154a)
This is followed by
In their enterprises the people
Always ruin them when on the verge of success.
Be as careful at the end as at the beginning
And there will be no ruined enterprises. (155)
Here we can see that the two passages have been placed together because they both deal with how things come to be ruined and how this can be avoided. But beyond this the point made in each passage is, once again, quite different. In the first passage, the sage avoids failure by not doing anything, while in the second the common people are exhorted to avoid failure when on the verge of success by being as careful at the end as at the beginning. In the one case, action is condemned as the cause of failure, because true success lies in not taking any action at all. In the other, it is assumed that success can be achieved through action, provided that one can be careful throughout the duration of the action. The two points of view are not simply uncon- nected; they are inconsistent.
Since passages which are placed together in the same chapter are very often unconnected or even inconsistent, many scholars in the past have felt dissatisfaction with the existing arrangement of the text, and some have even attempted to have the text rearranged. As these attempts seem to me to be based on mistaken assumptions, I have chosen to deal with the problem by a different method.*
In the Lao tzu the same passage is often to be found in different chapters. As the work is so short it is exceedingly unlikely that a single author should be so much given to repeating himself, but if we look upon the work as an anthology it is easier to see how this could have happened. Although in some cases one gets the impression that a passage which occurs more than once fits better into one context than into another, in other cases it seems to fit equally well into die different contexts. This confirms the suggestion I made earlier regarding die probability diat these passages existed as independent sayings with no fixed contexts. Again, in some cases it is clear that what is found in more than one chapter is really the same passage in a slightly different form. Incidentally, the recurrence of the same passage in different contexts often helps the reader to understand a text which, generally speaking, offers so little contextual aid.†
A few illustrative examples will make this clear. In chapter XVII we find
When there is not enough faith, there is lack of good faith. (40)
This is found also in chapter xxm (53). In neither case is this passage connected with its context. In fact it has more affinity with the passage in chapter XLIXwhich says
Those who are of good faith I have faith in. Those who are lacking in good faith I also have faith in. In so doing I gain in good faith. (111)
We can see here that what is advocated is that we should extend our faidi to even those who lack good faith. This is because by so doing we have some hopes of transforming them into men of good faith, whereas placing no faith in them will serve only to confirm them in their bad ways. Hence in a way the lack of good faith is the result of the lack of faith.
In contrast to the passage that does not seem to belong to any context, there is the passage which seems to belong to more than one. In chapter IV we have
Blunt the sharpness;
Untangle the knots;
Soften the glare;
Let your wheels move only along old ruts. (12)
In chapter LII we have
Block the openings,
Shut the doors,
And all your life you will not run dry.
Unblock the openings,
Add to your troubles,
And to the end of your days you will be beyond salvation. (118)
Yet in chapter LVI we find
Block the openings;
Shut the doors.
Blunt the sharpness;
Untangle the knots;
Soften the glare;
Let your wheels move only along old ruts. (129)
Faced with this, one’s first reaction is to think that sections 12 and 118 are independent passages and that section 129 is a conflation of the two. This is probably the case, but one cannot be absolutely sure because sections 12 and 118 happen to share the same rhyme, and the two opening lines of section 12, moreover, happen to consist, like the lines in section 118, of three characters each.
We have seen that in chapter LXIVthere is the passage
Whoever does anything to it will ruin it; whoever lays hold of it will lose it. (154)
Therefore the sage, because he does nothing, never ruins anything; and, because he does not lay hold of anything, loses nothing. (154a)
This passage does not have any connexion with either what follows or what goes before. Section 154 appears again in chapter XXIX:
Whoever takes the empire and wishes to do anything to it I see will have no respite. The empire is a sacred vessel and nothing should be done to it. Whoever does anything to it will ruin it; whoever lays hold of it will lose it. (66)
Here a different context is given to the opening sentence. Whether this is, in any sense, the original context it is impossible to say, but it is at least more helpful to the understanding of the sentence than the obvious conclusion that ‘the sage, because he does nothing, never ruins anything; and, because he does not lay hold of anything, loses nothing’.
Then there are cases where we find slightly different formulations of what is essentially the same passage. In chapter XXII we find
He does not show himself, and so is conspicuous;
He docs not consider himself right, and so is illustrious;
He does not brag, and so has merit;
He does not boast, and so endures. (50b)
In chapter XXIV there is this,
He who shows himself is not conspicuous;
He who considers himself right is not illustrious;
He who brags will have no merit;
He who boasts will not endure. (55)
It is obvious that these two passages are simply the positive and negative ways of saying the same thing.
Take another case. In chapter LXX we find
My words are very easy to understand and very easy to put into practice, yet no one in the world can understand them or put them into practice. (170)
In chapter LXXVIII we have
That the weak overcomes the strong,
And the submissive overcomes the hard,
Everyone in the world knows yet no one can put this
knowledge into practice. (187)
Here we have not only a different formulation of the same saying, but also an apparent difference in substance. In section 170 it is said that ‘no one in the world can understand’, while in section 187 it is said that ‘everyone in the world knows’. The difference, however, is more apparent than real. What the sage says is really very easy to understand, and in a sense everyone understands it, but it is because the truth is so simple and easy to understand that the clever people tend to find it ridiculous. But the difference between those who understand and those who do not is unimportant, because they are alike in their inability to act on the moral contained in the words.
This seems to show that the same saying, in the process of oral transmission, assumed slightly different forms in different contexts while retaining essentially the same moral.
The work then is an anthology, compiled by more than one hand, and there are at least three ways in which the existing material has been dealt with. Firstly, two or more pre-existing, passages are joined together. This is too common to need exam- ples. Secondly, a pre-existing passage is followed by a passage of exposition. A good example is section 30 and 30a in chapter xra. Thirdly, a pre-existing passage is preceded by a passage of exposition. Section 191 in chapter LXXIX is an example. In cases of the last two types, it frequently happens that the pre-existing passage is in rhyme, while the exposition that is added is in prose, but it also sometimes happens that the exposition added is so contrived as to rhyme with the original passage. Section 7a is a particularly interesting example, because, by rhyming chii with ch’ii, the editor was in fact revealing that he pronounced chii in a way different from the way it was pronounced when section 7 was composed.
In all these cases, the clue to the editing lies often in the use of connectives like ku (therefore, thus) and shih yi (hence). Naturally, these words are often used in their proper function as links in a consecutive argument, but more often they are to be found precisely where the logical link is weakest. A careful reading of the texts of the latter part of the Warring States period with an eye to the continuity of argument will confirm the impression that these words were used to connect passages which have in fact little or no connexion. There is one clear example of these words being deliberately put to such a use in the Hum nan tzu. Chapter 12 of this work consists of a collection of stories each culminating in a quotation from the Lao tzu. The quotations in most cases are from a single chapter of the existing text, but in three cases the quotations are from two different chapters. Instead of having the quotation from each chapter preceded by the formula ‘Lao Tzu said’, a single formula serves to introduce both quotations which are separated by the word ku. It seems that the editors of the Hum nan tzu were still aware of the editorial function of such words and used them as an indication to the reader that the two parts of the same quotation were in fact from different chapters of the Lao tzu.
One type of editorial comment stands out very clearly. There are certain set formulae that are used more than once. For instance, chapters XII, XXXVIII, and LXXII all end with the line
Therefore he discards the one and takes the other.
Again, chapters XXI and LIV and the opening section in chapter LVII all end with the line
How do I know that… is (or are) like that? By means of this.
On the question of the date of the work it is not possible to arrive at an exact answer. As we have seen, there is reason to believe that there were similar collections in the Warring States period attributed to other wise old men, and that there were probably different versions of the Lao tzu at one time, though by the beginning of the Han Dynasty the text was already very much the same as the text we have at present. It also seems to be clear that the text must have existed for some time before then, for we find a highly esoteric interpretation in the Chieh Lao chapter in the Hanfei tzu which was probably somewhat earlier than the Huai nan tzu, as the text quoted in it from the Lao tzu diverges to a greater extent from our present text. As to how long a period is needed for a tradition of esoteric interpretation to grow up, this is a question to which there is no ready answer.
Taking all factors into account, I am inclined to the hypothesis that some form of the Lao tzu existed by the beginning of the third century BC at the latest. This is supported to a certain extent by the fact that in the Lao tzu are to be found many ideas which were associated with a number of thinkers of the second half of the fourth and the first quarter of the third century BC. The general impression one gains in reading the Lao tzu is that it was the product of this same golden period which produced so many great thinkers many of whom congregated at Chi Hsi in the state of Ch’i during the second half of the fourth century BC. This does not, of course, mean that the Lao tzu does not contain some material which is much earlier than this period. It has, for instance, been often pointed out that the line
Do good to him who has done you an injury,
in chapter LXIII was already treated as a common saying in the Analects of Confucius (14.36). Again, a passage very similar to section 79 in chapter XXXVI is attributed in both the Hanfei tzu and the Chan kuo ts’e to a work called the Book of Chou and quoted as from a poem in the Lü shih ch’un ch’iu. In a work of this nature it is not surprising that it should contain material that ranges over a wide period of time.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
EASTERN CHOU DYNASTY, 770-256 BC
A The Spring and Autumn Period, 722-481 BC
*Confucius, 551-479 BC
B The Warring States Period, 480-222 BC
*Mo Tzu,fl. fifth century BC
Yang Chu, fl. fourth century BC
*Mencius, fl. fourth century BC
Sung K’eng (and Yin Wen), second quarter to end of fourth century BC
Shen Tao (and T’ien P’ien), middle of fourth to first quarter of third century BC
*Chuang Tzu, middle of fourth to beginning of third century BC
*Hsün Tzu, latter half of fourth to middle of third century BC
The Lti shih ch’utt ch’iu, postface dated 240 BC
*Han Fei Tzu, d. 233 BC
CH’IN DYNASTY, 221-207 BC
WESTERN HAN DYNASTY, 206 BC-AD 8
The Huai nan tzu, compiled c. 140 BC
Ssu-ma Ch’ien, the Shih chi, completed c. 90 BC
The Li chi, compiled by Tai Sheng {fl. first century BC)
Liu Hsiang, the Hsin hsti and the Shuo yuan, presented to the throne c. 16 BC
WANG MANG, AD 9-23
EASTERN HAN DYNASTY, AD 25-220
Pan Ku (AD 32-92), the Han shu
GLOSSARY
BOOK OF CHANGES. Although this is numbered among the Thirteen Confucian Classics, it was, in its basic text, originally no more than a manual for divination by the method of the hexagrams. A hexagram, which is made up of two trigrams, is a figure consisting of six lines, one placed above another. As there are two kinds of lines, the broken and the continuous, the total number of possible hexagrams is sixty-four. There is a text on each hexagram which explains the prognosticatory significance both of the hexagram as a whole and the individual lines. But from very early times, attempts were made to read a philosoph- ical significance into this system. This is the purpose of some of the commentaries, commonly known as ‘the ten wings’. The broken line is taken to represent the yin and the continuous the yang, and the yin and the yang are looked upon as the basic forces in the universe which wax and wane alternately and relative to each other, thus giving rise to a cyclic process of change. An obvious instance of this process is the four seasons. In summer the yang force is at its highest and the yin at its lowest while in autumn the yang is on the decline and the yin on the rise. In winter the state of affairs is the reverse of that in summer, and that in spring the reverse of that in autumn.
BOOK OF HISTORY. Also one of the Thirteen Confucian Classics. This is the earliest extant collection of historical docu- ments. The present text consists of 58 chapters. Of these 33 chapters which are equivalent to 28 of the so-called ‘modern script’ text are considered genuine while the rest are very late forgeries compiled out of ancient material. The period of history covered ranges from Yao who was one of the legendary kings to the Chou Dynasty.
BOOK OF ODES. Another of the Thirteen Confucian Classics. It is the earliest collection of poems, some three hundred in all, that were composed in the five centuries or so before the time of Confucius. The work is divided into three parts, the feng, the ya, and the sung. The feng consists of folk songs of the various states; the ya consists of songs sung at court during banquets and entertainment of guests; and the sung consists of songs in praise of imperial ancestors sung on sacrificia
l occasions.
CHANKUO TS’E (The Stratagems of the Warring States). In theWarring States period there was a large class of political adven-turers who travelled from one state to another offering advice tothe rulers. This work is a collection of such stratagems arrangedunder the various states, which has come down to us in a versionedited by Liu Hsiang. It is not certain when the work was firstcompiled, but there is a view that this was done at the beginningof the Han Dynasty.
CHI HSIA. In the Warring States period wandering scholars and political advisers attained a much higher status than in the preceding period, and it became fashionable for feudal lords to gather them at their courts. One of the most famous of such gatherings was at Chi Hsia in the state of Ch’i. The Chi gate was the western gate of the capital of Ch’i, and Chi Hsia simply means ‘under the Chi gate’. The scholars gathered there for discussions and it is said that an academy was built there for that purpose. Chi Hsia was at the height of its fame under King Wei (356-320 BC) and King Hsiian (319-301 BC), though it probably began before then and certainly was revived at the time of King Hsiang (283-265 BC) when Hsün Tzu was the most senior among the scholars. Many of the brilliant thinkers of the period were at one time or another at Chi Hsia. It is interesting to note that, though he was in Ch’i during the time of King Hsiian, Mencius never was numbered amongst the scholars of Chi Hsia.
CHOU. The name of the Dynasty which lasted from 1027 to 256 BC, with its capital transferred to Loyang in 770. By the Spring and Autumn period, however, the Chou emperor was no more than the titular head of the empire and his territory was no bigger than that of a minor state. It was to Loyang that Confucius was supposed to have gone to seek the instruction of Lao Tzu.
CONFUCIUS (551-479 BC). Confucius was brought up in humble circumstances but was, from an early age, known for his learning. Though he had ambitions of attaining a position of political influence, he never succeeded in realizing this ambition and his life was spent in teaching. The importance of Confucius lies in his being the first great teacher as well as philosopher. In denying no one acceptance as a disciple provided that he was genuinely eager to learn, he probably did more than anyone in preventing education from becoming the exclusive privilege of the aristocracy. He was the first philosopher to whom a collection of sayings is attributed which is, on the whole, reliable. This is the Lun yii or the Analects of Confucius as it is commonly known in English.