We’ve spoken about Confucianism and Taoism as a Chinese philosophical polarity. However, as mentioned, they emerge from the common base of Chinese culture. Just as Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism and Muslim all begin with the Biblical foundation and then diverge over interpretation. Similarly the Confucians and Taoists begin from the common root of Chinese culture and then diverge.[i] We’ve seen how the concept of sage is one of these universal Chinese themes that every Chinese philosopher must deal with in some way. Another theme is the Tao itself. While the Taoists concern themselves with the Tao, so does Confucius. In this section, we are going to examine what Confucius has to say about the Tao.
First let us point out that the concept of the Tao is not secondary in the philosophy of Confucius, but primary. In the Chinese Classic, the Analects of Confucius, which contain all that we reliably know about Confucius and his thoughts, he mentions the Tao regularly throughout the collection of sayings and beliefs. In the 30 odd quotes that contain the ideogram for Tao, it is used in a primary sense, not in reference to. Let us look at a sampling of quotes from the source for further explication.
“Great Man calculates in terms of the Tao[ii], not in terms of earning a living. Agriculture is inspired by the fear of hunger; study, by an interest in salary. Great Man is concerned about the Tao; not about poverty.”[iii]
Hence according to Confucius, the Great Man focuses upon the Tao before earning a living, before prosperity and before poverty. The Tao is the primary focus, not something incidental. He is not saying that we should renounce earning a good living, just that the Great Man focuses upon the Tao first.
In Confucian thought, following the Tao is of paramount importance. As we’ve seen it is more important than poverty. In other parts of the book we find that as a leader one is to insist on following the Tao even if it is difficult[iv]; the leader must follow the Tao to inspire his followers[v]; if the state is not following the Tao, then one must not serve it[vi].
Indeed as this next quote shows, the reason Confucius is on the planet is to call people’s attention to the Tao.
“The world has been in ignorance of the Tao for a long time; but Heaven[vii] is going to use your master (Confucius) as a baton with which to strike the bell summoning men to instruction.”[viii]
Confucius even says that he wouldn’t need to reform the world if it were already following the Tao.
“If the world were following the Tao, I should not be doing my part to reform it.”[ix]
If the Tao is so important, how does one both identify and follow it? In our discussion of alignment with the Will of Heaven, we mentioned the use of Great Oracle, the I Ching, and the quietude of the Taoists to achieve alignment. According to Confucius one approaches the Tao through attendance to fundamentals.
“Great Man applies himself to the fundamentals, for once the fundamentals are there the Tao comes into being.”
Hence, according to Confucius, the Tao is an emergent phenomenon arising from the attendance to the fundamentals. This quote almost seems Taoist.
While Confucius speaks extensively about the Tao, Master Ni says, “He is not a Taoist.” Why is this?
While Confucius’ talk about fundamentals could be easily interpreted physically, in a Taoist fashion, what are these fundamentals he is referring to.
“It is filial duty and fraternal duty that are fundamental to Manhood-at-his-best.”
Hence while the Taoists consider body practices fundamental, Confucius considers the respect for family fundamental. Confucius even extends this filial responsibility into a type of social responsibility, pointing out that serving the family institution also serves the state.[x]
Confucius emphasizes proper moral behavior towards family and state, which can be taught. For Confucius following the Tao seems to mean adopting proper human moral behavior, which has an absolute definition. Most of the time when he speaks about the Tao, he is speaking about the tao of a state or country.
While Confucius talks about the Tao, his primary concern seems to be what to do when your state does not follow the Tao. Is it appropriate to provide services for a government who has abandoned the Tao?
“When a state is following the Tao, one enters its pay. If one enters the pay of a state which is not following the Tao, it is shameful.”[xi]
This is just one example of his many references to the Tao of the state.
While Confucius considers the fundamentals as adherence to a somewhat absolute moral code based upon respect for family and state, the Taoists consider the fundamentals, focusing upon body practices including quietude. Confucius does not focus upon the body except in a secondary fashion. While the Taoists emphasize body practices, Confucius emphasizes the family to strengthen the foundations of society. While the Taoists ask that the body be aligned, Confucius asks that our thoughts be correct.
“Let our thoughts be correct.”[xii]
The Taoists would wonder how one’s thoughts could be correct without proper body alignment.
It could have been in reaction to all this discussion about the Tao that Lao Tzu made his famous statement that the Tao is nameless, limiting the endless discussion about what the Tao was.
However as a further refinement, remember that Cheng Man-ching said that the Taoists focus upon the tao of Heaven and Earth, while Confucius focuses upon the tao of humans. For the Taoists, the Tao is nameless and indefinable because the Tao they refer to is that of Heaven and Earth, while the tao of humans is definable.
As mentioned, another major difference between the Taoists and the Confucians is the emphasis upon ritual. While Confucius feels that ritual is a necessary part of a state that is following the tao of government, the Taoists don’t associate rituals with the tao of Heaven, with which they seek to align themselves. While ritual is the tao of government seeking to preserve itself, ritual is not part of the tao of Heaven.
Focusing upon the tao of man and his institutions Confucius ignores the tao of Heaven. Elevating the preservation of the state to the highest level, ritual as the tao of government assumes great importance as furthering the culture. We mentioned this cultural-genetic tendency earlier with regard to species preservation being elevated above self-preservation. Here Confucius merges species preservation with cultural preservation. In this context culture is preserved through the repetition of ritual. The Taoist having separated species and culture, don’t need to preserve culture and hence don’t emphasize ritual. They believe that the Tao of heaven transcends the tao of man and his institutions.
We never want to underestimate Confucius, however. In the following Confucian quote the Tao of Man is mixed subtly with the Tao of Heaven and Earth to create a stimulating idea.
It is a very simple statement.
Ware’s translation:
“Man can make System great; it isn’t System which makes Man great.”[xiii]
Or retranslated
“Man can make the Tao great, the Tao doesn’t make Man great.”
The first tao of the phrase refers to the Tao of man, while the second refers to the Tao of Heaven. It is saying that man has the ability to create a great way or method of living, a great Tao, while the Tao of Heaven will not create a great man. The idea is that we are free agents. We can create our own Tao great or small. The Tao of Heaven can’t do this for us. We must create our own Tao. The Tao of Heaven is impersonal treating us like straw dogs. Man must pull himself up to create his own existence.
Retranslated again:
“Man can make his Tao great; the Tao of Heaven doesn’t make Man great.”
Let us look even deeper at this somewhat enigmatic phrase and its implications by looking at the original phrase. It is only eight characters long.
In Chinese: Ren néng héng tao, feí tao héng ren.
Literally this means: Man/ has the ability to/ enlarge /tao/, not/ tao/ enlarge/ man.
There are only five words used, Ren = man; tao = method, way; néng = able to, have ability; héng = great, enlarge, and feí = not. Basically the only difference between the first phrase and the second phrase is that the subject and object are reversed with a logical negative in front of the second phrase. Further 4 of the 5 words are not ambiguous. ‘Man has the ability to <?> tao; the tao doesn’t have the ability to <?> man.
The only ambiguous word is héng, usually translated ‘great’, as did Ware. However another meaning is ‘to enlarge’. The ideogram is composed of the ideogram for bow, gong, which is a pictogram of a bow with a handgrip for shooting arrows. Then there is a vertical line on the right, which when combined with gong yields the ideogram yin, which means to draw, pull, or guide. Yinli means gravitation.
The idea behind the word héng is that of drawing the bow. Hence one has to ability to expand one’s tao, one’s path or method.
Under this context another re-translation:
“Man has the ability to expand his method of operation, while his method of operation won’t expand him.”
Or more loosely:
“Humans must expand their own potentials, not relying upon Heaven for assistance.”
This statement is in no way fatalistic and instead is incredibly proactive.
In summary the collected sayings of Confucius and the Lao Tzu both deal with similar Chinese issues. They both deal heavily with the Tao. While Confucius tends to focus upon the Tao of Man, the Lao Tzu focuses more upon the Tao of Heaven and earth. In their philosophies they deal with what it is to be a sage, and what it means to align with the Tao. Therefore the philosophies, instead of being mutually exclusive, are instead inclusive, each offering solutions to different parts of the same Chinese puzzle. While the Taoists focus upon human’s individual relation to heaven, Confucius focuses upon the human’s collective relation to society. While coming up with different solutions to the similar problems, they deal with the same universal Chinese issues. Let us move on to see how these philosophies play themselves out in the coming centuries.
We certainly don’t now what is going to happen next. Nor could we predict it. The Reader will have to read on to discover how the ideas of Confucius and Lao Tzu manifest themselves.
[i]Buddhism, Yoga and the diversity of beliefs called Hinduism, grew from the foundation of thoughts connected with the Indian subcontinent. Buddhism, which was grafted onto the Chinese plant, eventually merged with Taoism to become Chan or Zen Buddhism, a uniquely Chinese blend, which has had great influence in the Orient, especially in Japan.
[ii]In Ware’s fine translation, he uses the word ‘System’ for the ideogram for Tao. As we’ve seen, our English words have a whole different set of connotations from the Chinese. Because of this the English words tend to mislead the reader into a false sense of understanding. For this reason, we will instead use the Chinese word, Tao, when we read System in Ware’s translation. While Tao has its own Western connotations, at least, it is the word. This discussion will refine our understanding of the word Tao, rather than piling more loaded English words on top, which will only serve to confuse the issue.
[iii]The Sayings of Confucius translated by James Ware, professor at Harvard University, 1958, Confucius Publishing Co., p. 164
[iv]Confucius, p. 134
[v]Confucius, p. 120
[vi] Confucius, p. 138
[vii]Similarly while Ware uses the word ‘Sky’, we will use the word ‘Heaven’ in the translation. We have already established a meaning for Heaven in the context of this paper, which is obscured when another word is used.
[viii]Confucius, p26
[ix]Confucius, p. 192
[x]Note in the following pages how many emperors, including Mao in the 20th century, enforce the exact opposite of this concept, believing the family to be a threat to the government.
[xi] Confucius, p. 138
[xii] Confucius, p.10
[xiii]Confucius p. 164
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