The Neo-Taoists were spontaneous and uninhibited. Wang Hui-chih (d. 388) woke up in the middle of the night after a heavy snowfall and suddenly thought of his friend Tai. He immediately left his house and took an all-night boat ride to the house of this friend. Just as he reached Tai’s doorstep, he turned around and went home. Later, someone asked him why he had done this. Wang Hui-chih answered with self-assurance, “I came on the impulse of my pleasure, and now it is ended, so I go back. Why should I see Tai?” (Fung Yu Lan 1966, 236). Freely expressing his impulses paradoxically released Wang Hui-chih from the chains of determined action. The Neo-Taoists brought Taoism from thought into action.
Wang Pi (226–249) was a prominent Neo-Taoist who wrote commentaries on Lao-tzu and the I Ching that reinterpreted these classic texts. He lived a short but intense life, dying at the young age of twenty-four. Wang Pi and the other Neo-Taoists introduced this new movement.
WU -WEI IS FEELING AND DOING WHAT IS NATURAL
The Neo-Taoists justified their sometimes unconventional behavior in part because of their innovative interpretation of nonaction. They considered wu-wei, nonactivity, as natural, and added a new complementary concept, yu-wei, as a counterbalance. Yu-wei was activity that they believed to be unnatural. When people follow their natural tendencies they are wu-wei, but if they try to force themselves to do things, they are yu-wei. Chuang-tzu idealized the return to the primitive noble savage. The Neo-Taoists reinterpreted this concept of “primitive” to mean authentic or sincere. Being who you are and permitting your life force to be expressed fully with genuineness was of utmost importance:“If by primitive we mean the undistorted, the man whose character is not distorted is the most primitive, though he may be capable of doing many things” (Fung Yu Lan 1966, 25).
The Neo-Taoists took a different position on emotions. The classical Taoists counseled stillness and quietism to enhance Taoist wisdom. The Neo-Taoist believed that feeling and expressing emotions would make them wiser. They explained that sages quieted their minds, seeking to be one with Tao. But as a human being, a sage would, at times, feel emotions of anger or joy like other people. The difference between a wise Taoist and an unenlightened person is that sages could have their feeling without becoming trapped or hindered by their emotional responses. Many modern forms of experiential psychotherapy embrace a similar insight. When you become one with your feelings, by experiencing and accepting them as part of your natural responses, your emotions transform. You are free to choose your actions in response. As Wang Pi expressed it, “The sage has emotions but no ensnarement” (Fung Yu Lan 1966, 238).
In order to feel their emotions, the Neo-Taoists developed perceptual sensitivity. They were sensitive not only to personal circumstances but also to the world around them. Their feelings about the beauty of nature intensified. They noticed things that other people ignored. They sought refined aesthetic experiences, seeking to be connoisseurs of life. Those who achieved this were said to have refined their personality. The Neo-Taoists respected and appreciated a natural, genuine, well-developed personality.
The Neo-Taoists were not against learning. They believed that great writers and thinkers like Plato and Chuang-tzu were being authentic by writing philosophical books. This was their true nature, to be thoughtful writers. Thus, any kind of learning or emotion that is natural to the person can be positive.
REINTERPRETATION OF CONFUCIUS
The Neo-Taoists broadened the scope of the practical-minded Confucian doctrines that had been influencing thought for several centuries by including metaphysical questions about being and nonbeing. Chuang-tzu and Lao-tzu had emphasized the Way of Nature, but the Neo-Taoists talked about the Principle of Nature. They did not reject Confucianism; they examined it in terms of Taoism.
The Neo-Taoists believed that Confucius was even greater than Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu, viewing him as the master of emptiness. They justified Confucius’s concern with everyday life, rituals, ceremonies, and external circumstances by arguing that he realized that it is impossible to instruct directly about wu, nonbeing, emptiness. Therefore, he wisely focused all his attention on yu, being. This explanation reflects the idea expressed by Lao-tzu:“He who knows does not speak; he who speaks, does not know” (Tao Te Ching, Chapter 56, trans. by Wilhelm 1990, 52). By not even speaking of Tao in his sayings, Confucius was the ultimate Taoist.
The Neo-Taoists believed what the I Ching stated: Everything is continually changing, never still. They encouraged people to accept change. The old is different from the new, and even though tradition may have its place, people and institutions should change with the times. Unlike the early Taoists, these philosophers did not oppose all institutions or moral values, only those that were unwilling to evolve. This view permitted the Neo-Taoists to embrace useful principles in other philosophies. Taoism was modified considerably, opening the possibility for later philosophers to incorporate Taoist principles within Neo-Confucianism.
CHAPTER 6
Later Developments Toward Health and Long Life
What is preached should be put into practice—
only then is it called speech and action without defect.
—P. Chang 1987, 188
The Taoist philosophy of Lao-tzu, Chuang-tzu, Lieh-tzu, and the Neo-Taoists is but one aspect of the larger body of Taoism that is practiced as a religion for both spiritual fulfillment and physical well-being. Taoist religions are a complex, vast collection of customs, rituals, and beliefs that have never been organized into one single, consistent set of doctrines. Rural areas were the stronghold of Taoist religions, surviving for more than two millennia in the hearts and minds of the people.
Empress Chang Blessed by Taoist Deities
TAOIST RELIGION EMERGES
Religious Taoism began in separate groups that traced their inspiration back to Lao-tzu and concepts within the Tao Te Ching. Historians believe that Taoist religion is very old, incorporating primitive Chinese shamanic religions. Bronze and gold objects representing Taoist immortals have been found in tombs, dating early Taoist worship back to the third century B.C. (Schipper 1982, 6).
References to Taoist religion can be found in the writings of philosophical Taoists, especially Chuang-tzu and Lieh-tzu. Both refer to faraway places where divine beings lived free of all worldly limitations, capable of great powers. Lieh-tzu spoke of men who could walk through walls, implying that nothing in this world could stop them. Chuang-tzu described these godlike people in the very first book of his writings:
On the distant mountain of Ku-yeh live divine beings. . . . They mount clouds of ch’i and ride winged dragons to wander beyond the Four Seas.... By concentrating their minds, they can protect all beings from plague and ripen the crops. . . . These men! What power (te)! They embrace the Ten Thousand Beings, making them into a single one.” (Schipper 1982, 7)
Religious Taoism was implied in the early philosophical Taoist writers, but religious interpretations were made explicit by the beginning of the Christian era. The image and meaning of Lao-tzu transformed, much like Buddha’s metamorphosis, from being thought of as a man of great insight to becoming a deity. Taoism merged with earlier mythologies and occult sciences. One such combination put Lao-tzu with Huang-ti, a mythological inventor who was worshiped by craftsmen and artisans. This unity was called Huang-Lao Chih Tao, the Way of the Yellow Emperor and the Old Master. Lao-tzu was worshiped and revered, now that he had risen to the status of a deity.
During the second Han dynasty, Lao-tzu’s writings were believed to contain secret practices to prolong life using special forms of meditation. For example, certain passages from the Tao Te Ching refer to “nurturing