By Daniel C. Peterson and William J. Hamblin
Although the founding ideas of Chinese philosophy are generally associated with the great sage Confucius, an equally important figure is Li Tan, better known as Lao Tzu, the “Ancient Master” and founder of Taoism. Whereas Confucius was a philosopher whose ideas laid the political, legal, and moral foundations of Chinese civilization, Lao Tzu was a mystical sage, whose teachings form the core of Chinese spirituality and religion. It is sometimes said that traditional Chinese society was Confucian in public, but Taoist in private.
There are many questions regarding the “historical” Lao Tzu. According to his traditional biography (first recorded almost 400 years after his death), Lao Tzu lived in the sixth century B.C. and was an older contemporary of Confucius. According to Taoists, Lao Tzu taught-and occasionally confounded-the great philosopher on several occasions. He was a political advisor, teacher, archivist, and master of complex Chinese rituals. Later Taoists saw Lao Tzu as the perfect embodiment of the Tao (“Way” of Heaven), and therefore divine. Indeed, the cosmic Lao Tzu is said to have existed before the creation of the world, and transformed himself into a mortal in order to teach and save mankind (an idea with parallels in both Buddhism and Christianity.) As such, he did not die, but rather ascended to the Western Paradise of Heaven where he obtained immortality with the gods and was eventually worshiped as a god by his followers on earth. But before his celestial ascent, he graciously dictated his teachings in the five thousand word masterpiece, the Classic of the Way and Its Power (Tao Te Ching), which remains the foundational scripture for Taoists.
The Classic of the Way is a terse, ambiguous, and cryptic work, filled with poetry, proverbs, and parables. The language is often intentionally obscure and ambiguous. “Way” (tao) is a word used both for the power (te) which is the essence of God and the universe, and for the path or “way” of Heaven which people should follow to be at one with the cosmos. This Way is considered ineffable: beyond description. As Lao Tzu put it: “That Way that can be described is not the eternal Way.” You must feel it, or perhaps be it, or you cannot understand it. Its nature cannot be explained by human reason or speech: “Those who know [the Tao] don’t speak [of it]; those who speak [of the Tao] don’t know [it].”
For Taoists, the ambiguity of The Classic of the Way is a sign of its profound mystical importance; for others it is simply obscure and incoherent. Historically, however, the ambiguities of the text have allowed numerous simultaneous and overlapping interpretations, making it one of the most discussed and perhaps least understood religious books in history; as H. Welch has noted, “no translation [of The Classic of the Way] can be satisfactory, because no translation can be as ambiguous as the Chinese original.” The core of Lao Tzu’s teachings is that there is a great universal benevolent power, known as the Way, which is the essence of all things. Humans must live in accordance with the Way and “do nothing” (wu wei) that is not in harmony with it.
The influence of Taoism on Chinese civilization cannot be overemphasized. Although Confucianism remained the political philosophy of the elites, Taoism-along with and often mixed with Buddhism-remained the religion of the masses. Taoist priests, the Celestial Masters, claimed to have special esoteric knowledge and power derived from Lao Tzu, allowing them to serve as master magicians and counselors to most Chinese emperors. Despite half a century of Communist Chinese suppression of religion, Taoism still flourishes in China in its many different forms. Traditional Taoist temples and priests are still in operation, while new religious movements in China continue to draw on Taoism for inspiration. Likewise, in the past few decades in the West, various aspects of Taoist thought have permeated forms of syncretistic popular religion known as New Age movements.
Further Reading: D. C. Lau, Tao Te Ching (Hong Kong, 1982); W. Chan, The Way of Lao Tzu (1963)