Founder of Daoism, Laozi: the Ancient Child

Laozi (Lao Tzu), the founder of Daoism, was born sometime between 600 & 300 BCE in the southern feudal state of Chu, and given the birth-name of Li Erh. As an adult, he held a minor government post as a librarian: a keeper of the archives at the Zhou Court. Beyond this, we know almost nothing of the historical life of Laozi.

Legend has it that at some point Laozi underwent a spiritual awakening, left his government post, and traveled (on a water buffalo) to China's western frontier, disappearing forever into the Kun-lun Mountains, or the land of Immortality. The last person to see him, in flesh and blood, was a gate-keeper at the great wall - who requested Laozi to dictate to him his philosophy of life, the fruit of his awakening. The words spoken in response to this request became (at least part of) the Daode Jing (Tao-te Ching).

The Daode Jing

The Daode Jing is comprised of 81* short verses - aphorisms whose terse and mystical language make them similar in many ways to Patanjali's Yoga Sutras or the Hatha Yoga Pradipika of the Sanatana Dharma (the traditional name for "Hinduism"); or to the koans of Zen Buddhism. In the language of Tibetan Buddhism, we could say that they belong to the tradition of upadesha: pith instructions from the Guru, which tend to synthesize into the essence what in a more philosophical presentation might be a quite lengthy exposition. Each of the 81 verses of the Daode Jing seems to contain the seed or essence of some larger teaching. Like Zen koans, the verses are not meant to be grasped by the rational mind alone, but rather to act as keys to a deeper, more intuitive knowing. Together, they are like pearls on a string: something quite precious, offered from that ocean of Primordial Wisdom to which Laozi, somehow, had access.

The Chinese Language

The enigmatic quality of the Daode Jing's verses is in alignment also with the nature of the ancient Chinese language in which they were rendered. In stark contrast to Western languages -- which identify a subject & object, and establish clear relationships and temporal sequences - Chinese characters are pictorial representations, without grammatical structure. Each character symbolizes a concept that can be interpreted as a noun, verb or adjective; as singular or plural; and as happening in the past, present or future. This ambiguity of the characters makes them radically context-dependent: only in relation to the entire series of characters in which a single one is embedded, is one able to glean a sense of its implied meaning; and even then, the possible interpretations, or levels of meaning, are most often numerous.

A Collaborative Effort, Many Times Revised

It is of general agreement among scholars today that the Daode Jing is a collaborative effort. This is true in the sense of authorship: while Laozi is still acknowledged as its primary author, there were almost certainly others who contributed to the text. It is also true in the sense of the text having undergone numerous intentional or unintentional revisions. In the process of it being passed from hand to hand, and re-written by numerous scribes, there were undoubtedly the ancient equivalent to "typos" that occurred, e.g. misplaced lines or mistaken characters. In the process of the text traveling through China's numerous political regimes, it would also have been "modified" to align more clearly with current political agendas. And finally, ancient Chinese books were written on narrow strips of bamboo or wood - often one line of text per strip - and the strips then stacked and bound together only with a thong passing through notches cut at the edge of the strips. So if the thongs broke, the situation could easily have been something like a scattered deck of cards: the lines of the text hopelessly jumbled, and perhaps not reassembled perfectly.

All this has resulted in there being numerous "original" Chinese versions of the Daode Jing. The oldest known of these is the one (dated from 206 BC) recently found at Ma Wang Tui. The standard version used by most scholars is that of Wang Pi, who - in 249 CE - wrote a commentary on the Daode Jing which included a copy of the text.

Ancient Child

Perhaps one mark of the greatness of this ancient text is that, in spite of these numerous revisions of the "original;" and in spite of its countless translations (with countless more sure to come), varying dramatically in word choice and meaning; and in spite of the enigmatic and elusive quality of the verses themselves - the text has not only survived into our contemporary world, but seems somehow just as fresh, just as alive as if it had been written, had been "born," just yesterday. Along with its author, it could just as easily be called (and in fact this is its more formal name!): Lao-tzu - ancient child. Which is, of course, consistent with the meaning of any kind of "spiritual transmission": mystical traditions "survive" only by being continually re-born within the bodies, hearts, and minds of new generations of practitioners.

It is said that practitioners of qigong/Inner Alchemy regain and then maintain, well into their later years, a body that is soft and vibrant as an infant's. How do they do this? I don't know, but it seems that in part it is a mental discipline which opens one into a state of not-knowing, non-conceptuality, the kind of "virgin" eyes through which an infant views their world. (For an open and fluid mind translates into a fluid and balanced flow of qi through the meridians; which creates a soft & fluid body, and slows down the aging process.) And the verses of the Daode Jing are meant as keys to this kind of perception. As confounding as they may seem, they have the power (so the Daoist Masters teach) to move us from our habitual world of complexity, back into a state of utter simplicity: the Mind of Dao, a child-like innocence and freedom.

This return to the Mind of Dao, to the Uncarved Block, the realm of No Limits, the Great Unity - to the "First Breath" of an "Ancient Child" -- is rendered in Verse 28 of the Daode Jing (in translation here by Jonathan Star):

Know your male side but hold to your female side
Know your bright side but hold to your dull side
Know your high side but hold to your low side
Then you will be able to hold the whole world

When the opposing forces are balanced within
There comes a power abundant in its giving
And unerring in its effect
Flowing through everything
It returns one to the First Breath
Guiding everything
It returns one to No Limits
Embracing everything
It returns one to the Uncarved Block

When the Block is divided
It becomes something useful
And the leaders rule with just a few pieces
But the Sage holds the Block complete
Holding all things within himself
He preserves the Great Unity
Which cannot be ruled or divided

The unification of Yin-qi and Yang-qi (symbolic of the resolution of all polarities of mind) that is the mechanism for accomplishing this return to the Mind of Dao, the realm of the Ancient Child, is pointed to also in the passage "Desiring Water and Fire" from Liu I-Ming's Awakening To The Tao (translated by Thomas Cleary):

When the weather is hot you want water; drink water, and you experience relief from the heat. When the weather is cold you want fire; if you have fire you will not be cold.

What I realize as I observe this is the Tao of mutual necessity of yin and yang.

The Tao does not arise from lone yin, does not grow from isolated yang. When yang culminates, yin succeeds it; when yin culminates, yang succeeds it: There is neither excess of yang nor bias towards yin; yin and yang are in harmony, firmness and flexibility balance each other.

Thus when one unifies energy flows, the original source is complete, the mechanism of life is unceasing; essence can be fulfilled, life can be established. Unmoved by myriad things, not burdened by myriad affairs, one is beyond the world while in its very midst.

Otherwise, if yin and yang are isolated, separated from one another, firmness and flexibility do not match; the mechanism which gives life has already ceased, and no growth is seen. Instead there is decay, degeneration that culminates in death.

To the extent, then, that the Daoist practitioner is able to embody the teachings of the Daode Jing, both the text itself and its (historical and/or legendary) author will have unveiled their status as Immortals: alive forever as the "Ancient Child" of that practitioner.

*The fact that the text is divided into 81 verses has led some to speculate that it might originally have been used as an oracle (similar to the I Ching); for in terms of ancient Chinese numerology, 81 (3 x 3 x 3 or 9 x 9) is a mystically powerful number: the number nine representing completion, fulfillment, perfection.

Suggested Reading:

Star, Jonathan. Tao Te Ching: The Definitive Edition. New York: Putnam, 2001. A verbatim translation (with C.J. Ming); concordance & definitions; table of radicals. Great for getting a sense of the vast number of possible English translations of each verse.

Hu Xue Zhi. Revealing the Tao Te Ching. Los Angeles: Ageless Classics Press, 2005. Includes a wonderful prologue and commentaries rooted in Inner Alchemy.

Mitchell, Stephen. Tao Te Ching. New York: HarperCollins, 1992. Mitchell's "poetic license" has given us this translation that is quite pleasing to the ear, if not as precise as some others.

Liu I-Ming (translated by Thomas Cleary). Awakening to the Tao. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1988.