by An Liu
It is important to note that “Quintessential Spirit” and these earlier sources discuss and refer to the same methods of psychospiritual cultivation that we find in the later organized Daoist religion. While specific historical evidence linking this text with those later practices is lacking, there is little doubt that chapter 7 of the Huainanzi was transmitted through the Han at local courts and centers of power in what Mark Csíkszentmihalyi calls an “unofficial transmission.”6 Local academies and learning salons preserved methods and techniques associated with the rise of the late Han Daoist millennial rebellions and the religious traditions they formed. He suggests that many of the texts from Liu An’s court were part of this kind of unofficial transmission.
The Chapter in the Context of the Huainanzi as a Whole
“Quintessential Spirit” builds on and complements the six chapters that precede it. The Huainanzi’s basic cosmological orientation is extended to the world of humans, who are made like all things of qi, partaking of both Heaven and Earth, each person a microcosm of the universe. But people are also portrayed as frail, mortal, and subject to all sorts of distractions and ills occasioned by stimulation of the sensory organs. The chapter then develops the notion of jingshen, introduced in chapter 1, as the force animating the physical body whose retention is the focus of sagely self-cultivation.
“Quintessential Spirit” paves the way for the many chapters of the Huainanzi, especially those in the second part of the book, that deal extensively with the idea of the sage-ruler, by defining more clearly what a sage is (especially the highly self-cultivated manifestation of sagehood, the Perfected) and what a sage’s attitude is toward holding the reins of power. When we read those later chapters in light of chapter 7, we realize why sages are so rarely encountered in the world. In addition, easy as it may be to talk about the concept of “sagely rule” (sheng zhi ), finding it practiced in the world as we know it is a rare event indeed. This message from the latter sections of chapter 7 is picked up again later in the text and becomes one of the principal themes of chapter 14, “Sayings Explained.” There, too, we find the idea that true sages are tranquil and self-contained and that they do not lust after political power.
That message, in both this chapter and chapter 14, may have had immediate relevance to the life and fortunes of its author/editor Liu An. An example is the fraught political climate in which the Huainanzi was compiled and written and Liu An’s own ambiguous roles as an ambitious intellectual, a possible heir to Emperor Jing’s throne, a would-be adviser to Emperor Wu, and a potentially seditious imperial kinsman. The later sections of chapter 7 maintain that sages are indifferent to power, have no interest in ascending a throne, desire tranquillity and self-cultivation, and are unaffected by the lusts and desires to which ordinary men are subject. These all add up to a subtle plea by Liu An to his imperial cousin (Jing) and nephew (Wu) that the writing of the Huainanzi —despite its implicit (and dangerous) advocacy of a partly decentralized imperial realm in which the imperial central government coexisted with neofeudal kingdoms—really did not pose a threat to the imperial throne. Sages, according to this subtle message, are above that sort of thing. As chapter 21, “An Overview of the Essentials,” puts it,7 the sage is not “foolishly immersed in the advantages of political power, [nor] seductively confused by the exigencies of affairs.” The Huainanzi is, among other things, a political document written during a very dangerous time in the history of the former Han dynasty. The image of the sage presented in this chapter is thus intimately bound up with the political concerns of Liu An’s time.
Harold D. Roth and John S. Major
1. For more extensive discussions of the terms jing and shen and the compound jingshen, see app. A.
2. Harold D. Roth, “The Early Taoist Concept of Shen: A Ghost in the Machine?” in Sagehood and Systematizing Thought in the Warring States and Early Han, ed. Kidder Smith (Brunswick, Maine: Bowdoin College Press, 1989), 11–32.
3. For a brilliant translation and analysis of this literature, see Donald Harper, Early Chinese Medical Literature (London: Kegan Paul International, 1998).
4. Compare ZZ 15/5–6. Some of these positions are depicted in the chart of the qi cultivation exercises known as “guiding and pulling” (daoyin ) found at Mawangdui Tomb 3.
5. For parallel passages from the Zhuangzi, see the notes to chap. 7.
6. Mark Csikszentmihalyi, “Traditional Taxonomies and Revealed Texts in the Han,” in Daoist Identity: History, Lineage, Ritual, ed. Livia Kohn and Harold D. Roth (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2002), 94–97; Harold D. Roth, “Han Cosmology and Mantic Practices,” in Daoism Handbook, ed. Livia Kohn (Leiden: Brill, 2000), 52–73.
7. In 21.2, as part of the summary of chap. 13, “Boundless Discourses,” addressing a related point.
Seven
7.1
Of old, in the time before there was Heaven and Earth:
There were only images and no forms.
All was obscure and dark,
vague and unclear,
shapeless and formless,
and no one knows its gateway.
There were two spirits, born in murkiness, one that established Heaven and the other that constructed Earth.
So vast! No one knows where they ultimately end.
So broad! No one knows where they finally stop.
Thereupon
they differentiated into the yin and the yang
and separated into the eight cardinal directions.
The firm and the yielding formed each other;
the myriad things thereupon took shape.
The turbid vital energy became creatures;
the refined vital energy became humans.
Therefore,
the Quintessential Spirit is of Heaven;
the skeletal system is of Earth.
When the Quintessential Spirit enters its gateway
and the skeletal system returns to its root,
how can I still survive?
For this reason, the sages
model themselves on Heaven,
accord with their genuine responses,
are not confined by custom,
or seduced by other men.
They take
Heaven as father,
Earth as mother,
yin and yang as warp,
the four seasons as weft.
Through the tranquillity of Heaven, they become pure.
Through the stability of Earth, they become calm.
Among the myriad things,
those who lose this perish;
those who follow this live. [7/54/25–7/55/2]
Tranquillity and stillness are the dwellings of spiritlike illumination;
emptiness and nothingness are where the Way resides.
For this reason,
those who seek for it externally lose it internally;
those who preserve it internally attain it externally as well.
It is like the roots and branches of trees: none of the thousands of limbs and tens of thousands of leaves does not derive from the roots. [7/55/4–5]
7.2
The Quintessential Spirit is what we receive from Heaven;
the physical body is what we are given by Earth.
Therefore it is said:
“The one generates the two;
the two generate the three;
the three generate the myriad things.
The myriad things carry the yin and embrace the yang and, through the blending of vital energy, become harmonious.”1
Therefore it is said:
“In the first month, fertilization occurs.
In the second month, a corporeal mass develops.
In the third month, an embryo forms.
In the fourth month, the flesh is produced.
In the fifth month, the muscles form.
In the sixth month, the bones develop.
In the seventh month, the fetus forms.
In the eighth month, the fe
tus starts to move.
In the ninth month, its movements become more pronounced.
In the tenth month, the birth occurs.”
In this way,
the physical body is completed
and the five orbs are formed.
Therefore,
the pulmonary orb2 regulates the eyes;
the renal orb regulates the nose;
the choleric orb regulates the mouth;
the hepatic orb regulates the ears;
and the splenic orb regulates the tongue.
The external ones are on the outer side;
the internal ones are on the inner side.
They open and close, expand and contract,
and each has its conduits and connections.
Therefore,
the roundness of the head is in the image of Heaven;
the squareness of human feet is in the image of Earth.3
Heaven has four seasons, five phases, nine regions, and 366 days.
Humans have four limbs, five orbs, nine apertures, and 366 joints.
Heaven has wind, rain, cold, and heat;
humans have taking, giving, joy, and anger.
Therefore,
the choleric orb parallels4 the clouds;
the pulmonary orb parallels the air;
the hepatic orb parallels the wind;
the renal orb parallels the rain;
and the splenic orb parallels the thunder.
In this way human beings form a triad with Heaven and Earth, and the mind is the ruler of this.
Therefore,
the ears and eyes are the sun and moon;
the blood and vital energy are the wind and rain.
In the sun there is a three-legged crow;
in the moon there is a speckled toad.5
When sun and moon err in their periodic motions, fireflies have no light, wind and rain are not appropriate to the season, and destruction occurs and disasters arise.
When the five asterisms err in their periodic movements, provinces and states meet with calamity. [7/55/7–16]
7.3
The Way of Heaven and Earth is immense and grand, yet it still must
restrict its brilliance
and conserve its spiritlike illumination.
The ears and eyes of human beings, how can one expect them to toil for long periods without rest?
The Quintessential Spirit, how can one expect it to course [through the body] for long periods without respite?
Therefore,
the blood and vital energy are the flowerings of humankind,
and the Five Orbs are the essence of humankind.
If the blood and vital energy are concentrated within the Five Orbs and [the Quintessential Spirit] does not flow out, then the chest and belly are replete and lusts and desires are eliminated.
When the chest and belly are replete and lusts and desires are eliminated, then the ears and eyes are clear, and hearing and vision are acute.
When the ears and eyes are clear and hearing and vision are acute, we call this “clarity.”
When the Five Orbs can be subordinated to the mind and their functioning is without error, then fluctuating attention will be done away with, and the circulation [of the vital energy] will not be awry.
When fluctuating attention is done away with and the circulation is not awry, then the Quintessential Spirit is abundant, and the vital energy is not dispersed.
When the Quintessential Spirit is abundant and the vital energy is not dispersed, then you are functioning according to Underlying Patterns.
When you function according to Underlying Patterns, you attain equanimity.
When you attain equanimity, you develop penetrating awareness.
When you develop penetrating awareness, you become spiritlike.
When you are spiritlike,
with vision, there is nothing unseen;
with hearing, there is nothing unheard;
with actions, there is nothing incomplete.
For this reason,
anxiety and worry cannot enter,
and aberrant vital energy cannot seep in. [7/55/18–24]
Thus there are certain things that you seek outside the Four Seas yet never meet and others that you guard within the physical frame yet never see.
Therefore,
the more you seek, the less you attain;
the more you see, the less you understand. [7/55/26–27]
7.4
The apertures of perception [eyes and ears] are the portals of the Quintessential Spirit.
The vital energy and attention are the emissaries and servants of the Five Orbs.
When the eyes and ears are enticed by the joys of sound and color, then the Five Orbs oscillate and are not stable.
When the Five Orbs oscillate and are not stable, then the blood and vital energy are agitated and not at rest.
When the blood and vital energy are agitated and not at rest, then the Quintessential Spirit courses out [through the eyes and ears] and is not preserved.
When the Quintessential Spirit courses out and is not preserved,
then when either good fortune or misfortune arrives, although it be the size of hills and mountains, one has no way to recognize it.
But
if you make your ears and eyes totally clear and profoundly penetrating and not enticed by external things;
if your vital energy and attention are empty, tranquil, still, and serene and you eliminate lusts and desires;
if the Five Orbs are stable, reposed, replete, and full and not leaking [the vital energies];
if your Quintessential Spirit is preserved within your physical frame and does not flow out;
then even gazing back beyond bygone ages and looking further than things that are to come; even these things would not be worth doing, much less discriminating between bad and good fortune.
Therefore it is said, “The farther you go, the less you know.”6 This says that the Quintessential Spirit cannot be allowed to be enticed by external things.
Therefore,
the five colors disrupt the eyes and cause them to be unclear;
the five sounds confuse the ears and cause them to not be acute;
the five tastes disrupt the mouth and cause it to lose the ability to taste;
preferences confuse the nature and cause it to fly about [from one thing to the next].7
These four things are how the people of this world commonly nourish their natures. However, they all are human attachments.
Therefore it is said:
“Lusts and desires cause humans’ vital energy to dissipate;
likes and dislikes cause human’ minds to tire.”
If you do not quickly eliminate them, your attention and vital energy will diminish daily. [7/55/27–7/56/8]
7.5
Why is it that common people are not able to complete the full course of their lives and, along the way, die young by execution? “It is because they set too much store in living. Now only those who are able to not make living their concern are able to attain long life.”8
Heaven and Earth revolve and interpenetrate;
the myriad things bustle about yet form a unity.
If one is able to know this unity, then there is nothing that cannot be known;
if one cannot know this unity, then there is not even one thing that can truly be known.
For example, I live within the world, yet I am also a thing in it. I do not know whether the things of the world are complete because of me or whether only without me are things not incomplete. However, I am also a thing and things relate to things.9 A thing is related to other things [by this underlying unity], so why must we be things to [i.e., objectify] one another? Even though this may be so,
what gain is there in its giving me life;
what loss is there in its taking my life away?
Because what fashions and transforms us treats me as an unfired brick, I have no way to defy it.10 How do I kn
ow that to practice acupuncture and moxibustion and to desire life is not a delusion and to seek death by strangulation is not a blessing? Perhaps life is just servitude, and death is a respite from this toil.11
The world is vast: who understands it?
It gives me life, but not because I intentionally seek it.
It takes my life away, but not because I intentionally seek an end.
Desire life, but do not strive for it.
Detest death, but do not refuse it.
Demean it, but do not detest it.
Honor it, but do not rejoice in it.
Follow your heavenly endowment and be at peace until you develop it to the fullest.
In life I have a form that is seven feet tall;12
in death I have [the space of] a coffin’s worth of soil.
My life classes me with the things that have form;
my death sinks me into the oblivion of the formless.
Thus,
because of my life, a thing is not added to the multitude;
because of my death, the soil does not get any thicker.
So how can I know what is pleasant or hateful, beneficial or harmful in all of this? [7/56/10–20]
The way in which what fashions and transforms us takes hold of things can be compared with the way in which the potter molds his clay. The earth that he has taken hold of and made into bowls and pots is no different from the earth before it had been taken from the ground. The earth that remains after he has made the vessels and then smashed them to pieces and thoroughly soaked them with water so that they return to their cause is no different from the earth that had been in the bowls and pots that had existed earlier.
Now the people who live along the banks of a river draw water from it to irrigate their gardens, but the water in the river does not resent it. The families who live near filthy ponds break through their banks and drain them into the river, but the water from these ponds does not rejoice in this. Thus there is no difference between the water in the river and the water irrigating gardens, and there also is no difference between the water in the ponds and the water in the river. Thus