Kuo Hsiang:
Nature and Nonexistence Chuang Tzu (c. 369–286 B.C.), the great Taoist philosopher and mystic, wrote:
There is a beginning. There is a not yet beginning to be a beginning. There is a not yet beginning to be a not yet beginning to be a beginning. There is being. There is nonbeing. There is a not yet beginning to be nonbeing. There is a not yet beginning to be a not yet beginning to be nonbeing. Suddenly there is being and nonbeing. But between this being and nonbeing, I don’t really know which is being and which is nonbeing. Now I have just said something. But I don’t know whether what I have said has really said something or whether it hasn’t said something.
There is nothing in the world bigger than the tip of an autumn hair, and Mount T’ai is little. No one has lived longer than a dead child, and P’eng-tsu died young. Heaven and earth were born at the same time I was, and the ten thousand things are one with me.*
* Chuang Tzu, Basic Writings (Burton Watson, trans.). New York: Columbia University Press, 1964, p. 38. The “tip of an autumn hair” is a cliché for a tiny thing; P’eng-tsu was the Chinese Methuselah.
Some five hundred years later, after the collapse of the Han dynasty and during the period of social instability in the Three Kingdoms and Six Dynasties (200–589 A.D.) that followed, major religious changes occured in China. Confucianism, which had been so involved in the state cult and so dependent on the state’s solidity to carry out its necessary scholarship, began to flounder. By contrast, interest in Taoism and in the newly introduced Buddhism increased and flourished.
For the Neo-Taoists, the writings of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu became the sources of scholarship and commentary, the bases of the new thinking. Thus one of the most prominent Neo-Taoists, Kuo Hsiang (d. 312 A.D.) took Chuang Tzu’s writings as his starting point, and in this commentary on Chuang Tzu’s positions he is primarily concerned with the character of what-was-before-anything-was, before the beginning. Did being and therefore the universe of creatures and things, of matter and mind, derive from non-being? Did being derive from yin and yang? Or from nature or the Tao itself? No, he argues; things merely are, spontaneously, naturally, and so should we be.
THE MUSIC of nature is not an entity existing outside of things. The different apertures, the pipes and flutes and the like, in combination with all living beings, together constitute nature. Since nonexistence is non-themselves, that is all. By this is not meant that there is an “I” to produce. The “I” cannot produce things and things cannot produce the “I.” The “I” is selfexistent. Because it is so by itself, we call it natural. Everything is what it is by nature, not through taking any action. Therefore [Chuang Tzu] speaks in terms of nature. The term nature [literally Heaven] is used to explain that things are what they are spontaneously, and not to mean the blue sky. But someone says that the music of nature makes all things serve or obey it. Now, nature cannot even possess itself. How can it possess things? Nature is the general name for all things.
Not only is it impossible for nonbeing to be changed into being. It is also impossible for being to become nonbeing. Therefore, although being as a substance undergoes infinite changes and transformations, it cannot in any instance become nonbeing…. What came into existence before there were things? If I say yin and yang came first, then since yin and yang are themselves entities, what came before them? Suppose I say nature came first. But nature is only things being themselves. Suppose I say perfect Tao came first. But perfect Tao is perfect nonbeing. Since it is nonbeing, how can it come before anything else? Then what came before it? There must be another thing, and so on ad infinitum. We must understand that things are what they are spontaneously and not caused by something else.
Everything is natural and does not know why it is so. The more things differ in corporeal form the more they are alike in being natural…. Heaven and earth and the myriad things change and transform into something new every day and so proceed with time. What causes them? They do so spontaneously…. What we call things are all that they are by themselves; they did not cause each other to become so. Let us leave them alone and the principle of being will be perfectly realized. The ten thousand things are in ten thousand different conditions, and move forward and backward differently, as though there were a True Lord to make them so. But if we search for evidences for such a true Lord, we fail to find any. We should understand that things are all natural and not caused by something else.
The universe is the general name for all things. They are the reality of the universe while nature is their norm. Being natural means to exist spontaneously without having to take any action. Therefore the fabulous p’eng bird can soar high and the quail can fly low, the cedrela can live for a long time and the mushroom for a short time. They are capable of doing these not because of their taking any action but because of their being natural.
—Kuo Hsiang. From the Commentary on Chuang Tzu, Sec. I, 1.8b; Sec. 2. 1:21a 23a; Sec. 22, 7:54b–55b: “Nature and Nonexistence.”—Quoted in W. Theodore de Bary et al. [eds.]. Sources of Chinese Tradition. Vol. 1. New York: Columbia University Press, 1964, pp. 240–243.
Chou Tun-Yi: An Explanation of the Diagram of the Great Ultimate The major philosophical development of the Sung Dynasty (960–1279 A.D.) was Neo-Confucianism in which thinkers tried to reassert the fundamental doctrines of order and participation in the worldly (the social and political realms) as the means of being united to the world. While Taoism and Buddhism were essentially rejected in their argument that the phenomenal world was illusory and “empty,” many of their doctrines were nonetheless adopted into Neo-Confucian systems.
This syncretism is particularly evident here in Chou Tun-Yi’s (1017–1073 A.D.) redefinition of Confucian cosmology. He begins with a bow to the Non-Ultimate (Non-Being-Itself, the Nothingness of the Taoists and Buddhists), but quickly asserts that it is the same as the Great Ultimate (Being-Itself, the ground of being) which generates the yin, then the yang, the five material forces (water, fire, wood, metal, and earth), heaven and earth, and all the myriad creatures. In this manner, Chou Tun-Yi manages to assimilate the Taoist and Buddhist positions while still arguing that the source is fundamentally “something” and not “nothing” and that all subsequent developments out of it are fundamentally real and not illusory.
Because at this level of abstraction it is admitted that the positive and negative characterizations of ultimacy are insufficient and falsely limiting—like the chicken and the egg, whichever came first required the other—Chou Tun-Yi’s position is difficult to attack. Having united the Non-Ultimate and Great Ultimate as two sides of one coin, he proceeds to declare it full and real and to advise the wise man to order his affairs in accordance with its evolutions in the phenomenal world. Using the five virtues, the sage can live a happy and successful life.
THE NON-ULTIMATE! And also the Great Ultimate (T’ai-chi). The Great Ultimate through movement generates the yang. When its activity reaches its limit, it becomes tranquil. Through tranquility the Great Ultimate generates the yin. When tranquility reaches its limit, activity begins again. Thus movement and tranquility alternate and become the root of each other, giving rise to the distinction of yin and yang, and these two modes are thus established.
By the transformation of yang and its union with yin, the five agents of water, fire, wood, metal, and earth arise. When these five material-forces (ch’i) are distributed in harmonious order, the four seasons run their course.
The five agents constitute one system of yin and yang, and yin and yang constitute one Great Ultimate. The Great Ultimate is fundamentally the Non-ultimate. The five agents arise, each with its specific nature.
When the reality of the Non-ultimate and the essence of yin and yang and the five agents come into mysterious union, integration ensues. The heavenly principle (ch’ien) constitutes the male element, and the earthly principle (k’un) constitutes the female element. The interaction of these two material forces engenders and transforms the myriad things. The myriad thing
s produce and reproduce, resulting in an unending transformation.
It is man alone who receives [the material forces] in their highest excellence, and therefore he is most intelligent. His corporeal form appears, and his spirit develops consciousness. The five moral principles of his nature (humanity, righteousness, decorum, wisdom, and good faith) are aroused by, and react to, the external world and engage in activity; good and evil are distinguished and human affairs take place.
The sage orders these affairs by the principles of the Mean, correctness, humanity, and righteousness, considering tranquility to be the ruling factor. Thus he establishes himself as the ultimate standard for man. Hence the character of the sages is “identical with that of Heaven and earth; his brilliance is identical with that of the sun and moon; his order is identical with that of the four seasons; and his good and evil fortunes are identical with those of heavenly and earthly spirits.” The gentleman cultivates these moral qualities and enjoys good fortune, whereas the inferior man violates them and suffers evil fortune.
Therefore it is said: “The yin and the yang are established as the way of heaven; the elements of strength and weakness as the way of earth; and humanity and righteousness as the way of man.” It is also said there: “If we investigate into the cycle of things, we shall understand the concepts of life and death.” Great is the Book of Changes! Herein lies its excellence!
—Chou Tun-Yi. “An Explanation of the Diagram of the Great Ultimate.” From T’ai-chi-t’u shuo, in Chou Lien-ch’i chi, I:2a–b.—Quoted in W. Theodore de Bary, et al. [eds.]. Sources of Chinese Tradition. Vol. 1. New York: Columbia University Press, 1964, pp. 458–459.
MYTHS OF JAPAN
From the Kojiki The oldest chronicle in Japanese is the Kojiki, or “Records of Ancient Matters.” It was compiled in 712 A.D. by the Court Noble Futo no Yasumuro, “an officer in the Upper Division of the First Class of the Fifth Rank and of the Fifth Order of Merit” (d. 723), and includes the earliest doctrines of native Shinto nature worship and polytheism as well as borrowings from Chinese thought.
This short section from the preface outlines the long and complex myth that follows in the body of the text: Heaven and Earth parted, and the Three Deities (Deity Master-of-the-August-Center-of-Heaven, the High-August-Producing-Wondrous Deity, and the Divine-Producing-Wondrous-Deity) created. As in Chinese cosmologies, the dual principles of yin and yang—here the “passive and active elements”—evolved; personified as Izanami (“Female-Who-Invites”) and Izanagi (“Male-Who-Invites”), they became the “ancestors of all things.”
The subsequent events are only outlined here in the briefest form: “a mirror was hung up” and thereby enticed the Sun-Goddess out of her cave; “jewels were spat out” by Susa-no-Wo (the “Impetuous Male Deity”) after he had obtained them from his sister; “a Hundred Kings succeeded each other,” presumably in the Japanese Empire; “a blade was bitten” by the Sun-Goddess; “a serpent was slain” by Susa-no-Wo after he was evicted from heaven; and “a Myriad Deities did flourish.” Indeed, the sheer number of gods and the chaotic character of their relations are prominent features of the Kojiki, as is the close association between these deities and natural elements. Combined, these features clearly evoke the chaotic relation of powerful, wondrous, and terrible forces of nature in the beginning.
I YASUMARO SAY: Now when chaos had begun to condense, but force and form were not yet manifest, and there was nought named, nought done, who could know its shape? Nevertheless Heaven and Earth first parted, and the Three Deities performed the commencement of creation; the Passive and Active Essences then developed, and the Two Spirits [Izanami, the creatrix, and Izanagi, the creator] became the ancestors of all things. Therefore did he [i.e., Izanagi] enter obscurity and emerge into light, and the Sun and Moon were revealed by the washing of his eyes; he floated on and plunged into the sea-water, and Heavenly and Earthly Deities appeared through the ablutions of his person. So in the dimness of the great commencement, we, by relying on the original teaching, learn the time of the conception of the earth and of the birth of islands; in the remoteness of the original beginning, we, by trusting the former sages, perceive the era of the genesis of Deities and of the establishment of men. Truly do we know that a mirror was hung up, that jewels were spat out, and that then an Hundred Kings succeeded each other; that a blade was bitten, and a serpent cut in pieces, so that a Myriad Deities did flourish. By deliberations in the Tranquil River the Empire was pacified; by discussions on the Little Shore the land was purified.
—Yasamuro. Kojiki, or Records of Ancient Matters. (W. G. Aston, trans.) Kobe, Japan: J. L. Thompson, 1932, pp. 3–6.
From the Nihongi Like the Kojiki, the Nihongi, or “Chronicles of Japan” (720 A.D.) begins with a history of the creation and the generations of the gods. Borrowing from Chinese cosmology (particularly from the Huai-nan Tzu of the Han period), the Nihongi imagines an initial Chaos. Creation occurs as a matter of internal delineation of hitherto undistinguished elements: what is light and pure rises up to form the heaven, and what is heavier descends to become earth. On its own, heaven created three deities between them (a principle of connection between the separated spheres and two kinds of earth), and then heaven and earth together produced four pairs of deities. It is the last of these that becomes the focus of the myth. Izanagi (“Male-who-invites”) and Izanami (“Female-who-invites”) wandered about the earth below, still wet, unformed and un-grounded—a primordial slush. They extended downward “the jewel-spear of Heaven” (a symbol both of a phallus and of the axis mundi), and the coagulated brine that emanated from its tip formed an island. On earth, they circled their center pole (a sacred connection between heaven and earth) in a marriage ceremony and mated. From this union of the masculine and feminine principles arose the eight islands, the sea, rivers, mountains, trees, and herbs. Finally they produced the sun, moon, a leech, a bad god (“The Impetuous One”), and fire. (The fourth deity, Susa no o, is often associated with the Izumo people and his banshiment in the myth may reflect the political triumph of the Yamato people over this group.)
Although Izanami was burnt to death by her last child (and her nature thus transformed by that agent of sacrifice and change), her powers of fertility are still apparent. While she is dying, she produces the goddesses of earth and water; fire and earth then mate and give birth to “young growth.”
The conclusion of this part of the myth details Izanagi’s search for his wife in the underworld, his horror at death, and his flight back to earth. Purified in the powerfully regenerative waters, Izanagi nevertheless retreats from his creation to the land of gloom.
An expression of Shintoism, the Nihongi richly expresses that religion’s worship of the sacred powers of nature and their many divine personifications.
OF OLD, Heaven and Earth were not yet separated, and the In and Yo (feminine and masculine principles) not yet divided. They formed a chaotic mass like an egg which was of obscurely defined limits and contained germs.
The purer and clearer part was thinly drawn out, and formed Heaven, while the heavier and grosser element settled down and became Earth.
The finer element easily became a united body, but the consolidation of the heavy and gross element was accomplished with difficulty.
Heaven was therefore formed first, and Earth was established subsequently.
Thereafter Divine Beings were produced between them.
Hence it is said that when the world began to be created, the soil of which lands were composed floated about in a manner which might be compared to the floating of a fish sporting on the surface of the water.
At this time a certain thing was produced between Heaven and Earth. It was in form like a reed-shoot. Now this became transformed into a God, and was called Kuni-toko-tachi no Mikoto [Land-eternal-stand-of-August-thing].
Next there was Kuni no sa-tsuchi no Mikoto [Land-of-right-soil-of-Augustness] and next Toyo-kumu-nu no Mikoto, [Rich-form-plain-of-Augustness] in all three deities.
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bsp; These were pure males spontaneously developed by the operation of the principle of Heaven.
The next Deities who came into being were Uhiji-ni no Mikoto and Suhiji-ni no Mikoto, also called Uhiji-ne no Mikoto [Mud-earth] and Suhiji-ne no Mikoto [Sand-earth].
The next Deities which came into being were Oho-to nochi no Mikoto [Great-after-door] and Oho-to mahe no Mikoto [Great-before-door].
The next Gods which came into being were Omo-taru no Mikoto [Face-pleasing] and Kashiko-ne no Mikoto [awful], also called Aya-kashiko-ne no Mikoto, Imi kashiki no Mikoto, or Awo-kashiki-ne no Mikoto, or Aya-kashiki no Mikoto.
The next Deities which came into being were Izanagi no Mikoto [Male-who-invites] and Izanami no Mikoto [Female-who-invites].
These make eight Deities in all. Being formed by the mutual action of the Heavenly and Earthly principles, they were made male and female. From Kuni no toko-tachi no Mikoto to Izanagi no Mikoto and Izanami no Mikoto are called the seven generations of the age of the Gods.
Izanagi no Mikoto and Izanami no Mikoto stood on the floating bridge of Heaven, and held counsel together, saying: “Is there not a country beneath?”
There upon they thrust down the jewel-spear of Heaven, and groping about therewith found the ocean. The brine which dripped from the point of the spear coagulated and became an island which received the $$$me of Ono-goro-jima [Spontaneously-congealed-island].
The two Deities thereupon descended and dwelt in this island. Accordingly they wished to become husband and wife together, and to produce countries.
So they made Ono-goro-jima the pillar of the centre of the land.
Primal Myths Page 31