Abstract
The Dao as such is pointed to two types of wisdom: practical and sagely, which are embodied in three distinct but interrelated types: the Dao of Heaven, the Dao of man, and the Dao of the sage. By contrast, the Dao of Heaven is set up as a ideal frame of reference. The Dao of the sage follows the Dao of Heaven for the sage himself is acting for all but never for himself. The Dao of man is just the reverse of the Dao of the sage because of its self-interestedness. In most cases, the Dao of human existence is likely to slant toward either the Dao of man or the Dao of sage. In Laozi, the Dao of human existence is oriented toward the Dao of the sage and associated with sagely wisdom when it is applied to the human condition and living experience.
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Notes
- 1.
A distinction is made between Daoism as a philosophy (Daojia or Daoxue) and Daoism as a religion (Daojiao) according to the traditional Chinese philosophy. Cf. Fung Yu-lan, A Short History of Chinese Philosophy, in Selected Philosophical Writings of Fung Yu-lan (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1991), pp. 193–198; also see Wang Ming, Daojia yu Daojiao sixiang yanjiu [Studies of Daoism as a Philosophy and a Religion] (Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 1987).
- 2.
Wang Keping, “Laozi’s Doctrine of the Dao in Multi-dimensions,” in The Classic of the Dao: A New Investigation (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1998), pp. 1–21.
- 3.
Laozi, Dao De Jing (trans. Wang Keping, Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 2008), p. 128.
- 4.
Laozi, Dao De Jing (trans. Wang Keping), Ch. 77, p. 128.
- 5.
Ibid., Ch. 79, p. 131.
- 6.
Ibid., Ch. 81, p. 134.
- 7.
Mencius, Jin xin shang [Chapter 7A], in Meng Zi [The Book of Mencius] (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1988).
- 8.
Dong Zhongshu, Yin Yang yi [The Meaning of Yin and Yang], in Chunqiu fanlu [Exuberant Dew of the Spring and Autumn] (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Press, 1990).
- 9.
Liu Shuxian, You tianren heyi xinshi kan ren yu ziran zhi guanxi [The Relations Between Man and Nature in View of the Newly Interpreted Heaven-Human Oneness], in Rujia sixiang yu xiandaihua [Ideas of Confucianism and Modernization] (Beijing: Zhongguuo Guangbo Dianshi Press, 1993).
- 10.
Laozi, Dao De Jing (trans. Wang Keping), Ch. 25, p. 49.
- 11.
Gu Di & Zhou Ying, Laozi tong [Complete Studies of Laozi’s Dao De Jing] (Changchun: Jilin RenminPress, 1991), Vol. 2, pp. 85–92; also see Gao Heng, Laozi zhenggu [A Revised Annotation of Laozi’s Dao De Jing] (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1988), pp. 56–58.
- 12.
Laozi, Dao De Jing (trans. Wang Keping), Ch. 23, p. 46.
- 13.
Wang Keping, Shehui fazhan yu tianren heyi shuo chonggu [On Social the Development and the Rediscovery of the Doctrine of Heaven-Human Oneness], in The Journal of Beijing Second Foreign Languages Institute, No. 2, April 1995. Note: The article is based on a paper delivered at the 1994 Bering International Symposium on “Social Development and Oriental Culture.”
- 14.
Laozi, Dao De Jing (trans. Wang Keping), Ch. 68, p. 118.
- 15.
Ibid., Ch. 66, p. 116.
- 16.
Ibid., Ch. 8, p. 23.
- 17.
Laozi, Dao De Jing (trans. Wang Keping), Ch. 63, p. 113.
- 18.
Ibid., Ch. 64, p. 114.
- 19.
Ibid., Ch. 63, p. 113.
- 20.
Ibid., Ch. 33, p. 60.
- 21.
Laozi, Dao De Jing (trans. Wang Keping), Ch. 36, p. 63.
- 22.
Gao Heng, Laozi zhenggu [A Revised Annotation of Laozi’s Dao De Jing] (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1988), p. 81; also see Chen Guying, Laozi zhuyi ji pingjie [An Annotated and Paraphrased Version of Laozi’s Dao De Jing with Commentary] (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1992), pp. 205–207.
- 23.
Yi jing xi ci [The Great Treatise], in Book of Changes (trans. James Legge, Changsha: Hunan Press, 1993), p. 325.
- 24.
Laozi, Dao De Jing (trans. Wang Keping), Ch. 40, p. 72.
- 25.
Ibid., Ch. 12, p. 27.
- 26.
Laozi, Dao De Jing (trans. Wang Keping), Chs. 33, 44, 46, pp. 60, 78, 81.
- 27.
Ibid., Ch. 76, p. 126.
- 28.
Ibid., Ch. 78, p. 130.
- 29.
Ibid., Ch. 40, p. 72.
- 30.
Ibid., Ch. 81, p. 134.
- 31.
Laozi, Dao De Jing (trans. Wang Keping), Ch. 38, p. 102.
- 32.
Ibid., Ch. 67, p. 117.
- 33.
Laozi, Dao De Jing (trans. Wang Keping), Ch. 50, pp. 86–87.
- 34.
Ibid., Ch. 12, p. 27.
- 35.
Laozi, Dao De Jing (trans. Wang Keping), Ch. 41, p. 74.
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Wang, K. (2019). The Dao of Human Existence. In: Chinese Culture of Intelligence. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3173-2_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3173-2_4
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