Abstract
Elsewhere at this site we show the ways in
which the I Ching has a bilateral structure which parallels that of the brain. Here we wish to show that the classic
daoist text "Tao Te Ching" also shares this structure. "Tao" means the way, "Te"
means virtue, and "Ching" means classic or book. Tao is the general while Te is the particular.
The philosophy/religion of Taoism (Daoism) stems primarily from the work of Lao Tsu "Tao Te Ching" (Dao
De Jing) (additional sources are referenced later). This title is generally translated as "The Book of the
Way of[and] Virture". However analysis of the associations given to the terms "Tao" and "Te"
point to the source of these terms, and their associations, being directly linked to characteristics of the human brain. The Tao Te Ching, and Taoism in general,
serve as metaphors for describing what the neurology responds to, objects and relationships.
This sourcing links Tao to relational space, a dynamics biased space, and the concept of the general or 'big' picture. Te, on the otherhand, deals more with object space and the concept of the particular.
Tao is linked more to context than text, thus the concept of virtue is linked to the individual (genuineness) who is clearly identified and so is lacking in any hidden aspects and overall is good and/or neutral in thought and manner; all very "left brained" processes.
The linking of Tao to relational space associates Tao with "right brained" processes and this includes the concept of the unspeakable in that the right brain cannot speak, it can indicate and so, in communication contexts works implicitly, is wave oriented, and so very BOTH/AND in thinking, dealing with probabilities over the actual. This linking of Tao to the 'right brained' (metaphorically speaking) links it to context, negation, rules and regulations, aspectualism, relativeism, and precision that is qualitative in form. The association links the Tao concept to the space inbetween the 'dots' bias, the objects bias, of the more 'left brained' thinkers.
If we consider the Tao Te Ching and the writings called Zhungzi then the former is biased to Tao and the latter to Te.
This emphasis on a generality, a wave/field approach to Tao, with a specificicity, a particular approach to Te, is found in all areas of Taoism.
In his introduction to "Wandering at ease in the Zhungzi", Professor Roger Ames instinctively emphasises this point:
"...de as a focus in dao is a unique particular with its own integrity and character" p4
Ames quotes from the Zhungzi:
"If you look at things in terms of how they differ, the gap between liver and gall is as great as the distance from Chu to Yue; if you look at them in terms of their sameness, everything is a continuum"
In other words, set the context at the particular level and you get objects, uniqueness; set the context at the general level and you get relationships, the objects are now all the same.
Ames continues with this emphasis in that:
"...in the emergent, ecological cosmology of Daoism, the ethos is always experienced and interpreted from some particular perspective. Appealinh to the vocabulary of Daoism itself. This then is the basis of the polar an correlative relationship between dao ..as environment or field, and de ... as individuated particular or focus. Dao is the defining conditions - the context or environment - for the particular te."
The BOTH/AND nature of Tao is captured by Ames when he states that:
"There is a potential problem in using "ethos" as an equivalent for dao. Dao is perhaps most frequently translated as the "way". "Ethos" quite adequately captures the determinate and intelligible order of our various environments - the "way" or "mode" of existence. However, dao is not only the "how" but also the "what"." p5
This strongly emphasises a BOTH/AND bias and note Ames' use of the what/how dichotomy, covered elsewhere at this site as fundamental methods of analysis for the human brain (see the what/where page)
Ames linking of the term "Wu Wei" (Non-Action, Actionless) to "anarchy" is useful on that it links to Feynman's concept of everything being treated as a wave and it is the interference patterns that create reality. Combine this with the concept of anarchy -- everyone does their own thing -- and so the concept of "Wu Wei" emerges.
Note that, as Ames points out, anarchy is linked to objects (particulars) and wu wei is linked to relationships (generalities). Ames makes the point that "wu wei activity is thus fundamentally qualitative.." p8 which re-asserts its right brained link (combined with the emphasis on negation).
We can extend our analysis by including the thoughts of the sinologist Richard Wilhelm, a translator and interpreter of the I Ching. With the previously mentioned distinctions re Tao and Te in mind, consider Wilhelms comments of Tao etc., as written in his comments to "The Secret of the Golden Flower" a chinese alchemical text that Wilhelm translated and interpreted with Carl Jung:
"The Tao, then, the Way, governs man just as it does invisible and visibel nature (heaven and earth). The character of Tao in its original form consists of a head, which probably must be interpreted as 'beginning', and then the character for 'going' in its dual form in which it also means 'track', and underneath, the character for 'standing still', which is omitted in the later way of writing. The original meaning, then, is that of a 'track which, though fixed itself, leads from a beginning directly to the goal'. The fundamental idea is that the Tao, though itself motionless, is the means of all movemetnt and gives it law.
Heavenly paths are those along which the constellations move; the path of man is the way along which he must travel. Lao-tse has used this word, though in the metaphysical sense, as the final world principle, which antedates realization and is not yet divided by the drawing apart of opposites on which emergence into reality depends.....
In Confucianism there is a certain difference in terminology. There the word 'Tao' has an inner-world significance and means the 'right way'; on the one hand, the way of heaven, on the other hand, the way of man. To Confucianism, the final principle of an undivided One is the T'ai-Chi (the great ridge-pole, the supreme ultimate)...
Out of the Tao, and the T'ai-chi, there develop the principles of reality, the one pole being the light (yang) and the other the dark, or shadowy (yin). Among European scholars, some have turned first to sexual references for an explanation, but the characters refer to phenomena in nature.Yin is shade, therefore the north side of a mountain [Nth Hemi] and the south side of a river (because during the day the position of the sun makes the south side of the river appear dark). Yang, in its original form, indicates flying pennants and, corresponding to the character yin, is the south side of a mountain and the north side of the river. Starting only with the meaning of 'light' and 'dark', the principle was expanded to polar opposites, including the sexual. However, since both yin and yang have their common origin in an undivided One and are active only in the realm of phenomena, where yang appears as the active principle and conditions, and yin as the passive principle is derived and conditioned, it is quite clear that a metaphysical dualism is not the basis of these ideas. Less abstract than yin and yang are the concepts of the Creative and the Receptive (Ch'ien and K'un) that originate in the Book of Changes [I Ching], and are symbolized by heaven and earth. Through the union of heaven and earth, and through the efficacy of the dual primal forces within this field of activity (governed by one primal law, the Tao), there develops the 'ten thousand things', that is, the outer world." pp11-12.
In the above passage, where Wilhelm states that "some have turned first to sexual references for an explanation, but the characters refer to phenomena in nature. ", see the page at this site on the distinctions of archetypal from typal where the archetypal is asexual/androgenous whereas the typal is sexual.
In the above passage, where Wilhelm states that "Starting only with the meaning of 'light' and 'dark', the principle was expanded to polar opposites, including the sexual." See my use of compass formats to expand on this change being expressed in the I Ching.
Note the distinctions of a Taoist 'Tao' and a Confucianist 'Tao' manifesting the same principles applied at different scales where the Confucianist perspective is closer to Te than Tao with an emphasis on 'correct conduct' of the individual within the context of the state rather than the universe.
The following pages take you further into the taoist world that is strongly tied to the I Ching (Yi Jing) or Book of Changes. In this context the Tao Te Ching and Zhungzi reflect structural processes and the unchanging whereas the I Ching reflects dynamic processes and the changing. This said, within the I Ching, we find the sequences of Fu Hsi which favours structure compared to the sequences of King Wen that favours dynamics, thus the Tao/Te dichotomy manifests fundamental distinctions operating at all levels of analysis, as we find in the neurology of the brain with its emphasis on the particular and objects vs the general and relationships.
Link to essay on I Ching and Taoism OR Link to my website covering meaning in general OR to my website covering meaning expressed in the I Ching