Like Leopold Bloom, LaGuardia was of Hungarian Jewish descent (on his mother’s side). Unlike Leopold Bloom, LaGuardia was raised as an Episcopalian in Arizona.

UPDATE: It turns out that Leopold Bloom was a Christian too. Bloom’s father had been converted to Irish Protestantism by The Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews,  an Anglican evangelical group, and the church he joined was the Anglican-affiliated Church of Ireland,  just as the church LaGuardia’s father joined in order to marry Leopold’s mother had been the Anglican-affiliated American Episcopal Church. Then, in order to marry Molly, Leopold left the Church of Ireland to become Catholic. That’s something that LaGuardia, the son of an atheist, never did.

Motley Deakin, “Two Studies of Daisy Miller, Henry James Review, 5, Fall 1983, 2-28.

Bénichou, Paul. “Jeune-France et Bousingots: Essai de mise au point.” Revue d’histoire littéraire de la France71, (May-June 1971): 439-62.

Seemingly not on internet:

Richard D. Beards, “Stereotyping in Modern American Fiction: Some Solitary Swedish Madmen.” Moderna Sprak, 63 (1969): 329-37. (No link)

Shen Buhai fragments

Nei Ye chapter

Shen Buhai (ca.400 BC – ca. 337 BC) was the chief minister of the small state of Han. The legalist philosopher Hanfeizi (280 BC- 233 BC), a member of the Han ruling family, regarded Shen Buhai and his approximate contemporaries Shang Yang and Shen Dao to be the three main sources of legalist philosophy. Biographical data from that era is scanty and unreliable, but I think that we may conclude that Shen Buhai was two or three generations older than Hanfeizi and that he left writings that Hanfeizi regarded as significant. Shen Buhai’s doctrines were important in the early Han dynasty and probably also earlier during the Qin dynasty, but after Han Wudi established Confucianism as the state religion, followers of Shen Buhai were barred from public office. Partly as a result, few of his writings survive.

At the time when the Daodejing was thought to have been written by Laozi around 500 BC, it was assumed that Shen Buhai and Shen Dao had borrowed Laozi’s ideas, but now that we think that the Daodejing was written and edited in stages between about 350 BC and about 250 BC, mutual influence or influence in the other direction seems more likely, and that is my assumption here. My sources is H.G. Creel’s 1974 edition of fragments by and about Shen Buhai, but many of these are doubtful and in the end I used only passages from the chapter 大體 “Major Principles”, ascribed to Shen Buhai in Wei Zheng’s 羣書治要 Qunshi Zhiyao of 631 AD, plus two others from Tang dynasty works.

Shen Buhai is almost always classified as a legalist. But these classifications, which were made a century or more after the fact and describe tendencies rather than real achools, do much more harm than good. The best known legalists, Shang Yang,  Hanfeizi, and Li Si, were notorious for murderous cruelty, and since the works of Shen Dao and Shen Buhai were unknown for a long period, they came to share the others’ bad reputation. There’s no evidence of this ruthlessness in the works either of Shen Dao or Shen Buhai, and if their works in some way contributed to the development of the mild and benign Daodejing, there’s no real problem in that respect.

Shen Buhai and the Daodejing

I will begin with Creel’s texts and translations, highlighting key words and phrases and listing their appearances in the Daodejing.

Creel, SBH 1 (5), pp. 348-9:

大體:

故善為主者，倚於愚，立於不盈，設於不敢，藏於無事，竄端匿跡，示天下無為。

Therefore the skilled ruler avails himself of an appearance of stupidity 愚, establishes himself with insufficiency 不盈, places himself in a posture of timidity 不敢, and conceals himself in inaction 無事. He hides his motives and conceals his tracks. He shows the world that he does not act 無為…..

In the Daodejing:

無為: Chapters 2, 3, 38, 43, 47, 48, 57, 63, and 64.

無事:  Chapters 48, 57, and 63, always paired with無為.

盈:  Chapters 2, 4, 9, 15, 22, 39, 45.

愚:  Chapters 20, 38, and 65.

不敢:  Chapters 64, 67, 69.

Creel, SBH I(6) , p. 349:

大體:

名自正也，事自定也。是以有道者自名而正之，隨事而定之也。

Names rectify themselves 自正; affairs settle themselves 自定. Therefore, one who has the right method starts from names in order to rectify things, and acquiesces in affairs in order to settle them.

In the Daodejing:

正:  Chapters 22, 37, 39, 45, and 57.

自正,自定, etc.:  Chapters 32, 37, 57, and 73.

.

Hanfeizi, Chapter 5, 主道:

故虛靜以待令，令名自命也，令事自定也。

He waits, empty and still, letting names define themselves and letting affairs settle themselves.  

NOTE: The word 自 is seen 33 times in the Daodejing, usually with a reflexive meaning (“See himself”, “display himself”, etc.) The instances I cite here specifically express the idea that rather than intervening directly, a wise ruler lets things settle themselves, an idea closely related to 無為 wuwei. In Hanfeizi and Shen Buhai wuwei merely means that the ruler lets the machinery of government do its work without personally taking a hand, whereas in the Daodejing the idea takes on a mystical aspect.

Creel, SBH I(9), pp. 351-2:

大體

鏡設精，無為而美惡自備；衡設平，無為而輕重自得. 凡因之道，身與公無事，無事而天下自極也。

The ruler is like a mirror, which merely reflects the light that comes to it, itself doing nothing 無為, and yet, because of its mere presence, beauty and ugliness present themselves to view. He is like a scale, which which merely establishes equilibrium, itself doing nothing; yet the mere fact that it remains in balance causes lightness and heaviness to discover themselves 自得. The ruler’s method is that of complete acquiescence. He merges his personal concerns with the public good, so that as an individual, he does not act 無事. He does not act, and yet as a result of his non-action the world brings itself to a state of complete order.

Creel, SBH 8-9, pp. 358-9:

天道無私, 是以恒正, 天道常正, 是以清明. 地道不作，是以常靜。常靜是以正方。舉事為之，乃有恒常之靜者，符信受令必行也

Heaven’s way has no private concern 無私; therefore it is always correct. Heaven’s way 天道 is constantly correct; therefore it is pure and bright 清明. Earth’s way is to refrain from taking the initiative; therefore it is always acquiescent 靜. Being always acquiescent, it is therefore correctly foursquare. The reason why a minister who practices it may set affairs in motion, while yet maintaining his condition of constant acquiescence, is that, before he acts, he receives the ruler’s order, authenticated by the matching of official tallies, which he necessarily carries out.

In the Daodejing:

私:  Chapters 7 and 19.

清:  Chapters 15, 39, and 45.

靜:  Chapters 15, 16, 20, 37, 45, and 57.

.

Daodejing,  Chapter 79:

天道無親 常與善人

 The Way of Heaven has no kin; it’s always with the good man.

NOTE:  無親 and 無私 are both opposites of 公, impartiality and adherence to objective public standards. Nepotism and favoritism to relatives were at least as big a problem as individual selfishness in ancient China. Every Chinese philosopher had to deal with this problem, though the Confucian response depended so much on impossible individual purity of mind on the part of government ministers that for two millennia it was more an enabling factor than a solution. 

Conclusions

In the 675 or so words of these passages from Shen Buhai, phrases of the 自定 form are seen four times (自名,自定,自備,自得), the word 正 is seen three times, phrase 無為 is seen three times, 靜 is seen three times, and 無事 three times. All of these are themes in Daodejing, and in the Daodejing they are usually found together, with most of their appearances clustered in nine chapters: chapters 2, 15, 22, 37, 39, 45, 48, 57, and 63. These chapters include every appearance in the Daodejing of the word 正, every appearance of the phrase 無事, and the majority (12 of 19 altogether) of the appearances of 靜, 無為, and the 自-X phrase I have described.

Before I looked at Shen Buhai I had already concluded that the cluster of themes 靜-清-盈-自正 (自定, etc.) was a subgroup within the Daodejing and that it was associated with the 無為 / 無事 group, as shown in the previous paragraph. Here I have shown that many of these themes are also present in these three rather short passages attributed to Shen Buhai.  It’s also possible to show (using the http://ctext.org/ database) that the two major themes here, 無為 and  靜, are not age-old, but came into Chinese philosophy rather late. The word 靜 is seen more often in Zhuangzi or in Hanfeizi than in the Shi Jing, Shang Shu,  Yi Jing, Confucius, Mozi, and Mencius all put together. The phrase 無為 is seen ten times in these older classics, but only once with the philosophical meaning seen in Shen Buhai and Daoism (in Book XV, 衛靈公 5, in a passage that is sometimes thought to be spurious). Elsewhere it is either a simple indicative — “I do nothing” —  or an imperative — “Do not do….”

* The former number is the number in the database, the latter is the number in the passages I used.

There is a twist, however. “Stillness” 靜 is also seen 12 times in the contemplative, non-political “Nei Ye” chapter of Guanzi (often rhymed with 清, 盈 and other words seen in the Daodejing and in Shen Buhai), and phrases of the type 自-X also appear 13 times in the “Nei Ye”. On the other hand, wuwei 無為 is not seen in the Nei Ye at all. What conclusions can we draw from all this?

The first is that 靜 (etc.) and 無為 are relatively late themes from the Hundred Schools period (approximately 350 BC-250 BC). Second, it is likely, though hardly certain, that the former theme came from contemplative groups, while the latter came from “legalists” involved in government affairs. Third, it seems probable that, as time passed, themes from each of the schools or tendencies were picked up, adapted, and developed by other schools and tendencies in a back-and-forth conversation, so that instead of isolated,  independent discourses connected by a few causal “influence” relationships the complex network was developed, and within it was produced the Daodejing.

And last of all, there’s one more rather unfortunate possibility. A big part of my argument here depends on the assumption that the 675 words I’ve been working with really can be attributed (in some sense) to Shen Buhai, and especially the assumption that that they are prior, or at least contemporary to the Daodejing. If this is not the case, then the supposed Shen Buhai fragments are merely a few of the hundreds of later political appropriations of the Daodejing that we already knew about.  I do not think that this is the case, but that possibility cannot be denied.

In the classic Chinese texts the “sage” 聖人was the highest category of human excellence. The sages were the legendary past rulers and founders (e.g. Wen Wang or the Duke of Zhou) together with hoped-for future saviors of equal merit. Both Confucius and Mencius demurred on their disciples’ suggestions that they were Sages, though Mencius did declare that Confucius was indeed a sage. The translation “sage” is not va very good one: the English word “sage” normally refers to a wise elder, but the Chinese sages were not only wise, but also holy and powerful, the founders or rulers of states, and their sageliness was apparent while they were still in their prime.

The Sage in Confucius and Mencius

The Sage is seen 26 times in the text of Laozi, but 18 or 19 of those appearences are within the phrase “Therefore the sage….” which is generally thought to be an editorial or authorial formula used to construct chapters by adding endings to them. The Sage is seen outside this formula in chapter 5, 19, 28, 49, 60, 66, 71, and 81, and of these appearances the ones in chapters 5, 28, 49, 60, 66, and 81 are most useful. (For Chapter 19, see Appendix I).

In Confucius and Mencius the Sage sets the standard for the highest possible human excellence, but does not actually play a critical role in either book. In Analects VI:30 Confucius names Yao and Shun as sages. In Analects VII:34 he denies that he himself is a sage; in both passages the sage is associated with仁 “benevolence”, the highest Confucian virtue except for sageliness itself. In Analects IX:6 the possibility that Confucius is a Sage is discussed by a high official, a disciple of Confucius, and later Confucius, with inconclusive results. Most references the Sage in Mencius are rather perfunctory. (II A1:8, II A2 17-28, II B 9:3, IV B 1:4, V B 1:5-7,  VII B 25:7-8). Mencius refers to the great Sage Kings of the distant past, asserts that Confucius was the greatest of Sages, denies that he is himself a sage, and hopes for a future Sage who will redeem China.

The spiritual power of the Sage

One passage in Mencius, however, gives us our first clue about what the Sage actually is:

大而化之之謂聖

聖而不可知之之謂神

He who is great and transformative is called a Sage; a Sage who cannot be known is called a spirit. (Mencius VII B 25:7-8)

This passage is the only one in Confucius or Mencius to explicitly link the Sage to the spiritual world or the world of the unseen, treating him as a spiritual power in human form and speaking of his ability to transform 化 society, and this understanding of the sage appears in Laozi in a somewhat altered form. In the “Nei Ye” chapter of Guanzi, a meditational text thought to be of the same tradition as parts of Laozi, the Sage is also defined as a spiritual power in human form and identifies him with the essences of life:

凡物之精, 此則為生

下生五穀, 上為列星

流天地間, 謂之鬼神

藏於胸中, 謂之聖人

The vital essence of all things is what makes them alive. Below it generates the five grains, above it makes starry constellations. When it circulates amid Heaven and Earth we call it “the spirits”, when it is stored in the human heart we call it The Sage. (“Nei Ye” I, Roth, p. 47)

In chapter 60 the Sage has power over the spirits rather than being an embodiment of the spirits. Under his rule, both the spirits and the sage himself are benign:

以道莅天下

其鬼不神

非其鬼不神

其神不傷人

非其神不傷人

聖人亦弗傷.

When the empire is ruled in accordance with Dao, the spirits are not potent. It’s not that the spirits aren’t potent, but that in their potency they don’t hurt men 傷人. It’s not only they who do not hurt men, the sage too does not hurt them. Laozi, chapter 60.

NOTE: The opening lines of this chapter are discussed in Appendix II. Appendix III discusses Hanfeizi’s interpretation of this chapter.

In the彖傳Tuan Zhuan commentary to the節 hexagram of the Yiching易經we read:

天地節而四時成，節以制度，不傷財，不害民.

Heaven and earth observe their regular terms, and we have the four seasons complete.  If rulers frame their measures according to regulations, resources suffer no injury, and the people receive no hurt.  

This passage includes both the phrase不傷 “does not injure” in chapter 60 of the Daodejing and不害 “does not hurt” seen in a number of other chapters. (不害 is also the personal name of Shen Buhai).

 The Sage does not harm men

This assurance that the Sage does not hurt men at first seems rather odd, but if you consider that the Sage is not merely a wise man, but one with exceptional spiritual powers, you can see the necessity of the assurance that he is benign. The sage’s benevolence is also negatively expressed as “not harming” by the proto-Daoist / proto-Legalist Shen Dao, a precursor of Laozi:

The Sage in high position does not harm (不害) men, though he cannot keep men from harming each other. It is the people themselves who eliminate the harm. (Shen Dao A5).

The harmlessness or imperviousness to harm of the Sage (or of Dao) is seen several other times in Laozi and also in the Nei Ye:

Chapter 66:

是以聖人….處前而民不害

Therefore the Sage …. is in front [the leader], but the people do not feel harmed.

In Chapter 81 of Laozi it is not the Sage but the Way of Heaven that does no harm, though the Sage is paired with the Way of Heaven:

天道利而不害, 聖人為而不爭.

The Way of Heaven benefits and does not harm; the Sage acts and does not contend.

In Chapter 56 of Laozi the usual interpretation is that Dao is not harmed by men, but this chapter is an assemblage of fragments and these phrases have no subject, so it’s possible that it is the Sage who is not harmed (or benefited) by anything men do:

不可得而利

不可得而害

You can’t succed in benefiting [it / him], you can’t succed in harming [it / him].

In the “Nei Ye”, a Daoist or proto-Daoist chapter in the Guanzi collection, it is unquestionably the Sage (identified with the vital essence, 精) who is impervious to harm, either by men or by Heaven:

不逢天菑

不遇人害

謂之聖人

Someone who] does not encounter calamities from Heaven and does not suffer harm from men is called a Sage. (Nei Ye, Roth, XV, p. 75)

The indifference of the Sage

In Shen Dao and in one place in Laozi the Sage is described as indifferent, though in Shen Dao he is passively benign:

Heaven has light and does not care that men are in darkness; Earth is fruitful, and does not care that men are impoverished; the sage (聖) has virtue (德) and does not care that men are imperiled不憂人之危也…. (Shen Dao A1)

Although the Sage does not care that men are imperiled, if the people (百姓) conform to the superior and accept their lower status, they will assuredly get peace for themselves; but the Sage does nothing. The Sage in high position does not harm (不害) men, though he cannot keep men from harming each other. It is the people themselves who eliminate the harm. (Shen Dao A4-5)

天不仁

以萬物若芻狗

聖人不仁

以百姓若芻狗

Heaven is not humane. It treats the myriad creatures like straw dogs.

The sage is not humane. He treats the people like straw dogs. 

NOTE: According to the commentaries, straw dogs are ceremonial props which are treated reverently during the ceremony but tossed in the trash afterwards. They are not treated with hostility, but just indifference.

Here the sage’s attitude toward the people is compared to the Olympian indifference of Heaven in a naturalistic universe. Heaven is neither friendly nor hostile toward man and does not intervene in human lives, but does give men what they need, if they know how to use it properly. This naturalistic universe sharply contrasts with the Mohist universe, within which the spirits are constantly approving or disapproving human actions, with the Mencian universe which is slanted toward goodness, and with the universe of Chinese popular belief. The Confucian Xunzi was the most explicitly naturalistic of all, and for the legalists generally the Sage ruler did what needed to be done without concern for whatever momentary cruelty was involved.

The Sage as master of the officials

Chapter 28 ends with three lines which do not seem to fit with the rest of the chapter and were probably just tacked on because it begins with the same word, 樸”simplicity”, with which the preceding passage ends. They read:

樸散則為器

聖人用則為官長

故大制不割

If the primal simplicity is broken up it is made into utensils.

If the Sage is employed he becomes the master of the officials

“Primal simplicity” 樸 here can mean simply “raw material”, which is worked by man to make 器: artificial vessels, tools, or weapons. Philosophically in Laozi primal simplicity 樸 means the original childlike or precivilized state of man, which is valorized in Laozi as something precious and innocent we should try to return to. In the couplet, however, the parallelism speaks of the Sage being employed and put to use as a government official. This fits the anti-Confucian tendency of Laozi, since in Confucius 器之 “treat as a tool” (Analects xiii 25) refers to employing an inferior for some task, and elsewhere (Analects ii 12 ) Confucius says “The gentleman is not used as a tool” 君子不器 – i.e., that the gentleman is not an inferior to be employed. (The gentleman is not necessarily a Sage, but the Sage is necessarily a gentleman, at a higher level).

NOTE.器elsewhere in the Daodejing: vessels, chapters 11, 29, and 41; weapons and tools, chapters 31, 36, 50, 57, and 80. In the Analects: vessels, iii 22 1, v iii; tools: xv 9.

At the same time, however, “master of the officials” 官長 makes it a little ambiguous, since while the official is a utensil, the one who supervises officials may or may not be one. This phrase is echoed in chapter 67, where someone who is compassionate, etc., is declared worthy of becoming 器長 “master of the [tools, weapons, or sacrificial vessels]” – again, not necessarily a utensil or tool himself, but possibly someone who supervises the utensils. In a political context 器 utensils are often edged weapons, described in chapter 31 as不祥之器 ill-fated or unlucky tools, and in chapter 36 we read 國之利器不可以示人 “The sharp tools of the state should not be shown to people”, which usually is interpreted to mean that rulers should be secretive and not let anyone know what they are doing or how they’re doing it.

In short, this couplet talks about the Sage’s becoming involved in government in some capacity, specifically in terms of supervising others (the utensils). It does not quite say that the sage himself (against Confucius) becomes a utensil, but the use of the term 用 “is employed” definitely leaves that possibility open. Since most theories of the layering of Laozi now hold that the deepest layer of the text is spiritual, contemplative, dedicated to self-cultivation, and unrelated to government, and that only a later level turns toward involvement in government, it seems that the Sage in Laozi marks that political turn, and that this passage introduces the idea that the spiritual Sage might be willing to take a political role.

The Sage has no mind of his own

In chapter 49 we have quite a substantial (though elusive) exposition of the Sage’s approach to government.

聖人恒無心

以百姓之心為心

善者吾善之

不善者吾亦善之

德善也

信者吾信之

不信者吾亦信之

德信也

聖人之在天下

歙歙焉

為天下渾心

百姓皆注其耳目焉

聖人皆孩之

The Sage is always without a mind of his own; he takes as his own the mind of the people. I treat the good as good. I also treat the bad as good, and I get goodness. I treat the reliable as reliable. I also treat the unreliable as reliable, and I get reliability. The Sage in the world is all pulled in. For the sake of the world he muddles his mind. The common people all direct their eyes and ears toward him, and he treats them all as children.

There are a number of tricky passages in this chapter, but the basic ideas can be seen. The Sage does not commit himself and is elusive and hard to read. He understands people according to their own motivations and desires, and not his own. He does not judge people, but takes them as they are and puts them to use. He relies on the good /reliable to be good / reliable, and he relies on the bad / unreliable to be bad / unreliable, and because he knows them for what they are, he cannot be fooled and can employ them. Because he is mysterious, understanding, and benign, the people are devoted to him.

These ideas can be traced to Shen Dao and Shen Buhai; the contrast is with the Confucians or the Mohists, whose programs required reforming people and making them good. The elusiveness of the Sage is pervasive in Laozi, and the idea that even the bad can be put to use is seen in chapters 27, 62, and others. Altogether, this chapter shows how the Sage at work in the world still retains his sageliness and equanimity, and in fact is more effective precisely because of his sagely traits.

APPENDIX I

Chapter 19 is in a class by itself as the only chapter of Laozi which rejects the Sage. Laozi is a heterogenous book compiled over a considerable period, and beyond that frequently shocks the reader with hyperbole and paradox, so this inconsistency is not terribly surprising. I will deal with chapter 19 here in order not to excessively muddle the argument above.

絕聖棄智 人利百倍
Wipe out the Sages, get rid of wisdom, and people will profit a hundredfold. (Chapter 19)

This chapter belongs to an egalitarian, anti-cultural group of chapters in Laozi comparable to the Primitivist layer in Zhuangzi: chapters 3, 12, 17, 18, 19, 53, 57 (part), 64 (part), 72, 75, 79, 80, and 81. Of these chapters, only 17, 18, 19, 57, and 64 are seen in the Guodian text, possibly because the others denounced not only moralism and wasteful and overelaborated ceremony and etiquette, but also wealth and luxury. While its anti-cultural message of chapter fits nicely with the rest of Laozi, the “exterminate the Sage” message is contrary to that of at least 26 other chapters in Laozi , even including many of the primitivist chapters, and in fact the opening line of the Guodian version of this chapter does not speak of wiping out the Sage and wisdom, but of wiping out wisdom and distinctions.

APPENDIX II

The opening line of chapter 60 is not closely related to the body of the chapter, and I am relegating its consideration to this note.

In many cases the opening or closing lines or couplets of chapters in Laozi do not seem related to the rest of the chapter, and even before the Guodian and Mawangdui texts were discovered it was often suggested that the chapter divisions were late and possibly misleading. The chapter divisions of Laozi are not present in the Mawangdui text, and only about two thirds of the Guodian chapters closely match the traditional chapters. Chapter 60 is not part of the Guodian text, but the Guodian text does justify at least the possibility of dividing chapters.

Chapter 60 begins治大國若烹小鲜Rule a large state as you would steam a small fish. When you cook a small fish you don’t turn it too often or cook it too long, and this line is generally thought to advise a minimum of government interference in the lives of the people, a common theme in Laozi.

The opening of chapter 60 can stand by itself, but it makes a good 7-syllable parallel couplet with the first line of chapter 59: When ruling men and serving Heaven, nothing is better than to be sparing 治人事天莫若啬. (“Sparing” 啬here is an agricultural metaphor and evokes the frugality and caution of a farmer; in translations it is sometimes  related to “husbandry”.) These two lines begin with the same word, 治, and express similar ideas:

When ruling men and serving Heaven, nothing is better than to be sparing;

Rule a large state as you would steam a small fish.

The opening line of chapter 59 is followed by a long passage in the “chain” or sorites pattern A=B, B=C, C=D, etc. Similar passages are seen at the ends of four other chapters (chapters 16, 25, 52, and 55) and they have always seemed tacked-on to me, more closely related to one another than they are to the rest of the Daodejing. (A version of Chapter 59 is seen in Lushi Chunqiu).

Three of these passages are seen in the Guodian text, and I have classified these chapters as early, so they cannot be regarded as late additions to the text. However, they (along with a few other passages) do seem to me to represent an added subgroup within the early layer of the Daodejing, and by and large the least interesting part of the text. I will discuss this subgroup in more detail later.

Appendix III

Translation of Shen Dao (slightly different text.)

Many passages in the Daodejing remarkably resemble passages in Shen Dao. The dating of the Daodejing (which was produced in stages) is only approximate (roughly 350 BC to 250 BC is my guess), and the dating of Shen Dao is also uncertain, though he is thought to have  flourished sometime before 300 BC, making him senior to the final contributors to the Daodejing.

In this piece I have assumed that these late contributors to were responding to and developing themes found in Shen Dao. I think that it’s more likely that the Daodejing philosophizes practical wisdom from sources like Shen Dao, Shen Buhai, and Sunzi than it is that the pure truths of philosophy informed political and military strategy. Furthermore, some passages in the Daodejing seem to assume and refer back to fuller statements in Shen Dao. The Daodejing does not necessarily perfectly agree with Shen Dao said; I only claim that the Daodejing author was familiar with the works of Shen Dao and developed them.

Below are seven groups of parallel passages, followed by my conclusions. 

資苞畜

Cherish your materials

Thompson (p. 527) recognizes the relationship between Shen Tao F35 and chapter 27 of the Daodejing. This is one of the cases when the expression of a theme in the Daoedejiing seems to refer back to a fuller statement of the theme elsewhere,  in Shen Dao in this case. The use of the same key words in all four passages makes coincidence almost impossible.

是以大君因民之能為資

盡苞而畜之

無去取焉

So the great ruler accepts 因 the people’s capacities as his material 資, and protects 苞 and cares for 畜 all of them without favoring or rejecting any.

Shen Dao F35

是以聖人常善救人

故無棄人….

不善人者善人之資

Hence the sage is always good at saving people, and so abandons no one…. the bad man is the material 資 for the good man.

Daodejing chapter 27

大國不過欲兼畜人

Thus all the great state wants is to care for 畜 others”

Daodejing  chapter 61

善人之寶

不善人之所保

人之不善何棄之有

 [Tao] is the treasure 寶 of the good man and that by which the bad man is protected 保….  Even if a man is not good, should he be abandoned? 

Daodejing  chapter 62

NOTE: 苞, 寶, and保  were all pronounced similarly, and their meanings are related and overlapping.  苞 and 保 may stand for exactly the same word. (Sunzi XIII p. 164: 君之寶).

忠

Loyalty / Dedication

忠 is usually translated “loyalty”. That is often but not always its meaning (see Goldin, 2008). In many contexts it means something like “conscientiousness” or “diligence” or “attentiveness” and even “fervor”. In my opinion the best single translation is “dedication / dedicated”, which overlaps with both conscientiousness and loyalty.

The general point being made is not dependent on the translation:  The problem with loyalty / diligence is that it cannot save a badly-ordered state, so that if such a state relies on loyal and heroically diligent ministers to save it, it will fail. A well-run state does not need to rely on exceptional efforts: if ordinary men correctly do their assigned tasks, that will be enough. If a state needs to rely on heroic effort, that is a sign that it is in trouble.

忠盈天下

害及其國

If loyalty fills the world, harm comes to the state.

Shen Dao H54

由是觀之忠未足以救亂世而適足以重非。

This shows us that loyalty 忠 is not enough to save a chaotic age, but instead can be something that multiplies its problems.

Shen Dao H49

國家昏亂有忠臣.

When the state is in chaos, then you have loyal 忠 ministers.

Daodejing, chapter 18

Beyond that, heroically loyal ministers are a kind of worthy 賢 and might become usurpers. In we read:

將治亂在乎賢使任職而不在於忠也

The ordering of disorder lies in worthy (賢) officers accepting their assignments, and not in their loyalty  忠.  

Shen Dao H54

For a worthy to accept his assignments is to accept subordination and to limit himself to the performance of specifically assigned tasks, rather than to heroic efforts and passionate devotion to the prince. For Shen Dao and the Legalists this is the road to order, whereas reliance on loyal ministers and worthies are the roads to contention and disorder. The Daodejing ’s  idea of order is far different than the Legalists’, but they are alike in rejecting heroic striving. (More on worthies here).

智

Wisdom and cleverness

The word智  “wise / wisdom” is a little uncertain, sometimes meaning “wise” and other times merely “clever” or “learned”. Both the Daodejing  and Shen Dao are ambivalent about智, in some places rejecting or doubting wisdom and the wise, and in others accepting and praising them. In the negative passages, the wise, the loyal and the worthies are associated as virtuous but problematic players.

道理匱則慕賢智

慕賢智則國家之政要在一人之心矣。

When the principles of government are lost, people look to the worthies (賢) and the wise (智); if the worthies and the wise are relied on, the state’s major decisions are left to the discretion of a single man.

Shen Dao C20.

智慧出有大偽

When wisdom and cleverness arise, you get the great deception.

Daodejing   chapter 18

絕聖棄智民利百倍

Cut off the Sage, get rid of the wise, and the people will benefit a hundredfold.

Daodejing   chapter 19

私親

Selfishness and nepotism

With almost no exceptions except Yang Zhu and his followers, Chinese philosophies denigrate selfishness. The Daodejing and Shen Dao are no exception. Shen Dao goes a step further and also is suspicious of family feeling 親 when it interferes with government by leading to corruption, nepotism, and internal power struggles. For him all private initiative by state officials of the state is also selfish 私,and one of his forms of selfishness is private benevolence 私善 — when individual officials on their own initiative use public resources to do good.

Shen Dao’s principles in this respect are much like those of Mozi, for whom governmental actions should decided within a public 公 , impersonal, top-down decision-making procedure and passed down a chain of command.  This is far different than the system proposed by Confucius and Mencius, in which personal benevolence and family considerations were legitimate and influential, making Confucians government throughout history highly susceptible to graft and nepotism and inefficient for the attainment of any particular public goal.

The political parts of the  Daodejing take an attitude similar to that of Shen Dao, but in the passage from Chapter 7 we see a different, more mystical kind of selflessness oriented more towards personal self-cultivation than to the political order. Shen Dao apparently had a mystical side, which is described in the “Under Heaven” chapter of Zhuangzi, but there’s little evidence of this side of Shen Dao in the text reconstructed by Thompson.

無勞之親不任於官

官不私親

Do not appoint lazy relatives 親to office, and do not let officials favor their own relatives

Shen Dao K67

故有道之國法立則私善不行

In a state following Dao, the law is established so that private benevolence 私善 does not develop. (私議in the linked text: private or secret discussions, perhaps conspiracies).

Shen Dao L77

凡立公所以棄私也

In every case a public 公 form is established, and private 私 codes rejected.

Shen Dao D73

天道無親

常與善人

The Dao of heaven has no kin 親; it’s always with the good man.

Daodejing  chapter 79

見素抱樸

少私寡欲

Exhibit plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness and make the desires few.

Daodejing  chapter 19.

非以其無私耶

故能成其私

Is it not because he is selfless? Thus he can perfect himself.

Daodejing , chapter 7.

海

The Sea

The rivers and the sea, and water in general, are recurring themes in Chinese philosophy —  in the Daodejing above all, but not only there:

海與山爭水

海必得之

When the sea and the mountain fight for water, the sea always wins.

Shen Dao E101

譬道之在天下

猶川谷之於江海

The way is to the world as the river and the sea are to rivulets and streams.  

Daodejing   chapter 32

Therefore the big rivers do not despise the little brooks as tributaries.

Mozi, Ch. I, “Qin Shi”

For people’s attitude toward profit is just like the tendency of water to flow downwards, without preference for any of the four sides.

Shang Yang, Book V, Duyvendak tr. P. 316

Shen Dao’s may be the first statement of this common theme (the first chapter of Mozi is eclectic and probably late). Confucius and Mencius thought quite differently about low-lying areas, which is where filth gathers.

怒

Anger

There’s nothing much to say about these two passages, which say about the same thing.

有勇不以怒

反與怯均也.

If one possesses courage one does not act in anger but behaves as though one were cowardly. Shen Dao M112

善為士者不武

善戰者不怒.

One who excels as a warrior does not seem formidable; one who excels in fighting is never roused in anger .

Daodejing,  chapter 67

不害

No harm

The phrase 不害 “does not harm” comes from the Yijing, but at some point it became a theme in descriptions of the Sage 聖人.  I have discussed this here, arguing that the stress on the harmlessness of the Sage and of Dao was probably a trace of an ancestral Sage, not necessarily benign, of the shaman / wizard type.

故聖人處上能無害人

The Sage in high position does not harm men.

Shen Dao A5

是以聖人處前而民不害

Therefore the sage takes the lead but the people suffer no harm.

Daodejing  chapter 66

天之道利而不害

The Dao of Heaven benefits and does not harm.

Daodejing  chapter 81

Conclusion

Of the 11 chapters of the Daodejing in which I have found echoes of Shen Dao, only one, chapter 32, is in contemplative, less-political layer of the text, and the theme in this chapter is very widespread in Chinese philosophy and not usually identified with Shen Dao. The other ten are found in the more-political parts of the book, either in the section which I think was last added (chapters 67, 79, and 81 in chapters 67-81) or in the remainder of the book, which I have not yet looked at closely (chapters 7, 18, 19, 61, 62, and 66).  These chapters form the core of  what I call the strategic layer of the Daodejing, a subtle and distinctly different approach to politics, government, and life.

Bibliography

John Emerson, “A translation of Thompson’s Shen Dao, http://haquelebac.wordpress.com/2011/09/11/a-translation-of-thompson%E2%80%99s-shen-dao/

Paul R. Goldin, “Persistent Misconceptions about Chinese ‘Legalism’”,  Journal of Chinese Philosophy, Volume 38, Issue 1, pages 88–104, March 2011

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-6253.2010.01629.x/full

Paul R. Goldin,   “When Zhong Does Not Mean ‘Loyalty’”, Dao, vol. 7, pp. 165-174, 2008.

Chad Hansen, Shen Dao, http://www.hku.hk/philodep/ch/shendao.htm

Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, tr. Lau, Hong Kong Chinese U., 1982.

Vitaly Rubin, “Shen Tao and Fa-Chia”, JAOS, Vol. 94, #3, 1974, pp. 227-346. (http://www.jstor.org/pss/600068 )

Shen Dao, Chinese Text project.

P. M. Thompson,  The Shen Tzu Fragments, Oxford, 1979.

P.M. Thompson, A Translation of the Shen Tzu Fragments, vol. 3 of unpublished dissertation, U. Washington, Seattle.

In Chinese philosophy the 賢, usually translated “worthy”, is a man of great merit (but not from the royal family or from one of the ruling noble families) who is brought to the ruler’s attention and appointed to high position. (Often worthies were descended from the nobility of conquered and abolished states). “Promoting the worthy” 尚賢 was a key doctrine of the Mohist school, but something like it was also advocated by Confucians. The goal, especially in the case of the Mohists, was a kind of meritocracy which would weaken the ruling families’ stranglehold on power and make government more responsive to the needs of the people.

The worthy was assumed to be competent and morally upright, and in the Confucian but not the Mohist case, also a master of all aspects of the Zhou cultural tradition. Once promoted, the amply rewarded worthy would serve as an example for others to emulate and would diligently encourage them to improve themselves. The worthy is outranked only by the Sage.

The root meaning of the word 賢 is adjectival and comparative: “excellent, superior, better than”. In various grammatical contexts it can also be translated “excellence”, “superiority”,  or (as a verb) “to regard as excellent”, and  in Chinese philosophy it meant the specific type of superior man just described.  Two of the three appearances of the word 賢 in the Daodejing have the  more generic meaning:

夫唯無以生為者 賢於貴生

Just because he does not act for the sake of life, he is better than 賢 those who honor life. (Daoedejing, chapter 75)

.

是以聖人為而弗有 成功而弗居若此其下欲見賢也

Therefore the sage acts without taking possession and attains his goal without dwelling there; thus far does he dislike being regarded as superior [or:“being regarded as a worthy 賢]. (Daoedejing, chapter 77)

.

In chapter 3 of the  Daodejing the word 賢 “worthy” is used in the same sense as in Mozi and Confucius, in a rejection of Mozi and Confucius:

Do not honor  the worthies, so that the people do not contend.

不尚賢使民不爭

This chapter, which belongs to the Primitivist group within the late strategic layer of the  Daodejing , rejects economic progress, interventionist and reformist government, and the Confucian and Mohist practice of seeking out and promoting worthies. The reason given is the worthies’ contentious nature.

The worthy is also accused of contentiousness in Shen Dao and Hanfeizi. In Shen Dao the particular worry is that the worthy, once in office, will compete with the prince in doing good:

Yet today those who establish the laws also advance private interest. This means that private interests contend with the law, which is a greater disorder than having no law. Those who establish the prince also honor the worthies. This means that  賢與君爭 the worthies contend with the prince, which is worse than having no prince.

In a state following Dao, the law is established so that private benevolence (私善) does not develop; the prince is established so that the worthies are not honored; the people are united with the prince, and cases are decided according to law. This the great way of states. Shen Dao, L76-77.

The contentiousness of the worthies is also mentioned by the Legalist Shang Yang:

The benevolent always take concern for others as their aim, but the worthy make it their way to excel each other….When they established a ruler, elevating worth was abandoned for honoring rank. (Shangjun Shu II:7: Duyvendak p. 226 in Graham, Disputers of the Dao, p. 272; my adaptation).

 Raising virtuous and capable men is the cause of bringing order into the world, but it is also the cause of order becoming disorder. Those whom the world calls virtuous are men whose words are upright. the reason why they are regarded as upright in words is due to their partizans. Hearing their words, one takes them to be capable, and on asking their partizans, one thinks that they are indeed so. 慎法

Even Mencius was cautious about the advancement of worthies, since any commoner promoted to a high position would necessarily take the position away from a royal relative or some other nobleman. Among other things, this would lead to contentiusness:

曰：“國君進賢，如不得已，將使卑踰尊，疏踰戚，可不慎與？

The reply was, ‘The ruler of a State advances to office men of talents and virtue only as a matter of necessity. Since he will thereby cause the low to overstep the honorable, and distant to overstep his near relatives, ought he to do so but with caution?  Liang Hui Wang II

The worthy is someone who because of his reputation (and despite his commoner origins) has been appointed to high position and “does well by doing good”.  When you think of this in terms of actual court life, the problems become evident. The power, wealth, and fame that come with high position tempt men of all kinds,  good or bad, to contend for position by fair means and foul. Contenders dedicate themselves to flattering the ruler and impressing him with self-promoting claims, and rival contenders are disposed of by slander, murder, or whatever other means are available. This is the normal pattern in royal courts everywhere.

Furthermore, a state minister hired because of his splendid reputation will very likely be hard to control. He might take personal credit for benevolent acts funded from the public purse, rather than crediting them to the ruler. (In Shen Dao’s words they will “compete with the ruler” with “private goodness”). he might use his position to build a coterie loyal to him rather than to the ruler, and in the extreme but not rare case he will usurp the throne. Furthermore, in this contentious environment candidates for honors who fail to be rewarded as they think they deserve will become aggrieved and resentful, fomenting discontent and perhaps rebelling.

The above are the legalists’ objections (though there’s no reason why the Daoists wouldn’t have shared them). But the Daodejing goes further. If the worthy lives in splendor and is honored by the bestowal of wealth, the hierarchy of rich and poor is reinforced and validated, which is one of the other causes of strife condemned by the Daodejing. Furthermore, the word 賢 is essentially a comparative  designating those who excel, are better than, or are superior to others. By marking and glorifying worthies, you are by that very act declaring the rest of the population to be 不肖 unworthy — the phrase 賢不肖 “worthy / unworthy” is a cliché of Chinese philosophy. A key message of the Daodejing is that comparatives should not be made absolute: The world recognizes the good as good, and so we get the bad (chapter 2); Between good and bad, how great is the difference? (chapter 20).

In the Daodejing the sage is described as non-contentious 不爭 in chapters 22, 66, and 81; the Dao of Heaven is so described in chapter 73; and  in chapter 8 the highest good 上善, compared to water, is also described as non-contentious. The sage is not like the worthy. He does not want fame, power, wealth, or high position. In his transcendent generosity the sage  gives but does not receive, does not expect gratitude, and does not remember obligations. In this the sage is like Dao, which is inexhaustible (chapters 4, 5 and 6) and which gives life to all beings without expecting gratitude (Chapters 2, 34, and 51).

Selected themes in the Daodejing and in the Guodian text of the Daodejing

Note that the phrase 不爭 never appears in what I have described as the “early layer” of the Daodejing, and only once in the Guodian text.

Bibliography

John Emerson, A Translation of Thompson’s Reconstructed Shen Dao text

A. C. Graham,  Disputers of the Dao, Open Court, 1989.

Robert Henricks, Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, Columbia, 2000.

D. C. Lau, Tao Te Ching, Chinese U. Pres, Hong Kong, 1982.

Mencius 孟子

Shang Jun Shu 商君書

I have argued that chapters 67-81 of the Daodejing (not part of the Guodian text) were the last chapters to be added and that they were probably written by a single author — possibly by the final author-editor who also selected and arranged the materials in chapters 1-66. I also more tentatively suggested that the  Dao 道 chapters and the Sage 聖 chapters in these first 66 chapters were different in origin; in these chapters Dao and the Sage appear together in the same chapter only twice, rather than the eight times which would randomly be expected.

According to my theory, the author of the last 15 chapters (where Dao is seen together with the Sage in four of its five appearances) was trying to bring the Dao stream and the Sage stream together into a more or less intelligible whole, while also developing his own line of thought. If this final author was also the final editor, the argument can be strengthened a little by arguing that chapter 47 was inserted into the early part of the book, which is famously heteregeneous and disorderly: in chapter 47 and in four of the five appearances of Dao in chapters 1-66, the word “Dao” is part of the phrase 天道 Dao of Heaven, which otherwise is seen only in chapter 9. (This interpretation would give special importance  to chapter 60 — the only other co-appearance of the Sage and Dao in chapters 1-66, and the only chapter in which these two words appear outside the stereotyped phrases “Therefore the Sage…” and “Way of Heaven”).

This only a rough beginning, of course, since the two streams are not completely separate, and since there are 21 chapters in which neither Dao nor the Sage appears. However, many of the Dao / non-Sage chapters of the Daodejing seem to be part of the contemplative, apolitical  “original Dao” textual layer proposed by Russell Kirkland (p. 59), to which the strategic political chapters were later added. Kirkland’s original Dao in the Daodejing consists of the chapters from tradition of Roth’s “Original Dao” (the Nei Ye chapter of Guanzi), plus the chapters featuring the female, the mother, or the child from what Kirkland calls the “maternalist” tradition.

I have selected a group of chapters from chapters 1-66 which meet Kirkland’s criteria, and to them I have added three chapters (13, 30, and 31) which I believe trace back to Yang Chu’s original renunciation of the pursuit of glory and high position, participation in the royal court,  and  any other involvement in the Chinese ritual state. Yang Chu’s withdrawal from court life, whatever his own motives and manner of living may have been, were the first step in the direction of the schools of self-cultivation, physical discipline, and meditational practice which produced the Nei Ye and part of the Daodejing. 

My proposed “original Dao” layer (thematically grouped) consists of chapters 4, 5, and 6; 13, 30, and 31; 10, 14, 15, 16, 20, 21, 25, and 28; 32, 33, 34, 35, and 37; and 50, 51, 52, 54, 55, 56, and 59 (see table below. I suspect that the final editor deliberately dispersed and interspersed the groups in order to get a blending of flavors between the early and non-early themes). Common themes in these chapters are  confusion, namelessness, and the elusiveness of Dao (chapters 4, 6, 14, 15, 20, 21, 25, 32, 34, 37, and 56); the female, mother, and child (chapters 6, 10, 20, 25, 28, 52, 55, and 59); the emptiness, non-fullness, or inexhaustibility of Dao (chapters 4, 5, 6, 15, 16, and 52); and the life-giving and persuasive powers of Dao (chapters 32, 34, 35, 37, and 51).

These chapters are poetic or aphoristic rather than expository or polemical and show few signs either of engagement in the Hundred Schools controversies, or of the advocacy of political methods. The Sage only appears in these chapters twice, in chapter 5 and 28, and in both cases the passage including the Sage seems relatively unrelated to the rest of the chapter. (In fact, part of chapter 5 appears in the Guodian Daodejing without the passage mentioning the Sage, and the passage in chapter 28 might also be detachable). Wuwei 無為 is seen much less frequently in these chapters than elsewhere in chapters 1-66 (only once), whereas Dao is seen more frequently here than in any other part of the Daodejing.

Of the chapters I have selected, Chapters 13, 30, 31, 33, 35, 50, and 54 include none of the themes given above.  Of these, chapters 13, 30, 31 and possibly 50 are the Yang Chu chapters just mentioned. These are, according my theory, the oldest chapters in the Daodejing – the founding chapters — and perhaps partly for that reason they seem somewhat archaic and garbled (though somewhat less so in the Guodian version than in the received text).

As mentioned above, this early layer generally lacks polemical and expository writing and discussion of political and strategic methods. This layer also includes neither the almost-cynical methods proposed in chapters 36, 57, 58, and 65, nor the primitivist utopianism seen in chapters 3, 13, 17, 18, 19, 53, 75, and 80. The Sage is seldom seen and the phrase “Therefore the Sage” 是以聖人 does not appear at all. There are few signs of the ingenious argumentation learned from the School of Names 名家 (for example, the metaphysics of 無 and 有: presence and absence / being and nothing) or of any other engagement with the discussions of the Hundred Schools 百家 era. Traces of the the militarist Sunzi 孫子 or the “Legalists” 申不害 Shen Buhai and 慎到 Shen Dao , common in the non-early chapters, are likewise absent.

While this layer of the Daodejing does not include the ingenious political methods characteristic of the non-early layer, it is not entirely devoid of politics. Princes 王 are mentioned in chapters 16 and 25, Lords and Princes 侯王 in chapters 32 and 37, the state 國 / 邦 in chapters 10, 54, and 59, the 有 “realm” in chapter 14, and the Sage in chapters 5 and 28. In many of these passages there are vague promises of almost magical success, and there are also hints of magic in chapters 32 (“Heaven and earth will unite and 甘露 sweet dew will fall”), 35 (“Hold the 大象 great image and the Empire 天下 will come to you”), 50 (“There is no place for the rhinoceros th drive his horn….because he has no死地 death-spot on him”) , and 55 “Wild beasts will not seize [the newborn baby] 猛獸不據赤子”.

If these passages really are from the early layer of the Daodejing, this argues against that Creel’s old theory that the original Daodejing was philosophical and poetical, with “purposive Daoism” creeping in later. These passages are not strategic and rational like the political passages in the non-early layers, but they’re clearly purposive.

APPENDIX:

A political sublayer?

In earlier versions on this topic I proposed that there was an inferior, late, extraneous layer consisting of Chapter 54, the sorites arguments in chapters 16, 25, 52, 55, and 59 (“A=B, B=C, C=D”), and a number of chapter-ending tags whose relationship to the rest of the chapter and to the rest of the Daodejing seemed uncertain (for example, the tag at the end of chapters 13 and 14). However, a high proportion of these passages are found in the Guodian text, and they have no real affinity to anything in the non-early part of the book, so I have accepted them as a subgroup within the early layer. Chapters 33 and 35 might also be part of this subgroup, which I still think is not worthy of the rest of the book — it does not seem like a better fit with Roth’s “original Dao” than it is with any other part of the Daodejing. I will go into this in detail at a later time.

 Early Layer of the Daodejing

 Bibliography

H. G. Creel, What is Taoism?, Chicago, 1970.

John Emerson, “Yang Chu’s Discovery of the Body”, Philosophy East and West, Volume 46-4, October 1996, pp. 533-566: http://www.idiocentrism.com/china.yangchu.htm

John Emerson, “Yang Chu in the History of Chinese Philosophy”, unpublished:  http://www.idiocentrism.com/china.yanghist.htm

John Emerson, “A stratification of Lao Tzu”, The Journal of Chinese Religions,  #23, Fall 1995, pp. 1-28: http://www.idiocentrism.com/china.strata.htm. (This is an old and renounced version of the present work, but it has some interesting things in it).

Robert Henricks, Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching: A Translation of the Startling New Documents found at Guodian, Columbia, 2000.

Robert Henricks, Lao Tzu: Te-Tao Ching, Random House, 1992.

Russell Kirkland, Taoism: The Enduring Tradition, Routledge, 1999.

D.C. Lau, Tao Te Ching, Chinese U. Press, Hong Kong, 1982.

Harold Roth, Original Dao, Columbia, 1999.

Chapters 67-81 at the end make up the the only consecutive group of chapters in Laozi which is uniform enough to be briefly described. These chapters all recommend the closely-related virtues of foresight, patience, frugality, modesty, forbearance, generosity, mercy, and peacefulness. All of them are consistent and fairly similar in style, without the patchwork feeling of many of the earlier chapters, and all of them develop a single idea in an expository rather than a poetic fashion.

What is absent is equally notable. The mother, female, and mother-and-child (what Kirkland calls the maternalist themes) are not seen, nor are the poetic meditations on Dao and the elusiveness of Dao, nor are the metaphysical or vitalistic reflections on namelessness, Yin and Yang, the One, 氣 ch’i (qi), 精 essence, 谷 the valley, 静 stillness, or 有 / 無 (presence / absence, being / nothing). Most of the themes just named belong to the more contemplative “Dao” stream of Laozi, but significant themes from the more political “Sage” stream are absent too (notably the ideas expressed in chapters 27, 36, 49, 57, 58, and 65 suggesting manipulative techniques of management). Finally, “wuwei” 無為, which is seen ten times in the rest of the book, does not appear in these chapters at all.

Chapters 67-81 were not part of the Guodian Laozi, which is by far the oldest extant Laozi text. The next oldest texts are the two Mawangdui texts, within which Part II of the present Laozi comes first, beginning with the present chapter 38 and concluding with the present chapter 79, with chapters 80 and 81 inserted between chapters 66 and 67. This arrangement also suggests that chapter 66 is a boundary, and that the chapters following it comprise a distinct group. Thus, I think that it is reasonable to conclude that chapters 67-81 were added to Laozi last of all, with chapters 81 and 79 being alternative endings used at different times for some as yet unknown reason.

FOOTNOTE Kirkland claims that Hanfeizi does not cite passages from chapters 67-81, suggesting that the Guodian version might still have been circulating during his time (ca. 280 BC – 233 BC). However, chapter 67 of Laozi is cited in Hanfeizi’s “Jie Lao” chapter, and chapter 71 is cited in his “Yu Lao” chapter.

The distributions of some major themes reinforce the conclusion that chapters 67-81 are a distinct unit. The Sage is seen in these chapters almost twice as frequently as in the rest of Laozi, whereas Dao is seen significantly less frequently. Among these fifteen chapters, however, are four of the six chapters of Laozi in which Dao and the Sage are seen together. In chapters 67-81, 80% of the time when you see the word “Dao” in a chapter you will also see the Sage in that chapter (4 of 5 times), whereas in the other 66 chapters of Laozi, this is true only 6.4% of the time (2 of 31 times). Furthermore, Dao and the Sage are not seen together in any chapter of Part I (chapters 1-37) or in any chapter of the Guodian Laozi.

In chapters 67-81 Dao,  in all four of its co-appearances with the Sage, is part of the phrase “Dao of Heaven” 天道, and the Sage and the Dao of Heaven are also seen together in chapter 47 outside this group. Chapter 60 is the only chapter in which Dao and the Sage are seen together outside the “Tao of Heaven” formula, and chapter 9 is the only chapter in which the Dao of Heaven appears apart from the Sage.

FOOTNOTE: Though obviously it’s not as neat as that. For example, 23 chapters — chapters 6, 11, 13, 17, 20, 26, 31, 33, 36, 39, 43, 44, 45, 50, 52, 56, 61, 68, 69, 74, 75, 76, and 80) speak neither of Dao nor of the Sage. These chapters, representing 28% of the total, also include only one of Laozi’s ten appearances of 無為 wuwei, in chapter 43, and only one of the 14 appearances of 徳  “virtue”, in chapter 68. You can express much of the meaning of Laozi without using any of the keywords.

]]> http://haquelebac.wordpress.com/2011/10/09/the-last-fifteen-chapters-of-laozi/feed/ 2 trollblog http://haquelebac.wordpress.com/2011/09/11/a-translation-of-thompson%e2%80%99s-shen-dao/ http://haquelebac.wordpress.com/2011/09/11/a-translation-of-thompson%e2%80%99s-shen-dao/#comments Sun, 11 Sep 2011 20:40:38 +0000 John Emerson http://haquelebac.wordpress.com/?p=3156 ]]>

(This piece is part of a larger project organized around the Daodejing). 

Shen Dao was a Hundred Schools philosopher resident at the Jixia Academy in Qi sometime before 300 BC. We have almost no biographical information about him; even his dates are a matter of guesswork. The author of the Tianxia chapter of Zhuangzi discussed him sympathetically (though critically), Xunzi criticized him harshly, and Xunzi’s student Han Feizi credited as as one of three masters of Legalism, along with Shang Yang and Shen Buhai. So we can be sure that he existed, at least, and was not one of the many legendary or apocryphal philosophers who show up in histories of that era.

The Hundred Schools was perhaps the most fertile era in the history of Chinese philosophy, but history has not been kind to its texts and many figures are known only as names or by a few anecdotes. In the case of Shen Dao, the available material consists of a late and corrupt text called the Shenzi, the three philosophical discussions mentioned above, and scattered quotations and anecdotes of widely differing value.

In 1979 P. M. Thompson published The Shen Tzu Fragments, a meticulously worked-out attempt to separate the actual words of Shen Dao from the legendary and pseudoepigraphical accretions. For reasons of his own, however, when Thompson published his textual reconstruction he chose not to publish the translation which was part of the PhD dissertation from which his book was taken. As a result, the recovered Shen Dao text has so far been available only to those who can read classical Chinese.

About the Translation

Thompson’s recovered text consists of 126 passages of varying length, divided on the basis of their textual origin into 20 sections (#1-123, which includes only 121 sections because of Thompson’s late deletion of #93 and #94 as spurious), followed by a 5-passage appendix (AP1-AP5.) The first seven sections (67 passages) consist of the passages from the seven chapters of the traditional Shenzi which Thompson accepted as valid, and these read quite coherently in the sequence in which they appear. The remaining 59 passages (from 16 different sources) are quite diverse. A number of them are clearly relevant to the Shenzi material, but there are also many aphorisms and brief scraps of biographical material whose significance is uncertain.

My translation is intended for the reader of English and is more readerly than scholarly. My intention is to bring Shen Dao’s ideas and some of his literary qualities over into English, and in order to do this I have slid past a few difficult textual questions and have translated out some of the specifics of Chinese culture — catties become pounds, kings are enthroned rather than elevated, gambling is done with dice rather than with belt buckles, and so on. Everything has been checked against Thompson’s unpublished dissertation translation:  I note the places where I deviate significantly from Thompson or where I follow his translation even though I have trouble construing the Chinese.

The original Shenzi (Thomson’s #1 — #67) was divided into seven chapters which are here numbered I – VII. I have further divided Chapter I into groups A, B, C, and D and Chapter III into Groups F and G. Chapter II is group E, and Chapters IV, V, VI, and VII are Groups H, I, J, and K respectively. Group L consists of Thompson’s #75-#79, which I treat as a conclusion because it seems to work as one (a decision which is not, however, textually justified). The remaining passages (#68-#74,  #80-123, and AA1-AA5) are either interspersed where they seem to fit in Groups A-L, or else put into Group M (called “Leftovers”) which amounts to about 10% of the total and consists of passages I wasn’t able to make much use of — specifically nos. 69, 72, 74, 80, 81, 83, 84, 85, 89, 90, 91, 92, 95, 96, 97, 104, 105, 106, 108, 110, 112, 115, 116, 117, 122, and 123, and AA 1, AA2, and AA3 from the appendix.

The translation shows the original chapter divisions I-VII, my own divisions A-M, and Thompson’s passage numbers 1-123 and AA1-AA5. With a letter plus a number any passage can be located either in my translation or in Thompson’s text. Section B, for example, consists of #7-15 plus #113, #118-119, and AA3 – AA4. “B-113” would thus locate #113 both in Thompson’s sequence and in my rearranged text, and “B-AA3” would locate AA3.

The Chinese Text Project has posted a Chinese text of Shen Dao. I haven’t compared carefully, but it seems to be the same as the Thompson version up until fragment #43 at the bottom. I don’t know the sources of #44-#60; they aren’t the “Unidentified items in the pseudo Shen Tzu” published by Thompson.

Chinese text of Shen Dao.

Criticisms and corrections are welcome.

I

威　德

Respect Virtue

A. Impartiality and wu-wei

#1-#6

1: Heaven has light and does not care that men are in darkness; Earth is fruitful, and does not care that men are impoverished; the sage (聖) has virtue (德) and does not care that men are imperiled.

2: Although Heaven does not care that men are in darkness, if they open their doors and windows, they will assuredly get light for themselves; but Heaven does nothing (無事).

3: Although the Earth does not care that men are impoverished, if they cut down the trees and harvest the plants, they will assuredly get wealth for themselves; but Earth does nothing.

4: Although the Sage does not care that men are imperiled, if the people (百姓) conform to the superior and accept their lower status, they will assuredly get peace for themselves; but the Sage does nothing.

5: The Sage in high position does not harm (不害) men, though he cannot keep men from harming each other. It is the people themselves who eliminate the harm.

6: The Sage possesses the world (天下 = “Empire”) as something he has been given, not as something he has taken; the people take care of the sage, and are not cared for by him; for the sage does nothing.

*Laozi Ch.5: Heaven is not humane: it treats the myriad creatures as straw dogs. The sage is not humane: he treats the people as straw dogs.  Xunzi also stresses the indifference of Heaven and Earth to human concerns.

“Does nothing” translates the phrase wushi, 無事, which has much the same meaning as wuwei 無為.

The Sage in high position does not harm (不害) men.  Buhai 不害 “does not harm” is Shen Buhai’s given name. In chapter 60 of Laozi it is said that when the Empire follows Dao the spirits 鬼神 do not harm men, nor does the Sage harm men; in Laozi 81, it is said that the Way of Heaven benefits and does not harm.

In the Nei Ye chapter of Guanzi (thought to be from the same tradition as Laozi; p. 75, Roth) it is said that the sage is not harmed by men nor vulnerable to other harm; sageliness is identified with the vital essence 精, which is manifested in the world as the spirits, and in men as sageliness.

The Sage thus seems to represent the absence of harm where harm might be expected, and I believe that the Confucian and Daoist sages historically trace back to powerful exorcists and shamans who could control the spirits and who were capable of either benefiting or harming men. More here.

B.  Vehicles and helpers

#7 – #15

7: Mao Qiang and Xi Shi were the loveliest women in the world. If they had been dressed in demon garb, passersby would have fled from them; if they had changed into fine black linen, passersby would have gathered to look at them.

8: From this we can see that fine black linen helps women be beautiful: if lovely women fail to wear it, their beauty will not please.

9: If porters can cross mountain valleys and walk hundreds of miles through the wilderness, it’s because they salve their feet; if the porters fail to salve their feet, their feet will be hurt.

10: Thus:

The serpent soars with the mists,

the dragon rides the clouds;

but if the mist and the clouds clear, 

they both become crawling worms:

because they’ve lost their vehicle (乘).

11: Thus, if a worthy (賢) bows down to mediocre man (不肖)　it’s because the worthy’s authority (權) is not weighty ; if a mediocre man submits to a worthy, it’s because the worthy’s position (位) is lofty.

12: When the sage Yao was a peasant, he could not govern even his neighborhood; but when the villain Jie was Emperor, he could disorder the whole world.

13: From this we can see that worth (賢) is not enough to make the multitude obey, whereas strategic advantage (勢) and high position are enough to make even the worthies submit.

*“Authority / strategic advantage” 勢 and “power” 權 are key terms in Chinese philosophy. The translations here are adequate for this passage but don’t capture the full meaning of either term.

14: Thus, if a nobody (無名) is making decisions, it’s because his authority (勢) is weighty; if a weak crossbow shoots high, it’s because the bolt is carried by wind; and if a man is mediocre (不肖) but his orders bring results, it’s because the multitude (眾) is helping (助) him.

*When a nobody [nameless person] is making decisions: See F 87 where it is said When Dao is supreme, names do not dazzle. “Name” often means “fame” and can also mean “from an eminent family”.  In a well-ordered state reputation and family connections will not get you a government job.  

15: Thus, if you carry heavy loads and climb high you are careful about the salve. If you love an infant you are careful about its nurse. If you cross mountain passes and travel far you are careful about your coach. With the help (助) you need, you succeed; without it you fail.

16: The reason why the virtue of the Three Emperors and the Five Hegemons matched that of Heaven and Earth, reached the ghosts and the spirits, and embraced all living creatures was that their helpers (助) were many.

*See Shen Dao I : 56: A white fox-fur coat is not made of the fur of a single fox.

113: A state has protocols to distinguish the noble (貴) from the commoner (賤), but not to distinguish the worthy from the mediocre; there are protocols distinguishing young from the old, but none distinguishing the brave from the cowardly; there are protocols distinguishing near from distant kin, but none distinguishing the loved from the hated.

118: A tripod in Yan weighs thousands of pounds, but loaded on a Wu boat it can cross the water. What bears it up is “the floating road”.

119: To reach Yue while sitting down, you need a boat. To reach Qin while standing still you need a chariot. Qin and Yue are far away; what makes it possible to sit at ease and arrive there is a mechanical device.

A3-4: Yao taught at Lishu and the people did not listen, but when he reached the throne and ruled the empire, his commands were followed and his prohibitions were respected. By this we know that position and strategic advantage are enough to rely upon, and that worth and wisdom do not deserve reverence.

C. Responsibilities

#17-#23

17: In ancient times, craftsmen had only one trade and officials (士) held only one position. With craftsmen practicing only one trade, the specific tasks are few, and if tasks are few, the trade is easy to master. If officials hold only one office, the specific responsibilities (職) are few, and if the responsibilities are few, the position’s demands are easy to satisfy. Thus official positions could be passed down in the family, and crafts could be made standard   (常).

18: The sons of the craftsmen became competent without schooling, not because they were born skilful, but because the crafts had been made standard (常).

*Confucius, Analects, VIII-14 Do not concern yourself with matters of government unless they are a responsibility of your office.

Shen Buhai 22: The governmental responsibilities of an official do not extend past the office to which he has been appointed. Even though he may know about matters outside his sphere, he should not talk about them (Creel p. 383).

19: But today, the state has no standard Dao, and the officials have no standard rule (法); thus the state steadily falls into confusion.

20: Though their training is good, the officials cannot fulfill their responsibilities; if the officials cannot fulfill their responsibilities, the principles (理) of government are lost; when the principles of government are lost, people look to the worthies (賢) and the wise (智); if the worthies and the wise are honored, the state’s major decisions are left to the discretion of a single man.

21: Of old, emperors were not enthroned and honored in order to reward a single man. It is said:

If the world does not have one man who is the most honored, then there will be no way for the basic principles (理) to be proclaimed. The basic principles are proclaimed for the sake of the world.

22. So the emperor is enthroned for sake of the empire; the empire is not established for the sake of the emperor. A prince is enthroned for the sake of a state; a state is not established for the sake of the prince. Officials are established for the sake of their offices; offices are not established for the sake of the officials.

23. Even bad laws are preferable to no laws at all.

D. Standards

#24-#27

24: Lots are drawn to divide up property, and dice are thrown to distribute horses, not because the lots and the dice are fair, but so that those who get the better shares have no one to thank (德), and those who got the worse shares have no one to blame. That way resentment and presumption (望 = “hope”) do not arise.

25: The discerning ruler must initiate projects and assign responsibilities only according to aptitude; he must judge crimes and distribute property only according to rule (法); and he must show generosity (德) and exert control only according to protocol (禮).

26: Thus personal desires will not disrupt the state calendar, and favoritism will not violate the rule; honors will not exceed the limits, and rewards will not surpass those due the position; the officers will not hold multiple offices, and the craftsman will not practice two trades.

27: If tasks are assigned according to ability, and rewards given according to the tasks completed, the superior will not bestow excessive rewards and the subjects will not enjoy excessive wealth.

70: The division of deeds and the joining of contract tallies are followed both by the worthy and by the mediocre. If you have these objects, you do not need good faith(信).

*See also J 63. In ancient China each party of a contract held one half of a tally stating the mutual obligations, and the two tallies fit together like lock and key, or like pieces of a puzzle.

73: Thus divination is the means by which a public (公) understanding is established; scales are the means by which a public measure is established; written documents are the means by which public good faith is established; units of length and volume are the means by which public criteria are established; legal procedures and books of protocol are the means by which public justice is established. In every case a public (公) form is established, and private (私) codes rejected.

102: If there are scales you cannot be cheated about heavy and light; if there are yardsticks, you cannot be cheated about long and short; with rules and standards, you cannot be tricked by sophistry and fakery.

120: If calibrating heavy weights, if the great Yu were asked to correct them to a fraction of an ounce, he could not be sure that they were accurate; but if they were put on a balance, no one would go wrong by as much as a hair. There is no need to wait for an intelligence as great as Yu’s; the intelligence of the most ordinary man is sufficient for this.

*Shen Buhai 3: The ruler must have discriminating methods and correct and definite principles, just as one suspends a weight on a balance in order to weigh lightness and heaviness; by this means you unify the assembly of ministers. (Creel p. 352-3.)

II

因循

Accommodation

E. Self interst

#28-#32

28: It’s the Way of Heaven that accommodation (因) leads to great results, whereas reformation (化) leads to paltry results. “Accommodation” means accommodating human reality (人情).

29: All men act for their own interests (自為). If you try to reform them (化) to instead act for your interest, there will be no one you can successfully employ.

30: Thus the ancient kings did not appoint anyone who would not accept pay, and in adversity did not rely on anyone whom they did not pay well.

31: If men do not get what they themselves want, their superiors will not be able to employ them successfully.

32: If I rely on men’s working for themselves, and not on their working for me, I can employ any man. This is what is called “accommodation”.

*Shen Buhai 1-9: “The ruler’s method is complete acquiescence (因). He merges his own concerns with the public good, so that as an individual he does not act  (無事: Creel, p. 352).

“Human realities” is used for人情 here instead of “human nature” because “human nature” 人性 is a major topic in Chinese philosophy, and what Shen Dao writes here uses a different term and is not part of that discussion.

In his “Background of the Mencian theory of human nature” A.C. Graham argues that 情, now “passions and emotions”, originally meant something like “inner reality”. The translation “human feelings” would be OK too; human feelings are a human reality.

99: If a family is rich distant relatives arrive; if a family is poor brothers live apart. It’s not that they don’t love one another, but that their wealth is not enough to include them all.

101: When the sea and the mountain fight for water, the sea always wins.

*This is a recurring theme in Laozi, often marked with the word “stillness” 靜. Mozi: Therefore the big rivers do not despise the little brooks as tributaries. (Ch. I, “Qin Shi”). Shang Yang: For people’s attitude toward profit is just like the tendency of water to flow downwards, without preference for any of the four sides (Book V: 23, Duyvendak tr. P. 316).

Shen Dao’s may be the first statement of this common theme (the Mozi chapter is eclectic and probably late). Confucius and Mencius thought quite differently about low-lying areas, which is where filth gathers.

103: A coffinmaker is not bothered by death; where there’s profit, uncleanness is forgotten.

III

民雜

The people are various

F. Skills

#33-#37

33: The people (民) in their various circumstances all have their own abilities, and these abilities are not the same. This is the nature of the people.

34: The greatest of rulers take care of (畜) all their subjects; the subjects’ capacities are various, and all of them are useful to the sovereign.

35: So the great ruler accepts (因) the people’s capacities as his material (資), and treasures (苞 = 葆) and cares for (畜) all of them without favoring or rejecting any.

36: The great ruler does not have a just one criterion for what he looks for in men, so everything he finds is good enough.

37: The great ruler is not selective, and his subjects are all good enough; because he is not selective, becoming his subject is easy; since becoming his subject is easy, none will be excluded; if none is excluded, the subjects will be many. A ruler with many subjects is called a high sovereign.

* Thompson (p. 527) recognizes the relationship between Shen Tao F 35 and chapter 27 of Laozi: Hence the sage is always good at saving people, and so abandons no one…. the bad man is the material 資 for the good man.

See also Laozi Ch. 61: Thus all the great state wants is to care for 畜 men” (my tr.) and Laozi Ch. 62: “[Tao] is the treasure 葆 bao of the good man and that by which the bad man is protected 保 bao…. Even if a man is not good, should he be abandoned?  It seems likely to me that Laozi draws on Shenzi here.

68: In channeling water you raise the embankments and remove the blockages — even among the barbarians it is the same. You learn this from water, not from the Great Yu.

71: Li Zhu’s eyesight was so sharp that he could distinguish the tip of a hair at more than a hundred paces; but beyond one foot he couldn’t tell if water was shallow or deep. This was not because his eyes were not sharp, but because the circumstances made it hard to see.

86: The Dao of employing the worthy does not leave out the mediocrity out; the Dao of employing the intelligent does not leave out the dull.

87: When this is the case then Dao may be said to be supreme. When Dao is supreme, names (名) do not dazzle.

*See also B 14. “Names” refers to fame and family status, which ideally do not influence hiring.)

114: Gongshu Zi was a skilled woodworker, but even he could not make a lute out of spindlewood.

G.

The Role of the Prince

#38-#45

38: The Dao of the prince and the minister: the minister performs his task and the prince has no task; the prince is relaxed and happy and the minister takes on the labor; the minister uses all his knowledge and strength to perform his job satisfactorily, and the prince does not share in the labor, but merely waits for the job to be finished. As a result, every task is taken care of. The correct way of government is thus.

39: When a ruler of men takes tasks onto himself and competes in benevolence (善) with his subordinate officials, he encroaches on the officials’ responsibilities, and the officials become lax.

40: Thus it is said:

If the ruler of men contests with his subordinates in benevolence, then the subordinates will not dare to compete with the prince’s efforts.

41: In such a case every subordinate will try to avoid attention by hiding things he knows, and if there is an error the minister shifts the blame to the prince. This is the way of disobedience and chaos.

41: My translation diverges from Thompson’s here and like his is slightly conjectural.

42: The prince’s understanding need not be the most excellent. If his understanding is not the most excellent but tries himself to do everything for his subjects, he will be insufficient to the task.

43: But even supposing that the prince’s understanding were the best of all, for a prince singlehandedly to take on all the subordinate responsibilities would be toilsome; toil leads to fatigue, fatigue leads to exhaustion, which then brings him again to insufficiency.

44: Thus if a ruler of men takes tasks on himself and does the job in person, the ministers will not do their jobs. Ruler and minister have switched places; this is called “topsy-turvy”. When things are topsy-turvy, chaos follows.

45: The ruler of men assigns tasks to his ministers and does not himself work; the ministers do the work. This is the normal pattern of prince-minister relations and marks the difference between order and chaos. We cannot fail to attend to this principle.

*Shen Buhai 1-4, 1-7, and 17-1 (Creel pp. 346-8, 350, and 367-70) are too long to cite here but make many of these points.

107: To reject Tao and rules (法) and ignore standards and measures, and seek through a single man’s wisdom to understand the world – whose mind would be capable of doing this?

*Shen Buhai 17-2: By what can I know that he is deaf? By the keenness of his ears. By what can I know that he is blind? By the clarity of his sight (Creel, pp. 383-4).

111: In ancient times the Emperor was able to dress himself, but his chamberlains would put on his robes; he was able to walk, but his master of protocol would lead the guests in; he was able to speak, but his diplomatic representatives would proclaim his words. As a consequence, his actions and court speech were never in error.

121: The relationship between a ruler and his minister is like a balance. If the left arm is light the right is heavy, if right arm is light the left is heavy. The light and the heavy are mutually defining; this is a principle of Heaven and Earth.

IV

知忠

Understanding loyalty

H. Dedication

#46-#56

46: The ministers of a doomed state during a disordered era are not necessarily disloyal ministers; the ministers of a well-ordered state who bring renown to their prince are not necessarily all devotedly loyal (忠).

47: The men of a well-ordered state are not all loyal to their prince; the men of a disordered era are not all treacherous. Either in a well-ordered or in a disordered era, both loyal and treacherous men are to be found.

48: In every age there have been ministers who intended to serve loyally, but whose princes could not rest easy on their thrones. Even princes with ministers as courageously loyal as Pi Kan or Wu Tzu-hsu went to their deaths amid darkness, infamy and evil.

49: This shows us that loyalty is not enough to save a chaotic age, but instead can be something that multiplies its problems. How do we know that this is so? It is said:

A father had a worthy son, but Shun banished Gusou;

Jie had loyal ministers, but crime filled the empire.

50: And

An obedient son is not born to an indulgent father,

Loyal ministers do not arise under a sage prince.

51: When an enlightened prince employs his officials, their diligence (忠) is not allowed to go beyond their assigned tasks, and their assigned tasks do not go beyond those of their office. In this way their errors can be individually remedied, and subordinates do not dare to aggrandize themselves by their benevolence (善).

*My interpretation here is significantly different than Thompson’s. I am not confident of In this way their errors can be individually remedied.

52: When the officers assigned to their positions abide by the rule and do not dare to exceed or fall short of their assigned tasks, and when with impartial and correct diligence they obediently and harmoniously serve their superiors, perfect order can be attained.

88: Overeager officeholders are 賤 unworthy.

53: If a prince brings his state to ruin, it’s not just the error of a single man; if a prince brings his state to order, it’s not just the effort of a single man.

54: The ordering of disorder lies in worthy (賢) officers accepting their assignments, and not in their loyalty (忠). Thus:

If wisdom fills the world, prosperity comes to the prince;

if loyalty fills the world, harm comes to the state.

55: Thus Yao could not have survived what destroyed Jie, but is credited with unsurpassed goodness while Jie’s name is notorious for all-pervading evil. One was served well by his men, and the other was not.

56: Thus the timber in the Great Hall of State is not cut from a single tree; a white fox-fur coat is not made of the fur of a single fox; and order and disorder, security and peril, glory and disgrace do not come from the efforts of one man.

* Mozi, “Qin Shi”: The fur coat that is worth a thousand yi is not composed of the white fur of a single fox. (This early chapter of Mozi is eclectic and probably late.) See also B14 above.

This shows us that loyalty is not enough to save a chaotic age, but instead can be something that multiplies its problems….If loyalty fills the world, harm comes to the state.  

忠 is usually translated “loyalty”. That is often but not always its meaning (see Goldin, 2008). In many contexts it means something like “conscientious” or “diligent” or “attentive”. In my opinion the best single translation is “dedication / dedicated”, which overlaps with conscientiousness and loyalty.

The general point being made is not dependent on the translation:  The problem with loyalty / diligence is that it cannot save a badly-ordered state, so that if such a state relies on loyal or heroically diligent ministers to save it, it will fail. (Laozi 18:When the state has fallen into confusion and disorder, then there are loyal ministers.)

A well-run state does not need to rely on exceptional efforts: if ordinary men correctly do their assigned tasks, that will be enough. And if a state does rely on heroic effort, that is a sign that it is in trouble.

This statement is puzzling: The ordering of disorder lies in worthy (賢) officers accepting their assignments. Shen Dao generally rejects moralizing theories of government which stress personal character and talk about worthies 賢, reliability 信, and loyalty / dedication 忠.

V

德立

Virtue Established

I. Ownership

#57-#60

57: An Emperor is crowned so that the Great Lords will not doubt (疑) his status; a great lord is crowned so that the lesser nobles will not doubt his status; the primary wife is established so that the concubines will not doubt her status; the crown prince is established so that the sons of concubines will not doubt his status. Where there is doubt there will be instability; where there are two contenders there will be trouble; where there are many contenders there will be harm. Trouble comes from sharing, but not from sole possession.

58: Thus, two men share an appointment, the state must fall into chaos. If two ministers share an appointment without throwing the state into chaos it will be because the prince is still alive. Order depends on the prince; without him there would be chaos.

59: If two sons are of the highest status, the house must fall into chaos. If two sons are of the highest status and the house does not fall into chaos it will because the parents are still alive. Order depends on the parents; without them there would be chaos.

60: If a minister covets (疑) his lord’s position, the state will necessarily be endangered. If a concubine’s son contends for the succession, the house must necessarily be endangered.

*Thompson translates an emended version of #57, but I think that the original “doubt” 疑 is good enough. Hanfeizi XVII: 44 develops these ideas at length (tr. Liao, “On Assumers”, pp. 216- 229). “Covet” really is the idea, and I translated it that way in one place.

Shen Buhai 1-1 seems to make the opposite point: When one wife gains excessive influence with the husband, all the wives are thrown into disorder. (Creel, p.343).

Shen Dao is talking about the unique certainty of succession, whereas Shen Buhai is talking about one wife’s or one minister’s monopoly of influence, but there’s still a disagreement. (In 17-5, p. 377 Shen Buhai seems to speak favorably of Guanzi’s total control of Duke Huan’s government, apparently contradicting his statement in 1-1).

98: If two are equally honorable, neither will serve the other; if two are equally humble neither will work for the other.

*Shen Buhai 10: Those whose intelligence is equal cannot command each other; those whose strength is equal cannot overcome each other. (Creel, p. 360).

109: There can be many worthies, but there cannot be many rulers; there can be no worthies, but there cannot be no ruler.

*In the beginning of human life, when there was yet no law and no government, the custom was “everyone according to his own justice”. Accordingly each man had his own idea of justice, two men had two different ideas and ten men had ten different ideas – the more people, the more different ideas. (Mozi, Ch. 11, Shang Tong I, p. 110; I have adapted Mei’s translation.)

82: If a rabbit runs down the street, a hundred men will chase it: while one rabbit is not enough for a hundred men, ownership (分, lit. “division, portion”) has not yet been assigned. If ownership is unknown, even the sage king Yao would run after it, and how much more so the multitude? But if rabbits are heaped in the market, passersby don’t even look: it’s not that they don’t like rabbit, it’s that ownership has been established. If ownership has been assigned, even an idiot won’t grab one. From ruling the empire down to a state, the establishment of ownership is all you need.

VI

君人

Prince and Subject

J. Favoritism

#61-#67

61: If the ruler of men ignores the law and governs in person, then punishment and reward, exactions and grants are decided according to the ruler’s moods. Thus, someone who has been properly rewarded will still hope (望) for more, and someone who has been justly punished will always hope (望) for remission.

62: If the prince ignores the rule (法) and personally assigns merit and demerit according to his mood, then identical services will receive differing rewards, and identical offenses will receive differing punishments. This breeds grievances.

63: So when lots are used when dividing up horses, and dice are used when apportioning land, it’s not because the lots and the dice are wiser than men, but because this is a way to exclude favoritism and preclude grievances.

64: Thus it is said:

The great prince relies on rules (法) and does not act on his own; cases are decided by rule.

65: When the rules are applied, with each receiving his allotted reward or punishment, no one hopes for anything (望) the prince. Therefore grievances do not arise and the ruler and his subjects are in harmony.

*On dividing by lot, see Group D above. On望, see B 24.

VII

君臣

Prince and Minister

K. Discretion

#66-#67

66: The ruler of men does not listen to many voices; he relies on rules and methods to survey advantages and disadvantages.

67: Do not listen to unlawful advice; do not honor unlawful labors. Do not appoint lazy relatives to office, and do not let officials favor their own relatives: the law sould not recognize affection and attachments. The avoidance of problems between high and low comes only from law.

*See Shen Buhai 23-24, Creel pp. 370-1.

100: A proverb says

Without sharp eyesight and acute hearing, you cannot be Emperor;

without deafness and blindness, you cannot rule justly. 

*Mencius V B-1: Po Yi would neither look at improper sights with his eyes nor listen to improper sounds with his ears.

Shen Buhai 1-5: Therefore the skillful ruler avails himself of an appearance of stupidity…. He hides his motives and covers his tracks (Creel, p. 348-349).

Shen Buhai 16: If the ruler’s intelligence is displayed, men will prepare against it; if his lack of intelligence is displayed, they will delude him (Creel, p. 364-6).

Both Shens advise the ruler to be aloof. Shen Dao is warning the ruler not only against paying attention to inappropriate requests, but also not to get lost in the weeds of detail. Shen Buhai’s first passage warns against micromanagement, but the second and third passages recommend that the ruler be secretive in order to prevent presumption and scheming (Shen Dao makes these points in K61, K67 and D24.)

L. Conclusion

(This is not really the conclusion textually speaking, but it seems to work like one.)

#75-#79

75: The greatest accomplishment of law is to prevent the advancement of private interests  (私); the greatest accomplishment of the prince is to prevent conflict among the people.

76: Yet today those who establish the laws also advance private interest. This means that private interests contend with the law, which is a greater disorder than having no law. Those who establish the prince also honor the worthies. This means that the worthies contend with the prince, which is worse than having no prince.

77: In a state following Dao, the law is established so that private benevolence (私善) does not develop; the prince is established so that the worthies are not honored; the people are united with the prince, and cases are decided according to law. This the great way of states.

78: Thus a state governed without law falls into chaos; law maintained unadapted (不變) leads to decline; the pursuit of private interests within the law is called lawlessness.

79: Those who use their strength in the service of the law are the common people (百姓); those who defend the law to the death are the officeholders　(有司); the one who adapts the law according to Dao is the ruler and leader (君長.)

*Those who establish the prince also honor the worthies. This means that the prince contends with the worthies, which is worse than having no prince. This is one of the key points made by the Legalists against the Confucians. In public service, too much is as bad as not enough — as Confucius also said. “Worthies” are ambitious and competitive, devoted to the pursuit of honor and reputation and reluctant to limit themselves to a specific assigned task.

A worthy in government service might use government funds to benefit the people, thus depriving the government of revenue while gaining himself a reputation for benevolence. (This is the private benevolence 私善 spoken of). When this happens, the ruler has lost control of government (勢), and in the worst case the worthy relies on his popularity to usurp the throne. (The Zhou dynasty was founded exactly this way.)

Shang Yang II:7: The benevolent always take concern for others as their aim, but the worthy make it their way to excel each other….When they established a ruler, elevating worth was abandoned for honoring rank. (Duyvendak tr. P. 226; Graham, Disputers of the Dao, p. 272; my adapted translation).

Laozi 3: Do not honor men of worth, so that the people do not contend. 19: Make the selfish interests 私 few. 75 and 77 the worthy is also seen as competitive; this competition is renounced in 77.

M. Leftovers

(These 28 passages, mostly very short, are included here for completeness; they comprise about 10% of the whole. Some are isolated facts, some are truisms, and some are enigmas. They deserve further study, at this point their relevance to the rest of Shen Dao is uncertain to me. In several cases I am doubtful about my translations).

69 Tian Pian’s personal name was named Guang.

72 Yao offered to abdicate to Xu You, and Shun offered to abdicate to Shan Zhuan, but both declined to become Emperor and retreated to live as peasants.

74 Ceremonial protocols follow custom, administration follows the sovereign, ambassadors follow the prince.

80 Cang Jie lived earlier than Fu Xi.

81 The maker of mud-boards maintains that muddy roads are calamitous.

83 When beasts hide they go into the weeds.

84 The virtue essence (德精) is subtle and invisible, acute and inexhaustible. Thus external things do not clog its interior.

85 The world exalts gentlemen of strict virtue.

89 Servants keep their mouths shut, attendants bite their tongues.

90 If you remain free of error for a long while, the general public will finally pay attention to you.

91 Of old during the decline of the Zhou dynasty Emperor Li led the empire into chaos, and the Great Lords violently attacked one another, each wanting to appropriate the other’s land.

92 That the many will overcome the few is a certainty

93-94 [Deleted by Thompson]

95 Duke Zhuang of Lu was casting a great bell, and Cao Gui went before him and said “Your state is small but your bell is large; why did you not consider this?”

96 An ordinary man supports himself by his strength, a superior man supports himself by the Dao.

97 The Book of Poetry is past aspirations; the Book of History is past exhortations; the Qun-Qiu Annals are past actions.

104 A state which keeps armed men will inevitably have desertions from the battlefield.

105 “We can round men up in the marketplace and fight” – this means that arms which make the state secure are not raised up in rancor.

106 If the strong harm the capable, there will be chaos; if those thought capable harm those who are less capable, there will be chaos.

108 In the penal code of the Yu dynasty, the drawing of strange designs on the face represented the staining of facial incisions; the wearing of a hatstring made of washed mourning cloth represented the cutting off of the nose; the wearing of grass sandals represented the amputation of the feet; the cutting off of a piece of the front-skirt represented castration; a hemp-cloth jacket without a collar represented capital punishment. Such was the penal code of the Yu dynasty.

111 Where the river comes down through the Dragon Gates, its current is as fast as a bamboo arrow; even four horses in hot pursuit cannot over take it.

112 If one possesses courage one does not act in anger but behaves as though one were cowardly.

115 Confucius said : When I, Qiu, was young I loved study, and when old heard the Dao; it is for this reason that his knowledge was comprehensive.

116 Confucius said: The great Yu neither rewarded nor punished; the Xia Dynasty rewarded but did not punish; the Shang dynasty punished and did not reward; the Zhou dynasty both rewarded and punished. Punishments prevent action, and rewards encourage action.

117 Among punishments, to cut off men’s limbs or pierce their flesh is mutilation; to mark their caps or alter their robes is called shaming. In previous ages shame was used and the people did not rebel; in the present age punishments are used and the people do not obey.

122 Water is produced by one who drinks beyond measure. Gluttony is produced in one who eats beyond measure.

123 No tasks in the daytime, no dreams at night.

A1 To know is not to know: despise knowledge and work to destroy it and get rid of it.

A2 Just attain the mindlessness of a thing, and avoid sageliness and eminence; a clod does not depart from the Dao.

A5 A carpenter might know how to make a door, but if he made one that opened but wouldn’t shut, he wouldn’t know doors.

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