No More Learning

Accepting the way of things does not mean that we should believe in fate. Rather, it means that we should understand that we cannot control everything. If we try to make things happen or not happen, we will only bring trouble into our lives. Chapter 16 of the Daode jing says:
To return to the roots is to be still.
To be still is to accept your destiny.
To accept your destiny is to know what is constant and unchanging. If you know what is constant, you are wise.
If you don't know what is constant, your actions will bring you
misfortune.
The sage accepts the natural way of things because he understands the ''constant. '' ''Constant'' (chang) means ''unchanging,'' and to understand the ''constant'' is to understand both the changing and the unchanging aspects of the Dao. It is this ability to distinguish between that which can be changed and that which cannot be changed that allows the sage to embrace life and accept death.
Conclusions
For practitioners, the value of a text lies in its use. Can the Daode jing be used as a guide to living a healthy and long life? I believe the answer is ''yes. '' For
over two thousand years, the Daode jing has influenced the Chinese arts and sciences of cultivating health and longevity. Today, its teachings on cultivating mind and body can be found in the practice of Chinese medicine, meditation, qi gong, and martial arts. Do the teachings of the Daode jing work? I think this question is best answered by practice. From my experience, they do.
the daode jing in practice 89
This page intentionally left blank
? Imagine Teaching the Daode Jing!
Judith Berling, Geoffrey Foy, and John Thompson
The invitation to participate in this volume arrived while the three of us were working our way through the Zhuangzi. Zhuangzi has a way of challenging readers to imagine manifold viewpoints. Perhaps he inspired us. Although the three of us have different teaching back- grounds, we share a passion for teaching texts such as the Daode jing. We began a seriously playful conversation about teaching this text. We both expanded and honed our initial ideas as we learned from and with one another.
The three approaches we suggest represent three particular embodiments of the pedagogical strategies we explored. They have in common two basic moves: (1) an exercise in which students reflect and comment on their initial experience of and response to the text, and (2) an exercise to engage students with the text imagina- tively, creatively, and constructively. The three particular approaches are complementary ways of implementing these principles. It is our hope that three options will inspire our readers to imagine cre- ative approaches to teaching the Daode jing that will suit them and their students.
Letting the Daode Jing Teach
Most Chinese texts clearly situate themselves, providing not only an author but the date, place, and circumstances of their origins.
92 approaching the daode jing
They fairly plead to be taught as the reflections of a specific person in a spe- cific historical context. The Daode jing is an exception to this rule, its author shrouded in a dense mist of questionable traditions. Although we have some sense of the period in which the book was produced, the Old Master (Laozi) to whom it is attributed remains a figure of controversy and legend; the more one pursues his historical origins, the more one is convinced that the party or parties behind this remarkable book chose to remain obscure. The hiddenness of the author coincides well with the teachings of the book: avoiding fame, unlearning, and leading by nondoing. I seek to honor the text by letting it teach itself, as far as possible. That is, I teach the text by allowing the students to learn from it for themselves.
The Daode jing is difficult to teach satisfactorily in a lecture mode, but it offers wonderful possibilities for student engagement and reflection. A careful setup by an instructor to give the students a feel for the text and its inter- locutors and then to highlight central themes and images can yield very successful self-learning experiences for students, alone and in small groups.
Some contextualization is required to engage students fruitfully with the text. Situating the Daode jing is best accomplished if the text is taught in a course or a unit that deals with classical Chinese thought. In that case, the context of late Zhou China will already have been introduced, with its lively debate over the foundation of a strong and stable government. Those vying for positions as political advisors competed by offering ''better ideas. '' Prevailing wisdom held that the sine qua nons of a strong state were keen understanding of political and military institutions, crafty political scheming, skilled negoti- ation, and strong legal and military strategies. 1 The other classical philosoph- ical and religious positions, which came to define Chinese cultural discourse, all arose in contradistinction to the prevailing view. The Daode jing was one of those countervailing voices. It was also a counter to the opposition voice of the early Confucians, who argued for reestablishment of civic virtues and rituals of propriety as the key to establishing a strong stable society.
If these broader themes have already been introduced, then the Daode jing, in responding to that context, will virtually speak for itself. If not, then I create an exercise to identify the rhetorical opponents of the book. In what follows I assume that the Daode jing is being taught in isolation, although recognizing that such isolation is the exception, not the general rule.
In my experience, teaching the Daode jing requires at least two or three class sessions. This is because the book requires some getting used to by the students. Moreover, it takes time for students to move from passive responses (What is this book like/about? ) to more constructive responses (How would nonaction work in my life? ).
imagine teaching the daode jing! 93
The first assignment is a get-acquainted reading. Students read the book from beginning to end, reflecting on the following questions: How would you characterize the book? What was it like to read? Did you perceive any threads of continuity? What response(s) did the book draw from you? Who were the targets of criticism in the book? I facilitate responses to this last question by highlighting a few chapters for special comment. Given these chapters, what would you say is the primary target of this book's teaching? What errors is it trying to address? 2
Subsequent assignments build on the first. I take the poetic language and the suggestive imagery of the book as its teaching device and group chapters along such themes and images (Dao, water, the uncarved block, the female, the infant; nondoing, the power and virtue of Dao [de], the Daoist ruler/sage/ master). 3 The first five pertain to the nature and movements of Dao, the second three to human activity based on the Dao. There is, of course, considerable overlap between these two groupings. I ask students to read and think about the themes and images offered in these grouped chapters. Each student is asked to select a theme (a group of chapters) and write a brief reflection paper (one to three pages long). That paper is used as the basis of small group discussions in the next class period. Each group becomes expert on a theme or image in the Daode jing. The small groups report back their reflections to the larger class, thereby becoming teachers of the book. If time allows, the two subgroups (images of Dao and humans modeling themselves on the Dao) can be separate class sessions.
Although the experience of inviting class members to become interpret- ers and teachers of the Daode jing is the primary goal of my teaching strategy, I also include an exercise for constructive reflection focused on nondoing or the ruler/sage who leads and teaches by nonaction. My experience is that undergraduates who have spent a little time with this text begin to ask very challenging and probing questions, questions that are not easy to answer. The difficulty of the questions posed has led me to lead a plenary discussion on these questions; as a teacher, I can acknowledge the profound challenge of questions raised and help the class negotiate the difficult path of addressing them. Shortly after several undergraduates had died in drinking and driving accidents, one class asked whether a Daoist would let a friend drive drunk. Is there any way to intervene without violating the premises of nonaction? An- other asked, ''What would a Daoist do if his or her child were being threatened with bodily harm? ''
These are extremely difficult questions. If the Daode jing is taught in a unit on classical Chinese thought, the teacher has the option (or escape route) of asking the class whether Confucians would have a more satisfying response
94 approaching the daode jing
to such dilemmas. This question raises the important issue of the relationship of Confucianism and Daoism. Although Westerners tend to construct these two streams of thought as competing and exclusive, the Chinese viewed them as complementary options. If the Daode jing is taught in isolation, I lead the class to the best possible Daoist response to such difficult moral conundrums. My classes have delighted me with their ability, after just two or three sessions with the Daode jing, to raise and wrestle collectively with difficult Daoist moral questions. I have been more successful with this text than with any other at engaging undergraduates not only in interpretation, but also in constructive response.
The Daode jing is genuinely a paradoxical text. On the one hand, it is difficult because it is hard to pin down historically and to summarize as a clear-cut position. On the other hand, its poetic language and richly suggestive images invite interpretation and reflection, drawing readers into the vision of the text, inviting them to try on an alternative approach to life. True to its own philosophy, the Daode jing teaches itself with some prior setup by the teacher.
Gender and the Daode Jing
The Daode jing can also be taught by using gender as a framework of explora- tion. There are several ways of conceptualizing gender as a teaching frame- work. I discuss one of them here.
I begin with the language and meaning of polarity as represented in the dialectic of yin and yang, the cosmic principles that produce and sustain crea- tion in its harmony. This yin-yang polarity is basic to understanding the cosmic dimensions of the Dao. One way we witness the existence of the Dao is through the activity of yin and yang as manifested in polar opposites, such as being/ nonbeing, action/nonaction, luminous/shadowy, hot/cold, up/down, right/ left, male/female. A class session directly or indirectly dealing with the last relationship (male/female) presents a viable approach to the text by engaging students in a familiar issue: women's and men's experience in culture. Gran- ted, gender is a culturally conditioned construct and its representations in culture are enigmatic. Nevertheless, its ambiguity is the very characteristic that lends itself to be a useful heuristic. As Caroline Walker Bynum suggests in her introduction to Gender and Religion, gender-related symbols are ''polysemic''; they possess a variety of meanings that concurrently engender manifold ques- tions. With this perspective in mind, students not only investigate issues con- cerning the text itself, but they also examine issues concerning the context of
imagine teaching the daode jing! 95
the text and their own interpretations of it. The matter of students' interpre- tations deserves more attention here.
Because gender is used in the Daode jing as a manifestation of the Dao (i. e. , by way of polar opposites, as well as anthropomorphic imagery), the door is open for students to apply their culturally gendered ideologies to the text as they analyze and discern the meaning of specific words and phrases. How- ever, as they do this they will discover a conflict: the way the text understands gender challenges or subverts the students' culturally embedded assumptions. It goes without saying that the Chinese commentators themselves entertain differing opinions of how to interpret certain chapters. 4 Consequently, as the students learn about gender through the voice of the text, they are invited to reexamine their own conceptions of gender. The Daode jing, then, offers a new model for thinking about gender. Rigid gender categories (e. g. , males are this, women are that) are questioned as students consider how to adapt the yin and yang dynamic to their cultural experiences. In this exercise the text is engaged on several different levels. The two most relevant here are the text within its own boundaries as a classic and the text offering formulations of gender that students can engage.
Two particular translations of the Daode jing offer some assistance for utilizing gender as a pedagogical tool: Stephen Mitchell's Tao Te Ching and Ellen M. Chen's The Tao Te Ching: A New Translation with Commentary. Mitchell's translation incorporates inclusive language throughout. For exam- ple, Mitchell translates the phrase shenren as ''master,'' but when the text ex- cludes the phrase and yet still implies it, Mitchell alternates the pronouns ''he'' and ''she. '' The result is that his translation differs from many other transla- tions in not using English pronouns to reinforce male-dominated language. 5 The significance of such a maneuver is revealed in the kinds of queries de- veloped by the students as they read this type of translation. Students may ask whether the inclusive language makes a difference in understanding the main ideas of the classic, or if Mitchell's choices reflect a contemporary interpreta- tion. Likewise, students may ponder whether a female shenren would interpret the manifestations of the Dao differently from a male shenren. Although such questions are difficult to answer, the investigations themselves are worthwhile.
Chen's translation is a useful accompaniment to Mitchell's. Whereas Mitchell's rendition is accessible to novice students due to its fashionable and simple format, Chen's exposition offers a detailed analysis along with a more precise translation. Like Mitchell, Chen is cognizant of gendered and non- gendered language in the text and is helpful in elucidating its significance for both the meaning of the text and the context of the document. This
96 approaching the daode jing
becomes most apparent when Chen deals with two particular fertility symbols for Dao, gushen (Valley Spirit) and xuan pin (Dark Mare), in chapter 6 of the Daode jing and the two dynamic principles of yin and yang in chapter 42. 6 In both cases Chen discusses the meaning and function of gender-related lan- guage and symbols as she translates the chapters.
My conceptual model for using gender as a teaching framework for the Daode jing can be implemented in different ways. Let me briefly suggest two, both of which assume a class of upper-division undergraduates.
The first proposal is to cover the Daode jing in one class session with two external assignments, one a preparation for the session and the other a follow- up. For the preliminary assignment, students read introductory material to the Daode jing which covers appropriate historical background, including date and authorship, cultural context, and compilation and redaction. 7 Students then read Mitchell's translation once through to acquire a general impression of the text. Students then reread the text while keeping in mind some focus questions: What is gender? How is gender manifested in the text? It would be useful to specify some chapters for student reflection, starting with 6 and 42. What is the significance of gender-related language or symbols for the meaning of the text? When the author mentions the Master, does the term refer to a male or a female? Would the meaning of the text change at all if the master was either sex? How would a male master view the Dao versus a female master? How do Western or contemporary ideas or manifestations of gender affect your reading of the text?
The class session is focused around a discussion. I briefly introduce the text, summarizing key points in the introductory material and eliciting stu- dents' initial reactions to their first general reading of the text. Students break into groups of mixed genders and discuss the above questions in relation to specified chapters. They then reassemble and summarize what they learned in the small groups. At this point, I provide additional material and com- mentary for parts of the text that need further explanation (e. g. , Chen's analysis of chapters 6 and 42). As a postscript, students write a one- to two- page reflection paper on a particular chapter of the Daode jing that they believe best exemplifies the Daode jing's presentation of gender. As the students write their papers they are expected to keep in mind the questions mentioned above and the general themes of the text.
If time permits, I suggest a three-session unit, developed as follows. A general discussion of gender and religion focuses on cultural differences and similarities, primarily between Eastern and Western cultures, to introduce the basic questions concerning gender and religion and what kind of method would be employed when reading the Daode jing. I introduce the text, including
imagine teaching the daode jing! 97
its general themes. (By this session students would have read the text and be ready to give preliminary responses. ) We discuss gender-related imagery in the classic and its significance for the meaning of the text, utilizing group sessions on gender issues described above, with the same follow-up exercise.
The purpose of both formats is to provide students with a framework to engage a classic Chinese text in a fresh way. Although gender is a familiar issue in the 1990s, the issues are raised in a fresh way by a classic like the Daode jing, separated both culturally and temporally from the lives of today's students. Not only did the cultural constructions of gender in the late Zhou period affect the author's development of a philosophy or religious ideology, but the cultural construction of gender in our times also affects readers of the text. The Daode jing offers an excellent opportunity to explore both gender issues and issues of cross-cultural understanding.
The Daode Jing: An Exercise in How Interpretations Change
I admit I've been stumped about how to teach the Daode jing, mainly because after years of reading it, I still don't know what the text is about! It occurs to me, however, that this insight provides an important clue: maybe a class reading of the Daode jing could be a series of attempts to explore what the text is about. This may initially be very unsettling for students, but it would be fun. It's not often that in the midst of our normally staid academic pursuits we actually allow ourselves to play with what strikes our fancy. Recently when I taught the text, a student who had never read the book before told me that her son thought that if more people read it, soon we'd find there would be no need for seminaries. I laughingly agreed. The Daode jing is a real book, unlike so much of what we find in the self-help, psychology, or religion sections of the average bookstore. It deserves as many readings as we can give it.
What follows is a practical proposal for teaching the Daode jing in a course on Chinese religions and philosophies. The premise of my pedagogical strategy is quite different from the first two in this essay, both of which allowed for the possibility that the text was taught in a course not about China. I have designed this to cover four class sessions. I then suggest books I have found helpful in understanding the text. After outlining each session I briefly explain my think- ing and reasons for recommending the works I list, hoping thereby to make my approach accessible to teachers who are not specialists in Chinese culture.
Let me be very clear at the outset that I do not intend this particular format to be ironclad and hope that it can be adapted to suit various contexts (classes in East Asian religions, world philosophy, classical Chinese, even a
98 approaching the daode jing
graduate seminar on textual interpretation). My aim is for students and in- structors to engage with the text, not necessarily to come up with a final, agreed-upon reading. To this end I have fallen back on having students write short reflection papers to stimulate their thinking and questions, preparing them for discussion. There is, I think, little danger here of using up all of our ideas. After all, the Dao is the Way of Heaven and Earth--which would seem to rule out the possibility of us mere mortals ever exhausting it.
Class 1: Introduction
Preparation: Read whole text. Write one-page reaction paper: ''What
is this text about? ''
Class Lecture and Discussion: Short history of text; who Laozi is;
importance of text in Chinese history.
This is the basic ''just the facts, ma'am'' session, aimed at conveying a sense of the Daode jing, when it probably was written, who the mysterious author Laozi may have been. At the very least an introductory course should convey this information to give students some sort of initial overview and orientation, even at the risk of oversimplification. There are, of course, nu- merous sources for much of this information.
A. C. Graham's good discussion in Disputers of the Tao and D. C. Lau's introduction to his translation have both proved helpful. 8 In addition, Herrlee Creel's classic essay ''What Is Taoism? '' and Wing-tsit Chan's ''Influences of Taoist Classics on Chinese Philosophy'' provide useful discussions of the complexity of the Daode jing and its relationship to traditional Chinese culture. 9
Class 2: Religious Daoism
Preparation: Read selections from John Lagerwey's Taoist Ritual in
Chinese Society and History (chapters 4, 10) and Kristofer Schipper's
The Taoist Body(chapters 5,8).
Exercise: Sit quietly for 5-10 minutes, counting your breaths. Reread chapters 4, 9, 10, 12, 19, 20, 28, 37, 42, 43, 50, 54, 61. 10 Write one-page reaction paper: ''What is this text about? ''
Class Lecture and Discussion: rise of sects; formation of orders; rit-
uals; self-cultivation.
Although the dichotomy between so-called religious and philosophical Daoism is often overemphasized (usually to the detriment of the former, pace Creel), I think it can be a useful way of getting at different aspects of this amorphous beast we call Daoism. To this end, both Lagerwey and Schipper show how complex Daoism as a practicing cult is. Students need to realize
imagine teaching the daode jing! 99
that the Daode jing is truly scripture (like the Bible and the Qur'an) and that it is used in actual worship services and as a guide to personal spiritual culti- vation. The text takes on new depth when we see it as part of a living tradition, as opposed to just the musings of long-dead thinkers.
Class 3: Philosophical Daoism
Preparation: Read selections from Benjamin I. Schwartz's The World
of Thought in Ancient China (first section of chapter 6), Robert
Cummings Neville'sBehind the Masks of God (chapter 4).
Reread chapters 1, 2, 14, 18, 19, 25, 32, 34, 39, 40, 42, 52, 70, 81. Write one-page reaction paper: ''What is this text about? ''
Class Lecture and Discussion: philosophical Daoism, Wang Bi and
the ''Dark Learning. ''
Until quite recently most of the Western academic literature focused on the philosophical aspects of the Daode jing (this is understandable, as it is a fas- cinating topic), and this will probably be the aspect most readily accessible to first-time readers. The Daode jing certainly articulates one of the main currents of Chinese thought and, together with the Confucian philosophy found in the Analects and the Mencius, remains essential for understanding East Asian civilization. Indeed, to see how the teachings of the Daode jing serve as a critical response to the more regimented and hierarchical aspects of mainstream Confucian learning (although technically, the Confucian and Daoist strains of Chinese thought have never existed separately from one another) can prevent a reading of this text from sliding into mushy New Age feel-goodism. Schwartz is excellent here, and Neville opens the discussion out into the greater context of world philosophy. I chose to emphasize the role of Wang Bi (and the other Neo- Daoists) for two reasons: first, because Wang's commentary has been so in- fluential in Chinese and Western readings of the Daode jing (almost all but the most recent translations are from his redaction), and second because the role of Neo-Daoism11 in the history of Chinese thought has often been overlooked. Chinese Buddhism, for example, is virtually impossible to understand without some knowledge of the ''Dark Learning. ''
Class 4: Is there a text in this class?
Preparation: Choice of assignments:
(1) Visit an Asian Art museum,12 taking the text with you. Pause be-
tween various works and reread chapters 2, 6, 11, 14, 16, 21, 22, 25,
41, 45, 47, 81.
(2) Go on a strenuous day hike (no matter what the weather). Leave
the umbrella at home even if it's raining, but take the text with you.
100
approaching the daode jing
At some rest point, stop and reread chapters 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 16, 23, 32,
34, 37, 41, 51, 55, 73, 77.
(3) Visit a New Age bookstore, and take note of titles relating to
Daoism. Read sections from one of them (e. g. , The Tao of Pooh).
Reread chapters 24, 28, 33, 37, 38, 41, 43, 45, 48, 53, 63, 66, 68. Write a one-page reaction paper: ''What is this text about? ''
Class Discussion: ''What is this text about? ''
This session will probably be the most interesting. The idea came to me initially while reading through the lavishly illustrated translation of the Daode jing by Man-Ho Kwok, Martin Palmer, and Jay Ramsay and recalling my experiences of hiking in the high Sierra. As for New Age bookstores, the Bay Area (and most of the United States) is crawling with them. They love to focus on Asian and Native American themes, and the Tao of Pooh is a perennial best seller.
It may be useful in this final discussion for students to look over all four of their reflection papers, perhaps even exchange them, to see whether there is any sort of consensus. Who knows--perhaps there really is a text in this class! Or it may be that there are many competing and complementary texts here. A question I leave open is whether we contemporary readers of the Daode jing can agree that all our readings are somewhat right (and somewhat wrong as well) and rest comfortably with this (or not! ). The teacher adopting this ap- proach will have to decide to what extent she or he will affirm and accept diverse ideas of ''what this text is about,'' or whether she or he wishes to offer, or develop from within class conversations, some critical principles by which to establish some boundaries or limits. This may entail a class discussion on principles of interpretation and where the meaning of a text resides (or how it is construed and constructed). 13
I never know what to expect from this series of exercises, but I'm fairly certain that students (and instructors) will come away surprised at just how much readings of the text vary from context to context. I know that in engaging in these exercises myself I found that I came away with a different take on the text each time. This brings up an important point I would like to stress: the instructor should do the same preparation for each class as the students do. If reading the Daode jing is to be more than just the dry recapitulation of what others have said, then it requires our engagement each and every time we take it up. In the humanities we are trying to encourage critical and reflective thinking, a willingness to try new things, and the ability to appreciate different perspectives. The Daode jing gives us the perfect opportunity to do this in a classroom situation. It is one of those few books for which we are all students
imagine teaching the daode jing! 101
with much to learn. As Wing-tsit Chan rightly notes, ''You may not like it, or you'll like it a lot because it's boldly vigorous, provocative, and stimulating. ''14 After having read the text many times in various translations over the years, I swear the book changes from day to day depending on my mood, the weather, and just how many deadlines are pressing in on me at the time! Perhaps I should end on that note. Or better yet, let me end by asking one question: Is it just me who's muddled?
notes
1. Frederick W. Mote, The Intellectual Foundations of Ancient China. 2nd ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1989).
2. As noted above, if the Daode jing is being taught in the context of classical Chinese thought and religion, the question can be framed as responses to positions already discussed in previous sessions.
3. Differences in terminology follow differences of various translations. I par- ticularly recommend those of Stephen Mitchell, Tao Te Ching (New York: Harper Perennial, 1992), and D. C. Lau, Lau Tzu Tao Te Ching (New York: Penguin Books, 1963), both of which are affordable paperback editions. I encourage teachers to design their own groupings of chapters. The chapters selected in each grouping will shape the issues and questions raised by students in discussion. Teachers need to think strategically about how the chapters they choose will function in this respect, in- cluding or highlighting those deemed most promising and de-emphasizing or even excluding chapters that may raise distractions or confusions. Which groupings work will also depend on the translation(s) used.
4. Ellen Chen, The Tao Te Ching: A New Translation with Commentary (New York: Paragon House, 1989), 44-47, 157-159.
5. The Chinese language does not require a pronoun to indicate second and subsequent references, and thus gender is linguistically indeterminate.
6. Chen, The Tao Te Ching, 60-71, 157-160.
7. Ibid. , 3-48.
8. A. C. Graham, Disputers of the Tao: Philosophical Argument in Ancient China
(LaSalle, Ill. : Open Court Press, 1989), 215-235; D. C. Lau, introduction to Lau Tzu Tao Te Ching.
9. Herrlee Creel, ''What Is Taoism? '' (1956), in What Is Taoism? And Other Studies in Chinese Cultural History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970); Wing- tsit Chan, ''Influences of Taoist Classics on Chinese Philosophy,'' in Literature of Belief: Sacred Scripture and Religious Experience (Provo, Ut. : Religious Studies Center, Brig- ham Young University, 1981).
10. Because this model explores a variety of forms of Daoism and interpretations of the Daode jing with which the nonspecialist may not be familiar, I specify the chapters I consider relevant to each session to give readers a concrete idea of which motifs of the text inform which session.
102 approaching the daode jing
11. Xuanxue (dark learning) was the reigning intellectual movement in the third to fifth centuries c. e.
12. For those teaching in institutions where such a museum is unavailable, the exercise could be to browse in one of a range of books on Chinese art.
13. A useful resource for this exercise is the title essay from Stanley Fish, Is There a Text in This Class? The Authority of Interpretive Communities (Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1980).
14. Wing-tsit Chan, ''Influence of Taoist Classics,'' 142.
part ii
Recent Scholarship and Teaching the Daode Jing
This page intentionally left blank
? My Way: Teaching the Daode Jing at the Beginning of a New Millenium
Norman J. Girardot
The Dao that can be Dao'ed is not the Dao.
--Laozi/Daode jing, chapter 1
That was Zen. This is Dao!
--Bumper sticker observed on an aging Volvo
Dao Now
Daoism is as Daoism does. Or, as the diarrheal ''Forrest Gump and Pooh Bear Going-with-the-Flow School of Daoist Studies'' declares, ''Daoism, like shit and a box of chocolates, just happens! '' Doesn't the excremental vision of the Zhuangzi remind us that the Dao is in both the high and low of the world, in the piss and shit as well as in the mountains and valleys? And doesn't that overweight slacker, Steve, tell us in the ''Tao of Steve'' that Daoism is, after all is said and undone, the most perfect and natural way to pick up chicks? Isn't this crappy lesson, then, the pointless point of it all? 1 Shouldn't we recognize that, during these meandering MTV days at the start of the third millennium, the teaching of the Dao may indeed be reduced to a boldly tasteless T-shirt slogan about guru guano; Bruce Lee's warbling falsetto scream of kung-fu revenge; the amazingly obscure lyrics from a song by the deadhead wannabe band known as Phish; the rhythmically choreographed violence of a John Woo and Jackie
106 recent scholarship and teaching the daode jing
Chan film or (most transcendentally of all) Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; the muddled message of a particularly puerile Pooh parable; the pretty pastel poems on the side of environmentally friendly herbal tea boxes; the earthy blue-collar mysteries of the Tao of Elvis; or (finally and most im- portant) a single pithy text like the ancient Laozi-Daode jing, a. k. a. the ''Bible- Book of the Wiggy Way and Its Pulsating Power''?
Along with feng shui kits at Wal-Mart, the I Ching on CD-ROM, and McDonald's in Beijing, should we not ask why, in this apocalyptically fright- ened post-9/11world, there were not more Enron executives who studied the Zhuangzi along with their tattered copies of Sunzi's Art of War? After all, do not the darkly ironic teachings of the Daode jing, the most provocatively enigmatic of all world scriptures, tell us that ''the Dao that can be Dao'ed is not the Dao''? Isn't Daoism clearly the religion of choice for a postmodern 9/11 age when all systems of representation have been so completely depleted and deconstructed, so thoroughly destroyed as were the twin towers of the World Trade Center? Doesn't the Old Boy himself, Laozi, teach us that all meaning resides in the pregnant void of ground zero, within the gaping mouth of language and laughter that, with freely running saliva, opens and releases the body? Doesn't the holy Book of the Way and Its Power, the ''gate of all mysteries,'' assure us that knowing derives not from the eyes and brain, but from the instinctual rumbles of the belly? Thus Daoists, like Nietzscheans, have always preferred existence to essence, tumbling turds to the totalizing shine of Shinola. Finally, is it not the saving grace of Daoism to be one of the very few world religions to cling firmly to a sense of humor about the profane and the sacred, the pissy-prissy and the pure, the ridiculous and the sublime, the historical tradition of Daoism and the ineffable Dao itself? Weren't the early Daoists, mumbling the Mandelbrot- mantra of hun-hun-dun-dun, the ones who saw into the silly-serious heart of a sacred cucurbitic chaos? Zhuangzi, in his Chinese Frank Zappa persona as an Andy Kaufman ''Foreign Man'' or seedy Elvis impersonator, put it best: ''Now I have just said something, but I'm not sure if I've really said something or nothing at all! 2 Tank you berry much. '' Laozi has left the building.
Yes, it sometimes seems that the Way is that way, whether spelled with a t or a d. Moreover, I dare say that many teachers of the Dao in North American colleges and universities during this past quarter century have had to contend with student wayfarers much too certain of the method and destination of their Daoist journeys. Too certain, for example, that a close reading of Stephen Mitchell's ''new English version'' of the Daode jing, along with a well-thumbed copy of Benjamin Hoff's The Tao of Pooh and repeated exposure to Kevin Smith's Silent Bob opus on director's cut DVDs, give them everything they need to know about going fully with the flow. And if in the course of their
my way: teaching the daode jing 107
travels they've done a little sitting meditation, Taiji or Gongfu on the side, so much the better--so much transpires, it seems, that is just plain ''self-so'' (ziran). Shit happens. Such is the Business of Isness. So also I suspect that numerous contemporary practitioners of the Dao outside of the academy have encountered many Western students with an overly romanticized apprecia- tion of the nature and history of Daoism.
There is, in fact, a growing number of knowledgeable and articulate practicing Daoists teaching and writing about the tradition these days in North America who impressively combine extensive academic and experien- tial understandings of the tradition. 3 But whether academically or practically oriented, or possessing some real combination of mental and bodily learning, all teachers today must contend with an often aggressively predetermined climate of opinion about the how of the Dao. How now? Dao Now! To be religiously hip these days is to know that ''Zen was then; Dao is Now! '' Or, as suggested by a recently observed bumper sticker on an aging Volvo mysteri- ously parked by my house in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania: ''That was Zen. This is Dao! '' While the Beatles, the Maharishi, Ken Kesey's merry pranksters, and D. T. Suzuki's Bent Zen defined an earlier precybernetic age of pop-enlighten- ment, it's now the age of the Cremaster Cycle, ''Reality TV,'' Jackass the Movie, Kill Bill, and Daoism--Dao-Lite if you will.
Despite these shortcomings in the state of Daoist learning in North America, it is partially comforting to know that there are some active students of the Dao in the West these days. Unfortunately, in the ancient Central Kingdom of its origins and efflorescence, Daoism has been culturally and politically compromised during much of the modern period--even to the point of its near extinction in the land of its birth. Imperiously condemned by Pro- testant missionaries in the nineteenth century, stridently spurned by the Chi- nese literati and Manchu court throughout the Qing dynasty, and violently emasculated during the Chinese communist cultural revolution, Daoism has encountered the ebb without any flow. 4 There are some hopeful signs that in post-Mao and post-Tiananmen China the serious study and appreciation of the age-old Chinese religious heritage is being revived, but it is still the case that, whatever the Orientalistic distortions of the tradition in the West, the torch of Daoist book learning in the twentieth century has mostly been kept burning outside of China itself. Thus we have the haunting situation of Chinese stu- dents traveling to Paris, Kyoto, Berkeley, Boston, and Bloomington to redis- cover and study the discursive ways of the Dao in the world today.
There is reason to be encouraged by recent developments in the native Chinese and worldwide appreciation of the Daoist tradition, which was, until quite recently, the least understood of the major world religions. But for the
108 recent scholarship and teaching the daode jing
time being I would like to emphasize the problem of earnest American stu- dents of the Dao too often relying on a whole set of questionable assumptions about what an Asian ''mystic'' tradition like Daoism must be like. Speaking personally from the background of a thirty-year teaching career that embraces Notre Dame University, Oberlin College, and Lehigh University, I have re- ceived too many course papers consisting of a title page and a final bibliog- raphy framing fifteen absolutely blank pages. At times a vague twinge of conscience would generate an attached note quoting the Daode jing about ''those who know, do not speak,'' and pleading with me to be ''Daoist'' enough to realize how perfectly and preciously the paper conveyed the inner wuwei emptiness of the assignment! Woe to the teacher of Daoism when confronting the presumptions of the Dao-Wow crowd.
Some students these days are indignantly resistant even to the possibility that there may be more to the Daoist tradition than a single short text, some whimsical Pooh Bear commentary, some vague Dao-Zen affinities, and a few basic Taiji movements. They have already been duly warned of the excessively clever and rational procedures of various owlish and poorly dressed university professors who only seek to complicate the simplest thing of all: that Daoism, in its essentially Zennish, Gumpian, Poohish, and New Age way, speaks intui- tively and organically about politically correct self-cultivation, ''buns of steel'' physical rejuvenation, the spiritual ''joy'' of sex with green tea-flavored con- doms, sects without guilt, a prescient proto-feminism and manifest penis power, the satisfactions of a cleansing bowel movement, and an acutely green (if not chartreuse) environmental awareness. Among the upper-middle-class students at many expensive private colleges and universities, there is also the implicit addendum that it is possible to accomplish all of this while driving a Saab, Lexus SUV, or aging Volvo station wagon. And please note that the Office of Homeland Security has just declared that we are now on a Magenta Alert status. All of this is rather surprising since traditional Chinese civilization had no conception at all of Enlightenment-style ideals of personal authenticity, American commercialized individualism, Thoreauian ''back to nature'' mysti- cism, Emersonian pragmatism, bourgeois feminism, or trendy principles of vegan and Gaian ecology. But never mind, say some self-styled Telluride Daoists and BMW Buddhists, that's what Daoism is really all about. He who knows does not speak! And those who speak may be university professors!
Pop-Daoism, or Dao-Lite, of this kind--like the earlier Kerouac stream-of- consciousness Zen of the '50s, the Suzuki-Wattsian ''fundamental'' Zen of the '60s and '70s, and the ''engaged'' Zen-Tibetan Buddhism of the '80s and '90s--seems to suggest that knowledge and religious experience are com- pletely independent of cultural context, social history, and linear textuality. 5
my way: teaching the daode jing 109
There's only a cybernetic immediacy and a frenetic now--oh wow! Speed kills, but within the Matrix or the Fight Club of life it is the Keanu Reeves- Siddhartha-Brad Pitt-Richard Gere-Dalai Lama who saves. Dao Now. Dao Wow. And De, by the way, is pronounced like a second tone ''DUH. '' Or, as the Discordian Religion of Bob would say, it's the chaotic flicker of superficial information that dictates the fractal patterns of human life. Along with T-shirt and bumper sticker slogans, everything has been reduced to digitized and prepackaged pellets of ''information. '' It's the frenzied bombardment of Quentin Tarantino images and digital I-Ching-yin-yang-on-off factoids that fleetingly stimulate and temporarily focus one's attention amid the ''booming and buzzing confusion'' of the void (the perfect simulacrum of the traditional Chinese concern for the leaping-bleeping ''monkey mind''). There's no meaning, no interpretation, no real imagination--only the sentimental om- nipresence of the Home Shopping Network and the Office of Homeland Security. Cultural garbage in, colonic garbage out. Where is Monty Python when we need them? The eerily apocalyptic implication of this real and imagined terror is that, unlike the hopelessly combative religions of the Abramic tradition, Daoism becomes the perfect inheritor of the mystic mantel of ironic Zennish pluck and Dalai Lama smiling nonviolence. Cheshire Cat shit-eating grins abound! Thus it seems that Pooh Bear Pop-Daoism, Planet Hollywood Tibetan-style Buddhism, flannel-shirt-ecologically-sensitive Zen, and Barbra Streisand botox-injected Kabbala become the preferred religions and theme restaurants of the twenty-first century. 6 Heaven's Gate opens; crop circles are found in Roswell, New Delhi, and Shanghai; and within the hal- lowed space of ground zero a black monolith appears replete with myriad tiny American flags, Nike slashes, and yin-yang emblems. Shitty stuff happens.
The Way Trodden
So Zen was then and now it's Dao. Whatever. But that's really too much of a wimpishly relativistic and blithely Daoistic answer to give to serious seekers of the Way. More pointedly and neoconservatively, let me just say no. No, hardly anything that popularly parades as Daoism and the mesmerizing message or mental massage of the Daode jing has much relation to the historical Daoist tradition or, for that matter, to the amazingly malleable text attributed to the wizened and pointy-headed Chinese Yoda known as the Old Boy. It's not that I think Mitchell's Zennish pseudo-translation of the Laozi, Hoff 's New Age Pooh Bear Dao, or Kevin Smith's Silent Bob are intrinsically evil. 7 They assuredly are not, and I have used both Mitchell's and Hoff 's works in the classroom. When
110 recent scholarship and teaching the daode jing
employed strategically and contextually, they constitute an effective way to begin and end a course on Daoism. First, before the long hard journey into the murky byways of the tradition, these works give temporary comfort and con- fidence to the wayfarers. Besides being appealingly well written and broadly accessible, they accomplish this by articulating prevailing sentimental expec- tations and desires about the tradition. But it is exactly this consciousness raising about our cultural preconceptions concerning the text and the tradition that helps to set up and significantly problematize the meaning of ''Daoism'' in both Chinese and Western cultural history. Contrary to Pooh Bear Daoism, the Laozi never announced that the Disney World secret of the cosmos is that ''life is fun. '' Nor was the actual Daoism of Chinese tradition intrinsically nontheistic, nonritualistic, or nonclerical. Indeed, the Daoism of Chinese his- tory, like Buddhism for that matter, was never a tradition that focused exclu- sively on the individualistic practice of meditation or the ''idiot savant'' purity of Pooh Bear intuition.
I regularly begin my current writing-intensive seminar on the Daoist tra- dition at Lehigh University with an initial short evaluative essay on the ''life is fun'' Daoism as presented by the Tao of Pooh and as contextualized by Nathan Sivin's brilliantly vexing article ''On the Word 'Taoist' as a Source of Per- plexity. ''8 I conclude the course with an assignment that requires my students to write a final brief reflective paper on the accuracy of the Hoffian vision of Daoism in light of the course's semester-long struggle with pooh-perplexing issues of comparative interpretation, Daoist history, and other, much more obscure and awkwardly off-putting Daoist texts. More than anything else, it is my hope that, by the end of the term, my students will continue to dance with the Dao as portrayed by Hoff and Mitchell (a disciplined tango rather than the formless abandon of a mosh pit), but that they will also have learned critically to appreciate the stubborn historical, cultural-social, and religious otherness of the tradition. The slippery truth is that it is extremely difficult to know how easy knowing the Dao really is. One must suffer to experience the transmutation of new knowledge. Shit happens, but only after ingestion, mastication, digestion, and colonic absorption. After all, both Chinese and Western alchemists agree that the secret formula of creative knowing is always solve et coagula. That is, all things must be dissolved down to a state of utter confusion so that real knowledge can congeal and emerge--so that there may be, as Coleridge once said about the alchemy of translation, a ''transparent defecation'' of meaning.