0:14

Hello and welcome to the History of

0:16

Philosophy in China, by Peter Adamson

0:19

and Karen Lai, brought to you

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with the support of the Philosophy Department at King's

0:23

College London and the LMU in Munich, online

0:25

at historyofphilosophy.net. Today's

0:28

episode, Journey of a Thousand

0:30

Li, Introduction to Chinese

0:33

Philosophy. When

0:36

we embark on a trip, we typically have

0:38

a destination in mind. Setting off

0:40

each morning on the way to work or

0:42

jetting off for a vacation, the aim is

0:44

to get to the destination. But

0:46

have you ever wandered without a purpose,

0:49

intending simply to enjoy whatever you come

0:51

across? In this scenario,

0:53

your experience of the journey rather than

0:55

the journey's destination is the focal point

0:57

of the activity. The Chinese

0:59

concept, Dao, may refer to both.

1:02

Either the journey's end or, in contrast,

1:04

a journey with no fixed itinerary. The

1:07

travel metaphor expresses the different ways early

1:09

Chinese thinkers thought about how best to

1:11

live. Some, like the Confucians,

1:14

proposed a vision of a good life,

1:16

a destination, so to speak, that we

1:18

should all aspire to reach. Others,

1:20

such as the Daoists, did not

1:22

emphasize specific life goals but instead

1:24

advocated letting our engagement with the

1:26

world shape our next steps. Speaking

1:30

of next steps, we are now taking some of

1:32

our own, as the podcast moves

1:34

on to consider the history of philosophy in

1:36

China. In the dozens of

1:38

episodes to come, we will encounter philosophical

1:40

questions raised by early Chinese thinkers and

1:42

find that they were far from reaching

1:44

unanimous agreement about those questions. Yet

1:47

they did converge on some shared concerns.

1:50

Early Chinese texts that inform our views

1:52

of Chinese philosophy, starting from the late

1:55

5th century BCE, actively explored

1:57

humanity's place in the world. what

2:00

makes us distinctively human, such as

2:02

our ability to interact and collaborate with others

2:04

and to care for others appropriately. They

2:07

discussed which goods humans should pursue.

2:10

Some proposed visions of a flourishing society,

2:12

while others placed more weight on individual

2:14

initiative. These texts convey

2:17

the early Chinese awareness of the embeddedness

2:19

of humanity in the cosmic, natural, and

2:21

political worlds. The question of

2:23

how we orientate ourselves in the world was

2:25

primary to these thinkers, though as they recognized,

2:27

it may not be a question that can

2:29

be settled once and for all. The

2:32

early Chinese also believed that the world

2:35

is constantly undergoing changes and transformations. Some

2:38

would say this is a unique feature of

2:40

Chinese philosophy across its different traditions. In

2:42

fact, that will be the topic for the second episode

2:44

in this series. The challenge

2:47

of learning to thrive within a dynamic,

2:49

changing world is one that underlies much

2:51

of Chinese philosophy. As

2:53

they rose to that challenge, various

2:55

Chinese traditions debated ideals and values,

2:58

and also discussed how individuals could

3:00

cultivate themselves to develop capabilities for

3:02

navigating the world. In

3:04

this series, we will be looking especially at

3:06

the Confucians, the Moists, the Taoists, and the

3:09

Legalists, while also touching on the views of

3:11

lesser-known thinkers up to and including the period

3:13

of Chinese Buddhism's early development over the latter

3:15

half of the Han period, which ran from

3:18

206 BCE to 220 CE. To

3:23

begin our exploration of Chinese philosophy, let us

3:25

return to the idea of Tao, which

3:28

comes up in a number of these traditions. We

3:30

look first at Confucianism. You

3:33

may be familiar with criticisms of

3:35

Confucian philosophy as traditionalist or even

3:37

as advocating authoritarianism. We

3:39

will need to reckon with such accusations in due

3:41

course, but whenever one decides about them, it has

3:44

to be said that there is much more to

3:46

Confucian philosophy than that. Confucian

3:48

philosophy, of course, traces its origins to

3:50

the philosopher usually known as Confucius, born

3:52

in 551 BCE. We will call

3:56

him by his real name, Kong Su, but for convenience, we will be looking

3:59

at the Confucian so used the adjective

4:01

confusion to describe the tradition. The

4:04

Confucians were optimistic, believing that their

4:06

resources for morality lie within humanity.

4:09

The early Confucians lived during a time when

4:11

manual labor was the primary and only way

4:13

of life for the vast majority of people,

4:16

including for men, women, and children. Thus

4:18

it is striking that, during a time

4:21

when life was difficult and society unequal,

4:23

they believed that everyone, without exception, had

4:25

the capacity to live moral lives. Of

4:29

course, in practical terms, not everyone could become

4:31

a learned gentleman, much less a king. However,

4:34

the point the Confucians were making was

4:36

not about status, but about a person's

4:38

moral capacities. The Manzi,

4:40

a Confucian text from the 4th

4:43

century BCE, makes this claim boldly,

4:45

The sage and we are the same in kind.

4:49

The Confucian Tao is built on a

4:51

conviction that our moral capacities are valuable

4:53

resources for a flourishing society. When

4:56

properly harnessed and developed, these capacities can

4:58

help us lead better lives. The

5:01

Confucian vision includes a hierarchically organized society,

5:03

a view most of us would hesitate

5:05

to accept today. However,

5:07

Confucian philosophy also holds that only those

5:10

with firm moral commitments should be models

5:12

for others. In

5:14

attaining this vision, institutions are key,

5:17

not institutional buildings or organizations, but

5:20

practices that help us interact better

5:22

because they incorporate and express benevolence

5:24

in our interchanges. That's an

5:26

idea we still have today. Consider

5:28

the concept of duty of care in

5:30

contemporary law. Although the

5:33

practicalities associated with this concept vary from

5:35

country to country, the basic idea is

5:37

that people in specific positions or occupations

5:39

are responsible for putting in place measures

5:41

that help ensure, as far as possible,

5:43

the safety or well-being of others who

5:45

are under their care. For

5:48

example, the kindergarten teacher should make sure there are

5:50

no hazards in the play area and the

5:52

doctor should make sure the patients are receiving the right

5:54

treatment. Such professions

5:56

develop sets of practices to ensure that the

5:58

duty of care is fulfilled. These

6:00

might be explicit and elaborate like the

6:02

regulations at a hospital, but they can

6:04

also be informal, even unconscious, like using

6:07

a gentle tone of voice when speaking

6:09

to a kindergarten child, or adopting a

6:11

sympathetic facial expression when giving bad news

6:13

to a patient. These

6:15

sorts of practices, developed to implement the

6:17

idea of duty of care, aim at

6:20

benevolence. For the Confucians,

6:22

the Tao consists above all in

6:24

creating and following just such practices.

6:27

They emphasize that the practices of benevolence cover

6:29

many aspects of life, including our interactions with

6:31

family members, as well as the measures taken

6:33

by governments for the welfare of the people.

6:37

Morality is made possible through institutions that

6:39

have been developed by morally enlightened leaders.

6:43

For people in a society to follow

6:45

tried and tested Tao's helps bring

6:47

people together cohesively in their shared

6:49

practices. As we will

6:51

see in later episodes, the Confucians thought

6:53

deeply about the processes and support necessary

6:55

for developing our moral capacities in order

6:57

to establish a benevolent society. The

7:01

Confucian Tao is thus a closely monitored

7:03

journey with a specific destination, which offers

7:05

a contrast from what we find in

7:07

Taoist philosophy. In

7:10

general, Taoist philosophy promotes a more open-ended approach

7:12

to a good life. Of

7:14

course, the concept Tao gives Taoism its name,

7:16

which can be a bit confusing given that,

7:18

as we just saw, other groups like the

7:20

Confucians do also use it. But

7:23

the name is not inappropriate since Tao does

7:25

have a unique place in Taoism. One

7:28

way to think about Tao in this tradition

7:30

is to understand it as a generative and

7:32

sustaining source. The Tao De

7:35

Ching, a text compiled prior to the

7:37

2nd century BCE, says that Tao is

7:39

muddied, yet complete, prior to heaven and

7:41

earth and mother of all things. In

7:45

this passage at Tao De Ching,

7:47

chapter 25, we are also told

7:49

that Tao is unnamable because it

7:51

encompasses the entirety of all beings,

7:53

entities, forces, energies, spaces, and void.

7:56

But Tao is neither a final state nor an

7:58

ideal one, according to the Bible. to which the

8:00

places of each of the myriad things are mapped out.

8:03

Rather, all things continue in an

8:06

ongoing, dynamic, transformative process. It

8:09

is because Tao encompasses things known

8:11

and unknown, which are ostensibly interacting,

8:13

that it is said to be

8:15

without name, wu-ming. Another

8:18

way to think about the Taoist Tao takes us

8:20

back to the idea of Tao as an open-ended

8:22

journey. Imagine going out

8:25

for a walk without a destination. Of

8:27

course you may decide to walk in the bush or

8:29

forest or in a particular part of a city, but

8:31

you're not aiming to get anywhere in particular. You

8:34

might end up going to a café for a

8:36

while, booking some tickets for a concert that evening,

8:39

taking a nap in a shady spot, having a

8:41

drink with a friend, or popping your earbuds in

8:43

to enjoy your favorite philosophy podcast. These

8:46

decisions are made on the spot, as it were, depending

8:48

on what you might encounter during your walk. The

8:51

idea that there is no fixed itinerary

8:53

opens up room for self-directed actions. On

8:56

such a journey, we respond to circumstances as

8:59

they arise in the moment. Not

9:01

having to keep track of where we are

9:03

with respect to a destination, we may act

9:05

more spontaneously. The idea

9:07

of spontaneity is often used in connection

9:09

with the Taoist word wu-wei. Wu-wei

9:12

may be understood as taking actions that are

9:14

not directed, whether by others or

9:16

according to predetermined goals. It

9:19

concerns the nature of our engagement with the world. To

9:23

make this view, Taoist philosophy creates space

9:25

for our attentiveness to circumstances, especially

9:27

as no destination is set. Walking

9:30

along a road to explore what it may bring

9:32

is part of this idea, but so also is

9:34

the opportunity to make new roads. On

9:36

this point, it makes sense to say that the Tao

9:39

is unnameable. You do not want to

9:41

lock in exactly where you are heading by naming

9:43

a destination or an activity and you cannot prescribe

9:45

paths for others. How

9:48

far can we go with this conception of the

9:50

Tao within Taoism? The Chong-tze

9:53

Taoist text, whose composition began around

9:55

the 4th century BCE, speaks of

9:57

wandering. The very first chapter is the Taoist tradition.

10:00

entitled Carefree Wandering, Ciao Yao

10:02

You, and contains stories

10:04

and anecdotes about encountering a diversity

10:06

of perspectives and responding to circumstances

10:08

as they arise. But

10:10

some may find that they are not really open

10:12

to this degree of open-endedness. Those

10:15

who find uncertainty challenging, whether in relation

10:17

to ourselves or society more generally, will

10:19

find this picture unappealing. While

10:22

wandering without a destination might be an enjoyable way

10:24

to spend a day or two now and then,

10:26

could we live this way most of the time

10:28

or across our whole lives? Is

10:30

it possible for us to have a general

10:32

idea of a good life without planning to

10:34

attain specific targets related to that idea or

10:36

ideal? Perhaps that is

10:38

too extreme an understanding of this philosophical approach.

10:41

The idea of Dao as an open-ended

10:43

journey need not be understood as a

10:46

recommendation to have absolute freedom in all

10:48

our undertakings. Daoist philosophy

10:50

does not exclude walking along the paths that

10:52

others have recommended to us or traveling along

10:54

them part of the way. Maybe

10:56

the reason I'm walking in this neighborhood is that my

10:58

friend mentioned it is a nice place for a stroll.

11:01

And maybe the reason I choose to listen to

11:03

this particular podcast is that my friend has impeccably

11:05

good taste and has recommended it to me. But

11:08

equally, Daoism focuses on looking for opportunities

11:11

to veer from the paths made by

11:13

others. Then too, while

11:15

an aimless walk offers limitless opportunities, in practical

11:17

terms the decisions we make are based on

11:20

our interests and our dispositions, as well as

11:22

what is available to us at a particular

11:24

point in time. The

11:27

Xiong's idea of wandering is beautifully captured

11:29

in the image of a giant bird

11:31

who flies thousands of miles up in

11:33

the sky and across vast oceans. Yet

11:36

the giant bird cannot take flight, unless its

11:38

wings are supported by considerable winds, just as

11:40

a large boat can be held up only

11:42

by a great deal of water. Just

11:45

so, a journey without a map or a goal

11:47

is not a journey without constraints. If

11:49

I'm on that walk and think it might be nice

11:52

to pop into a museum, I may find that it's

11:54

past closing time, and to be human is

11:56

to be subject to such constraints. In

11:58

wandering, we engage our abilities. abilities to

12:00

grasp opportunities as they arise while knowing

12:02

that that ability has limits. Our

12:05

bodily forms, our capacities, and our

12:08

interdependencies constrain or enable us differently

12:10

in different contexts. Tall

12:12

people may reach higher cupboards more easily, but are

12:14

more likely to bump their heads on a lower

12:16

door frame, not that Karen or I would ever

12:19

have this problem. In

12:21

some, the activity of wandering is not

12:23

entirely arbitrary. In wandering, we

12:25

become more attuned to the world with respect

12:27

to our own capacities and limitations as we

12:29

engage with that world. Openness

12:31

to the world as it unfolds is at

12:34

the center of Taoist philosophy. When

12:36

we embody the Taoist Tao, we engage

12:38

optimally with the world. The

12:41

passage in the Tao De Qing says, a

12:43

journey of a thousand li starts under one

12:45

foot. The passage speaks of

12:48

our actions in a world that is a

12:50

happening place. It prompts us to think

12:52

about how we engage with the world. In

12:55

Chinese philosophy, there is a third meaning of

12:58

Tao. It is closely related to the two

13:00

we've already encountered. Tao is a destination and

13:02

Tao is an open-ended journey. Here,

13:04

Tao refers to a message to achieve a

13:06

goal, be it a teaching or a doctrine

13:08

or an endorsed set of practices. The

13:11

Confucian tradition, for one, emphasizes that exemplary

13:13

people are models for others. Tang

13:16

Tzu himself, of course, served that function for his

13:18

students and for readers of the many stories about

13:20

him. As with

13:22

the first two meanings of Tao, Tao in this

13:24

third sense was used in different ways in the

13:26

Chinese tradition. For example, the

13:29

Confucian Tao or teaching placed great

13:31

value on rituals and their correct

13:33

performance. By contrast, the

13:35

Moists, named after their founder, Mo

13:37

Tzu, believed that traditional rituals were

13:39

a waste of time and resources.

13:42

The Moist Tao was guided by a

13:44

doctrine that of acting on the basis

13:46

of inclusive care so as to maximize

13:48

benefit for everyone. Both

13:51

Moists and Confucian Dao's incorporated methods to

13:53

attain their respective aims, and the Taoists

13:55

were leery of any general set of

13:57

prescriptions, either for goals or a method.

14:00

to be followed by everyone. Thinking

14:03

about Dao as a method or approach

14:05

also brings to mind the range of

14:07

arguments and methods of persuasion early Chinese

14:09

thinkers used to put their ideas across.

14:12

These include the use of

14:14

metaphors, imagery, illustrations, precedents, and

14:16

analogies. In this series,

14:18

we will of course be discussing philosophical ideas,

14:21

but we will also consider how these thinkers

14:23

made a case for those ideas. In

14:26

many of the texts, we will find little

14:28

in the way of explicit argument or valid

14:30

demonstration of lots in the way of metaphors,

14:32

illustrations, analogies, or imagery. Frequently,

14:35

one has the sense that the reader is being

14:37

invited to think along with the authors. Let's

14:40

look at a couple of cases of the reasoning

14:42

strategies used by early Chinese thinkers. To

14:45

exemplify the use of imagery, we'll take another

14:47

passage from the trongzi, in fact

14:50

another one involving a bird. This

14:52

is the story of a high official who honored

14:54

a bird by taking it in his chariot for

14:56

a temple visit. The bird

14:58

was presented with a banquet of meat and wine

15:00

as part of a sacrificial ritual that involved killing

15:03

an ox, a sheep, a pig. The

15:05

poor bird then died within three days. This

15:08

imagery is meant to convey something we

15:11

just mentioned, the trongzis, criticism of society's

15:13

promotion of a single set of ideals.

15:16

Even if well-intentioned, the effort to

15:19

enrich human lives by promoting a

15:21

singular Dao impoverishes humanity. The

15:23

way the bird is fussed over is ridiculous,

15:25

a vivid example to show the coercive nature

15:28

of these single ideal projects. Many

15:31

texts also use illustrations to support their

15:33

claims. Some of these are anecdotal,

15:36

that is they refer to an incident in the

15:38

past as an example of an action or a

15:40

disposition that should be emulated, or one that should

15:42

be avoided. In the

15:44

Confucian text, the mongzi, there's a

15:46

sage-king, Xun, who is respected for

15:48

showing filial devotion to his parents.

15:51

In fact, Xun's parents and half-brother attempted to kill

15:53

him by getting him to repair a well and

15:55

then shutting him in it. The

15:58

mongzi uses this anecdote to illustrate Shun's

16:00

filiality and his virtue as he remained

16:02

devoted to them. Now,

16:04

it's far from clear that this really happened, but that

16:07

isn't really the point. Often

16:09

anecdotes serve to enhance the visibility or

16:11

accessibility of the point being made. It's

16:14

not unlike the telling of a joke,

16:16

which might slip in elements familiar to

16:18

its intended audience. There's a flip side to

16:20

this, of course. If the intended audience does not

16:22

share the comedian's reference points, they will fail to

16:24

understand the joke, a phenomenon that will

16:26

be painfully familiar to any middle-aged academic who

16:28

has tried to teach students who are 20

16:30

years younger. And this is a

16:32

problem Karen and I definitely have experienced. There

16:36

is potentially more to the use of

16:38

anecdotes as well in early Chinese texts.

16:40

They also implicitly demonstrate the author's familiarity

16:42

with existing motifs, and thereby

16:45

help to establish his authority, particularly his

16:47

membership of an in-group. Needless

16:49

to say, adding this information does not make

16:51

us any more likely to agree with the

16:53

philosophical point being made. However, it does

16:55

help us better understand the methods of persuasion and

16:58

the uses of argument in early China. It's

17:01

appropriate that we have spent so much of this

17:04

first episode talking about the meaning of a single

17:06

word, Dao, because something else that was of great

17:08

concern in early Chinese philosophy was language and the

17:10

difficulty of using it well. It

17:12

should be evident from everything we've said that

17:14

one common English translation, wei, is

17:17

not entirely misleading, yet also falls well

17:19

short of expressing its full range of

17:21

meaning. For Dao is not

17:23

simply a concept to be understood, it

17:25

incorporates activity of traveling along the way.

17:29

How we do so by following or

17:31

engaging or challenging or creating our Dao's.

17:34

Moreover the idea of Dao, whether as expressing

17:36

a vision of how life should be, or

17:38

as a doctrine or practice, or in rejecting

17:41

the imposition of any one model of life

17:43

for all, needs to be communicated. Indeed,

17:46

we noted that for the Daoists, Dao

17:48

is ineffable. It cannot be captured or

17:50

expressed in words at all. What

17:52

then is the force of words? We

17:54

rely heavily on language for so many of our

17:56

activities. Indeed life would be unthinkable

17:59

without language. Through the language we

18:01

think about and communicate our intentions and

18:03

preferences, develop and work on projects together,

18:05

and express our agreement or disagreement with

18:07

others, and much more. The

18:10

aforementioned group of thinkers known as the MOISTS

18:12

believe that language is an irreducible part of

18:14

the infrastructure of the human world. Used

18:17

and harnessed well, it had the capacity to

18:19

bring order to life and, of course, to

18:21

be more productive. However,

18:24

the task of ensuring that language both

18:26

captures what is in the world and

18:28

appropriately conveys our projects and goals is

18:31

immensely complicated. The MOISTS

18:33

canons, MOZHING, articulate the difficulty

18:35

of getting language to fulfill

18:37

these functions, and as we've

18:39

already learned to expect, does so with an example.

18:42

Suppose we are trying to differentiate Oxen from

18:45

horses. What do we pick as

18:47

the distinguishing features of each? The

18:49

canons speak against arbitrarily picking any feature,

18:51

such as Oxen having teeth and horses

18:54

having tails, to distinguish the two. The

18:57

MOISTS concern was not merely to settle disagreements

18:59

about the features of Oxen and horses, of

19:01

course. Rather, they sought to ascertain

19:03

how it might be possible to ensure that

19:06

words are used reliably. Their

19:08

project to determine the connection between words and

19:10

the things in the world the word picks

19:12

out exposes some intractable problems in our use

19:15

of language. Whereas language

19:17

seeks to establish determinate meanings, our lives

19:19

are constantly on the move. On

19:22

the one hand, language facilitates our life together,

19:24

allowing us to flourish. On the

19:26

other, it draws us into familiar and ingrained ways

19:28

of life. This

19:30

is a topic we'll discuss more deeply in due course,

19:33

but not yet. In the

19:35

next episode, we will be focusing on

19:37

another factor that contributes to the inexactness

19:39

of language, the inevitability of change. As

19:42

much as we wish to remain on the same

19:44

path while the going is good, many events are

19:47

beyond our control. We need to

19:49

respond, adapt, and move on. Change

19:51

requires us sometimes to rethink our DAOs or

19:53

to develop new ones. As you

19:56

are even now in the process of developing the

19:58

new habit of listening to the history Support

20:00

to support the