Hello everyone, it’s Paul again. I know it’s been quite a while since my last post here, but I’m back (at least for the time being)! First of all, I regret not updating this blog more. I kinda lost a lot of motivation to continue writing and I don’t really know why. I may or may not return to my Men Without Hats album analysis, but that is not today’s topic.

Today’s topic is religion, specifically Taoism. I have chosen Taoism for this post because I find it to be a headache-and-a-half and would like to try understanding it better. I originally wanted to talk about Christianity for this, but I was challenged to try something I’m not familiar with. I’m not the type to back down from a challenge! So, without further ado, let’s talk about Taoism.

BUT WAIT! I want to share some of my thoughts about religion as a whole before we go specifically into Taoism. This is something I’ve had in my head for a while, so I really want to get it written down. It is my firm belief that the need for religion increases with age. As we get older, we start to understand things that we couldn’t possibly understand as children. I remember always asking why my family made me go to church every Sunday, and then I often fell asleep during the sermon. Not my finest moment. Nowadays, as a pensive young man working on a philosophy minor, I see the value of it all. For lack of a better word, children do not necessarily understand the “cruelties” of the world. By definition, children are dependent on their parents; therefore, they do not have to worry about or understand things like the two certainties in life: death and taxes. Of course, I can only speak for myself here, but perhaps it is my slightly pessimistic attitude that draws me closer to the idea of religion. I believe that as humans, we all need something higher than ourselves to strive for. That “something higher,” of course refers to a deity, spirit, godhead, anything! As long as you believe in something higher than yourself, then you are effectively part of a religion. Personally, I find comfort in knowing that there is someone watching over me and everything I do and that that someone loves me very much.

Remember how I kinda implied that there needs to be some sort of celestial figure present in order to have a religion? Yeah, Taoism doesn’t care about that. Rather, it teaches about something called the Tao or “The Path.” I will go into more detail on that later. I suppose this would be a good segue into my thoughts on Taoism. I had never interacted with the founding text, The Tao-te Ching, before a month ago; however, I do know two people who have read the text. These two people were my friends during my freshman year of college: one of whom (who I will refer to as “Josh” for his privacy), acted like a stereotypical late sixties hippie. He smoked marijuana, listened to Pink Floyd, and read the Tao. The other (whom I will call “Michael” also for his privacy) was my roommate and almost polar opposite of myself. In fact, if we compared our Myers-Briggs personality test results, we would be total opposites (I’m an ISTJ and he’s an ENFP)! The point I’m trying to make here is that these two friends of mine are what I would call “free spirits.” Why do I bring this up? Simple, because I believe that Taoism appeals to certain people. I am not one of those people. So let’s find out more about it! Perhaps my feelings will change as I go on.

Let’s start off with a little history lesson, shall we? Taoism was founded in 350 BCE through the writing of the original Tao-te Ching. The original was written on bamboo strips as a reaction to the dominant religion of China, Confucianism, by a group of individuals. This is already different than the holy text I’m used to. In the Bible, each book (with the exceptions of the poetry books, Psalms and Proverbs) was written by one person. The Tao-te Ching is already shorter than most books of the Bible, with only eighty-one chapters to its name. Of course, that is not to say that the Tao is bad compared to the Bible for having multiple authors. I just find it a tad strange.

The main principles of Taoism are that of harmony and following the world’s spontaneity rather than being stuck in a society’s order. As I mentioned previously, Taoism was made as a reaction to Confucianism. Confucianism is well-known for being a law-oriented school of thought. It only makes sense that some would want to break free from a society that they do not agree with.

Here is where I would like to introduce our first chapter of the Tao that I will be analyzing. This chapter tells us about Taoism’s view of government. Chapter 60 goes as follows: “Governing a great state is like cooking a small fish. Let the kingdom be governed according to the Tao, and the manes of the departed will not manifest their spiritual energy. It is not that those manes have not that spiritual energy, but it will not be employed to hurt men. It is not that it could not hurt men, but neither does the ruling sage hurt them. When these two do not injuriously affect each other, their good influences converge in the virtue (of the Tao)” (Tao-te Ching, 60).

The first thing we are told is a simile between great states and small fish. Such an analogy could only exist in Taoism. Personally, I have no experience in either governing states or cooking small fish. However, I have lived under a government for as long as I can remember and I have eaten a fair share of McDonald’s Filet-o-Fish sandwiches in my lifetime, so I think I am only somewhat qualified to analyze this quote. From what I am to understand, cooking small fish is not that easy. Sure, there are fewer bones, but a small fish would be easier to burn. By saying that governing a great state is like cooking a small fish, the Tao is telling us that it is easy to screw up a government. Since it is so easy to ruin a government, it needs good leaders to maintain it. The next verse tells us that the government should be run according to the practices of Taoism. The government officials would then be Taoist sages as opposed to the corrupt controlling officials of Confucianism. This is because the ruling sages would not use their spiritual energy to harm the state’s citizens. Then when the sages do not harm the citizens, the goodness of the convergence of energies manifests into the Tao’s virtues. That’s what I got out of it, at least. I would also like to note that when the “Tao” itself is mentioned, it refers to the “Path” or teachings presented by Taoism. The spiritual energy is also a principle of Taoism. The sages are believed to possess spiritual energy because the Tao connects human lives to the energy of the cosmos.

Wow! This post is already pretty long, so I think I’m gonna wrap things up after analyzing this other verse. Another important value of Taoism is the virtue of quietness. This is illustrated in Chapter 56 and it goes as follows: “He who knows (the Tao) does not (care to) speak (about it); he who is (ever ready to) speak about it does not know it. He (who knows it) will keep his mouth shut and close the portals (of his nostrils). He will blunt his sharp points and unravel the complications of things; he will attemper his brightness, and bring himself into the agreement with the obscurity (of others). This is called ‘the Mysterious Agreement.’ (Such an one) cannot be treated familiarly or distantly; he is beyond all consideration of profit or injury; of nobility or meanness:–he is the noblest man under heaven” (Tao-te Ching, 56).

Gee, that kinda reminds me of the time I was in the Fight Club. It’s a shame that I forgot the first rule of it. Regardless, this chapter seems to be telling us about the silence of Taoist sages. Since the Tao itself is so otherworldly, it cannot be described using our human languages. This is initially what made me so confused about Taoism. As a language major in college (specifically German), I rely a lot on language. Anyway, if someone claims that they understand the Tao, it surely means that they do not. If someone does find out the nature of the Tao, that person must not speak of it or risk breaking the “Mysterious Agreement.” The final verse of the chapter states that a sage is not to be treated familiarly or distantly, rather that the sage is beyond our reach. He has effectively become one with the cosmos and has gained knowledge. That’s all well and good, but this raises a handful of questions. If sages are not to speak of the Tao, then how do sages talk to each other? Do sages isolate themselves from the rest of the world? If sages isolate themselves, then how can they govern a state as described in Chapter 60? The last verse of the chapter also tells us that sages are the noblest men under the heavens. Does this mean that they are similar to royalty and that we should treat them as such? That can’t possibly be the case because sages cannot be treated familiarly or distantly. Then should we just ignore the sages? I have no idea.

I’m guessing that Lao Tzu and the rest of the Tao-te Ching’s writers did not account for American college students reading their work. In fact, I’m certain that they didn’t (it took over a millennia after the fact for the United States to be founded)! I say this because I believe that as an American, there are societal values that I follow that contradict those of Taoism. For example, I value structure and control as opposed to Taoism’s zen-like openness. Through my reading of the Tao-te Ching, I can safely say that Taoism is not the religion for me. That is not to say that you shouldn’t be allowed to follow it if you wish. I can only speak for myself and you can only think for yourself. Overall, I would say the biggest barrier for me in understanding the Tao is how it is written. As I said, language is very important to me. I simply cannot understand something that is so freeform such as Taoism. When the religion outright tells the readers that they are striving for something that cannot be described, it has lost its meaning on me.

Despite the fact that there is much I do not understand about Taoism, I would still recommend looking into it yourself, dear reader. Perhaps you would find something that I’m missing. Maybe that is part of the appeal of Taoism. I wouldn’t know. Anyway, I would like to end this post with a quote from an article that I found on living a meaningful life. The following quote from the Asian Journal of Social Psychology describes Taoism better than I ever could: “Taoism champions an authentic self where a person is encouraged to follow the way of Nature, aspiring for emancipation from mundane constraints. The Taoist perspective on the kind of self that should be pursued is coined naïve dialecticism, a constellation of lay beliefs that can be summarized by three principles: contradiction, change, and holism. That is, dialecticism promotes a tolerance of contradiction, a tendency to see the world as ever-changing, and a cognitive processing pattern that recognizes interconnections among elements” (Wang et al. 199). If you can tolerate all of life’s contradictions and are able to change along with the world, then Taoism may be right up your alley.

As always, thanks for reading.

Paul

Additional note: I would also like to bring up a character from a franchise that I quite like, Digimon. One of the digital monsters (which is what Digimon is short for) is named Taomon. Each Digimon follows the same naming convention of always having the suffix -mon. In this case, the prefix is Tao, which of course refers to Taoism. Taomon (who is pictured below) borrows a lot of inspiration in its design from Taoism’s religious roots. The yin-yang symbol on its chest symbolizes the contrary yet complementary forces in the universe. It is wearing robes that are often associated with the Japanese religion of Onmyōdō. Onmyōdō (which literally translates to “The Way of Yin and Yang” in Japanese) is based on the Chinese philosophies of Taoism and shares many points on spirits and divination. Nowadays, Onmyōdō is used in fiction as a way of casting magic spells and summoning spirits through divination. Taomon also has the Sanskrit character for “truth” on the cloth covering its legs. You will also notice the pieces of paper coming out of its claw; those are talismans. Talismans are used in Taoism to channel spiritual energy into those to whom the talisman is attached. While this fictional character is not necessarily fully accurate to Taoism (perhaps it would be more accurate to call this monster “Onmyōdōmon”), I still think it is interesting that religions such as Taoism are represented in the media we love.

Works Cited

Lao-tzu. The Tao-te Ching. Translated by James Legge, [1891].

Shu-Yi Wang, et al. “What Makes a Meaningful Life? Examining the Effects of Interpersonal Harmony, Dialectical Coping, and Nonattachment.” Asian Journal of Social Psychology, vol. 21, no. 3, Sept. 2018, pp. 198–204. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/ajsp.12212.

“Taomon.” DigimonWiki, digimon.fandom.com/wiki/Taomon.