What Is Taoism?: and Other Studies in Chinese Cultural History

by Herrlee G. Creel

What Is Taoism? traces, in nontechnical language, the history of the development of this often baffling doctrine. Creel shows that there has not been one "Taoism," but at least three, in some respects incompatible and often antagonistic. In eight closely related papers, Creel explicates the widely used concepts he originally introduced of "contemplative Taoism," "purposive Taoism," and "Hsien Taoism." He also discusses Shen Pu-hai, a political philosopher of the fourth century B.C.; the curious interplay between Confucianism, Taoism, and "Legalism" in the second century B.C.; and the role of the horse in Chinese history.

Genres: Nonfiction

200 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 1982

Reviews

[Ethan Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the title, Herrlee Creel's book actually devotes more space to the development of the fa jia 法家 (Usually translated as "Legalism" although Creel disputes this rendering). He mostly presents Daoism as disputing with and ultimately being infiltrated by the sorts of practical thinkers who made up the fa jia. Of the fa jia, creel offers a very interesting and extended discussion of the political theory of Shen Buhai 申不害 (400-337 BCE). Shen was an official in the chaotic Warring States period of Chinese history that proceeded the Qin Dynasty unification of the empire in 221 BCE. It was a time of growing administrative complexity and instability as the major states absorbed one another through conquest and grew on an unprecedented scale. Chaos without produced Chaos within, and it was not unheard of for great families to seize control of the states that they supposedly serve. It was for this reason, in Creel's understanding, that Shen decided to address the problem: how can the ruler retain control of the state administration without undermining its efficiency?

To this problem, Shen proposed a number of solutions which, arguably, would come to characterize Chinese imperial government for the next two millennia. First the ruler should "not act" (wu wei 无为). This means that the ruler does not reveal his likes and dislikes, or his political projects, which would open him to manipulation. Rather, at least in public, the ruler reigns but does not rule; he maintains almost a sacred void at the center of the government which sets him apart from the many officials and makes it impossible for any of them to pretend to his position. Secondly, following Creel's careful analysis of xing ming (刑名), the ruler himself retaining the power of life and death, must insure that each of the many officials acts according to his position. It was this requirement that would later give rise, for example, to the examination system.

Part of Creel's argument is that Shen Buhai's influence greatly exceeds his reputation. Indeed, although it was commonly read even in the Han Dynasty, today Shen's book is lost. It survives only in quotations from other works which Creel (in a paper unfortunately not included in this volume) has carefully collected and interpreted. There is a saying that Chinese government is "Confucian on the outside and legalist on the inside." Confucianism is philosophy capable of edifying and inspiring those who learn of it. The methods of Shen, on the other hand, do not have to be understood for what they are in order to be effective. The techniques of the fa jia thus come in later Chinese history as something like a political unconscious, setting limits on the functioning of the Confucian bureaucracy without calling attention to themselves.

As for Daoism, I especially enjoyed Creel's chapter's "What is Taoism" and "The Great Clod". Together, these paint a picture of "contemplative Taoism" as a philosophy of acceptance of all things. The world that we live, ever changing, ever transforming, beyond our capacities of knowledge or control, is not an eternal logos or a mathematical structure but a "Great Clod". That practical men in later times sought to use the language of Daoism to lend authority to their schemes in perfect contradiction to the authentic teachings is, in Creel's view, regrettable but not surprising. I personally think that Creel overstates the disjunction between "contemplative" and "purposive" Daoism. It seems to me possible to have a second order attitude of acceptance of whatever happens while still energetically acting in the present moment. But however this may be Creel's study remains clearly written, insightful, and engaging. I would recommend this scholarly book to anyone interested in early Chinese philosophy or in traditional Chinese political culture.

[Jackson Heuer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A technical, academic text concerned with the origins of Taoism.

[Brendan Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scholarly to the point of loosing the essential phenomenological gestalt of Taoism