A Comparative Study of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu

During the history of ancient Chinese culture, Taoism plays a significant part in different schools of the pre-Qin period with its unique perception of universe, society and life. As two outstanding representatives of Taoism, philosophical thoughts of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu are bound to exist in the same strain of the concept of the essence of Taoism. Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu acknowledge the constitutional status of Taoism in the universe, follow the reasonable way of thinking, pursue an original and pristine life, repress desire and knowledge and bow to the reality (Jiao 16-20). However, since they live in different times and have different life experiences, their thoughts differ, either. Lao Tzu focuses on the descriptions of the outlook of the universe while Chuang Tzu more concentrates on the life philosophy (Feng 132-187). Besides, Lao Tzu develops universe philosophy to politics view while Chuang Tzu devotes himself to spirit learning. These differences directly influence the language styles of two great writers, Lao Tzu precise and standard while Chuang Tzu wanton and bold. All these differences between Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu, ultimately, are rendered by their different comprehension and illustrations of Taoism in theory.

Through the history, there is no doubt that Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu belong to the Taoist school, and they both advocate Taoism. However, their opinions about Taoism, the way Tao exists and the relations between Tao and universe are divided. In Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu, different answers to these questions are focused on the explanation of “All things under heaven sprang from It as existing (and named); that existence sprang from It as non-existent (and not named).” (Wei 23) This proposition comes from Dao De Jing and in this proposition, it can see that Lao Tzu believes that Tao is the origin of the universe, and he constructs a system to elaborate how Tao generates all things in the world. According to Chapter 42 of Dao De Jing, “The Tao produced one; One produced Two; Two produced Three; Three produced All things.” (Wei 27) The reason that Tao can create all things of the universe and become the origin of the universe lies in the “inaction” of Tao. Tao targets to inaction, so it can be action through inaction (Zhou 4-5). As for the “inaction”, Lao Tzu describes as following:

“We look at it，and we do not see it，and we name it‘the Equable.’We listen to it, and we do not hear it, and we name it ‘the Inaudible.' We try to grasp it, and do not get hold of it, and we name it‘the Subtle’. With these three qualities, it cannot be made the subject of description; and hence, we blend them together and obtain The One. Its upper part is not bright, and its lower part is not obscure. Ceaseless in its action，it yet cannot be named, and then it again returns and becomes nothing. This is called the Form of the Formless，and the Semblance of the Invisible；this is called the Fleeting and Indeterminable.We meet it and do not see its Front；we follow it，and do not see its Back. When we can lay hold of the Tao of old to direct the things of the present day，and are able to know it as it was of old in the beginning，this is called（unwinding）the clue of Tao.” (Wei 16-18)

Tao is invisible, silent and untouchable. Tao is non-being. Tao does not have any regulations or rules, thus, not being becomes a synonym of Tao (Wang 35). As a result, what Lao Tzu believes Tao is the origin of the universe equals that all things are born from not-being, as “existence sprang from It as non-existent (and not named).” (Wei 48) In fact, as for Lao Tzu, not being used to describe and expound Tao the essential feature and existing form of Tao. In this sense, Tao and not-being are similar. For Lao Tzu, not-being shows the invisibility, silence and the nameless of Tao. “Only he that rids himself forever of desire can see the Secret Essences；He that has never ridden himself of desire can see only the Outcomes. These two things issued from the same mold, but nevertheless are different in name.” (Wei 29) This further illustrates Lao Tzu’s theory depends on the studies of being and not-being. Being and not-being are permanent.On the same time, Lao Tzu firmly believes that The One is Tao.

“Heaven which by it is bright and pure；

　　 Earth rendered thereby firm and sure；

　　 Spirits with powers by it supplied；

　　 Valleys kept full throughout their void.

All creatures which through it do live Princes and kings who from it get. The model which to all they give.

　　 All these are the results of the One (Tao)”(Wei 40)

Trough all the writing of Lao Tzu, Tao is the origin of all things, and not-being is adopted to explain and describe the characteristics and existing forms of Tao. The generation of being coming from the not-being does not diminish the authority of the Tao but address clearly why Tao becomes the origin of the universe.

However, for Chuang Tzu, in his exploration of the root of the universe, he is eager to finding out whether there is the origin or not. Based on Chuang Tzu, all things in the world are changing all the time and people cannot detect how they emerged (Miao 21). So the origin of the universe must follow the logical deduction to get answers rather than following the empirical demonstration.Then Chuang Tzu argues that every entity has an origin; before the origin, it is in a certain state; before the certain state, there still exists a state, which may be not-being (Liu 28). Moreover, the world has speech and before the appearance of the speech, there may be no speech but has a state which means people have intentions, but they do not express themselves with speeches. By this view, Chuang Tzu also deduces the similar result as Lao Tzu, which being comes from not-being.

Not-being shows the fundamental characteristic of Tao for Lao Tzu. When Lao Tzu regards not being as Tao, he aims to stress the invisibility, silence and anonymous of Tao, compared with visible, touchable and aural particular entities. Labeled by not-being, Lao Tzu’ Tao is separated from all things. However, Chuang Tzu’s not-being is a state before the being (Liu 29). That is to say, being is evolved from not-being. Here not-being is not the invisible Tao. For Chuang Tzu, Tao is a process when all things evolve from not being to being and from non-existence to existence. Therefore, Dao is connected with all entities and exists in the mutual transformation of all entities. Although both Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu consider not being as Tao, Chuang Tzu is more likely to name Tao as a creator so as to emphasize the relations between Tao and all things. From the perspective of Tao as creator, before the appearance of the specific entity, Tao does not take its responsibility to create things, and it cannot be named after creator. Only create things can it be called creator. This illustrates that Tao, in essence, cannot exist independently by separating from specific things. Tao presents the production and transformation of all things. In other words, Tao is the presentation process of the world.

Due to the different explanations and illustrations of Tao by Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu, Lao Tzu focuses on the political philosophy while Chuang Tzu belongs to living philosophy (Hu 17-19). Although Lao Tzu advocates inaction, he expects people to make achievements indeed, namely, to obtain some external practical purposes. Empires and the nobility have an extremely social status. How to conquer the world, how to manage the country and how to use the military forces are repeatedly discussed by Lao Tzu, which seems to provide suggestions for those powerful people. Lao Tzu confidently believes that if the authority can follow the way of Tao, even managing a large country, it is as simple as cooking a dish. The aim of Lao Tzu’s inaction is to act and has similar managing strategies.

Opposed to Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu requires the society is in a state of inaction. His inaction aims to keep out of troubles. Chuang Tzu believes that all the rules and methods of politicians directly destroy the nature of all the things. He proposes to abandon justice and humanity and rite and rituals, cancel all the constraints and trammels and consequently reverse all the things and the entire society to their original nature. Chuang Tzu proposes to give up social civilizations and progress and go back to the original state of human being. As for the specific strategies to manage the country, the prescriptions Chuang Tzu give are following the nature and people’s willing, which aims to promote the self-education of people.

That Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu’s different political and living philosophies lead to they hold different attitudes towards the secular fortune and fame. In the deep heart of Lao Tzu, he still does not forget his desires for the secular fortune and fame, and therefore, he chooses an inaction way in order to get the achievement on the precondition to preserve the life. However, Chuang Tzu lost confidence in secular fortune and fame. Although he pursues a peaceful and happy world shared by all people from the bottom of his heart, he felt disappointed and depressed for the reality and future since his sufferings. Therefore, he intends to discard all the trammels of the secular world and pursue the spiritual freedom and carefree excursion of himself, as expressed in The Carefree Excursion. This passage reveals that Chuang Tzu intends to get rid of the influence and restrictions of objective reality beyond time and space. Forgetting everything can realize the Carefree Excursion.

Lao Tzu lives in the upper class of the society and lacks the anxiety of individual survival but during the most time of Chuang Tzu, he lives at the bottom of the society and is destitute. The different social position and writing intention must bring in the various writing styles of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu. For Lao Tzu, his implicit readers are rulers. So his writing adopts standard and elegant expressions. In his works, it is very common to see the dialectical rules of all things in the universe, such as the relations between up and down, big and small, tough and soft, live and dead and so on. Moreover, his expressions follow a certain pattern, first clarifying how the natural law work and then deducing how a human being should do. For example, in the second chapter of Dao De Jing, Lao Tzu first analyzes the dialectical relations between beauty and ugliness and between kindness and the evil. Then he argues more dialectical relations and convince people they are permanent, which is the way the natural law works. Moreover, he deduces it to how sanity should treat with their career. In Lao Tzu, language is very concise and vivid. And it uses metaphors, symbols, antithesis, hyperbole, parallelism and thimble rhetoric usage, focusing on the rhythm and pace of the language. In explaining the production of Tao, Lao Tzu uses a bellow to expound. “Heaven and Earth and all that lies between Is like a bellows In that it is empty，but gives a supply that never fails. Work it, and more comes out .”Lao Tzu names the emptiness between heaven and earth as a bellow. And Lao Tzu often adopts “baby” and “newborn baby” to symbolize people who have noble thoughts. “When one gives undivided attention to the（vital）breath，and brings it to the utmost degree of pliancy，he can become as a（tender）babe.”(Wei 76) And he uses “valley spirit” and “mysterious female” to symbolize Tao as well. Moreover, thimble rhetoric usage is a bright point of the writing of Lao Tzu. For example, “Man takes his law from the Earth；the Earth takes its law from Heaven；Heaven takes its law from the Tao. The law of the Tao is it's being what it is.” (Wei 45)

As for Chuang Tzu, his writing is full of imagery and beautiful languages. He adopts Romanticism to express his ideas. First, he is good at expounding the complicated thoughts by use of allegories, such as “Wandering in Absolute Freedom”, “Ways of the Human World” and “Signs of Complete Integrity.” Chuang Tzu creates plenty of people and entities.The imagery human and things act as symbols to express his thoughts. His imagination is very particular. The images he creates are like a human being and can interact with each other. For example, the ghost can interact with his shadows, the skeleton can discuss Tao and Chuang Tzu can become into a butterfly. Except for the rich imagery, Chuang Tzu is also good at using metaphors. For example, “He springs, in a land of fish, the mouth of the gas used for the other lips moist with saliva each other for the other Zhike, in this world will never forget each other on the other side.” (Chen 72) Chuang Tzu’s language is very natural and free of no fixed patterns.

All in all, although Tao Tzu and Chuang Tzu are both great representatives of Taoism, they have different perspectives to interpret Tao. Tao Tzu regards Tao as not being while Chuang Tzu believes Tao is a process of things from not being to being. Due to the different interpretations of Tao and different life experiences, they also have different political philosophy and writing styles. Despite those differences between two great philosophers, their spirits exert profound influence on the later generations.