Laozi, Hegel, and Buddhism by Wayne L. Wang, Ph.D.[1]
The Logic of Tao Philosophy
The first chapter of the Tao Te Ching is very important. We can show the structure of logic in Laozi’s philosophy directly from it. This logical structure is essentially the “unity of opposites” which can be shown in Figure 1:
Figure 1 Logic Structure of Laozi
The absolute reality is Heng Tao 恆道 that is the order of nature. From nature, we sense the actualities 實象 as “Heng Wu 恆無and Heng Yu 恆有”, and express in terms of the complementarity of two opposite objects 物象 “Wu 無 and Yu 有”. This structure is the “unity of opposites” proposed by Heraclitus. The two actualities are equivalent to represent reality.
The actuality is a holistic intuition that may be the complementarity of objects. However, the characteristic of the actuality is a structure or picture, or metaphor. If we understand the logic principle of Laozi, his words have appropriate meanings.
Western Philosophy and Buddhism
Heraclitus (535-475 BCE) is a contemporary of Laozi. Heraclitus’ Logos is the Tao 道 of Laozi. Heraclitus’s “unity of opposites” reflects the structure of Laozi’s philosophy. His many sayings reflect the ideas of Laozi. Hegel (1770 – 1831) formulate an “abstract-negative-concrete” dialectic to get absolute knowledge, based on Heraclitus’ “unity of opposites”. His dialectics is consistent with Laozi’s philosophy. Many other Western philosophers have expressed similar views. Our understanding of Laozi’s philosophy is greatly influenced by our understanding of Western philosophy. If we simplify the basic logical structure of Western philosophy, we can understand it with Laozi’s philosophy.
Buddha (563-483 BCE) was Laozi’s contemporaries who thought Samsara was painful and pointed to ways to reach Nirvana to avoid pains. We may use the same basic logic of Laozi’s philosophy to understand his thinking. We may identify the ultimate reality as “Suchness”, actualities as “emptiness” and objects as “forms”, and identify the Middle Way and the Heart Sutra as saying that the actuality level is the same as the object level. Abhidharma sutra uses a more accurate way to explain Buddha’s teachings. The basic is the “Theory of Dhamma”. The Theory of Dhamma describes the process of Dhamma. Some intermediate Dhammas create suffering. Only the final Dhamma can reach the state of Nirvana. The Theory of Dhamma is very close to the Process Philosophy of Whitehead.
The Errors in Traditional Taoism
Laozi’s philosophy was distorted when the Pro-Wu group introduced the concepts of “Yu born in Wu 有生於無” and “Wu as Tao 以無為道” in direct conflict with “Co-arising of Wu and Yu 有無相生” in the Tao Te Ching. Unfortunately, the Pro-Wu group has become the Chinese Traditional Taoism and has been protected by the Chinese.
When China was subjected to aggression by Western powers in the nineteenth century, China resorted to “nationalism” and proclaimed that Chinese Taoism is superior to any Western thought and the Chinese traditional culture cannot be discussed in terms of Western philosophy. No one dares to point out any errors in the traditional culture. Till now, traditional Taoism is still under “nationalism”.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, Western scholars have interpreted the Tao Te Ching as traditional Chinese Taoism, without realizing the errors introduced by the Pro-Wu group. The mystery of the East is completely translated into various languages and the discussions are within the Comfort Zone of China. The West mostly accepted the “Wu as Tao” and “Yu born in Wu”, without showing their contradictions with Laozi’s “Co-arising of Wu and Yu”.
We need to analyze Laozi’s ideas in light of Western philosophy so that we will not fall into the constraints of Chinese “nationalism”. This paper points out that Laozi’s philosophy has been distorted about 1800 years ago. The original Laozi’s logic is shown to be consistent with Heraclitus, Hegel, and Buddhism.
Reference
- 1. A more detailed paper is also published in academia.edu as The Logic Structure of Tao Philosophy.
- The summaries are in https://dynamictaos.com.
[1] Dr. Wang, Wayne L., was born in Taiwan, in 1944. He began studying the Tao Te Ching since 2000 to give back to society. He discovered the logic in the Tao Te Ching and found it consistent with Western and Buddhist philosophy. E-mail: wayne.wang@hotmail.com.
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Taiwan and Tao Philosophy 台灣與道家哲學 