Page 314 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

CHONGXUAN 275

and Non-being, and is equivalent to the Middle Path of the Madhyamaka
school of Buddhism. The second xuan aims at not being attached to the first
one, i.e., at not being attached to non-attachment.
Applying the Madhyamaka dialectic, the Chongxuan thinkers suggested
therefore that one should go beyond the affirmation of Being and its nega-
tion, and beyond the negation of both, rejecting the error of the eternalists
who maintain that an unchanging substance is at the basis of the world, and
equally rejecting the nihilist view that negates the reality of the world. Accord-
ing to the Chongxuan thinkers, these "two truths" must be both asserted and
dismissed. First the "two extremes" are rejected, then the "middle" is equally
rejected. The void (first xuan) is void (second xuan); the negation is negated;
the illness of pretending that anyone statement-be it you or wu, or negating
as well as asserting both- is true, disappears. The second xuan advances the
paradoxical realization that the world is neither real nor illusory, that affirma-
tion as well as negation of the reality or unreality of the world is nonsense.
The same dialectic was applied to expound other passages of the Daode jing,
such as the phrase "to decrease and again decrease" (sun zhi you sun fffiL~. X.
fffil., sec. 48), and of the *Zhuangzi, particularly the passage that reads "There
is being ... There is non-being ... There is a there-is-non-being that has not
yet begun to begin ... " (chapter 2; Robinet 1977, 121- 22). A similar dialectical
progression was also applied to the Three Ones (* sanyi), or to the root (ben ;;$:)
and the traces Vi J2'E), as everything is a trace of the Ultimate Truth, neither
real because it is not the Truth, nor false because it is its manifestation.
Buddhist thinkers such as Zhi Dun 3tJ§ (314-66), Sengzhao 1~ ~ (374-414),
and Jizang E ~ (549-623) used the expression chongxuan to speak of Laozi's
truth, and identify it as a Taoist usage. In alchemical *neidan texts, chongxuan
designates the embryo of immortality; here the term has the same meaning
as the expression "beyond the body there is another body" (shenwai you shen
~:J~:ff ~), which alludes to tuotai Jm~il (deliverance of the embryo) and is
synonymous with the "real emptiness" (zhenkong ~~) that subsumes the
distinction between Being and Non-being.

The Chongxuan school of thought. The Chongxuan school-which is not a lineage
but a trend of thought based on the principles outlined above- developed
around commentaries to the Daode jing and the Zhuangzi. Its existence as a
school of thought was first affirmed by Cheng Xuanying, the earliest commen-
tator who tried to classify the lineages of Daode jing exegesis in the preface to
his own commentary. After him, *Du Guangting (850--933) and thenJiao Hong
1*!IJE. (1541- 1620) also referred to the Chongxuan school. Many commentaries
of this school are lost and are only known through quotations.
The first Chongxuan thinker was apparently Sun Deng ~ 1t , a commenta-
tor of the Daode jing active during the Jin .g. dynasty (Fujiwara Takao 1961b;