Page 697 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

LIEZI

a contemporary of Zhuangzi !Tt ~{. The original text of the fourth century
BCE had been lost, however, even by the Han dynasty. The work transmitted
under Liezi's name today (available in the Taoist Canon, CT 668 and CT 729
to CT 733, and in many other editions) was reconstituted and expanded in the
second century CE, using numerous stories and philosophical discourses from
the *Zhuangzi as a basis and already showing some Buddhist influence. The
eight chapters are as follows:
I. "Heaven's Auspices" CTianrui" :7(Iffij) is a highly speculative discussion
of the ongoing accumulation and dispersal of *qi, the world as consisting
of complementary opposites, Non-being (*wu) as humanity's true home,
and reconciliation with death.
2. "The Yellow Emperor" C*Huangdi" jt *), taking much from the Zhuangzi,
focuses on the Taoist principle of non-action (*wuwei) through remaining
unaware and unknowing, totally absorbed and concentrated on one
object.
3. "King Mu of Zhou" CZhou Muwang" mJ ~ £) is named after the Zhou
sovereign (r. 9s6-9r8 BCE) who mystically traveled to the Queen Mother
of the West (*Xiwang mu) on Mount *Kunlun. It shows how the whole
world is but an illusion and that there is no substantive difference between
perception and dreaming because all are equally part of the Dao. Dreams
are just as real as "reality," and if people woke up only once in every
seven weeks, they would think of their waking state as unreal. There
is ultimately no fixed reality but only the natural alternation of mental
states, fluctuating in an overall cosmic balance.
4. "Confucius" CZhongni" 1~,IE) tells stories featuring Confucius and
shows the futility of the Confucian trust in knowledge, with the help of
paradoxes and absurd tales. Worldly knowledge ends up being described
as an illness, an unreal form of perception.
s. "Questions of Tang" C'Tangwen" t~ ru9) continues along the same lines and
highlights the limits of ordinary knowledge in the face of the infinity of the
universe. All judgments are relative, and even the safest familiarity blanches
in the light of new lands beyond far horizons. In addition, the chapter
includes several stories that illustrate miraculous abilities in this world,
won by overcoming the limiting and opposite-centered consciousness.
6. "Endeavor and Destiny" CLiming" ) J 011) contrasts personal effort and
fate and finds the former powerless in the face of the latter, presenting a
position of fatalism and recommending complete inertia in the expecta-
tion of whatever happens naturally. The text here repudiates conscious
choice in favor of follOWing one's intuition and inherent capacities without
thinking about alternatives.