Page 88 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L
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I
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TAOISM VOL. I
When the root of the Dao had been established, from the non-existent (*wu)
there grew existence (*you). The Great Basis first began to sprout, to sprout
though as yet with no outer sign. The *qi was all together, and all appeared as
one-an undivided Chaos (hundun bufen ill! i~ /f fJ'). So the Account of the Dao
(Daozhi lltc:, i.e., the Daodejing) says "There is a thing confusedly formed, born
before Heaven and Earth." The body of its qi could by no means yet be given a
shape. Its stillings and quickenings could by no means yet be given regularity.
Things remained thus for more long ages; this was [the stage called] vast and
floodlike (panghong J~ ~). It was the stem of the Dao.
When the stem of the Dao had been grown, creatures came into being and
shapes were formed. At this stage, the original qi split and divided, hard and
soft first divided, pure and turbid took up different positions. Heaven formed
on the outside, and Earth became fixed within. Heaven took its body from
the Yang, so it was round and in motion; Earth took its body from the Yin, so
it was flat and quiescent. Through motion there was action and giving forth;
through quiescence there was conjoining and transformation. Through binding
together there was fertilization, and in time all the kinds of things were brought
to growth. This is called the Great Origin (Taiyuan *5L:). It was the fruition
of the Dao. (Hou Hanshu, Zhi it, IO.32I5, commentary)
The presence of accounts of the emergence of the cosmos from non-ex-
istence and primal Chaos might prompt the obvious question as to whether
(and if so when) it might revert to non-existence, and if so whether it might
in time reemerge. Such questions do not however seem to have been raised
systematically in ancient China before the coming of Buddhism, and unlike
the case of ancient Greece and later Europe, the question of the eternity or
temporality of the existence of the cosmos does not seem to have been seen
as an important issue.
Christopher CULLEN
m Kaltenmark 1959; Le Blanc 1989; Major 1993, 23-28; Mathieu 1992; Schafer
1977a, 21-31
2. Taoist notions
The return to the Origin (yuan j[), or to the Dao as the source and foundation
of the world, is one of the main notions running throughout Taoism. Several
facets of this notion must be examined for its importance to be appreciated.
First, Taoist writers often compound the ideas of the absolute Origin and
the beginning of existence. These ideas, however, are not entirely equivalent:
while the Origin is an ever-present foundation in both space and time, the
beginning of existence must be located in an unknown past. Second, both
ideas are equally paradoxical: on the one hand, the absolute Origin cannot
be something determinate, but if it were nothing it would not be the Origin;