Page 179 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

OVERVIEW 139

Where Confucians and Taoists parted ways is that the former viewed the
world primarily in terms of inherited sociopolitical norms, while the latter
focused on humans' continuities with the invisible dimensions of reality that
Confucians were often reluctant to discuss. Some modern interpreters, includ-
ing scholars, simplistically maintain that Confucians advocated activism while
Taoists commended non-action (*wuwei). In reality, Confucius advocated wuwei
by rulers, as did both the Daode jing and such Legalists as Shen Buhai $ 7F
'8 (ca. 400-ca. 340 BCE) . Modern writers also generally neglect the fact that
Mencius saw the cultivation of *qi as part of a gentleman's self-cultivation (see
Neiye). Such matters deserve attention as we reappraise Chinese traditions.

Russell KIRKLAND
III Kirkland 1995a; Kirkland 1996a; Kirkland 2001; Kusuyama Haruki 1983a;
Seidel 1989-90, 275-78
* SYNCRETISM ; TAOISM AND EARLY CHINESE THOUGHT; TAOISM AND NEO-
CONFUCIANISM

Taoism and Neo-Confucianism

The overall attitude of Neo-Confucians to Taoism has never been studied in the
same way as the generally implacable opposition of Cheng-Zhu ~j* followers
to Buddhism, or even the more flexible attitudes of cultural leaders like Su Shi
iilli.i\ (Su Dongpo ii:w:t&:, 1037-IIOI; SB 900-968) to the attractions of Chan.
This in part no doubt reflects the fact that it was explicitly not considered as
anything like as serious an issue as the need to define the Confucian stance
over against the foreign religion. Both Chinese traditions, after all, had come
to share much in common, from a conventional morality to a metaphysics
based on the concept of *qi. Earlier, Han Yu ~~ (768-824; IC 397- 40) had
indeed criticized the "non-action" (*wuwei) of Laozi, in part perhaps as a protest
against a dynasty temporarily rendered inert by its problems, and which had
been forced to draw heavily on the existing ideological capital it had invested
in state Taoism. His attitude is but partially reflected in eleventh-century
writers like Ouyang Xiu lID.: ~1~ (1007-72; SB 808-16), who carps at the Taoist
devotions of Tang figures, but himself displays a remarkable competence at
composing Taoist prayers when required by the emperor to do so.
Those such as the Cheng brothers (Cheng Hao ~jJJi, 1032- 85, and Cheng
Yi ;j¥ruL I033-1I07; SB 169-79) concerned with the establishment of new
Confucian methods of self-cultivation likewise criticize the methods used by
Tang Taoists like *Sima Chengzhen, but their theoretical pronouncements on