Lesson 9 · What is the Dao De Jing?

This chapter examines the origins and nature of the Dao De Jing: its alternative titles (Laozi / Dao De Jing / De Dao Jing), the meaning of its title (Dao and De), its historical context and chapter structure (9 × 9 = 81 chapters), its central purpose (describing the "Dao"), and the philosophy of "nonbeing → being"—a duality within a unified whole—illustrated by the story of Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch of Chan Buddhism, asking, "How can Buddha-nature differ between north and south?"

I. Alternative Titles and Historical Context of the Dao De Jing

Alternative Titles

• This book can be called the Laozi.
  • Calling it the Dao De Jing actually carries religious Daoist overtones, because Daoist philosophy developed into a religion in later generations.
    • Religious Daoism retained the fundamental spirit of Daoist philosophy while adding methods for nurturing health & spiritual cultivation, as well as religious rituals.
      Together, these elements formed a religion.
    • Daoism is a truly indigenous Chinese religion.
    • Although Buddhism has had an enormous influence in China, even surpassing Daoism, it was ultimately introduced from India and is not classified academically as an indigenous religion.
    • Buddhism underwent a long process of Sinicization.
    • At the level of ideas, there is no need to distinguish between what is indigenous and what came from elsewhere.
    • Whether we are talking about Buddhism or Daoism, Laozi or Shakyamuni Buddha, they all point to people who realized the Great Dao underlying the essence of the universe.
    • What they came to understand can guide our lives, and it applies universally—it is a fundamental principle of nature.
    • There are no distinctions such as those between nations, regions, or ethnic groups.

The meaning of the title *Tao Te Ching*

• “Tao”: the principle followed in common by all things in the universe: two reversals/returns and one circle
• “Te”: the manifestation of Tao in all things in the human world
  • It is reflected in all kinds of matters and in reading all kinds of literary classics. People, things, or events that embody the spirit of Tao are said to “possess Te.”
    • People, books, and scholars who possess Te

The chapters of the *Tao Te Ching*

• A total of eighty-one chapters
  • The first 37 chapters: The Tao section
  • Chapters 38–81: The Te section
  • The 81 chapters are divided into two parts. This is merely a conventional classification; it does not mean the ideas have been split apart.
    • The first part contains both Tao and Te, and so does the second.
  • In some versions of the Dao De Jing, the De Jing comes first and the Dao Jing comes second. This arrangement is called the De Dao Jing.
    • There is no real difference.
  • A short section is a chapter, and a book comes before its chapters. This differs from the way people think today, when chapters come before books.
    • The Dao De Jing has chapters but no books, and is 5,000 characters long. Historically, it has also been called “Laozi’s Departure Through the Pass,” referring to the legendary story of purple clouds appearing in the east when Laozi departed.
    • As Laozi rode out through the pass on an ox, he left behind the 5,000 words of the Dao De Jing. Some people simply call the Dao De Jing “The Five Thousand Words.”
  • Why is the number of sections in the Dao De Jing odd?
    • The ancients also called odd numbers yang numbers and even numbers yin numbers, corresponding to the concepts of yin and yang.
    • Why are odd numbers called yang numbers?
      Why are even numbers called yin numbers?
    • Because odd numbers symbolize movement and the workings of human affairs and society.
    • When an odd number is divided by 2, it cannot be divided evenly; there is always 1 left over, showing that it is in a dynamic, emergent state.
    • Even numbers divide evenly by 2, reflecting a stable, unmoving state. That is why they are called yin numbers.
  • Nine times nine is eighty-one.Nine times nine is called the number of ultimate yang. There is an old saying among ordinary Chinese people: “Nine times nine returns to one.” Once the count reaches eighty-one, it must return to one. This is the Daoist cycle: when all things reach their extreme, they must turn back, be overturned, collapse, and return.

The background to the writing of the Dao De Jing

• Laozi was compelled to write

The purpose of the book The Tao Te Ching

• To describe the Tao.
  • Because the Tao exists throughout the universe and can be reflected in a fundamental pattern and principle underlying all things
    • The Tao: invisible and intangible, it can only be understood through personal insight
    • Therefore, it is not quite accurate to say that one explains, discusses, or interprets the Tao.
    • The most accurate approach is to “describe” it, bringing the Tao to light as fully as possible“Call it great by giving it the character ‘great’; forcefully giving it a name, call it the Tao”; because the word “forcefully” is used, one must always remember that this is a description
    • The Tao cannot be spokenHolding up a flower and smiling
    • The sixth patriarch of Zen Buddhism was called Huineng
    • The process by which Sixth Patriarch Dharma Master Huineng awakened to the Tao also accords with this principle
    • His family was very poor when he was young, and he was completely illiterate, let alone able to read Buddhist scripturesHe did not even recognize written characters, so it was impossible for him to become attached to words; he bypassed the superficial form of language and writing and penetrated directly to the essence
    • How did he awaken to the Tao? He heard someone recite a line from the Diamond Sutra and immediately experienced sudden enlightenment. He had exceptional talent and profound insight
    • After awakening to the Tao, he went to seek the Dharma from Dharma Master Hongren, the Fifth Patriarch of Zen Buddhism at the time, in Huangmei, Hubei：Master Hongren saw that he had come from Guangdong
      (In ancient times, Guangdong's Lingnan region was known as the land of the southern barbarians: culturally undeveloped, with people living like savages)
    • The master deliberately acted disdainful and said: You, a southern barbarian, have come to study Buddhism too?
    • Huineng said: People may come from the north or south, but how can Buddha-nature be divided into north and south?
    • Huineng had never read the Buddhist scriptures, yet what he said expressed Buddhist principles.
    • In Buddhism, this is called having no discriminating mind and recognizing the oneness of all sentient beings
    • In Daoism, it means yin and yang becoming one. There is no distinction between subject and object, high and low, good and evil, being and nonbeing, right and wrong, or yin and yang
    • He had already realized that the entire world is essentially one, returning to the starting point of Laozi's circle
    • Huineng had actually already attained enlightenment when he went to seek a teacher, but his main duty at the monastery was sweeping the floor：The Sweeper Monk character in Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils was directly modeled on Huineng
    • One day, the teacher asked everyone to write a Buddhist gatha (JI, fourth tone) to see whose understanding was greater and whose grasp of Buddhist teachings was deeper
    • “Buddhist gatha”: a literary form that expresses Buddhist principles in verse
    • Huineng was illiterate, so who would write his Buddhist gatha for him? ：At the time, everyone wrote on the walls, and the monks would come to read and learn from the verses, judging whose was best
    • Huineng felt that his senior fellow disciple Shenxiu had not yet perceived emptiness, so he went to compose another verse
    • But Huineng could not write. Just then, a retired official happened to pass by, as recorded in the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch.
    • The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch: It tells the story of Huineng. It is the only Buddhist work written by a Chinese person that can be called a “sutra,” and it holds a very high status.
    • The Buddhist “Three Baskets”—sutras, vinaya, and treatises—are three categories of scriptures. Sutras are the highest, directly expounding Buddhist teachings. Treatises explain the sutras. Tang Sanzang.
    • Huineng dictated it, and this official helped write it on the wall. This caught the master’s attention, and he passed the robe and bowl on to him.
    • Huineng wrote the famous lines: “Bodhi is originally no tree; the bright mirror is also no stand. Originally there is not a single thing—where could dust alight?”
    • It is all about “emptiness,” that is, returning to Laozi’s “nonbeing.” : Grasp nonbeing, and all things arise from it; the more yin, the more yang; the more there is nonbeing, the more there is being. Opposites are one and can transform into each other.
    • By grasping nonbeing, Huineng had in fact grasped all things.: He could then understand the entire world.
    • The official is recorded as being named Zhang Riyong. This may have been his real name, but some scholars believe it was a Buddhist metaphor.
    • What does Zhang Riyong mean?
    • It is the “riyong” in “everyday household goods.” So this is really explaining that the Great Way is not in Buddhist scriptures; it is found in everyday life.
    • As mentioned earlier, if you want to seek the truth, the Way,
      you need to look for it in Jigong, not in refined, cultured scholars;
      you need to look among ordinary people, not in lofty lecture halls.
    • The master thought his Buddhist verse was excellent, so he went to the kitchen to take a look. Huineng’s main duties were cleaning and washing rice and cooking.
    • The master had a brief conversation with him, then tapped the ground a few times with his Zen staff.
    • The act of knocking three times refers to the story of “a flower held up and a smile in response,” which took place between Venerable Mahākāśyapa, the first patriarch of Zen, and the Buddha.
    • Not establishing teachings through words, but transmitting the mind directly.
    • The true Way is not found in the words of Buddhist scriptures.
    • Late one night, Huineng went to see his master. The master saw that Huineng had attained understanding, which meant the time had come to transmit the Way.
    • The master began teaching Huineng the Diamond Sutra. This part is quite amusing: Huineng was about to complete his training, yet he was just then learning the most basic introductory text, the Diamond Sutra.
    • After just a few lines, Huineng said, “Teacher, you don’t need to explain any more. I understand it all.”
    • The Diamond Sutra, the Tao Te Ching, and the Zhuangzi are essentially alike; their core spirit is shared, so there’s no point in reading so many books.
    • So Huineng left Huangmei that very night and began teaching the Dharma.

The influence of the Tao Te Ching

• More than 1,350 years ago, the Tao Te Ching had already been translated into foreign languages. This was during the reign of Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin.
  • Two people translated the Laozi into classical Indian Sanskrit.
    • The spread of the Tao Te Ching and the spread of Buddhism have something in common: both involved exchanges with India.
    • This also shows that Buddhism and Taoism are fundamentally connected.
    • One of them was the Taoist Cheng Xuanying.The other was the well-known Tang Sanzang.
    • It was Cheng Xuanying and Tang Sanzang who jointly translated the Laozi into Sanskrit.
• Since the beginning of the modern era, two books have been the most widely circulated in the West.
  • The Bible
    • The Laozi
    • Laozi has had an enormous influence worldwide!
    • The Great Dao discussed in the Laozi transcends time and national boundaries; it is common to the entire universe, human society, and all things.
    • The Dao De Jing and the Zhuangzi are part of China's outstanding traditional culture, but we should also recognize that their wisdom belongs to all humanity.
    • This wisdom exists naturally in the universe. It was simply that our Chinese ancestors, through their intelligence and ingenuity, were the first to discover it and describe it in writing.
    • If we compare the Analects with the Dao De Jing, the Analects has greater limitations.
    • The Confucian thought in the Analects has distinctively Chinese characteristics and historical features specific to its era.: Many principles in the Analects are no longer particularly applicable to today's society.
      Many others are still applicable.
    • The Analects contains relatively more passages and ideas that are limited by their historical context.
    • The Dao De Jing: It transcends ancient and modern times, East and West, spanning both time and space.: Just because it was written by Chinese people does not mean it applies only to Chinese society.
    • Most of the content in the Dao De Jing bears no discernible marks of its historical era.
    • It applies in any era and can explain any situation.
    • But a small portion bears the marks of its historical context: because the Laozi was written during the Spring and Autumn period, it contains traces of the society of that time. But this does not change the Dao’s timeless relevance.
    • The eight Chinese characters used to praise Confucius are actually even more fitting for Daoism.
    • His virtue matches Heaven and Earth; his Way spans ancient and modern times.
    • This was the ancients’ high praise for Confucius.
    • Here, “de” refers to moral virtue, encompassing benevolence and righteousness, rather than de as used in the Tao Te Ching.
    • “Dao” here is also not the Dao of the Tao Te Ching. It refers not to the fundamental laws of the universe, but to a body of thought.
    • “Dao” has both a broad and a narrow meaning.
    • Broadly, it refers to the ideas of various schools of thought.
    • Narrowly, it refers specifically to the Dao as the fundamental laws of the universe, Heaven, and Earth.
    • If we replace the meanings of “de” and “Dao” in this saying with their meanings in the Tao Te Ching, it becomes an especially fitting description of Laozi and the Tao Te Ching.
    • This Dao and de arise from Heaven, Earth, and nature. They span ancient and modern times, East and West, transcend time and space, and can be applied to all things.
    • The Tao Te Ching: Hold fast to the Dao of antiquity to govern what exists today.
    • Grasp the Dao that has existed since ancient times to navigate all the things and phenomena we see in the world today.
    • This is the ultimate teaching objective of this course series.

Versions of the Tao Te Ching

• The received version: The Tao Te Ching that is generally seen is called the received version: passed down through copying and circulation over the years
  • The silk manuscript version
    • In 1973, a silk manuscript version was unearthed from a Han dynasty tomb at Mawangdui in Changsha, Hunan
    • Silk: silk fabric
    • The silk manuscripts are divided into two versions, A and B: There are slight inconsistencies in the wording
  • The bamboo-slip version
    • In 1993, bamboo slips inscribed with the Laozi and dating from the Warring States period were unearthed at Guodian Village in Jingmen, Hubei
    • They are divided into three versions—A, B, and C—but none of the versions is complete
    • Excerpts from parts of the Tao Te Ching
• The teacher recommends Laozi: Modern Annotations and Modern Translation and Zhuangzi: Modern Annotations and Modern Translation, published by The Commercial Press and written by the renowned scholar Mr. Chen Guying
  • He collated and proofread the three versions, producing a version that he believed most closely reflects the original meaning of the Laozi
    • In addition, his annotations and translations, along with some of his own interpretations, make it very suitable for beginners
    • It is both detailed and relatively objective