III. Taoism and Zennism

The connection of Zennism with tea is proverbial. We
have already remarked that the tea-ceremony was a
development of the Zen ritual. The name of Laotse, the
founder of Taoism, is also intimately associated with the
history of tea. It is written in the Chinese school manual
concerning the origin of habits and customs that the
ceremony of offering tea to a guest began with Kwanyin,
a well-known disciple of Laotse, who first at the gate of
the Han Pass presented to the "Old Philosopher" a cup
of the golden elixir. We shall not stop to discuss the
authenticity of such tales, which are valuable, however,
as confirming the early use of the beverage by the Taoists.
Our interest in Taoism and Zennism here lies mainly in
those ideas regarding life and art which are so embodied
in what we call Teaism.
禅与茶的关系是广为人知的了。我们已经谈论到茶艺是禅礼的延伸。道家的创始人老子，也和茶的历史有密切的联系。中国的教科书里载有以茶待客的习俗开始于关尹，他的一个著名弟子，在汉口献金茶于老子。我们不应该停下来讨论这类故事的真实性；然而它们有助于确认早期道家对茶的使用。我们这里对道和禅的兴趣主要集中在所谓的“茶道”中保藏的对生活和艺术的观念。

It is to be regretted that as yet there appears to be no

adequate presentation of the Taoists and Zen doctrines

in any foreign language, though we have had several

laudable attempts.

Translation is always a treason, and as a Ming author

observes, can at its best be only the reverse side of a

brocade,--all the threads are there, but not the subtlety of

colour or design. But, after all, what great doctrine is

there which is easy to expound? The ancient sages never

put their teachings in systematic form. They spoke in

paradoxes, for they were afraid of uttering half-truths.

They began by talking like fools and ended by making

their hearers wise. Laotse himself, with his quaint humour,

says, "If people of inferior intelligence hear of the Tao, they

laugh immensely. It would not be the Tao unless they laughed

at it."

The Tao literally means a Path. It has been severally translated

as the Way, the Absolute, the Law, Nature, Supreme Reason,

the Mode. These renderings are not incorrect, for the use of

the term by the Taoists differs according to the subject-matter

of the inquiry. Laotse himself spoke of it thus: "There is a thing

which is all-containing, which was born before the existence

of Heaven and Earth. How silent! How solitary! It stands alone

and changes not. It revolves without danger to itself and is the

mother of the universe. I do not know its name and so call it

the Path. With reluctance I call it the Infinite. Infinity is the

Fleeting, the Fleeting is the Vanishing, the Vanishing is the

Reverting." The Tao is in the Passage rather than the Path. It

is the spirit of Cosmic Change,--the eternal growth which returns

upon itself to produce new forms. It recoils upon itself like

the dragon, the beloved symbol of the Taoists. It folds and

unfolds as do the clouds. The Tao might be spoken of as the

Great Transition. Subjectively it is the Mood of the Universe.

Its Absolute is the Relative.

It should be remembered in the first place that Taoism, like its

legitimate successor Zennism, represents the individualistic

trend of the Southern Chinese mind in contra-distinction to the

communism of Northern China which expressed itself in

Confucianism. The Middle Kingdom is as vast as Europe and

has a differentiation of idiosyncrasies marked by the two great

river systems which traverse it. The Yangtse-Kiang and Hoang-

Ho are respectively the Mediterranean and the Baltic. Even

to-day, in spite of centuries of unification, the Southern

Celestial differs in his thoughts and beliefs from his Northern

brother as a member of the Latin race differs from the Teuton.

In ancient days, when communication was even more difficult

than at present, and especially during the feudal period, this

difference in thought was most pronounced. The art and poetry

of the one breathes an atmosphere entirely distinct from that of

the other. In Laotse and his followers and in Kutsugen, the

forerunner of the Yangtse-Kiang nature-poets, we find an

idealism quite inconsistent with the prosaic ethical notions of

their contemporary northern writers. Laotse lived five centuries

before the Christian Era.

The germ of Taoist speculation may be found long before the
advent of Laotse, surnamed the Long-Eared. The archaic
records of China, especially the Book of Changes, foreshadow
his thought. But the great respect paid to the laws and customs
of that classic period of Chinese civilisation which culminated
with the establishment of the Chow dynasty in the sixteenth
century B.C., kept the development of individualism in check
for a long while, so that it was not until after the disintegration
of the Chow dynasty and the establishment of innumerable
independent kingdoms that it was able to blossom forth in the
luxuriance of free-thought. Laotse and Soshi (Chuangtse) were
both Southerners and the greatest exponents of the New School.
On the other hand, Confucius with his numerous disciples aimed
at retaining ancestral conventions. Taoism cannot be understood
without some knowledge of Confucianism and vice versa.
道家观念的种子可能远在老子，也就是老聃，出现之前就有了。中国的上古资料，尤其是易经，蕴藏有他的思想。中国文明的上古时期在公元前十六世纪周朝的建立而达颠峰，这段时间对礼法和制度的极度尊敬导致了个人主义长期停滞不前。所以一直要等到周朝解体、诸侯丛生的时候，道家才能在自由思想的繁荣中开花成长。老子和庄子都是南方人，都是新学派的伟大旗手。在另一方面，孔子和他的众多弟子致力于保持祖宗理法。没有一些儒家的知识是无法理解道家的，反之亦然。

We have said that the Taoist Absolute was the Relative.

In ethics the Taoist railed at the laws and the moral codes

of society, for to them right and wrong were but relative

terms. Definition is always limitation--the "fixed" and

"unchangeless" are but terms expressive of a stoppage of

growth. Said Kuzugen,--"The Sages move the world."

Our standards of morality are begotten of the past needs of

society, but is society to remain always the same? The observance

of communal traditions involves a constant sacrifice of the

individual to the state. Education, in order to keep up the

mighty delusion, encourages a species of ignorance. People

are not taught to be really virtuous, but to behave properly.

We are wicked because we are frightfully self-conscious.

We nurse a conscience because we are afraid to tell the truth

to others; we take refuge in pride because we are afraid to tell

the truth to ourselves. How can one be serious with the world

when the world itself is so ridiculous! The spirit of barter is

everywhere. Honour and Chastity! Behold the complacent

salesman retailing the Good and True. One can even buy a

so-called Religion, which is really but common morality

sanctified with flowers and music. Rob the Church of her

accessories and what remains behind? Yet the trusts thrive

marvelously, for the prices are absurdly cheap, --a prayer for

a ticket to heaven, a diploma for an honourable citizenship.

Hide yourself under a bushel quickly, for if your real

usefulness were known to the world you would soon be

knocked down to the highest bidder by the public auctioneer.

Why do men and women like to advertise themselves so much?

Is it not but an instinct derived from the days of slavery?

The virility of the idea lies not less in its power of breaking

through contemporary thought than in its capacity for dominating

subsequent movements. Taoism was an active power during the

Shin dynasty, that epoch of Chinese unification from which we

derive the name China. It would be interesting had we time to note

its influence on contemporary thinkers, the mathematicians,

writers on law and war, the mystics and alchemists and the later

nature-poets of the Yangtse-Kiang. We should not even ignore

those speculators on Reality who doubted whether a white

horse was real because he was white, or because he was solid,

nor the Conversationalists of the Six dynasties who, like the Zen

philosophers, revelled in discussions concerning the Pure and

the Abstract. Above all we should pay homage to Taoism for

what it has done toward the formation of the Celestial character,

giving to it a certain capacity for reserve and refinement as

"warm as jade." Chinese history is full of instances in which the

votaries of Taoism, princes and hermits alike, followed with

varied and interesting results the teachings of their creed.

The tale will not be without its quota of instruction and amusement.

It will be rich in anecdotes, allegories, and aphorisms. We would

fain be on speaking terms with the delightful emperor who never

died because he had never lived. We may ride the wind with

Liehtse and find it absolutely quiet because we ourselves are

the wind, or dwell in mid-air with the Aged one of the Hoang-Ho,

who lived betwixt Heaven and Earth because he was subject

to neither the one nor the other. Even in that grotesque apology

for Taoism which we find in China at the present day, we can revel

in a wealth of imagery impossible to find in any other cult.

But the chief contribution of Taoism to Asiatic life has been in the

realm of aesthetics. Chinese historians have always spoken of

Taoism as the "art of being in the world," for it deals with the

present--ourselves. It is in us that God meets with Nature, and

yesterday parts from to-morrow. The Present is the moving

Infinity, the legitimate sphere of the Relative. Relativity seeks

Adjustment; Adjustment is Art. The art of life lies in a constant

readjustment to our surroundings. Taoism accepts the mundane

as it is and, unlike the Confucians or the Buddhists, tries to find

beauty in our world of woe and worry. The Sung allegory of the

Three Vinegar Tasters explains admirably the trend of the three

doctrines. Sakyamuni, Confucius, and Laotse once stood before

a jar of vinegar--the emblem of life--and each dipped in his finger

to taste the brew. The matter-of-fact Confucius found it sour,

the Buddha called it bitter, and Laotse pronounced it sweet.

The Taoists claimed that the comedy of life could be made more

interesting if everyone would preserve the unities. To keep the

proportion of things and give place to others without losing

one's own position was the secret of success in the mundane

drama. We must know the whole play in order to properly act

our parts; the conception of totality must never be lost in that of

the individual. This Laotse illustrates by his favourite metaphor

of the Vacuum. He claimed that only in vacuum lay the truly

essential. The reality of a room, for instance, was to be found

in the vacant space enclosed by the roof and the walls, not in the

roof and walls themselves. The usefulness of a water pitcher

dwelt in the emptiness where water might be put, not in the

form of the pitcher or the material of which it was made.

Vacuum is all potent because all containing. In vacuum alone

motion becomes possible. One who could make of himself a

vacuum into which others might freely enter would become

master of all situations. The whole can always dominate

the part.

These Taoists' ideas have greatly influenced all our theories

of action, even to those of fencing and wrestling. Jiu-jitsu,

the Japanese art of self-defence, owes its name to a passage

in the Tao-teking. In jiu-jitsu one seeks to draw out and

exhaust the enemy's strength by non-resistance, vacuum,

while conserving one's own strength for victory in the final

struggle. In art the importance of the same principle is

illustrated by the value of suggestion. In leaving something

unsaid the beholder is given a chance to complete the idea

and thus a great masterpiece irresistibly rivets your attention

until you seem to become actually a part of it. A vacuum

is there for you to enter and fill up the full measure of your

aesthetic emotion.

He who had made himself master of the art of living was the

Real man of the Taoist. At birth he enters the realm of dreams

only to awaken to reality at death. He tempers his own

brightness in order to merge himself into the obscurity of

others. He is "reluctant, as one who crosses a stream in

winter; hesitating as one who fears the neighbourhood;

respectful, like a guest; trembling, like ice that is about to melt;

unassuming, like a piece of wood not yet carved; vacant,

like a valley; formless, like troubled waters." To him the three

jewels of life were Pity, Economy, and Modesty.

If now we turn our attention to Zennism we shall find that

it emphasises the teachings of Taoism. Zen is a name

derived from the Sanscrit word Dhyana, which signifies

meditation. It claims that through consecrated meditation

may be attained supreme self-realisation. Meditation is one

of the six ways through which Buddhahood may be reached,

and the Zen sectarians affirm that Sakyamuni laid special stress

on this method in his later teachings, handing down the rules to

his chief disciple Kashiapa. According to their tradition Kashiapa,

the first Zen patriarch, imparted the secret to Ananda, who in

turn passed it on to successive patriarchs until it reached

Bodhi-Dharma, the twenty-eighth. Bodhi-Dharma came to

Northern China in the early half of the sixth century and was the

first patriarch of Chinese Zen. There is much uncertainty about

the history of these patriarchs and their doctrines. In its

philosophical aspect early Zennism seems to have affinity on

one hand to the Indian Negativism of Nagarjuna and on the

other to the Gnan philosophy formulated by Sancharacharya.

The first teaching of Zen as we know it at the present day must be

attributed to the sixth Chinese patriarch Yeno(637-713), founder

of Southern Zen, so-called from the fact of its predominance

in Southern China. He is closely followed by the great

Baso(died 788) who made of Zen a living influence in Celestial

life. Hiakujo(719-814) the pupil of Baso, first instituted the Zen

monastery and established a ritual and regulations for its

government. In the discussions of the Zen school after the

time of Baso we find the play of the Yangtse-Kiang mind

causing an accession of native modes of thought in contrast

to the former Indian idealism. Whatever sectarian pride may

assert to the contrary one cannot help being impressed by the

similarity of Southern Zen to the teachings of Laotse and the

Taoist Conversationalists. In the Tao-teking we already find

allusions to the importance of self-concentration and the

need of properly regulating the breath--essential points in the

practice of Zen meditation. Some of the best commentaries

on the Book of Laotse have been written by Zen scholars.

Zennism, like Taoism, is the worship of Relativity. One

master defines Zen as the art of feeling the polar star in the

southern sky. Truth can be reached only through the

comprehension of opposites. Again, Zennism, like Taoism,

is a strong advocate of individualism. Nothing is real except

that which concerns the working of our own minds. Yeno,

the sixth patriarch, once saw two monks watching the flag

of a pagoda fluttering in the wind. One said "It is the wind

that moves," the other said "It is the flag that moves"; but

Yeno explained to them that the real movement was neither

of the wind nor the flag, but of something within their own

minds. Hiakujo was walking in the forest with a disciple when

a hare scurried off at their approach. "Why does the hare fly

from you?" asked Hiakujo. "Because he is afraid of me," was

the answer. "No," said the master, "it is because you have

murderous instinct." The dialogue recalls that of Soshi (Chaungtse),

the Taoist. One day Soshi was walking on the bank of a river

with a friend. "How delightfully the fishes are enjoying themselves

in the water!" exclaimed Soshi. His friend spake to him thus:

"You are not a fish; how do you know that the fishes are enjoying

themselves?" "You are not myself," returned Soshi; "how do you

know that I do not know that the fishes are enjoying themselves?"

Zen was often opposed to the precepts of orthodox Buddhism
even as Taoism was opposed to Confucianism. To the
transcendental insight of the Zen, words were but an
incumbrance to thought; the whole sway of Buddhist scriptures
only commentaries on personal speculation. The followers of
Zen aimed at direct communion with the inner nature of things,
regarding their outward accessories only as impediments to a
clear perception of Truth. It was this love of the Abstract that
led the Zen to prefer black and white sketches to the elaborately
coloured paintings of the classic Buddhist School. Some of the
Zen even became iconoclastic as a result of their endeavor to
recognise the Buddha in themselves rather than through images
and symbolism. We find Tankawosho breaking up a wooden
statue of Buddha on a wintry day to make a fire. "What
sacrilege!" said the horror-stricken bystander. "I wish to
get the Shali out of the ashes," calmly rejoined the Zen.
"But you certainly will not get Shali from this image!" was the
angry retort, to which Tanka replied, "If I do not, this is
certainly not a Buddha and I am committing no sacrilege."
Then he turned to warm himself over the kindling fire.

禅经常与正统佛教的条文相左。对禅的彻悟来讲，语言不过是思想的累赘；所有的佛教经文不过是个人思虑的议论。禅的修行者寻求与事物的内在本质的直接交接，认为它们的外部琐物不过是通往澄澈的真理的障碍。正是这种对抽象的偏好导致了禅宗比较经典佛教流派的色彩缤纷，更喜欢黑白的绘画。禅宗努力从自身中而不是从雕像和符号中寻找佛的存在；一些人甚至因此而叛经离道。我们听到过丹霞和尚在一个严冬里打破一个佛像生火的故事。“亵渎啊！”旁边的人吓坏了。“我想从灰中找到舍利子”，丹霞平静的回答。“但是你绝不会从这尊佛像中找到舍利子！”对这句驳斥，丹霞的回答是，“要是我找不到，这个肯定就不是佛了。那么我就谈不上什么亵渎”。于是他就转向跳跃的火苗取暖去了。

A special contribution of Zen to Eastern thought was its
recognition of the mundane as of equal importance with the
spiritual. It held that in the great relation of things there was
no distinction of small and great, an atom possessing equal
possibilities with the universe. The seeker for perfection must
discover in his own life the reflection of the inner light. The
organisation of the Zen monastery was very significant of this
point of view. To every member, except the abbot, was assigned
some special work in the caretaking of the monastery, and
curiously enough, to the novices was committed the lighter
duties, while to the most respected and advanced monks were
given the more irksome and menial tasks. Such services formed
a part of the Zen discipline and every least action must be done
absolutely perfectly. Thus many a weighty discussion ensued
while weeding the garden, paring a turnip, or serving tea.
The whole ideal of Teaism is a result of this Zen conception of
greatness in the smallest incidents of life. Taoism furnished the
basis for aesthetic ideals, Zennism made them practical.

禅对东方思想的一个特殊的贡献在于它认为尘世和灵界同样的重要。它认为在事物的极限相关中无大无小，一个原子和整个宇宙拥有同样的机遇。完美的追寻者必须在自身的生活中发现内在之光的反射。禅宗寺庙的组织结构突出反映了这一点。除了主持之外的每一个人都分派了维护庙宇的特定工作。有意思的是，小徒弟们分配的是轻活，而粗重的工作分给德高位重的大和尚们。这类服务成了禅的纪律的一部分，而每一点细节都必须完成的尽善尽美。所以在庭院除草、萝卜去皮或端水沏茶中都带有严肃的讨论。整个茶道的理念都建立在这种生活中的渺小蕴含着伟大的禅理上。道家提供了这种美学的基础；禅将之实现。