Environmental Philosophy and East Asia

Nature, Time, Responsibility

Hiroshi Abe, Matthias Fritsch, Mario Wenning, Hiroshi Abe, Matthias Fritsch, Mario Wenning

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9781032107806
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000604535
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Environmental Science

This book explores the contributions of East Asian traditions, particularly Buddhism and Daoism, to environmental philosophy in dialogue with European philosophy. It critically examines the conceptions of human responsibility toward nature and across time presented within these traditions.
The volume rethinks human relationships to the natural world by focusing on three main themes: Daoist and Eurodaoist perspectives on nature, human responsibility toward nature, and Buddhist perspectives on life and nature. By way of discussing East Asian traditions and European thinkers, this collection reveals that the impact of humanity on the environment is shaped not only by distinctive modes of economic production, but also by cultural beliefs and practices. Representing a unique constellation of environmental and intercultural philosophy, the contributions present systematic approaches to the global need for cultivating environmental responsibility across cultures and generations to address the political, ethical, and aesthetic challenges arising from humanity's transformative impact on the natural world.
Presenting a critical re-evaluation of human relationships to the natural world in dialogue with East Asian traditions, this will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of Philosophy, Environmental Studies and Asian Studies.

Part 1Daoist and Eurodaoist perspectives on nature, responsibility, and critique

1 The role of Nature in the Huang-Lao silk texts

David Chai

DOI: 10.4324/9781003217305-3

Introduction

In an earlier work of mine,¹ I argued that classical Daoism (i.e., Daodejing 道德經, Zhuangzi 莊子, Liezi 列子) does not view Nature as a remote or distinct aspect of reality but one that is connected to the mystery of the Dao, the cosmogonic one, and the fourfold of the Dao, heaven, earth, and humanity. The Huang-Lao silk texts (Huang-Lao Boshu 黃老帛書) that were discovered in a cache of works unearthed in tomb 3 at Mawangdui 馬王堆 (Changsha, China) from 1972 to 1974² differ from those of classical Daoism in many regards, but perhaps the most notable aspect is that the notion of mystery common to the Daodejing and Zhuangzi is replaced by the constancy of the Dao and heaven. Additionally, Nature is now spoken of in explicit terms, unlike the generalities seen in the works by Laozi and Zhuangzi, such that its cycles, processes, patterns, and standards become the guiding principle for the conduct and governance of human society. This last aspect has led a number of scholars to classify the Huang-Lao silk texts as Legalist in bearing.³

However, as Tu Weiming points out, “characterizing the Huangdi texts as Legalist documents is as misleading as referring to the Laozi as a military book” (Tu 1979, 107). We can also agree with Tu when he writes:

Huang-Lao contains several apparently unrelated but actually fully integrated philosophical concepts: a cosmological vision of the Dao as the primordial source of inspiration; an administrative technique, based on the principle and model of the naturalness of Dao; a concern for the cultivation of penetrating insight, so that a king could reign without imposing his limited, self-centred view on the order of things originally manifested in nature; and the necessity of attaining a kind of dynamic balancing in order to ensure a steady flow, as it were, of the political system as a mirror image of the cosmos.

(Tu 1979, 108)

What is lacking in Tu Weiming’s assessment, and in subsequent studies by Anglophone scholars, is a sustained examination of the character and operation of Nature itself. It is true that the silk texts not only advise the ruler how to govern according to the principles of Nature, but they also reveal a veneration and knowledge of Nature that is used to quell human ambition in order to return the world to a state of unity. By showing what Nature meant for the author(s) of the silk texts, this chapter will argue that their injecting it with more realist terminology does not violate the spirit of Daoism; rather, it was a necessary evolution from the more fantastical writings of earlier figures to ensure Daoism’s continued existence into the Han dynasty and beyond.

Nature in pre-Qin Daoism

Before we begin our examination of Huang-Lao’s portrayal of Nature, a brief recap of the classical understanding is in order. I will not recount all of the scholarly discussions that have occurred over the past two decades;⁴ rather, I will merely outline the arguments I made in my earlier work. First and foremost, scholars writing about Nature in the Daodejing and Zhuangzi tend to utilise a handful of descriptions: ziran 自然 (naturalness), wuwei 無爲 (non-action), and tiandi 天地 (heaven and earth). The problem with these terms is that they are motivated by our human perspective and are thus unidirectional. This is why scholars writing about the classical Daoist vision of Nature extract from it an ethical bearing, a socio-political model of governance, and a beauty of sublime magnitude, but little else. The reason, I argued in my earlier work, is that these scholars were unable to transcend the heaven-earth dyad and explore the vast universe that the Dao takes as its abode. In other words, Nature has been consistently regarded as a realm bound to humanity’s awareness of it, regardless of whether we envision ourselves to be within or beyond it:

The truth of Nature, as both an abstract concept and as the objective material of heaven and earth, is that it is so much more than a descriptive state of reality: it is an emotionally aesthetic plenum in which the great variety of life buzzes and whizzes past in a never-ending stream of vitality, struggle, and decline. Nature is the anthropocentric materialization of Dao’s non-anthropocentric potentiality, a totality that is in constant flux and yet, it never loses its balance or harmony. The truth of Nature is that it does not need the likes of humanity to persist and indeed, it has become ever more distant from Dao because of us, but this does not mean that Nature is sick and in need of curing.

(Chai 2016, 266)

We can lend credence to this interpretation by citing a passage from chapter 31 of the Zhuangzi:

The Truth is that which is received from heaven. By nature it is the way it is and cannot be changed. Therefore the sage patterns himself on Heaven, prizes the Truth, and does not allow himself to be cramped by the vulgar. The stupid man does the opposite of this. He is unable to pattern himself on Heaven and instead frets over human concerns. He does not know enough to prize the Truth, but instead, plodding along with the crowd, he allows himself to be changed by vulgar ways and so is never content.

真者，所以受於天也，自然不可易也。故聖人法天貴真，不拘於俗。愚者反此，不能法天而恤於人，不知貴真，祿祿而受變於俗，故不足.

(Watson 2013, 276; Guo 1997, 1032)

In order to harmonise with Nature, Zhuangzi says, we must first harmonise with the Dao, and in order to do that, we must optimise our knowledge of both its mystery and its oneness with the cosmos. The mutual dependency between the things of the world and the world itself, and between the world and that which extends beyond it, was laid out by Laozi in chapter 25 of the Daodejing. When applied to the concept of Nature, we can say that

man dwells in Nature but depends on the earth for sustenance, while heaven nourishes the earth and together, they are borne of Dao. This is the [Daoist] fourfold; a mystery of conjoining, becoming, and flourishing whose propensity for quiescent tranquillity guarantees that one element will never usurp the others.

(Chai 2016, 271)

Dao’s embeddedness in the world thus acts as the source of its own naturalness and is why it is taken as the epitome of what we refer to as Nature.

Nature in the silk texts

Mirroring the Daoism of Laozi and Zhuangzi, the Huang-Lao silk texts view Dao to be the proper way (zheng dao 正道) of the universe: “The way, therefore, in which he who grasps the Dao observes the world … sees the correct Dao and accords with the principles 故執道者之觀於天下也，見正道循理” (Yates 1997, 101; Chen 1995, 245). From this simple statement, we can see that following the ordering principle of the Dao provides us with a comprehensive vision of the world. According to Randall Peerenboom, the author(s) of the silk texts advocated a naturalism that was heavily imitative (Peerenboom 1993, 30) and correspondence based (Peerenboom 1993, 32), and thus can be depicted as a form of foundational naturalism (Peerenboom 1993, 38). These descriptions might be true of the texts as a whole, but they are too restrictive when applied to the silk texts’ understanding of Nature. One must remember that Daoism is not about imitating Nature because of what it is, does, or represents; rather, as was argued in my earlier work, Nature is but one of several realms in which the Dao is imbued in things and so the more closely we observe Nature, the more we will be able to harmonise with the Dao.

Unlike classical Daoism, Huang-Lao employs a fair number of technical terms and phrases to explain the Dao’s ordering principle (li 理). What is interesting is that a fair number of them use the concept of heaven (tian 天) and time (shi 時). In the case of the former, we see: “participate in heaven’s ordering of things” (can yi tiandang 參以天當), “strive for heaven’s natural ordering” (zhong tianli 中天理), “abide by heaven’s constancy” (xun tianchang 循天常), “accord with heaven” (yin tian 因天), and “exhaust heaven’s limit” ( jin tianji 盡天極). In the case of temporality, we find: “adhere to the four seasons” (shun sishi 順四時), “follow heavenly time” (yin tianshi 因天時), and “accord with time” (yin shi 因時). When it comes to abiding by the Dao or the ways of Nature, the silk texts say: “adhere to the Dao” (shun dao 順道), “grasp the Dao” (zhi dao 執道), “adhere to natural ordering” (shun li 順理), and “examine names and natural ordering” (cha mingli 察名理). However, individuals who do not do so are said to: “turn their backs on heavenly Dao” (bei tian zhi dao 倍天之道), “lose the Dao” (shi dao 失道), “lose natural ordering” (shi li 失理), “disobey natural ordering” (ni li 逆理), and “disobey forms” (ni xing 逆形).

We can classify the above using five broad terms: models (fa 法), measures (du 度), patterns (ze 則), natural orderings (li 理), and forms and names (xingming 形名). The aforementioned terms are not unique to Huang-Lao but are derived from the Daodejing and Zhuangzi. Here are a few examples:

Man takes his models from earth; earth takes its models from heaven; heaven takes its models from the Dao; and the Dao takes its models from the Natural.

人法地，地法天，天法道，道法自然.

(Lynn 1999, 96; Lou 2009, 64)

Heaven and earth have their great beauties but do not speak of them; the four seasons have their clear-marked regularity but do not discuss it; the ten thousand things have their principles of growth but do not expound them.

天地有大美而不言，四時有明法而不議，萬物有成理而不說.

(Watson 2013, 178; Guo 1997, 735)

Above, it takes its model from the roundness of heaven, following along with the three luminous bodies of the sky. Below, it takes its model from the squareness of earth, following along with the four seasons. In the middle realm, it brings harmony to the wills of the people and peace to the four directions.

上法圓天以順三光，下法方地以順四時，中和民意以安四鄉.

(Watson 2013, 269; Guo 1997, 1022)

Rites and laws, weights and measures, the careful comparison of forms and names—the men of old had all these. They are the means by which those below serve those above, not the means by which those above shepherd those below.

禮法度數，形名比詳，古人有之，此下之所以事上，非上之所以畜下也.

(Watson 2013, 103; Guo 1997, 473)

Perfect music must first respond to the needs of man, accord with the reason of heaven, proceed by the five virtues, and blend with spontaneity; only then can it bring order to the four seasons and bestow a final harmony on the ten thousand things.

夫至樂者，先應之以人事，順之以天理，行之以五德，應之以 自然，

然後調理四時，太和萬物.

(Watson 2013, 110; Guo 1997, 502)

When put into the language of Huang-Lao, we are told: “Heaven holds the One, brightens [the Three and determines] the Two, establishes the Eight Regulators, puts into practice the Seven Models 天執一，明三，定二，建八正，行七法” (Yates 1997, 81; Chen 1995, 180). If we unpack this numerological cosmology, the number one refers to the Dao, the number two refers to the Dao’s darkness and brightness (i.e., Yin and Yang), the number three indicates the heavenly bodies (i.e., sun, moon, and stars), the number seven stands for the properties of the three heavenly bodies, while the number eight signifies the regulators of the temporal and spatial nature of the seven models. The seven models are explained thusly:

Heaven holds the One and uses it to brighten the Three. That the sun faithfully emerges and faithfully reenters and that North and South have poles [are the epitomes of measures. That the moon faithfully grows and faithfully] dies, that advance and retreat have constancy, are the epitomes of enumeration. That the serried stars have number, but do not lose their ranks, is the epitome of faithfulness.

天執一以明三，日信出信入，南北有極，度之稽也。月信生信死，進退有常，數之稽也。列星有數，而不失其行，信之稽也.

(Yates 1997, 81; Chen 1995, 180–81)

Regarding the eight regulators, we are told that:

If heaven brightens the Three in order to determine the Two, then one will be dark and the other bright … If [heaven] determines the Two in order to establish the Eight Regulators, then the four seasons have regularities, movement and quiescence have their positions, and outside and inside have their locations.

天明三以定二，則壹晦壹明，壹陰壹陽，壹短壹長。天定二以建八正，則四時有度， 動靜有立，而外內有處.

(Yates 1997, 81–82; Chen 1995, 181)

Knowing that the four seasons obtain their measure (du 度) as a result of the eight regulators and seven mode...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of contributors
• List of figures
• Editors’ introduction
• Part 1 Daoist and Eurodaoist perspectives on nature, responsibility, and critique
• Part 2 Buddhist perspectives on freedom, life, and nature
• Part 3 Rethinking time and human responsibility towards nature
• Index