Translated from Chinese by Sherwin Lu

(Including all quotations from classics with copy right)

● TAO vs. LAW

            Due to the strong “ethical-reductionist” tendency (which reduces all social concerns to an ethical issue) of Confucianism, the dominating ideology in the last two thousand years of Chinese history, many people mistakenly think that Chinese philosophy is centered on ethics. Not until 1973, when The Yellow Emperor’s Four Canons (《黄帝四经》), a classic from the maturing period of the Chinese civilization, was excavated, did scholars begin to notice the significance of ideas on the relationship between the “Tao” and law. In ancient Chinese philosophy, the Tao and law were the two sides of a coin: the laws and decrees of the state should be derived from the Tao, the highest natural principle governing everything in existence, and the Tao should run its course in human society through the law. Therefore, it is considered everybody’s duty to comply with the Tao and the law.

Gu Bin, etc., point out in their note on the beginning sentence of Yellow Emperor’s Four Canons “From the Tao comes the law”: “This is one of the key propositions advocated by the Yellow (Emperor)-Lao (Tzu) school of Taoist philosophy. It means that laws and decrees of the state should all be derived from the Tao.  One important feature in the theory of the Yellow-Lao school is to deduce laws governing human affairs from the Tao of Heaven (i.e., Nature, of which the human world is a part), and to base the art of state management on metaphysical theories. As social laws and decrees are derived from the Tao, they should be determined by the attributes and laws of Tao’s movement. Therefore, the Yellow-Lao school lays special emphasis on the fairness, justness, and clarity of laws and decrees, and insists that they should abide by the Heavenly (natural) cycles. “ ^[1]

            The Four Canons states at the very beginning of its first chapter “The Tao and the law”: “From the Tao comes the law. The law is the yardstick by which to judge whatever is achieved and not achieved to see if it is in the right or in the wrong. Those who have grasped the Tao develop the law without violating the Tao. Once the law is formed, they do not dare to ignore it. Using it as the yardstick, they can understand and judge everything in the world without being confused.” ^[2]

            He-Guan-Tzu ( 鹖冠子), in another pre-Chin classic entitled after his name, said in reply to Pang-Tzu’s ( 庞子) question “Why is it that Tao and divinity (神明) are not separated?”: “From sageness (贤) develops saintliness (圣); from saintliness develops awareness of the Tao; from the Tao is derived the law; from the law follow wonders (神); and from wonders divine revelations (明). Divinity is incidental. It is derived from the fundamental. That is why they are mutually ensured.” Lu Tian (陆佃) of Soong Dynasty, the first annotator of the book He-Guan-Tzu, explained: “The alternation between Yin and Yang is called the Tao; the application of the Tao to human institution is called the law; the marvelous effects on people of reward and punishment by law are called wonders.” When saintly people come to understand the Tao, they use it as a model for making rules. That is how the law comes from the Tao. Governing after the model of the Tao, i.e., running a state by the law, works wonders. Hence the statement that from the law follow wonders. Obviously, what is fundamental is the Tao while divinity is incidental. The fundamental is there first; then is induced the incidental. Hence we say the incidental is imparted from the fundamental. The two cannot be lost to each other; hence we say they cannot be separated (or, are mutually ensured).

            The book Guan Tzu (《管子》) in its 36th chapter “The Right Mindset (1)”( 心术上) generalizes the relationship between the Tao, virtue, righteousness, propriety, and law as follows: “What is formless is called ‘the Tao’; Cultivating life is called ‘virtue’; Correct handling of human relationships between the sovereign and ministers, between father and son, etc. is called ‘righteousness’; Observing the established etiquette distinguishing the superior and the inferior, the higher- and the lower-ranking, the more closely- and the more remotely-related is called ‘propriety’; Managing all human affairs, whether simple or complicated, whether more or less important, according to a uniform standard backed by punishment in case of violation is called ‘law’. “

            In the same chapter, the author explains further the relationship between the Tao and law: “Law is something by which to coordinate all social activities, something indispensable, whether you like it or not. So, punishment should be measured by one standard. In a word, all affairs should be supervised by law; law is stipulated after weighing the benefit against the cost; and the weighing of benefit and cost should be based on the principle of the Tao.”

            As is different from the Western one, the Chinese civilization was based on our remote ancestors’ perception of the natural law governing the whole universe, not on any strong religious beliefs. This is especially true with the original Chinese civilization existing before the Han dynasty, i.e., before it was gradually dominated and penetrated in all aspects of social life by Confucianism. This kind of perception, as recorded in ancient Chinese philosophy, was realized through deep meditation and contemplation. Guan Tzu says in the same chapter as mentioned above: “The Tao is not far from people – it is always present in our lives，but to recognize and get an insight of it is not easy. Void your desires and divine wisdom will visit your mind. If desires are allowed to linger, divinity would not stay. People desire wisdom but do not care to know how to invite it. Oh, Wisdom! It stays over the sea not to be hunted. Hunters can never reach it. An upright person hunts for nothing and therefore can get rid of unworthy desires.”

            The top ruler’s “non-ego-driven, non-assertive” (虚静无为) way of government must be accompanied by the institution of law. Otherwise, non-assertiveness would lead to nowhere like water without a source, or bear no fruit like a tree without roots. Han Fei Tzu, a Chinese classic in political science discusses fully the relationship between the non-assertive ruler and the assertive law as follows:

“The Tao is the origin of all things and also the supreme guide by which to judge right and wrong in human affairs. Knowing this, a wise ruler traces everything back to this origin to learn how they have come about, and follow this guide in managing everything to achieve good results and avoid bad ones. Therefore, he does not assert himself but let things take their own courses, so that names are given and things settled as if all by themselves. Being non-assertive, one gets to know how things assert themselves and in asserting balance one another. When a minister says something, he is giving things names; when he does something, he is giving things forms. Then the ruler has nothing to be concerned about but to check the forms against the names and the truth about the situation will unfold by itself….

“To cherish this non-assertiveness is the highest principle for the ruler. He does not have to handle affairs in person to tell if his ministers are ingenious or not; nor to rack his brains to foresee if they will invite blessings or disasters. In this way, his ministers will respond without him saying anything, and will follow up without him assigning anything. When a minister responds with a verbal proposal, the ruler remembers it as one half of the proof; when the minister puts his proposal into practice and gains result, the ruler takes it as the other half of the proof. The matching or not between the two halves of the proof determines whether the minister should be rewarded or punished.

“Therefore, the ruler lets his ministers have their say, then respond by having them carry out what they have proposed, and judge their merits or faults by how they perform. If what one achieves matches what he is supposed to by his doing and what he does matches what he has said, then he should be rewarded; otherwise, punished. A wise ruler must insist that the ministers are not allowed to say anything that cannot be counted on. So, rewards bestowed by a wise ruler should be as beneficial and heartwarming to the people as timely rain to crops after a long time of drought; whereas punishments be as dreadful as thunderbolts from which even deities cannot escape. That is to say, a wise ruler should not distribute rewards or remit penalties too readily. If rewards are too lavishly handed out, those really worthy ones will not get encouraged to exert their utmost efforts; if penalties are too easily waived, treacherous officials will not get checked in their dirty business. So, whoever has merits, even if remotely related or in a humble position, must be rewarded; whoever has faults, even if closely-related or in a high status, must be punished. When those remote and humble get rewarded while those close and high penalized, the former will not slack off and the latter will not be arrogant.

To derive the law governing human affairs from that governing all existence -- the Tao, or in other words, to base all political and economic activities on the Natural Principle, is typically characteristic of the Chinese civilization. One striking example is the institution of “monthly directives” (月令). The text of these directives are contained in some Chinese classics under the chapter title “Monthly Directives”, which records systematically by the month instructions on seasonal rituals, and must-do and must-not-do directives. Cai Yong (蔡邕), an outstanding scholar in late Eastern Han dynasty, wrote an essay entitled “On the Title of the ‘Monthly Directives’”, in which he first did some textual research into the origin of the title of the said chapter and into how much importance the rulers attached to the Monthly Directives: “To regulate human affairs according to heavenly cycles, the Son of Heaven (emperor or king) issues directives by the month about how worshipping and inauguration rituals should be scheduled and arranged, how other things people should do or must not do at specific times of the year. Hence the title ‘Monthly Directives’. This means to comply with the way Yin and Yang alternates, to keep in step with the cycle of the four seasons, to emulate nature and to govern in the way worthy of the noble title of a king. When the book of regulations is available, every family may follow the monthly cycle of nature and at the same time place it on the altar for the divinities and ancestors to check on their activities against. “

The institution of monthly directives for the first time in human history incorporated environmental factors into human economic activities. It deserves our special attention today when environmental issues are threatening the survival of the human race. Economic activities must follow the Natural Principle and be regulated by a system of laws – this is a valuable lesson from the thousands of years of continual subsistence of the Chinese civilization.

In contrast, Western economics pits human beings, as the conqueror, against nature, as to be conquered. Obviously, as contrasted with the institution of the Monthly Directives based on the Taoist-Legalist principle, this is a regression from the normal state of human existence.