Anthology of Taoist Philosophy. From the book Chuang Tzu

Anthology of Taoist Philosophy

compilers: V.V. Malyavin and B.B. Vinogrodsky

HEART OF CHINESE WISDOM

This book is the first experience of publishing an anthology of Taoism not only in our country, but also in the world. But what is Taoism? This question has attracted the attention of Chinese researchers for a long time, but it turned out to be far from easy to give a short and clear answer to it. For "Taoism" is an extremely multidimensional and multi-valued concept.

To begin with, the very word "Tao", from which the words "Taoism", "Taoists", "Taoist", etc., are derived, is not at all the exclusive property of Taoism. It belongs to all Chinese thought, and every philosopher or learned person ancient China I saw in it the designation of truth, or, more precisely, the deepest truth and the righteous path of life. All Chinese sages are adherents of Tao. And it turned out this way because in China they valued not an abstract, logically deduced truth, but namely life wisdom, which, as a fruit, over time, appears as the result of a long one - is it not infinitely long? - a life path and requires an internal, often even inexplicable conviction that one is right. In the end, everyone has their own truth, because everyone has their own life path. Everyone can be a Taoist for himself - a "man of the Tao". Why not?

Trying to outline the external, formal framework of Taoism is almost hopeless. These frameworks, as the reader will easily see, are extremely indefinite and changeable. But the one who is able to devote his life to comprehending the inner truth in himself, who sees in this truth an everlasting, ever-living covenant and understands how far it is from the "darkness of low truths" of light, sooner or later he will discover in Taoism a deep, vital and very consistent teaching.

The best way to understand what Taoism is - to learn to appreciate in life not smart, not even good, but simply durable, undying, whatever it is. It is not abstract truth that is long-lived, but the sincerity of feeling, anticipated for an infinitely long time, expected and therefore remembered for an infinitely long time. The wisdom of Tao is addressed to the heart of every person, and without a joyful and disinterested spiritual response, which holds the life of every being, it is worth little.

The Taoist lives by what lives forever; he lives by the most reliable - the capital of the spirit. And this means that Taoism is primarily a justification of tradition. The truth of the Tao is what is given to us before we know ourselves, and it is what will pass from us to future generations after we are gone. What is this? The creators of the Taoist tradition give a seemingly vague, but in fact very accurate answer: everything that exists “by itself” (zi zhan), that is not generated by human reasoning and concern, that does not bear the stamp of effort, tension, violence.

The wisdom of an adherent of the Tao is not knowledge or art, but a certain skill - completely inept - not to obscure the great peace of being by vain doing; it is transparent and bright, sublime and all-encompassing, like the sky itself.

Taoism, thus, embodies the very core of Eastern thought, which has always demanded from a person to gain the fullness of his being through self-elimination, to reveal the depth of unwillingness, which conceals the purest, most spiritualized desire. Taoism is therefore not a philosophy, because it is not interested in definitions of concepts, logical proofs and other procedures of pure speculation. Nor is it the religion of a transcendent God who requires faith and obedience from his worshipers. Finally, it cannot be reduced to art, craftsmanship, practice in the proper sense of the word, because the wisdom of Tao does not affirm the need to do anything. Rather, Taoism is the path of integral existence, in which speculation and action, spirit and matter, consciousness and life are assembled in a free, boundless, "chaotic" unity. Such a unity is paradoxical to the core, which is why Taoist teachers fall silent when asked to explain their wisdom. As it is said in the Tao Te Ching, the main canon of Taoism: "He who knows does not speak, but he who speaks does not know."

And in another place: “When a low person hears about Tao, he laughs. If he didn't laugh, it wouldn't be Tao."

The wisdom of Tao is the folly of this world. Madness even for one who utters words about the Tao, clearly realizing the impossibility of speaking about this subject. Should we be surprised that in the traditional image of the Taoist there is such a strong element of irony, humor, strangely unintentional buffoonery? Buffoonery, of course, the wise one, because a real buffoon laughs at himself. In any case, there is nothing primitive and rude, no savage captivity by instinct in the Taoist glorification of "naturalness". On the contrary, extraordinary clarity of consciousness and remarkable willpower are needed in order to truly accept instinct, to illuminate its dark depths with the light of the spirit, to introduce the unconscious reality of life into a spiritualized, musically elegant and complete rhythm of being. Among all the great teachings of the world, Taoism strives to achieve this goal with perhaps the greatest seriousness and perseverance.

Taoist sages do not prove or preach anything. They don't even teach any "way of life." Their goal is to give a true life orientation, to point the way to the center of life experience - the ever-absent and omnipresent.

Not being in the strict sense, as already mentioned, neither philosophy nor religion, Taoism strangely combines the features of both. According to the teachings of the Taoists, truly there is only the great Tao - eternal, infinite, unthinkable, having no "image, taste or smell"; Created by no one, it is “its own trunk, its own root”; it impartially embraces and contains all that exists, like an all-encompassing and bottomless sky. The Taoists call him the "Supreme Teacher", the "Heavenly Ancestor", the "Mother of the World" or even the "Creator of Things", but they do not expect this First Principle to be interested in their personal fate or the fate of the entire universe. For in the world everything happens “by itself”: every moment of time and every particle of being is completely self-sufficient.

The last statement means that the Tao itself is not, in essence, the principle of the universe. Tao, it is stated in Taoist literature, “cannot even control itself”, it “possesses without owning”. Tao changes instantly and incessantly, betrays itself, “loses itself” in the world of the finite and transient. But, truly, there is nothing more permanent than impermanence. In its self-transformation, Tao will remain forever.

Hence the important place that the doctrine of cosmogenesis, the creation of all things, occupies in Taoism. The Taoists teach that the world arose from the primordial Chaos, which they also call the One Breath (and qi), the Primordial Breath (yuan qi) or the Great Void (tai xu), or more precisely, the emptiness of the mother’s womb, which feeds everything inside itself. The creation of the world is the result of spontaneous division of the primary integrity of Chaos. At first, Chaos, or the Unified breath, was divided into two polar principles: the male, light, active Yang and the female, dark, passive Yin; from the "two principles" stood out "four images", corresponding to the four cardinal directions; “four images” gave rise to the “eight limits” of the universe, etc. This scheme is recorded in the ancient Chinese canon “I Ching” (“Book of Changes”), which contains a code common to the entire Chinese tradition graphic symbols the world process of Tao. The symbolism of the I Ching is based on eight so-called trigrams, which are combinations of three features of two types: solid (Yang symbol) and intermittent (Yin symbol). There was also another numerical scheme of cosmogenesis: one gives birth to two (Yin and Yang), two gives birth to three (Heaven, Earth, Man), and three gives birth to all the darkness of things.

Be that as it may, the world, according to the Taoists, is a "transformed One", the fruit of the metamorphosis of Tao. In the Taoist tradition, in this regard, it was also said about the transformation of the first man, which was considered the semi-legendary founder of Taoism and the supreme deity of the Taoist religion, Lao Tzu, who was also called the Highest Old Ruler. The world for the Taoists is the “transformed body” (hua shen) of Lao Tzu. And this means that between the human heart and the body of the eternal Tao there is a deep inner connection. Man and the world in Taoism are inseparable and interchangeable, like microcosm and macrocosm.

The theme of transformation, the creative metamorphoses of being, is the central theme of Taoist thought. For the Taoists, neither form nor formlessness is real. Or, as the Taoist books say, "emptiness cannot overcome ten thousand things." The true reality for the Taoists is the very transformation. Taoists think in terms of not entities or ideas, but relationships, functions, influences. For them, there is “nothing” in the world, but the very connections between things, the Meeting itself (even if it does not exist!), are undoubtedly real. There may be no truth at all. But the metaphor of truth, the countless glimpses of reality, certainly exist. Of course, one does not need to be either a Chinese or a Taoist in order to understand the simple truth: everything flows... Didn't Goethe say that in this constantly changing world everything is just a metaphor? But the Taoists made this simple observation a stepping stone to the supreme wisdom of the world.

compilers: V.V. Malyavin and B.B. Vinogrodsky

Foreword: The Heart of Chinese Wisdom

To begin with, the very word "Tao", from which the words "Taoism", "Taoists", "Taoist", etc., are derived, is not at all the exclusive property of Taoism. It belongs to all Chinese thought, and every philosopher or scientist of ancient China saw in it the designation of truth, or, more precisely, the deepest truth and the righteous path of life. All Chinese sages are adherents of Tao. And it turned out this way because in China they valued not an abstract, logically deduced truth, but namely life wisdom, which, as a fruit, over time, appears as the result of a long one - is it not infinitely long? - a life path and requires an internal, often even inexplicable conviction that one is right. In the end, everyone has their own truth, because everyone has their own life path. Everyone can be a Taoist for himself - a "man of the Tao". Why not?

The best way to understand what Taoism is is to learn to appreciate in life not smart, not even good, but simply durable, undying, whatever it is. It is not abstract truth that is long-lived, but the sincerity of feeling, anticipated for an infinitely long time, expected and therefore remembered for an infinitely long time. The wisdom of Tao is addressed to the heart of every person, and without a joyful and disinterested spiritual response, which holds the life of every being, it is worth little.

And in another place: “When a low person hears about Tao, he laughs. If he didn't laugh, it wouldn't be Tao."

Hence the important place that the doctrine of cosmogenesis, the creation of all things, occupies in Taoism. The Taoists teach that the world arose from the primordial Chaos, which they also call the One Breath (and qi), the Primordial Breath (yuan qi) or the Great Void (tai xu), or more precisely, the emptiness of the mother’s womb, which feeds everything inside itself. The creation of the world is the result of spontaneous division of the primary integrity of Chaos. At first, Chaos, or the Unified breath, was divided into two polar principles: the male, light, active Yang and the female, dark, passive Yin; from the "two principles" stood out "four images", corresponding to the four cardinal directions; "four images" gave birth to "eight limits" of the universe, etc. This scheme is recorded in the ancient Chinese canon "I Ching" ("Book of Changes"), which contains a set of graphic symbols of the world process of Tao common to the entire Chinese tradition. The symbolism of the I Ching is based on eight so-called trigrams, which are combinations of three features of two types: solid (Yang symbol) and intermittent (Yin symbol). There was also another numerical scheme of cosmogenesis: one gives birth to two (Yin and Yang), two gives birth to three (Heaven, Earth, Man), and three gives birth to all the darkness of things.

Be that as it may, the world, according to the Taoists, is a "transformed One", the fruit of the metamorphosis of Tao. In the Taoist tradition, in this regard, it was also said about the transformation of the first man, which was considered the semi-legendary founder of Taoism and the supreme deity of the Taoist religion, Lao Tzu, who was also called the Highest Old Ruler. The world for the Taoists is the “transformed body” (hua shen) of Lao Tzu. And this means that between the human heart and the body of the eternal Tao there is a deepest inner connection. Man and the world in Taoism are inseparable and interchangeable, like microcosm and macrocosm.

So, the Taoist picture of the world is an infinitely complex, truly chaotic pattern of phenomena, where there is no one privileged image, one "only true" idea. “The whole darkness of things is like a spreading net, and there is no beginning to be found anywhere,” says an ancient Taoist sage

Chuang Tzu. There is a Taoist "science of Chaos" (it is written in the "Book of Changes"), which describes the order of interaction of forces in the world pattern. But there is also the Taoist “art of Chaos” (an expression from the book of Chuang Tzu), and there is nothing strange in this, because Chaos and human activity have the same nature: both are entirely concrete and fluid reality. The uncreated primordial Chaos pours without a trace into the man-made chaos of an aesthetically free life - a life that has become art. And we see with our own eyes the action of the Great Tao in the images of Chinese classical painting or works of Chinese plastic arts, where forms go beyond their own limits, melt in the web and haze of the Formless, where things are unreal in themselves, but the One breath of the world that really pierces them.

However, the changes we see are also only a reflection of a true transformation. The metamorphoses of Tao are "subtly subtle in their smallness"; they disappear even before their visible image appears! From this sensitivity to the innermost metamorphoses of being, the love of Chinese artists for all sorts of deceptive views, for miniature gardens that are an exact copy of real world, to any art that blurs the line between illusion and reality. Hence the unusually high status of art in the Chinese tradition, because art, which offers a lie for the sake of a great truth, appears as the most accurate evidence of the Tao.

Of course, Taoism has its own history; its appearance and place in Chinese history have not remained unchanged for centuries. The stage of formation of the Taoist tradition falls on the 5th-3rd centuries. BC e. - flourishing time philosophical thought ancient China. During this period, two classical Taoist works appeared - "Tao Te Ching" and "Zhuang Tzu", which set out the foundations of the Taoist teaching about Tao. A new complete translation of the Tao Te Ching and lengthy excerpts from Chuang Tzu form the first section of this anthology: The Fathers of Taoism.

The Tao Te Ching and Chuang Tzu can be read as philosophical works, but Taoism, as we already know, has never been a doctrine, an attempt to explain the world. The precepts of the fathers of Taoism will be intelligible only to those who have accepted the wisdom of Tao as their life's work, who are looking for confirmation of their experience and guidance for further improvement in Taoist texts. From ancient times in China, there were techniques and methods for training the body and spirit in order to achieve, as the Taoists said, “the fullness of life”, the highest enlightenment of consciousness and, ultimately, immortality in the eternal continuity of the Great Way. This practice of personal cultivation, reinforced by the revelations of the founders of Taoism, eventually became the true core of the Taoist tradition. Since ancient times, such seekers of eternal life in China have been called the word xian (in Russian literature they are called differently: celestials, immortals, blessed).

The asceticism of the Taoist Xian included many various practices: gymnastic and breathing exercises, diet, taking potions, meditation, military training and even the use of sex to strengthen vitality. Over time, these forms of "implementation of the Tao" became more and more complex and refined, overgrown with new details, but also influenced each other more and more. Thus, in the end, there was a broad synthesis of the spiritual and bodily practice of late Taoism. The core of the Taoist tradition invariably remained rather closed, few schools that ensured the "transmission of Tao" from teacher to student. (That was, in essence, the only possible form of existence of the wisdom of the Tao in Chinese society.) Although the succession of the Tao was essentially an artless act of self-consciousness of the creative will, or, in other words, "spiritual awakening", this event was prepared and made possible thanks to an extensive set of a variety of practices. For example, in the Taoist School of the Wild Goose, more than 70 sets of exercises were used - breathing, meditative, physical, and so on. And every student who dreamed of becoming a legitimate school teacher had to thoroughly master them all.

The most important texts related to the Taoist tradition of personal cultivation or, in Taoist language, "nourishment of life" (yang sheng), are collected in the second section of the anthology: "The Path to Perfection." In addition, materials about the most peculiar and of keen interest in modern world forms of "implementation of the Tao" - sexual practice and the art of fisticuffs - are separated into separate sections. Finally, the texts of the last section, which has the heading "All the joys of life", introduce the reader to the influence of Taoism on artistic creativity and the life of the Chinese. And although these texts, it would seem, are not directly related to the Taoist tradition proper, without them it is impossible to get a correct idea of the role and significance of Taoism in Chinese culture.

Of course, the heritage of Taoism is not limited to those aspects of it that are reflected in this anthology. Suffice it to say that from the first centuries A.D. Taoism existed and how religious organization with its temples and priests, complex rituals and a vast pantheon of gods. In Chinese society, the Taoists acted as experts in all kinds of magic, divination, medicine and witchcraft, and most importantly, mediators between people and spirits. They knew how to drive away demons and call on good deities, send the souls of the dead to afterworld and perform many other rituals so necessary for ordinary people. Taoism is sometimes called national religion China, but this definition is not entirely correct. Firstly, Taoism spread among some other peoples living in the neighborhood with the Chinese. Secondly, the Taoists not only did not preach their religion in society, but, on the contrary, carefully concealed their secrets from the uninitiated and did not even allow the laity to attend the most important prayers.

In addition, Taoism has always been divided into many independent sects, where the "art of Tao" was passed from teacher to student in secret from outsiders.

Nevertheless, Taoism, without exaggeration, can be called the true focus of Chinese culture, because it ensured continuity between the elite wisdom of the Tao and the beliefs of the common people, the principles of internal improvement and the entire Chinese way of life. For the Taoists, their religion was just something like a "useful illusion", because the images of the gods, like the whole visible world, represented, according to their concepts, only "reflections" of the sacred Tao. While serving their prayers, the Taoists did not actually worship the spirits, but rather involved them in the boundless harmony of the Great Void. At the same time, the very existence of deities, as well as the entire world of forms, which is the “transformed body” of the Tao, remained absolutely necessary for the Taoists.

The civilization of old China is already a thing of the past. But her wisdom, having absorbed the experience of spiritual quest and asceticism of hundreds of generations, has not died and cannot die. Taoism, as a part and perhaps the most important part of this wisdom, has not lost its vitality even today. The precepts of the ancient Taoists are addressed to everyone who is fascinated by the mystery of the origins of everything that happens, who is not satisfied with the conventions of civilizations, morality, ideologies, but is looking for the truly great and eternal, who has the courage to give up petty acquisitions in order to accommodate the whole world.

In conclusion, a few words about the principles of selecting materials for this anthology and the translation of Taoist texts into Russian. Of course, to select from the sea of Taoist literature the most important and, moreover, works accessible to an unprepared reader is an extremely difficult task, if at all solvable. Probably, the anthology bears the imprint of the personal tastes and predilections of its compilers. And yet, it can be said with confidence that the reader will get a fairly complete picture of the most significant aspects of the Taoist understanding of life.

Of particular difficulty is the translation of the most important Taoist concepts, because Taoism does not speak the language of ideas and essences, reasoning and evidence, but the language of symbolic reality, the language of fluid and ambiguous metaphors that communicate the inexplicable. We note here the Russian equivalents of the main Taoist terms that we have adopted.

The concept of Tao is usually translated by the word Way or is given in transcription. The term "qi" is translated in Russian by the words "energy" or "breath", the term "jing" - by the word "seed", and "shen" - by the word "spirit". Another important concept of Taoism - "de" - denotes inner perfection, the symbolic completeness of the properties of being. We translate it as "vital force", sometimes - "potency", in isolated cases - as "virtue".

Translations of other Taoist terms are specified in the comments.

Anthology of Taoist Philosophy

compilers: V.V. Malyavin and B.B. Vinogrodsky

HEART OF CHINESE WISDOM

To begin with, the very word "Tao", from which the words "Taoism", "Taoists", "Taoist", etc., are derived, is not at all the exclusive property of Taoism. It belongs to all Chinese thought, and every philosopher or scientist of ancient China saw in it the designation of truth, or, more precisely, the deepest truth and the righteous path of life. All Chinese sages are adherents of Tao. And it turned out this way because in China they valued not an abstract, logically deduced truth, but namely life wisdom, which, as a fruit, over time, appears as the result of a long one - is it not infinitely long? - a life path and requires an internal, often even inexplicable conviction that one is right. In the end, everyone has their own truth, because everyone has their own life path. Everyone can be a Taoist for himself - a "man of the Tao". Why not?

And in another place: “When a low person hears about Tao, he laughs. If he didn't laugh, it wouldn't be Tao."

Hence the important place that the doctrine of cosmogenesis, the creation of all things, occupies in Taoism. The Taoists teach that the world arose from the primordial Chaos, which they also call the One Breath (and qi), the Primordial Breath (yuan qi) or the Great Void (tai xu), or more precisely, the emptiness of the mother’s womb, which feeds everything inside itself. The creation of the world is the result of spontaneous division of the primary integrity of Chaos. At first, Chaos, or the Unified breath, was divided into two polar principles: the male, light, active Yang and the female, dark, passive Yin; from the "two principles" stood out "four images", corresponding to the four cardinal directions; “four images” gave rise to the “eight limits” of the universe, etc. This scheme is recorded in the ancient Chinese canon “I Ching” (“Book of Changes”), which contains a set of graphic symbols of the world process of Tao common to the entire Chinese tradition. The symbolism of the I Ching is based on eight so-called trigrams, which are combinations of three features of two types: solid (Yang symbol) and intermittent (Yin symbol). There was also another numerical scheme of cosmogenesis: one gives birth to two (Yin and Yang), two gives birth to three (Heaven, Earth, Man), and three gives birth to all the darkness of things.

on the site "Ki Aikido in Moscow".

HEART OF CHINESE WISDOM

SECTION ONE.FATHERS OF DAOISM

Lao Tzu. Treatise on Path and Potency

First part. Path

Second part. Potency

From the book Chuang Tzu

Is everything one?

supreme teacher

Praise of naturalness

How to rule the world

Tales of the Masters

Tales of Chuang Tzu

The real deal

SECTION TWO.THE WAY TO PERFECTION

Lee Dao-chun. Collected works on the middle and harmony

Sun Simiao. About saving the spirit and training energy.

Methods of inner contemplation

Patriarch Lu. Inscription in one hundred hieroglyphs

Shi Junwu. Collection of True Records of Immortals from the Xishan Mountains

From the Taoist Encyclopedia Seven Books from the Cloud Library.

Nine holds. Thirteen kinds of emptiness and absence

SECTION THREE.WISDOM OF LOVE

Talk about the supreme path of the Middle Kingdom

Canon of the Pure Maiden

Major Instructions for the Jade Chambers

Hong Ji. Secrets of the art of the bridal chamber

SECTION FOUR.MAGIC FIST

Five Words of Internal Schools of Boxing

Discussing Taijiquan

Canon Taijiquan

About true fulfillment

Chen Changxing. Basic Concepts of Taijiquan

Guo Yunshen. Steps and methods of cultivation in Xinyiquan school

Sun Lutang Science of the Fist of the Eight Trigrams School

Selected Teachings of Old Wushu Masters

Some practical advice

Selected sayings of the masters of martial art. Legends about the masters of martial art

SECTION FIVE.ALL THE JOYS OF LIFE

SECRETS OF HEALTH

Sun Simiao's advice on a healthy life

Sun Simiao. Song of Saving Life

From the Taoist Encyclopedia "Seven Books from the Cloud Library"

Exposition of a hundred diseases

Praise of a Hundred Medicines

Annual cycle in the Chinese "Science of Change"

LIFE - CREATIVITY

Taoist utopia

Tao Yuanming. The life of a scientist "five willows"

Zong Bing. Alert to the image of mountains and waters

Zhang Yanyuan. About painting

Go Xi. The sublime meaning of forests and streams

Zhu Jingxuan. Notes on famous artists of the Tang Dynasty

Liu Se. Cultivating Vitality Through Creativity

THE BEAUTY OF THINGS

Liu Zongyuan. About the mound that lies to the west of my pond

Zhou Dunyi. About Lotus Love

Yuan Zhonglan. flower book

Dong Qichang. Talk about antiques

Wen Zhenheng. About things that please the eye

Ching Shentan. twenty one joys of life

Zhang Chao. From the book "Shadows of Deep Sleep"

Heart of Chinese Wisdom

To begin with, the very word "Tao", from which the words "Taoism", "Taoists", "Taoist", etc., are derived, is not at all the exclusive property of Taoism. It belongs to all Chinese thought, and every philosopher or scientist of ancient China saw in it the designation of truth, or, more precisely, the deepest truth and the righteous path of life. All Chinese sages are adherents of Tao. And it turned out this way because in China they valued not an abstract, logically deduced truth, but namely life wisdom, which, as a fruit, over time, appears as the result of a long one - is it not infinitely long? - a life path and requires an internal, often even inexplicable conviction that one is right. In the end, everyone has their own truth, because everyone has their own life path. Everyone can be a Taoist for himself - a "man of the Tao". Why not?

And in another place: “When a low person hears about Tao, he laughs. If he didn't laugh, it wouldn't be Tao."

Hence the important place that the doctrine of cosmogenesis, the creation of all things, occupies in Taoism. The Taoists teach that the world arose from the primordial Chaos, which they also call the One Breath (and qi), the Primordial Breath (yuan qi) or the Great Void (tai xu), or more precisely, the emptiness of the mother’s womb, which feeds everything inside itself. The creation of the world is the result of spontaneous division of the primary integrity of Chaos. At first, Chaos, or the Unified breath, was divided into two polar principles: the male, light, active Yang and the female, dark, passive Yin; from the "two principles" stood out "four images", corresponding to the four cardinal directions; "four images" gave birth to "eight limits" of the universe, etc. This scheme is recorded in the ancient Chinese canon "I Ching" ("Book of Changes"), which contains a set of graphic symbols of the world process of Tao common to the entire Chinese tradition. The symbolism of the I Ching is based on eight so-called trigrams, which are combinations of three features of two types: solid (Yang symbol) and intermittent (Yin symbol). There was also another numerical scheme of cosmogenesis: one gives birth to two (Yin and Yang), two gives birth to three (Heaven, Earth, Man), and three gives birth to all the darkness of things.

Be that as it may, the world, according to the Taoists, is a "transformed One", the fruit of the metamorphosis of Tao. In the Taoist tradition, in this regard, it was also said about the transformation of the first man, which was considered the semi-legendary founder of Taoism and the supreme deity of the Taoist religion, Lao Tzu, who was also called the Highest Old Ruler. The world for the Taoists is the “transformed body” (hua shen) of Lao Tzu. And this means that between the human heart and the body of the eternal Tao there is a deepest inner connection. Man and the world in Taoism are inseparable and interchangeable, like microcosm and macrocosm.

However, the changes we see are also only a reflection of a true transformation. The metamorphoses of Tao are "subtly subtle in their smallness"; they disappear even before their visible image appears! From this sensitivity to the innermost metamorphoses of being, the love of Chinese artists for all kinds of deceptive views, for miniature gardens that are an exact copy of the real world, for any art that blurs the line between illusion and reality, has grown. Hence the unusually high status of art in the Chinese tradition, because art, which offers a lie for the sake of a great truth, appears as the most accurate evidence of the Tao.

Of course, Taoism has its own history; its appearance and place in Chinese history have not remained unchanged for centuries. The stage of formation of the Taoist tradition falls on the 5th-3rd centuries. BC e. - the heyday of the philosophical thought of ancient China. During this period, two classical Taoist works appeared - "Tao Te Ching" and "Zhuang Tzu", which set out the foundations of the Taoist teaching about Tao. A new complete translation of the Tao Te Ching and lengthy excerpts from Chuang Tzu form the first section of this anthology: The Fathers of Taoism.

The asceticism of the Taoist xian included many different practices: gymnastic and breathing exercises, diet, taking potions, meditation, military training, and even using sex to strengthen vitality. Over time, these forms of "implementation of the Tao" became more and more complex and refined, overgrown with new details, but also influenced each other more and more. Thus, in the end, there was a broad synthesis of the spiritual and bodily practice of late Taoism. The core of the Taoist tradition invariably remained rather closed, few schools that ensured the "transmission of Tao" from teacher to student. (That was, in essence, the only possible form of existence of the wisdom of the Tao in Chinese society.) Although the succession of the Tao was essentially an artless act of self-consciousness of the creative will, or, in other words, "spiritual awakening", this event was prepared and made possible thanks to an extensive set of a variety of practices. For example, in the Taoist School of the Wild Goose, more than 70 sets of exercises were used - breathing, meditative, physical, and so on. And every student who dreamed of becoming a legitimate school teacher had to thoroughly master them all.

The most important texts related to the Taoist tradition of personal cultivation or, in Taoist language, "nourishment of life" (yang sheng), are collected in the second section of the anthology: "The Path to Perfection." In addition, materials on the most peculiar and of keen interest in the modern world forms of "implementation of the Tao" - sexual practice and the art of fisticuffs - are separated into separate sections. Finally, the texts of the last section, which has the heading "All the joys of life", introduce the reader to the influence of Taoism on artistic creativity and the life of the Chinese. And although these texts, it would seem, are not directly related to the Taoist tradition proper, without them it is impossible to get a correct idea of the role and significance of Taoism in Chinese culture.

Of course, the heritage of Taoism is not limited to those aspects of it that are reflected in this anthology. Suffice it to say that from the first centuries A.D. Taoism also existed as a religious organization with its temples and priests, complex rituals and an extensive pantheon of gods. In Chinese society, the Taoists acted as experts in all kinds of magic, divination, medicine and witchcraft, and most importantly, mediators between people and spirits. They knew how to drive away demons and call on good deities, send the souls of the dead to the afterlife, and perform many other rituals so necessary for ordinary people. Taoism is sometimes called the national religion of China, but this definition is not entirely correct. Firstly, Taoism spread among some other peoples living in the neighborhood with the Chinese. Secondly, the Taoists not only did not preach their religion in society, but, on the contrary, carefully concealed their secrets from the uninitiated and did not even allow the laity to attend the most important prayers.

In addition, Taoism has always been divided into many independent sects, where the "art of Tao" was passed from teacher to student in secret from outsiders.

Nevertheless, Taoism, without exaggeration, can be called the true focus of Chinese culture, because it ensured continuity between the elite wisdom of the Tao and the beliefs of the common people, the principles of internal improvement and the entire Chinese way of life. For the Taoists, their religion was just something like a “useful illusion”, because the images of the gods, like the entire visible world, were, according to their concepts, only “reflections” of the sacred Tao. While serving their prayers, the Taoists did not actually worship the spirits, but rather involved them in the boundless harmony of the Great Void. At the same time, the very existence of deities, as well as the entire world of forms, which is the “transformed body” of the Tao, remained absolutely necessary for the Taoists.

Translations of other Taoist terms are specified in the comments.

To begin with, the very word "Tao", from which the words "Taoism", "Taoists", "Taoist", etc., are derived, is not at all the exclusive property of Taoism. It belongs to all Chinese thought, and every philosopher or scientist of ancient China saw in it the designation of truth, or, more precisely, the deepest truth and the righteous path of life. All Chinese sages are adherents of Tao. And it turned out this way because in China they valued not an abstract, logically deduced truth, but namely life wisdom, which, as a fruit, over time, appears as the result of a long one - is it not infinitely long? - a life path and requires an internal, often even inexplicable conviction that one is right. In the end, everyone has their own truth, because everyone has their own life path. Everyone can be a Taoist for himself - a "man of the Tao". Why not?

And in another place: “When a low person hears about Tao, he laughs. If he didn't laugh, it wouldn't be Tao."

Hence the important place that the doctrine of cosmogenesis, the creation of all things, occupies in Taoism. The Taoists teach that the world arose from the primordial Chaos, which they also call the One Breath (and qi), the Primordial Breath (yuan qi) or the Great Void (tai xu), or more precisely, the emptiness of the mother’s womb, which feeds everything inside itself. The creation of the world is the result of spontaneous division of the primary integrity of Chaos. At first, Chaos, or the Unified breath, was divided into two polar principles: the male, light, active Yang and the female, dark, passive Yin; from the "two principles" stood out "four images", corresponding to the four cardinal directions; “four images” gave rise to the “eight limits” of the universe, etc. This scheme is recorded in the ancient Chinese canon “I Ching” (“Book of Changes”), which contains a set of graphic symbols of the world process of Tao common to the entire Chinese tradition. The symbolism of the I Ching is based on eight so-called trigrams, which are combinations of three features of two types: solid (Yang symbol) and intermittent (Yin symbol). There was also another numerical scheme of cosmogenesis: one gives birth to two (Yin and Yang), two gives birth to three (Heaven, Earth, Man), and three gives birth to all the darkness of things.