CHAPTER FOUR
The True Man: Embodiment of Wu-Wei
The ideal of living in harmony with Dao leads to the principle of wu-wei. Sometimes defined as “doing without doing,” “actionless action,” or “non-interference,” wu-wei describes action without personal motive. It means immersing oneself in the natural flow of life, letting oneself be carried by the current of Dao without imposing one’s own ego or will. It presupposes an acceptance that life has its own momentum, its own pattern, and that human beings need to submit to it and not impose themselves. Thus, living according to the principle of wu-wei forms the foundation of a life of peace and happiness.
As Professor Ellen Chen, translator and scholar of the Daodéjing, writes:
Daoism does not regard humans as the only active agents. Nature untouched by civilization is a dynamic realm while human action (wei) only interferes with and stifles the natural processes of things. Dao lets all beings operate on their own, accomplishing everything by doing nothing (wu-wei).
The action that characterizes Dao is called transformation or self-transformation. Human action (wei), imposing an order on nature, is disruptive and destructive; transformation is the process by which natural beings unfold according to their inner rhythm. When the ruler imitates Dao by a policy of wu-wei, he allows peace to prevail among humans and between humans and the natural world.58
The Chinese Daoists rarely personified God. They taught that the Dao is the divine principle that has always existed before creation, and which provides the path back to union with the great emptiness of non-being. They taught people to live in accord with the Dao and to allow their dé, or inner potency, to nurture their intrinsic inner nature. When sages emphasized the importance of living according to wu-wei, they were teaching their disciples to remove personal motives from their actions and be detached from the results; not investing themselves intellectually or emotionally but allowing nature to take its course.
Daoist classics like Daodéjing and Zhuangzi use metaphors from nature to show how to live in the Dao according to the principle of wu-wei. The events of life will keep rolling along, but the sage withdraws, rejecting self-importance and the need to interfere in events.
Humility allows him to live effortlessly and do “nothing to disturb the spontaneous flow of things.”59 The Daodéjing gives this advice:
To learn, one increases day by day;
To cultivate Dao,
one reduces day by day.
Reduce and reduce and keep on reducing,
Till the state of non-interference (wu-wei)
is reached.60
Human intervention in the affairs of the world is not necessary – not even for kings and rulers, much less so for the rest of us or any other of the myriad beings of creation.
Dao everlasting does not act (wu-wei),
and yet nothing is not done.
If kings and barons can abide by it,
The ten thousand things will transform
by themselves.61
The sage or spiritual master embodies the ideal of wu-wei; he lives in the current of Dao. In keeping with this principle, he never promotes himself. He is modest and humble. He is not interested in creating a personality cult around himself, but rather acts as a guide for his disciples in cultivating the Dao, so they can experience it for themselves. Disciples must undertake their own spiritual cultivation, under their master’s guidance. This cultivation includes their way of life in the world as well as their inner meditation practice. The Huainanzi offers this description of the sage who cultivates the essential and lets go of the superficial:
The sage inwardly cultivates that which is the root instead of outwardly putting ornament on that which is the tip. He preserves his spirit and puts aside his cleverness. Quiescently he does nothing, yet leaving nothing undone; serenely he does not impose order on anything, yet there is nothing that is not ordered.62
As Master Meng emphasized in my meetings with him, “the most important lesson a master teaches his disciple is how to be a human being, how to have dé.” And the master himself embodies this through the way he lives in accord with wu-wei.
Master Meng also said that “generally people have an instinctive love for their parents. Next to that love, there is the instinctive love of the disciple for his master. The love of the master is strict and unconditional. The disciple sees the master as the one who will get him over to the other shore.”
Many of the stories in the Zhuangzi hold up the sage as the embodiment of wu-wei and an example to emulate. They may not specifically mention wu-wei, but wu-wei is the thread that unites all Chinese Daoist teachings. People look for guidance on how to live, and the Chinese mystics provided that guidance through their living example and stories.
By getting lost in Dao, forgetting oneself, one can achieve a state of wu-wei. Dao is often compared to water, which flows steadily and continuously, overcoming all obstacles. It epitomizes the Daoist ideal of effortless action. Fish are not aware they are swimming in water, yet they live in it all the time. They do not analyze themselves in relation to their surroundings. They just live. This is the Daoist ideal. Simply by getting lost in Dao, one achieves the state of wu-wei, and all is accomplished effortlessly.
Fishes are born in water;
Man is born in Dao.
If fishes, born in water,
Seek the deep shadow
Of pond and pool,
All their needs
Are satisfied.
If man, born in Dao,
Sinks into the deep shadow
Of non-action
To forget aggression and concern,
He lacks nothing.
His life is secure.Moral: “All the fish needs
is to get lost in water.
All man needs is to get lost
in Dao.”63
Another parable from the Zhuangzi emphasizes that if a person functions in the world through intuitive understanding, flowing with the natural currents of life rather than by applying intellectual analysis and calculation, he will be in tune with the ideal of wu-wei and arrive at the natural state of nothingness, the primal emptiness of Dao.
To the north of the Red Water,
To the Kunlun mountain.
He looked around over the edge of the world.
On the way home
He lost his night-colored pearl.
He sent out Science to seek his pearl,
and got nothing.
He sent Analysis to look for his pearl,
and got nothing.
He sent out Logic to seek his pearl,
and got nothing.
Then he asked Nothingness,
and Nothingness had it!The Yellow Emperor said:
“Strange, indeed: Nothingness,
who was not sent,
Who did no work to find it,
had the night-colored pearl!”64
The night-colored pearl is a symbol of the darkest of dark, the inner valley or deepest source of all spiritual knowledge, also called the “valley spirit.” It is where the seed of spiritual awareness germinates within us. It is the awakening of our dé, our spiritual potential. Science can’t find the pearl, nor can logic or analysis. Only nothingness can find it.
Nothingness found it not by looking but by not looking. Because nothingness (formlessness) is of the same essence as the origin of spiritual knowledge (Dao), it is empty of intellectual activity and so can see the pearl.
The quotation below from the Huainanzi teaches that one can maintain stillness by maintaining a balance between the external and internal worlds or states of consciousness. This stillness is the balance point between involvement and objectivity, between external conditions and being true to one’s inner self and its spiritual potency, the dé.
Here the Dao is referred to as emptiness; it is the highest realm or place of non-being, the origin of being. Being generates the myriad forms of the creation. So the mystic here is saying that his spirit abides in stillness, in the pure state of non-being. To reach there, he has entered the “Gateway of Heaven,” the point of transition between the physical world and the realm of spirit. By passing through that point, he can enter the realm of spirit and follow the ideal of wu-wei.
Hence, one who understands Dao
Returns to his limpidity and stillness,
And one who knows all there is to know
about things
Always ends up with non-activity.
If one nourishes his nature with tranquility
And lodges his spirit in emptiness,
Then he has entered the Gateway of Heaven….He succeeds without deliberating,
He accomplishes without doing.65
To maintain this state, a person needs to have a pure heart and give up calculation and analysis. He follows his true nature. As Huainanzi says:
Thus, when a man harbors a calculating heart
in his breast,
The quality of his person is contaminated
and his spirituality is not kept whole.66
It is the wise man, the sage, the mystic, who embodies the principle of wu-wei. He is always tranquil, as he is one with the Dao. He embodies inner stillness.
The non-action of the wise man is not inaction.
It is not studied. It is not shaken by anything.
The sage is quiet because he is not moved,
Not because he wills to be quiet.
Still water is like glass.
You can look in it and see the bristles on your chin.
It is a perfect level;
A carpenter could use it.
If water is so clear, so level,
How much more the spirit of man?
The heart of the wise man is tranquil.
It is the mirror of heaven and earth,
The glass of everything.
Emptiness, stillness, tranquility, tastelessness,
Silence, non-action: this is the level
of heaven and earth.
This is perfect Dao.
Wise men find here their resting place.
Resting, they are empty.From emptiness comes the unconditioned.
From this, the conditioned,
the individual things.
So from the sage’s emptiness, stillness arises:
From stillness, action; from action, attainment.
From their stillness comes their non-action,
which is also action,
And is, therefore, their attainment.
For stillness is joy.
Joy is free from care,
Fruitful in long years.
Joy does all things without concern:
For emptiness, stillness, tranquility, tastelessness,
silence, and non-action
Are the root of all things.67
The heart-mind of the wise man is still because it is in perfect balance. In its stillness it mirrors the balance of heaven and earth, yang and yin, positive and negative. Joy is attained through stillness, silence, and wu-wei, which are at the root of everything.
In Chinese classical literature, the master or sage is often called the shenren, the man of spirit, the real man, the true man. This is because he is true to himself, to his inner dé, and has realized the Dao within. He is also called the whole or complete person, as he has united the duality of opposites of yin and yang within himself. He is a totally integrated human being, in perfect balance.
The sage embraces the One, as the Daodéjing explains in Chapter Twenty-two. He contains all the opposites in dynamic union, and thus he is whole. He remains humble, and so he can lead. He does not contend, so no one can contend with him. Those who pursue only one side of opposing views are self-promoting and boastful. The sage is enlightened because he reflects both sides; by not taking either side, the sage finds the solution to the problem. He sees the whole and thus has true perspective.
Therefore the sage embraces the One.
He becomes the model of the world.
Not self-seeing, hence he is enlightened.
Not self-justifying, hence he is outstanding.
Not showing off his deeds,
hence he is meritorious.
Not boasting of himself, hence he leads.
Because he is not contentious,
Hence no one under heaven
can contend with him….What the ancients say:
“Bent, thus preserved whole” –
Are these empty words?
Be preserved whole and return (to the source).68
Another passage in Daodéjing explains the benefit of being soft and not contending, like the mystic who embodies the principle of wu-wei:
The softest thing in the universe
overcomes the hardest thing in the universe.
That without substance can enter
where there is no room.
Hence I know the value of non-action.
Teaching without words and work without doing
Are understood by very few.69
Gentleness and yielding are the most powerful forces in the world. They can overpower and conquer the most hard and rigid. “That without substance can enter where there is no room.” In other words, that which is non-existent is stronger than the hardest stone. The empty penetrates the solid. As Professor Ellen Chen writes: “Dao alone is the absolute nothingness that penetrates all beings.”70
True Man of Dao
The Zhuangzi presents several unusual examples of the sage, or mystic – “the true man of Dao (zhenren).” He is able to let go of intellectual analysis and judgment; he becomes childlike, innocent, and spontaneous. He is whole, not fragmented. He can do the impossible because he doesn’t distinguish between what is possible and impossible. Reason doesn’t interfere with his judgment.
The sun can become the moon for him. He can go beyond the realm of form to the formlessness of Dao. His essential inner power comes from the root of Dao, so nothing can stand in his way.
“How does the true man of Dao
Walk through walls without obstruction,
Stand in fire without being burnt?”Not because of cunning
Or daring;
Not because he has learned,
But because he has unlearned….What can stand in his way?
He will rest in his eternal place
Which is no-place.
He will be hidden
In his own unfathomable secret.
His nature sinks to its root
In the One.
His vitality, his power
Hide in secret Dao.71
Like a drunken man, the sage is relaxed and unaware of his surroundings. He is soft, not brittle, so he can adjust to all conditions. He experiences no obstacles. Life and death are the same to him. He is drunk with Dao. And like a drunken man, he can fall out of a wagon and not be injured. Being encompassed by and permeated with Dao, the true, wise, or real man is protected from anything and everything. Dao protects him; he has no cares.
When he is all one,
There is no flaw in him
By which a wedge can enter.
So a drunken man, falling
Out of a wagon,
Is bruised but not destroyed.
His bones are like the bones of other men,
But his fall is different.
Of getting into a wagon
Or falling out of one.Life and death are nothing to him.
He knows no alarm, he meets obstacles
Without thought, without care,
Takes them without knowing they are there.If there is such security in wine,
How much more in Dao.
The wise man is hidden in Dao.
Nothing can touch him.72
Zhuangzi reviews the characteristics of the “true man of old,” the original Daoists of ancient times. They were courageous in their views and fearless, no matter what perils they had to endure. Their inner realization took them to the spiritual realm of Dao. They embodied wu-wei because they were merged in the Dao. They experienced no resistance and did not try to go against the flow of Dao.
What is meant by a “true man”?
The true men of old were not afraid
When they stood alone in their views.
No great exploits. No plans.
If they failed, no sorrow.
No self-congratulation in success.
They scaled cliffs, never dizzy,
Plunged in water, never wet,
Walked through fire and were not burnt.
Thus their knowledge reached all the way
To Dao.The true men of old
Slept without dreams,
Woke without worries.
Their food was plain.
They breathed deep.
True men breathe from their heels.
Others breathe with their gullets,
Half-strangled. In dispute
They heave up arguments
Like vomit.
Where the fountains of passion
Lie deep,
The heavenly springs
Are soon dry.The true men of old
Knew no lust for life,
No dread of death.
Their entrance was without gladness,
Their exit, yonder,
Without resistance.
Easy come, easy go.
They did not forget where from,
Nor ask where to,
Nor drive grimly forward
Fighting their way through life.
They took life as it came, gladly;
Took death as it came, without care;
And went away, yonder,
Yonder!They had no mind to fight Dao.
They did not try, by their own contriving,
To help Dao along.
These are the ones we call true men.Minds free, thoughts gone,
Brows clear, faces serene.
Were they cool? Only cool as autumn.
Were they hot? No hotter than spring.
All that came out of them
Came quiet, like the four seasons.73
The true men, the saints or masters, are natural and soft. They do not contend and do not publicize themselves. They can plunge into water without getting wet, meaning that they live in the world without getting tainted. They have no worries and do not burden their minds with too many thoughts; they live simply, they breathe deeply. Passion dries up our spiritual nature, but sages live without passion; they have neither fear of death nor excessive joy in living. Easy come, easy go: they take life as it comes. They exemplify the principle of wu-wei – acting without motive, not investing themselves in their actions.
The true man understands that the Dao is the unity that permeates all, that connects everything and everyone. The person who holds on to the pivot of Dao can maintain his balance. He holds on to his inner spiritual core while acting in the external world, the world of intellect and the myriad things, without being corrupted by it.
And how can he do this? Zhuangzi says: “They wander free and easy in the service of inaction.” Wandering free and easy describes lack of tension, being in tune with their “original nature.” In “service of inaction” means that they are not attached to any action they take; they act without personal motive.
We have seen that Dao is often compared to water, in its flowing, adaptive nature. In the same way, the sage, who embodies the Dao, is like water. He gives generously; his love doesn’t discriminate between one person and another; he does not contend but adapts. Following behind rather than leading, he does not seek fame or celebrity; not forcing himself on others, he inspires their loyalty by his humility. To emulate the perfect man, Zhuangzi advises:
Do not be an embodier of fame; do not be a storehouse of schemes; do not be an undertaker of projects; do not be a proprietor of wisdom. Embody to the fullest what has no end and wander where there is no trail. Hold on to all that you have received from Heaven but do not think you have gotten anything. Be empty – that is all. The Perfect Man uses his mind like a mirror – going after nothing, welcoming nothing, responding but not storing. Therefore he can win out over things and not hurt himself.74
The Huainanzi uses the metaphor of the handle, the axis or pivot of Dao, to explain how the sage lives – with his attention always in Dao, true to his inner nature while adjusting to the changes that life brings. He is objective and selfless. Huainanzi brings a story to illustrate this:
The two kings, the Tai Huang and the Gu Huang,
Got hold of the handle of dao
And stood at the center.
In spirit they roamed together
with the lord of transformation*
To bring peace to the world.Hence (working the handles of dao), they can:
Move like the heavens and stay still like the earth.
Turning like a wheel without flagging,
Flowing like water without cease,
They begin and end at the same time
as the myriad things.
Just as when the wind rises, the clouds steam forth,
There was nothing to which they did not respond;
Just as when the thunder crashes, the rain falls,
They are never at a loss in their response….
Like the potter’s wheel spinning,
like the hub whirling,
Going full circle they start going round again.Carved and chiseled,
They return to being an uncarved block.75
Holding on to the axis of Dao, wise men can move in the world but still keep their center in Dao. They can stay still like earth, flow like water, turn like a wheel; the axis stays still but the rim keeps rotating. So, they can get “carved and chiseled” in the world, but still return to being the “uncarved block” – a common Daoist metaphor for original nature – innocent, not sophisticated or corrupted.
The axis is timelessness, the “beyond time” of the Dao. When we leave the wheel of worldly activity and involvement, we can return to the axis. It is the sage’s source of strength and stillness, the equilibrium that sustains all.
Doing what they did with no ulterior motive, they accorded with Dao; saying what they said with no ulterior motive, they were in communion with dé; happy and easy with no sense of self-importance, what they gained was in harmony; though they had a myriad of different manifestations, they yet accorded with each of these things in their various natures; their spirits resided in the tiniest tip of an autumn down, and yet were larger than the sum total of the cosmos.76
The Huainanzi portrays the sage as a master charioteer who has his hands firmly on the handles of the Dao. Without fatigue, he can guide his horses to the far ends of the cosmos, to the very gates of heaven. This is because he is not limited by human limits. He easily crosses the division between the physical and spiritual worlds, earth and heaven, to “ramble in the land of the inexhaustible.”
The poet uses the metaphor of the charioteer who knows how to manage his horses to describe how the sage is always appropriate in his actions. The sage knows how to navigate through the heavens and control natural forces. But no matter what he does, however far he goes, even to the four corners of the earth, he always returns to the pivot – the axis or handle of Dao. “Remaining whole, he returns to guard what is within; he manages the four corners of the earth yet always returns to the pivot.” And because he is always in control of himself, he never experiences fatigue. He maintains control because he is strong within, at his center.
He walks his horses when he should walk them,
He runs them hard when he should run them.
He gets the god of rain to sprinkle his path
And the god of wind to sweep away the dust.
With lightning as his whip
And thunder as his wheels,
Above he rambles in the free and roaming vastness.
Below he goes out of the gates of boundlessness.
Having scanned all around and left nothing out,
Remaining whole, he returns
to guard what is within.
He manages the four corners of the earth,
Yet always returns to the pivot.Hence, he travels fast without pitching,
And travels far without fatigue.
Without taxing his four limbs,
And without draining the keenness
of his hearing and sight,He knows the lay and the boundaries
of the various divisions and quadrants
of the cosmos.
How is this so?
It is because he has his hands
on the control handles of Dao
and rambles in the land of the inexhaustible.77
The sage or mystic embodies wu-wei. He adjusts to change and seizes the appropriate moment to act, in accord with the Creator, who brings the material creation into being.
[He] does not allow desire to disturb
his actual nature.
He hits the mark without planning,
His word is trusted without his having to speak,
He succeeds without deliberating,
He accomplishes without doing (wu-wei).
His purity reaches up to the mansion of the spirits
And he is a comrade of the ruler of change.78
The real man can adapt to changing circumstances without forgetting his inner core, never succumbing to danger. The author of Huainanzi puts it beautifully: “He stretches and bends along with things, like an echo or a shadow.”
His soul is not agitated
Nor is his spirit troubled….
Up against external things, he is able to respond;
Borne down upon, he is able to move.
Without form and without end,
In his changes he is without visible shape.
He stretches and bends along with things,
Like an echo or a shadow.
Even when looking down over a precipice,
He does not lose what he holds on to;
Traveling amid perils and dangers
He does not forget his dark crutch.79
The “dark crutch” is the internal core of his dé. It is called dark because its source is internal, receptive. Holding on to the dé at his center, the sage can respond to myriad events, even those that are chaotic, without being disturbed.
The sage does not make his person a slave
to external things
Nor does he allow desire to disturb
his inner harmony.
Hence, he is not elated with joy,
Nor downcast with sorrow….I alone am in great spirits,
and leaving things behind,
Travel along the same path as Dao.80
When a person is pulled from within to explore his inner nature, he can do so by cultivating the Dao. He doesn’t need to be anywhere special physically, but he has to maintain an internal state where he is not tempted by external enjoyments. If he is longing for material happiness, then even if he rules an entire empire, he will never be happy. But if he gives up attachment to worldly life, he will find joy in everything.
Hence, when a person has the means
to find it in himself,
Even under a tall tree or in an empty cave,
His real nature will be able to find satisfaction.
If he does not have the means to find it in himself,
Even if he has the empire
as his personal possession
And the myriad people as his subjects,
This will not be sufficient
to give his vitality sustenance.If a man can get to a state in which
there is nothing he enjoys,
there will be nothing he does not enjoy;
when there is nothing he does not enjoy,
he has then reached the extremity
of the highest joy.81
When our joy doesn’t depend on external things or events, our own joyful nature will keep us in a state of bliss. This is why the sage is always happy. His spirit resides in the most-minute part of the creation – the cellular level, as it were – yet it is larger than the cosmos. The sage is empty, so he encompasses everything, like the Dao itself.
The Huainanzi advises its readers to give up trying to change the world – just follow what is natural and thus reach the essential destination, the realm of the spirit. The mystic leads others to spiritual realms by his ability to let go of the world and hold on to the handle of Dao. He leads by following Dao. He embodies the principle of wu-wei.
Hence, there is nothing you can do about the world.
You can only follow what is natural
in pushing the myriad things ahead.
There is no getting to the bottom of changes
they undergo.
You can only grasp the essential destination
and lead them there.82
The sage’s source of strength is sticking to the essential, the axis of the constantly spinning wheel of life’s events.
The myriad things have their creator,
Yet he alone knows to abide by the root;
The events of the world have a source
out of which they come,
Yet he alone knows to abide by the gateway
(to the inner realms).83
The myriad things of the universe have their creator, yet only the sage knows how to live in the realm of non-being, with the Dao. External circumstances and events affect the realm of being, but the sage lives in perfect balance at the inner gateway – the point of transition between being and non-being. He embodies the state of emptiness, the stillness of the Dao.
Zhuangzi summarizes the qualities of the man of Dao, the man of spirit:
The man of spirit … hates to see people gather around him. He avoids the crowd. For where there are many men, there are also many opinions and little agreement. There is nothing to be gained from the support of a lot of half-wits who are doomed to end up in a fight with each other.
The man of spirit is neither very intimate with anyone, nor very aloof. He keeps himself interiorly aware, and he maintains his balance so that he is in conflict with nobody. This is your true man! He lets the ants be clever…. For his own part, he imitates the fish that swims unconcerned, surrounded by a friendly element, and minding its own business.
The true man sees what the eye sees, and does not add to it something that is not there. He hears what the ears hear, and does not detect imaginary undertones or overtones. He understands things in their obvious interpretation and is not busy with hidden meanings and mysteries. His course is therefore a straight line. Yet he can change his direction whenever circumstances suggest it.84
The man of spirit discourages praise. He keeps a balance. He imitates the fish that swims unconcerned, surrounded by a friendly element (water), minding its own business. He lets other people scurry and argue, like ants. He stays true to his dé, his inner nature, following the Dao. Holding on to the center, he is free to change course as circumstance dictates.
| * | The text used the term “demiurge of transformation” – the lord of change – i.e., being, the source of the duality of yin and yang; the one who brings change in the creation. Being has manifested from non-being, the original emptiness. |