Taoist Communication Theory

One of the two great philosophical traditions that originated in China, Taoism (also known as Daoism) is both the opposite of and complementary to the other indigenous philosophical tradition, orthodox Confucianism. Whereas Confucius (6th–5th century BC) and Mencius (4th–3rd century BC), one of the foremost Confucian thinkers, promoted moral cultivation and a hierarchical system of human relations as solutions to the social chaos of their times, the founders of Taoism, the mythical Laozi (dated as early as 6th century BC) and Zhuangzi (4th century BC), viewed such moral and social efforts as artificial constraints on the very nature of human beings and the Tao (Way) of the universe. The Tao was believed to be the force that operated to keep the world in harmony. Laozi and Zhuangzi advocated the idea of wuwei (effortless action), which has led to Taoism being associated with the themes of naturalness, spontaneity, relatedness, pluralism, anarchism, and laissez-faire government. The major works of Taoism, especially Laozi's Daode Jing and Zhuangzi's Zhuangzi, teach the functions and manifestations of the Tao.

This entry focuses on Taoist theory and methods of communicating the Tao. Discussion of Taoist communication theory brings to mind a familiar paradox of Taoism: The Way that can be told of is not the constant Way. The name that can be named is not the constant name. If the Taoist masters could convey the Tao to their audiences, then they were not communicating the real Tao. In a similar fashion, we are not reviewing the real communication either. This predicament originates from the conception of the Tao as a fluid whole. When we try to distinguish the fluid whole from other things and fix this distinction with the term Tao, we draw away from the fluid whole rather than toward it.

Interestingly, the Taoist masters share with Plato a critical view of the rhetorical practices of their day, but on the basis of different ontological and epistemological concerns. In the Republic, Plato compares three levels of a bed, or any object: the perfect or ideal form of a bed, the actual bed, and the picture of the actual bed. The actual bed varies according to the knowledge and will of the carpenter who produces it. It is therefore short of perfection. According to Plato, only the clear thought of a philosopher and his or her proper discourse can transcend the actual world and reach the world of ideal forms. In Zhuangzi, there is also a carpenter who tells Duke Huan that he cannot put into words his ability to chisel wood. However, in contrast to the Republic, in Zhuangzi the story of the carpenter is told to show the limitations of language, rather than its transcendental force.

For the Taoist, then, rhetoric can be very misleading, especially if a rhetor employs beautiful expressions and plausible reasons in the expression of that which is actually subjective or biased. Such rhetoric leads further away from the incommunicable Tao. From the point of view of the Tao, things are neither noble nor mean. Chiseling wood, for instance, is not nobler than carving an ox, or [Page 956]vice versa. Both require adaptation to a particular course of the Tao. The current practice of rhetoric, however, distinguishes things in terms of meanings and values that are themselves arbitrarily determined. A Confucian speaker, for example, first formulates the Tao as a set of ethical codes to be used for discrimination between that which is noble and that which is mean, or right and wrong. The speaker, then, according to the Taoist, packages his or her argument for moral division and discrimination with flowery and hollow expressions. Such a speaker is comparable to the painter in Plato's Republic who paints a bed made by a carpenter. According to Plato, the painting is itself two steps away from truth.

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