from Verse FifteenIn ancient times, when the Yellow Emperor governed the land, he tuned the courses of the sun and moon, governed the energies of yin and yang, regulated the measures of the four seasons, corrected the calculations of the calendar, defined the places of men and women, clarified above and below, prevented the strong from overshadowing the weak, and saw to it that the majority did not harm minorities.~ Wen-tzu: Understanding the Mysteries ~
The people lived out their lives and did not die prematurely, the crops ripened in the field and did not fail. Officials were upright and unbiased, rulers and ruled were harmonious and had no resentments. Laws and directives were clear and not obscure, helpers were fair and not obsequious. Tillers of the fields conceded boundaries, lost articles were not picked up on the roads, merchants did not overcharge.
Needless to say, this time in history never existed. Like many philosophic and folk religion traditions, allusions to an earlier time of divine perfection or supreme balance are literary devices that point to what human society could be.
If we focus too much attention on the mythic elements, however, we might miss the other key point of this passage. While it appears to talk about a specific nation and its people, it's concurrently talking about each of us. When our lives are in serene balance and our egos are pushed to the back, the lives we lead can be in keeping with the energies and rhythms of Tao. In the end, each of us is the emperor of our own self.
This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.
If we focus too much attention on the mythic elements, however, we might miss the other key point of this passage. While it appears to talk about a specific nation and its people, it's concurrently talking about each of us. When our lives are in serene balance and our egos are pushed to the back, the lives we lead can be in keeping with the energies and rhythms of Tao. In the end, each of us is the emperor of our own self.
This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.
Aha, the Chinese Garden of Eden!
ReplyDeleteWen Tzu's lovely description puts the paradise in the past; sometimes people put it in the future, whether the historical future or the afterlife.
ReplyDeleteOnce you invest belief in it, though, it has a more tangible existence in your personality. A person who lives with integrity, who keeps such an ideal firmly in the center of their intent, effectively goes around making the world we know more closely resemble the paradise they envision.
There is danger in this, too, though. When a person whose internal "kingdom of the Yellow Emperor" is unbalanced, shaped by resentment and fear--they end up making the world around themselves into a horror. not because they are intrinsically bad. Rather, by not having the dedication to clearly envision a better world and the faith that it can exist, they make themselves unable to create it.