Evidence for stages of meditation in early TaoismHAROLD D. ROTH

Brown University, Providence, RI

Introduction

The role of some form of breathing meditation in most of the world's greatmystical traditions has long been known, but few have seen much evidence forthis in early Taoism. By ' early Taoism' I mean the formative stages of thetradition, from its mysterious origins to the completion of the Huai-nan-Tzujf£ Si =f- (139 B.C.). Perhaps scholars have seen so little evidence of meditativepractice in early Taoism because they have tended to focus almost exclusivelyon its famous foundational works, Lao-Tzu ^ -f and Chuang-Tzu %£ =f- andhave, furthermore, tended to treat them as works of abstract philosophy. Inmy research I have been particularly interested in the experiential basis of thephilosophy found in the Lao-Tzu and the Chuang-Tzu and in a variety of otherrelated texts that have hitherto been generally overlooked as sources for earlyTaoism. In order to clarify the context for the present investigation of meditat-ive stages, I would like to present briefly the most relevant hypotheses fromthis research:1

1. There is no original school of Taoism called ' Lao-Chuang'. Such apairing is probably a third-century A.D. literati creation. Indeed, the textualorigins of Taoism are not even to be found exclusively in these two texts.

2. In the formative period of Taoism we can identify, from extant textualsources, three 'aspects' or, perhaps, 'phases'. The first, or 'Individualist',aspect is essentially apolitical and is concerned exclusively with individualtransformation in the context of a cosmology of the Tao. It is represented bythe Kuan-Tzu <jf -f essay entitled 'Nei-yeh' (?g jg (Inward Training) and theseven 'inner chapters' of Chuang-Tzu. The second, or 'Primitivist', aspectadds a political dimension to the first, one that advocates the return to a moresimple and basic form of social organization found in the agrarian Utopias ofthe legendary past. It is represented by the Lao-Tzu and chs. 8-11 and 16 ofthe Chuang-Tzu. The third and final aspect, the ' Syncretist', shares the cosmo-logy and self-transformation theory of the former two, but advocates, instead,the establishment of a more complex, hierarchically organized central govern-ment that accords with the models provided by the patterns of Heaven andEarth. It is represented by a number of texts including the ' Ching-fa' |f j£,' Shih-liu ching' -(- /\ jjg, and ' Tao Yuan' Jf |g essays of the Ma-wang-tuiHuang-Lao Po-shu fi ^ fa H, Kuan-Tzu s 'Hsin-shu', shang' and 'hsia'<u ffi ± , T, parts of ch. 12-14 ('T'ien Ti' fttj, 'T'ien Tao' ^ £t, and 'T'ienYun' ^ ai) and chs. 15 and 33 ('K'o-i' %\ g , and 'T'ien-hsia' ^ j) of theChuang-Tzu, and the Huai-nan-Tzu. By the Han dynasty, this Syncretist aspectwas called ' Huang-Lao', and formed the first true ' school' of Taoism. Theonly chronology I have suggested is that the first aspect is likely to have beenthe earliest.

' This summary is based on the following articles: ' Psychology and self-cultivation in earlyTaoistic thought', Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 51/2, 1991, 599-650; 'Who compiled theChuang Tzu?\ in Henry Rosemont Jr. (ed.), Chinese texts and philosophical contexts: essaysdedicated to Angus C. Graham (LaSalle, 111.: Open Court, 1991); 'Redaction criticism and theearly history of Taoism', Early China, 19, 1994, 1-46; and 'The inner cultivation tradition ofearly Taoism', in Donald S. Lopez, Jr. (ed.), Religion of China in practice (Princeton: PrincetonUniversity Press, 1996), 123-48.

© School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1997

296 HAROLD D. ROTH

3. All three of these aspects share two very important characteristics. First,they contain a common vocabulary and concern for a method of practice Ihave called ' inner cultivation'. This essentially apophatic practice involves theprogressive emptying out of the usual contents of consciousness—thoughts,feelings, desires—through an inner contemplative process that is based in aform of guided and regularized breathing. This practice produces states ofdeep tranquility with a profound noetic content, states that have a powerfultransformative quality. It also yields the practical gains of mental acuity anddispassionate objectivity that would have been attractive goals to rulers as wellas adepts. Second, these texts all contain the characteristic cosmology of Taoand Te that we have come to identify as essential to whatever we define asTaoism. Indeed, I would argue that it is precisely the practice of inner cultiva-tion, carried to its ultimate conclusion, that produces the profound noeticexperiences from which this characteristic cosmology derives.

4. Taoism in this formative period was not a philosophical school butrather consisted of one or more related master-disciple lineages that centredon the practice of inner cultivation. This practice formed the distinctive ' tech-nique' (shu $f) around which these lineages formed and from which theyeventually took their self-identity.2 Indeed, this central focus on techniquerather than philosophy may very well be true not just for the Taoists but forall the other pre-Ch'in schools, as Professor Fukui Fumimasa has recentlyobserved.3 The philosophical texts produced by these Taoist lineages werebased in this practice and the cosmology and self-transformation theories theycontain were derived directly from it. Thus, although there is little, if any,concrete information about the social structure of these lineages that hashitherto been derived from extant sources, one might speculate that they mayhave more closely resembled small communities of religious practitioners thanphilosophical schools on the early Greek model.

I should like to begin this investigation with the following question. If it isindeed true that early Taoism is grounded in a practice of guided breathingmeditation then we should expect that its textual sources also contained evid-ence of stages of meditation, such as we find in many of the other greatmeditative traditions, from Eastern Orthodox Christianity to Samkhya Yogaand the Indian and Tibetan traditions of Buddhism. These traditions all containvery detailed descriptions of stages of increasing profundity leading to whateverthey conceived of as the ultimate level of mystical experience or gnosis.Furthermore, recent neurophysiological studies in the West have attempted toidentify and compare these stages of meditation and tie them to specific levelsof psychic experience.4 The question is: can we find any evidence of comparablestages in early Taoist meditation?

If we were to limit ourselves to only those texts that have hitherto beenpresumed to be the sole extant sources of early Taoism, the Lao-Tzu and the

2 See, for example, the important contrast made by the Syncretist author of Chuang-Tzu 33,that between those who follow the comprehensive Tao-shu jiH $j (namely, ' us') and those whofollow partial and incomplete techniques (fang-shu Jj $$). I have elsewhere contended that thisphrase testifies to the developing self-identity of the Syncretist Taoist school of the early Han andthat it could also have served as the basis for Ssu-ma T an's identification of them as the Tao-chia if =g.

3 Fukui Fumimasa, ' The history of Taoist studies in Japan and some related issues', AdaAsiatica, 68, 1995, 12-13.

4 See, for example, Daniel Brown, ' The stages of meditation in cross-cultural perspective',and John Chirban, 'Developmental stages in Eastern Orthodox Christianity', In Ken Wilber,Jack Engler and Daniel Brown (ed.), Transformations of consciousness (Boston: Shambala, 1986),219-84 and 285-314.

EVIDENCE FOR STAGES OF MEDITATION IN EARLY TAOISM 297

Chuang-Tzu, (especially the 'Inner Chapters'), while there is some concreteevidence for meditative practice in them, there is virtually no evidence formeditative stages.5 The only exception to this is the wonderful narrative ofhow the Self-reliant Woman & fflt trained the talented Pu-liang Yi f- |g f$.6

Although this passage shows stages that ultimately end in the foundationalintrovertive mystical experience of union with the Tao, the connection toguided breathing practice can only be inferred.

However, if we look beyond the Lao-Tzu and the 'Inner Chapters' ofChuang-Tzu to other texts, it is possible to find some important testimony thatis relevant to our question. In a search through relevant early Taoist sources,I have located seven passages that provide clearer evidence for the existenceof stages of meditation in texts that span the entire formative period of earlyTaoism. These passages demonstrate a consistency in technical terminologyand rhetorical structure that is both striking and suggestive. I will now proceedto present and analyse these passages.

Early Taoist passages on meditative stagesRhetorical structure

What first called my attention to some of these passages was a similar method ofreasoning in them. As I analysed them further I noticed that they exhibited acommon rhetorical structure. It can be divided into three component parts.

1. A preamble in which the practices that prepare the adept for the laterstages are discussed. These practices are apophatic: they all involve a removalof the usual contents of consciousness: perception, thought, desires and feelings.This is common to all systems of meditation practice in religious traditionsthroughout the world.

2. A sorites-style argument in which the stages of meditation are presentedin a consecutive fashion. A sorites argument is one which presents a series ofpropositions in which the predicate of each is the subject of the next. Thus itfollows the form 'A then B, B then C, C then D...'7

3. A denouement that discusses the noetic and practical benefits of havingattained these stages.

Of the seven passages, only one does not contain the first part and onedoes not contain third part of this rhetorical structure.

I. The twelve-sided jade knob inscription f j i i i g

This inscription was found on a 12-sided jade knob that may have served asthe knob of a staff, or as a kind of pendant. Kuo Mo-jo fp W- 3B finds it similarin the style of characters to an inscription from the state of Han ^ that wasfound in a village near Lo-yang and dated to approximately 380 B.C.8 However,Joseph Needham finds that its rhetorical structure and technical terminologyis very close to the earliest inscription on the Five Phase theory found on a

5 For an analysis of breath meditation in the Lao-Tzu see my 'Laozi in the context of earlyDaoist mystical praxis', in P. J. Ivanhoe and Mark Csikszentmihalyi (ed.), Essays on religiousand philosophical aspects of the Laozi (forthcoming). It includes a brief discussion of the Chuang-Tzu 's techniques of'fasting the mind' and 'sitting and forgetting'. These are found in Chuang-

tzu yin te. j$£ -^ <jl W Harvard-Yenching Institute Sinological Index Series, no. 20 (Peking,1947), 4/24-34 and 6/89-93.

6 Chuang-Tzu yin-te, 6/36.7 Donald Harper first noticed this structure in the 12-sided jade knob. See Harper, 'The sexual

arts of ancient China as described in a manuscript of the second century B.C.', Harvard Journalof Asiatic Studies 47/2, 1987, 563.

8 Kuo Mo-jo §$ £fc 30i, 'Ku-tai wen-tzu chih pien-cheng de fa-chan' £ f̂-£, 5, 1972, 9.

298 HAROLD D. ROTH

jade sword hilt from the state of Ch' i ^ that is dated to about 400 B.C.9 Hefurther suggests that the jade knob might be even earlier. In any case, bothagree that this is the earliest extant evidence for the practice of guided breathingin China.

The inscription10 ff M.: W M W, W Wi # ; # I'J T; T 10 52; £ M @; @ S'J ft;m m &; * m & s 10 ^ - ^ « # «E ±; * a m & r - m an 3=; a» nil ?E •

To circulate the Vital Breath:Breathe deeply, then it will collect.When it is collected, it will expand.When it expands, it will descend.When it descends, it will become stable.When it is stable, it will be regular.When it is regular, it will sprout.When it sprouts, it will grow.When it grows, it will recede.When it recedes, it will become heavenly.The dynamism of Heaven is revealed in the ascending;The dynamism of Earth is revealed in the descending.Follow this and you will live; oppose it and you will die.

The inscription follows the rhetorical structure of a sorites argument anda denouement. It assumes development from a stage of mental agitation toone of regular and patterned breathing. This is accomplished by first taking adeep breath and then intentionally cycling through a series of exhalation andinhalation sequences until the breathing becomes stable and regular. To do soenables one to reach an inherent, natural pattern of breathing in which oneneed not exert the will any further. Experiencing this, one then directly appre-hends the dynamisms of Heaven and Earth (/' ien-chi ji t$t, ti-chi ife £$) throughthe ascending and descending of the breath.

That an inherent, natural pattern of breathing is reached by this practiceis implied by the use of the character t'ien (heaven, nature) as the last predicatein the sorites. It is further implied in the sentence that concludes the denouementon the benefits of this practice. The use of the contrasting verbs shun m (tofollow, accord with) and ni ^ (to oppose, resist) imply an object that is eitherfollowed or opposed. In the later 'Huang-Lao po-shu' these contrasting verbsare extremely important technical terms and their explicit object is the li a ,the various fundamental patterns or natural guidelines that pervade humanbeings and the cosmos that the sage must clearly penetrate, and in parallel towhich he must set up the institutions of his government.11 These contrastingterms are also found in the Yin-Yang texts from Yin-ch' tieh shan where theiruse is virtually the same as in the 'Huang-Lao po-shu'}2 Indeed, it is likelythat these Yin-Yang texts, or others like them, were the basis for the preoccupa-tion with the cosmological justification of human rule in the Huang-Lao works

9 Joseph Needham, Science and civilization in China, Vol. 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress, 1956), 242. The inscription is translated and briefly discussed on p. 143.

10 Kuo Mo-jo, 9.11 For an excellent discussion on the use and significance of these terms in the po-shu see R. P.

Peerenboom, Law and morality in ancient China: the silk manuscripts of Huang-Lao (Albany: StateUniversity of New York Press, 1993), 64-6.

12 Robin D. S. Yates, 'The Yin-Yang texts from Yinqueshan', Early China, 19, 1994, 95-6and 102. Yates observes an important difference: whereas the Yin-Yang texts are extremelydetailed in their rules humans must follow in order to harmonize with the greater patterns andcycles of Heaven and Earth, the ' Huang-Lao po-shu' are more abstract and generalized. Theythus demonstrate the meaning of Ssu-ma T'an's statement about the Taoist lineage: they followthe general guidelines of the Yin-Yang lineage (Shih-chi 5^ | g (Peking: Chung-hua, 1959),130.3289).

EVIDENCE FOR STAGES OF MEDITATION IN EARLY TAOISM 299

from Ma-wang-tui.13 Passage II analysed is from these Ma-wang-tui Huang-Lao texts and it demonstrates this specific usage of ni and hsu'n with // as theirstated object. While the jade knob inscription is rather early for an explicitdiscussion of the concept of li, the use of these contrasting verbs suggests animplicit understanding that the breathing practice brings one into compliancewith, and reveals, an underlying pattern.

The term ' dynamism of Heaven' is also found in the context of breathmeditation in a passage in Chuang-Tzu 6, 'Ta-tsung shih' A % Sfi:14

* it m A:

& A it & &, s; S A ^ t ^ i - jffl Bg #: n m a m ft - n m WL m #,M: ?C fit &•The Genuine Ones of old:Their sleep was without dreams,Their waking was without cares,Their eating was without sweetness,Their breathing was deeply deep.The breathing of the Genuine is from their heels. The breathing of the multitudeis from their throats. The submissive talk in gulps as though retching. In thosewhose desires are deep, the dynamism of Heaven is shallow.

The exact meaning of 'the dynamism of Heaven' (t'ien-chi) is unclear. TheChuang-Tzu sees it as the opposite of being filled with desires, and so it appearsto represent an achievement in apophatic cultivation. It is also associated withthe profound breathing of the Genuine, the adept who cultivate themselvesaccording to Taoist practices. If we gloss this passage with our jade knobinscription, the dynamism of Heaven could refer to a particularly deep patternof breathing associated with inhalation, where the diaphragm feels as if it isascending. The meaning of this term is difficult to pin down; it appears to bethe kind of cryptic metaphor which Donald Harper finds in the breath cultivationliterature from Ma-wang-tui and which occurs in later Taoist religious literat-ure.15 Such metaphors would have been well understood by the community ofpractitioners who engaged in these techniques, but without further informationabout such a community and its beliefs, all we can do is make an educatedguess at its meaning. In any case, the use of this term in the context of breathcultivation in Chuang-Tzu is indicative of a possible connection between thistext and our jade knob inscription.

Before leaving this inscription, it is important to note that, as the firstsource that contains the characteristic sorites reasoning in dealing with stagesof meditation, it serves as the prototype for the rest. However, it does notcontain the explicit phenomenology of meditation stages that we find in thefollowing six passages, but only presents stages in the actual breathing practice.

II. Huang-Lao po-shu, 'Ching-fa' nlr ^ ^ H • jg & 6: lLun' fft (sorting)

The so-called 'Huang-Lao po-shu' are the four silk manuscripts discovered atMa-wang-tui in 1973 that precede, on the same scroll, one of the two manu-

13 Harold D. Roth, ' The Yellow Emperor's guru: a narrative analysis from Chuang Tzu 11',Taoist Resources, 7/1, 1997.

14 Chuang Tzu yin-te, 6/6-7. My translation is adapted from A. C. Graham, Chuang Tzu: theInner Chapters (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1981), 84.

15 Harper, art. cit, 550.

300 HAROLD D. ROTH

scripts of the Lao-Tzu found among the cache of texts in tomb number three.These texts, of course, started the ' Huang-Lao craze' in scholarship that hasgone a long way to reshaping our understanding of early Taoism. Withoutwishing to enter into the various debates that have arisen around these textsover issues such as ascertaining their dates, elucidating their relationships toone another, determining whether or not they are the long-lost Huang-ti ssu-ching jpf ^ 0 ;gs, and so on, I would briefly present my current thinkingabout these works in order to contextualize the passage I have selected fromthem.

In previous studies I have linked these texts with the Syncretic aspect ofearly Taoism found in such sources as the 'Hsin-shu' essays from Kuan-Tzu,chs. 12-15, 33 of Chuang-Tzu, Huai-nan-Tzu, and Ssu-ma T' an's foundationaldescription of the 'Taoist School' (tao-chia Jg ^) . 1 6 While the Huang-Laopo-shu are much more explicit than these other sources on the various mechan-isms of government and do exhibit some differences in technical terminology,I believe that their sharing of the same basic orientation and many technicalterms is sufficient to class them with this group. Their differences may indicatetheir earlier date or perhaps the existence of regional lineages in this SyncreticTaoist tradition.

Of paramount importance in their vision of an ideal society is that it shouldbe ruled by a sage-king who has developed a gnostic wisdom enabling him tosee through the complex and constantly changing continuum of daily affairsto the underlying patterns that underpin and direct them. Seeing these patternsclearly, he can then establish his state in parallel to them, being always carefulnot to do anything that is contrary to them. In order to develop this rare andnuminous clarity, the sage must cultivate what we would today call a higherlevel of consciousness by the assiduous application of the apophatic techniquesof inner cultivation.

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That wherein natural guidelines are located, we call it [the Way]. When thereare things that have not united with the Way, we call them things that havelost their natural guidelines. That wherein the loss of natural guidelines islocated, we call deviation. Because deviation and compliance cause one another,then preservation and loss, flourishing and destruction can be understood.

16 Harold D. Roth, ' What is Huang-Lao?', a paper given at the 50th Annual Meeting of theAssociation for Asian Studies, New Orleans, Lousiana, April, 1991; and S. A. Queen and H. D.Roth, ' Daoist syncretisms of the Late Zhou, Qin and Han', in Wm. Theodore deBary and IreneBloom (ed.), Sources of Chinese tradition (revised ed., New York: Columbia University Press,in press).

17 Ma-wang-tui Han-mu po-shu (Peking: Wen-wu Press), 1980, 53, lines 12-13. Characters inparentheses are alternate readings or conjectural emendations provided by the editors; those inbrackets are my own conjectural emendations based on meaning.

EVIDENCE FOR STAGES OF MEDITATION IN EARLY TAOISM 301

[The knowledge of preservation and loss] generates wisdom.™Wisdom generates alignment.Alignment generates tranquility.When one is tranquil, one becomes equanimous.When one is equanimous, one becomes serene.When one is serene, one becomes unadorned.When one is unadorned, one becomes purified.When one is purified, one becomes numinous.When one becomes perfectly numinous, then (seeing) and knowing are never deluded.Emperors and kings took hold of this Way. Therefore, they maintained thelimits of Heaven and Earth, saw (and knew) together with Heaven. Theyexhausted [missing graph] ... within the four directions; took hold of the SixHandles in order to make decrees to all under Heaven; inspected the threenames in order to make the myriad endeavours ... [missing graph]; discerneddeviation and compliance in order to observe the patterns of the destructionof hegemons and kings; understood what makes things empty or full, activeor tranquil; comprehended the mutual resonance between name and reality;exhaustively understood the true and the false without delusion. Only then didthe Way of emperors and kings become completed.

Passage II is an important source for understanding the nature of Huang-Lao epistemology. It presents the results of this practice of inner cultivationin a series of psychological stages of increasing profundity that lead to theattainment of a numinous level of awareness in which ' seeing and knowingare never deluded' (ji, £n ^ ^ ) . Notice again the characteristic soritesreasoning and the presence of a clear preamble and a clear denouement.

In the preamble, knowledge of the preservation and loss of inherent patternswithin the cosmos and within the individual person lead to an enlightened wisdomabout how to follow them. This yields a condition in which both body and the flowof vital breath are aligned (cheng JE) presumably according to these inherent pat-terns, and next, to mental tranquility (ching gp). This calmness is followed byequanimity (ping zp), serenity (ning ^ ) , and a condition of purity (su ^ ) that iselsewhere, in Lao-Tzu 19, defined as being selfless (shao ssu 'p %). These arefollowed by a state of refined mental concentration (ching) and finally a numinousawareness (shen p ) . The denoument speaks of the benefits to the ruler of thispractice: it gives him the ability to see and understand unerringly the deeper patternsthat underlie heaven and earth and to have a profound insight into all the varioustechniques that make for a successful and harmonious government.

III. Lii-shih ch'un-ch'iu g f t f f t 3.4: lLun-jen H X' (Sorting out others)The Lii-shih ch'un-ch'iu was completed in 239 B.C. by scholar-retainers whohad been gathered together at the Ch' in court by the Prime Minister Lii Pu-weiS F̂ M- It is a difficult book to assess since it consists of essays writtenby followers of a number of different schools of practice that includedthe Confucians, Mohists, Yin-Yang Naturalists, Logicians, Legalists,Agriculturalists, Yangists, Taoists, and others.19 It is therefore easy to see why

181 disagree completely with the conjectural restoration of these six missing graphs suppliedby the editors (p. 54, n. 71): (-(jl ° jgj 4 . JgSJ • git) from a sentence in the Shang-chun shu:

56 £fe. Sj£ • Sic 4 . 38 ° It introduces a completely new topic, that of' strength', into the discourseand alters the meaning of the sorites that follows. My conjectural emendation continues thesubject of preservation and loss of natural guidelines or patterns (li 8!) from the previousparagraph and provides a logical link with the sorites structure that follows. Please note that theuse of italics is to emphasize the textual material most relevant to the present investigation.

19 See, for example, T'ien Feng-t'ai H JH, nf, Lii-shih ch'un-ch'iu t'an-wei g j ^ ;# #C W Wi (Taipei: Student Book Company, 1986), 153.

302 HAROLD D. ROTH

from Han times on it has received the bibliographical classification of' eclectic'(tsa-chia $& ^ ) . Modern scholars have attempted to identify one or another ofthese ideological viewpoints as the dominant position in the entire text butthey invariably rely on one or several chapters out of the total of 26 in orderto establish their positions.20

T" ien Feng-t' ai BB ML •£• has demonstrated that each of the 147 originalessays in the 26 chapters exhibits a consistent structure of discourse.21 Thissuggests that a structure was pre-established by the editors and then teachersfrom each school were asked to write essays on given topics that conformedto this structure. Andrew S. Meyer has identified certain chapters (nos. 3, 5,17, and 25) as having been written by members of the Huang-Lao lineage ofearly Taoism and, in general, I concur with his assessment.22 They exhibit thesame basic philosophical orientation as the other Syncretist texts I have identi-fied, namely, they are based in a cosmology of the Tao, they show clearevidence of inner cultivation theories directed primarily at the ruler and theyadvocate that the thus-enlightened sovereign rule by modelling his governmentafter the greater patterns of Heaven and Earth.

The first of the two passages selected from the Lu-shih ch'un-ch'iu comesfrom the first of its Syncretist chapters, no. 3, the 'Third month of spring'.This essay, ' Sorting out others', discusses how the ruler who practices innercultivation techniques is able to sort out the relative strengths and weaknessesof his ministers because of the clear and objective functioning of his ownconsciousness.23

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• mwm- msfomffimy-mmzx m- = £) • * & ¥ a *s 2(it) (K: =ii) • =g ifcfc m m &. m g ̂ • m &. m ̂ m ffl • » m 11»

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i s - mM,s.mmmMm^f^!&. • • • & ft ft - ay » » « • • • •20 See, for example the following: Hsiao Kung-chuan, A history of Chinese political thought,

vol. 1, transl. F . W. Mote (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979), 556-70. Hsiao sees it asan expression of 'p re -Ch ' in egocentric thought ' derived from the Yangists; A. C. Graham,Disputers of the Tao (LaSalle, Illinois: Open Court, 1989), 373—4, maintains that it combines ' theessential elements of Legalist s tatecraft . . . with Confucian and to a lesser extent Mohist moralism,all inside the frame of Yin-Yang cosmology ...', but concurs with Hsiao that its 'organizingdoctrine ... is not Taoist but Yangist ...'; Wu Kuang ig. yfc, Huang-Lao che-hstieh t'ung-lunM 3k 6 9: 51 I t (Hangchou: Chekiang Peoples' Press, 1985), 170-75, argues that the entirework should be classified as Huang-Lao.

21 T' ien, Lii-shih ch'un-ch'iu t'an-wei, 341-55. This total omits the 13 essays that are part ofthe structural framework of the book and that were probably written by the editor(s). Thisincludes the 12 ' r eco rds ' (chi | g ) essays, each devoted to listing the proper ritual observances tobe observed by the ruler for each of the 12 months of the calendar and which occur at thebeginning of each of the first 12 chapters. They have their own structure. It also omits the postface(hsii-i J5? M) to the first 12 chapters that is found at the end of the twelfth chapter.

22 Andrew S. Meyer, 'The Huang-Lao chapters of the Lu-shih ch'un-ch'iu', paper given at the53rd Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, Boston, March, 1994. Where I wouldqualify his argument is that there is little evidence to suggest that ' Huang-Lao' is a label thesethinkers applied to themselves at this time or that this label even existed before the Han. Howeverthis does not change in any way the definite links between these chapters and the ideology ofwhat later came to be thought of as Huang-Lao. Until this is clarified further I prefer simply tosay that these chapters represent another form of Taoist syncretism with clear similarities to thoseother forms I have identified previously.

23 A concordance to the Liishi chunqiu, (ed.) D . C. L a u and Chen Fong Ching (Institute ofChinese Studies Ancient Chinese Texts Conco rdance Series, Philosophical Works , no . 12, H o n gKong: Commercial Press, 1994), 14-15.

EVIDENCE FOR STAGES OF MEDITATION IN EARLY TAOISM 303

The Way of the ruler is concise. The lords hold it close to them. Its highestprinciple is to return to the self . . . .What do I mean by ' returning to the self'? Relax the ears and eyes, limit lustsand desires, let go of wisdom and scheming, cast off cleverness and precedent,let your awareness roam in the Limitless, and set your mind on the Path ofSpontaneity.If you do this then there will be nothing that injures the heavenly in you. Whenthere is nothing that injures the Heavenly in you then you will be concentrated.When you know how to be concentrated then you will know the numinous. Whenyou know the numinous, this we call attaining the One. All the myriad formsattain the One and thereby develop. Therefore if you know the One you willrespond to the alterations and transformation of the myriad things. You willbe vastly grand and profoundly deep so that you cannot be fathomed. Yourpower and actions will be brilliant and beautiful; like the sun and the moon,you cannot be exhausted. Great scholars will quickly arrive and guests fromafar will come in an endless line. Your awareness and vital breath will beexpansive and penetrating and nothing can bind or restrain them . . . . Thereforeif you know how to know the One then you will return to the Unhewn . . . .

This passage begins with preparations we recognize from other early Taoistsources that include relaxing perception, restricting desires, and relinquishingvarious sorts of biased intellection.24 This leads to a condition in which 'noth-ing harms the heavenly' or natural in you, a phrase that seems to echo thejade knob inscription's use of the same term. Here I take the ' heavenly' torefer not just to the natural and spontaneous side of one's nature that Taoistscultivate, but, because of the parallel to the jade inscription and the followingdiscussion of stages of meditation, I take it to refer to the naturally calm andpatterned breathing that will arise from following this mental discipline thatproduces tranquility.

From here the passage provides a brief list of successive stages of meditationin the characteristic sorites rhetorical structure. Ching, which I usually translateas the 'vital essence', is a concentrated or refined form of ch'i, the 'vitalbreath or energy'.25 In the inner cultivation tradition it is associated with themost refined states of consciousness, those of complete tranquility. I haveargued that the ching should be considered a ' physiological substrate' of suchpsychological experiences of tranquility.26 Here it indicates simultaneously therefined ch'i that develops from the practice of naturally patterned breathingand the tranquil state of mental concentration that develops from this practice.This is followed by the experience of the shen, the numinous, a core level ofconsciousness that is without will or desire and that is the source of unbiasedthinking, clear intuition, and the mystical experience of merging with the Tao.27

Indeed, herein, the numinous stage is followed by the stage called ' attainingthe One', which I take to indicate precisely this experience of unitiveconsciousness.

The denoument to this passages states that after this ultimate stage of

24 Restricting desires (chieh shih yii f p Bg $ ; a n d relinquishing var ious types of biased though t(shih chih mo ^ ff §J and ch'ti ch'iao ku f£ 15 WO a re characteristic technical terms ofSyncretist Taoism. See my ' Who compiled the Chuang Tzu!', 96-7. They are also present in thetwo Chuang-Tzu passages on 'mind-fasting' and 'sitting and forgetting' cited above.

25 Harold D. Roth, ' The early Taoist concept of Shen: a ghost in the machine?', in KidderSmith (ed.), Sagehood and systematizing thought in the Warring States and Early Han (BowdoinUniversity, 1989), 11-32.

26Roth, 'Psychology and self-cultivation in early Taoistic thought', 613-20.27 For this understanding of shen, see my ' The early Taoist concept of Shen', 11-22 and ' The

inner cultivation tradition of early Taoism', 123-48, especially pp. 126, 131, 136, 140.

304 HAROLD D. ROTH

meditation is attained, the consciousness of the ruler is profoundly transformed.Among other results, he is able to spontaneously respond to things, be inpenetr-ably profound and unattached, and be able to return to the ' unhewn', one ofthe Lao-Tzu's images for the desireless spontaneity of the Tao within theperfected sage.

IV. Lu-shih ch'un-ch'iu25.3: 'Yutu' ^ g (Havinglimits)

V. Chuang-Tzu23: 'Keng-sang Ch'u' jg ^ *|J

I will consider these two passages together because they are two differentversions of the same passage, with very few variations between them. The Lu-shih ch'un-ch'iu could possibly be quoting the Chuang-Tzu passage, but notvice versa, because the Chuang-Tzu contains several sentences after it beginsthe quotation that are not in the Lu-shih ch'un-ch'iu. It is also possible thatboth are quoting from yet a third text. While each passage occurs in a generallydifferent context {Lu-shih ch'un-ch'iu: short anonymous essay; Chuang-Tzu:long narrative attributed to Lao-Tzu ^ ^p), they share a common polemicalcriticism of the Confucian virtues. Both argue not that these virtues areworthless, but that they can only be attained by the superior Taoist innercultivation practices.

Chapter 25 in the Lu-shih ch'un-ch'iu, the 'Ssu-hsiin lun' $X Wi im (Essayon appearing to comply), is devoted to demonstrating how Taoist inner cultiva-tion practice gives the ruler the ability to overcome the inherent imperfectionsof the common, ego-based self and thereby be able to ascertain those govern-mental measures that truly comply with the greater patterns of Heaven andEarth. It is easy to be misled, the author argues, if one relies on the ego aloneto govern. Echoing the passage from Lu-shih ch'un-ch'iu 3 quoted above, thisessay speaks of the superiority of' holding onto the One' (chih-i #i —), whichI take to mean experiencing a complete unity with the Tao and then carryingthis over into one's daily affairs. To do so enables one to realize the ' essentialof our innate nature and destiny' (hsing-ming chih ch'ing ft ̂ £_ if).

' Yu-tu' (Having limits)26

. . nfl S ¥ tt <fr 2 * • I t i ^ i ^ f r ^ -

& £ * f g ^ £ a • Di - M » tt Jfe • <£ A ^ tg tfc - # • M <m>

£• WL- 12' # A # - Sit^til- itm^%^M¥mtpW\JE° JEFJJ

&' m i'J m m • » « « « • a i o ^ S M i s ^ s m -... If one can only see through to the essentials of our nature and destiny, thenthe techniques of humanity and Tightness will proceed on their own.

The Former Kings were unable to exhaust knowledge; they held onto theOne and the myriad things were ordered. If humans are not able to hold ontothe One, things will delude them. Therefore it is said,' Break through the perturbations of the will,Release the fetters of the mind,Cast off the constraints to Inner Power,Break through the blockages of the Way.

28 ibid., 162.

EVIDENCE FOR STAGES OF MEDITATION IN EARLY TAOISM 305

Nobility, wealth, fame, authority, reputation, and profit: these six are whatperturb the will. Demeanour, action, sex, patterns, vital breath and imagina-tion: these six are what bind up the mind. Hatred, desire, pleasure, anger, griefand joy: these six are what constrain Inner Power. Wisdom, talent, departing,approaching, accepting and rejecting: these are what block the Way. Whenthese four sets of six do not disturb what is within your chest, then one becomesaligned. When one is aligned, one becomes tranquil. When one is tranquil, onebecomes clear and lucid. When one is clear and lucid then one becomes empty.When one is empty, then one takes no action and yet nothing is left undone.'

Chapter 23 of the Chuang-Tzu, 'Keng-sang Ch'u,' contains an extendednarrative of a quest for Taoist inner cultivation practices that carries the seeker,Nan-jung Chu i$j S» jBt=, from master Keng to Keng's own master, Lao-Tzu.This narrative contains several inner cultivation sayings including what appearsto be an extended verse quotation from Kuan-Tzu's 'Inward training' essay(Nei-yeh) that is recited by Lao Tzu (HYC 62/23/34).29 The entire narrativeshows an awareness of both the Lao-Tzu (in its pairing of Tao and Te (e.g.23/32) and its use of the image of the pure mind of the child (23/35)) and the'Inner Chapters' of Chuang-Tzu (e.g. in its use of the meditative images of'body like withered wood ... mind like dead ashes' (23/41)). It also show animportant conceptual link with the Lu-shih ch'un-ch'iu 25 passage in speakingof the benefits of Taoist inner cultivation in terms of returning to the ' essentialsof our innate nature' (ch'ing hsing iff ft (23/29)). While 'Keng-sang Ch'u'does not directly discuss government, in light of its use of material from boththe Lao-Tzu and the earlier sections of the Chuang-Tzu, I think it likely tohave been written by a Syncretist Taoist author who was intentionally imitatingthe style of the ' Inner Chapters'.

'Keng-sang Ch'u'30

° ° ° & H - M *a w * A • s » * *& • M » ^ S ° s t mm- s f i

& • « • §g A # • mm an- s • «t • m- m- *n • m * # •

jtt ra A # ^ m (») ¥ m * m IE - IEWIW' mm w- m wi

... Therefore it is said, 'perfect courtesy does not objectify others, perfectlightness does not objectify things, perfect knowledge does not scheme, perfecthumaneness has no kin, perfect trustworthiness disdains gold.Penetrate the perturbations of the will,Release the fetters of the mind,Cast off the constraints to Inner Power,Pass through the blockages of the Way.Nobility, wealth, fame, authority, reputation and profit: these six are whatperturb the will. Demeanour, action, sex, patterns, vital breath and imagina-tion: these six are what bind up the mind. Hatred, desire, pleasure, anger, griefand joy: these six are what constrain Inner Power. Wisdom, talent, departing,approaching, accepting, and rejecting: these are what block the Way. Whenthese four sets of six do not disturb what is within your chest, then one becomes

29 Kuan-Tzu, Ssu-pu ts'ung-k'an edition, 16/4a2.30Harvard-Yenching Concordance[HYC\, 64/23/66-70.

306 HAROLD D. ROTH

aligned. When one is aligned, one becomes tranquil. When one is tranquil, onebecomes lucid. When one is lucid, then one becomes empty. When one is empty,then one takes no action and yet nothing is left undone.' ...

The preparatory practices in both passages involve eliminating variouskinds of psychological disturbances that interfere with the harmonious func-tioning of the sage's consciousness. Conceived of in four groups of six itemseach, they can be summarized as: 1, things that perturb the will, causing it toseek after external things (wealth, fame, profit) and to ignore the internal; 2,things that bind up the mind, causing it to move uncontrollably from onething to the next; 3, the emotions and desires, which tie down one's naturaland spontaneous responses; 4, the various aspects of analytical thought thatoperate on a dualistic level and hence block one's realization of the Tao. Whenthese disturbances do not disrupt the natural breathing in one's chest then onebegins to attain the higher stages of meditative experience.

These passages present a series of meditative stages in the characteristicsorites rhetorical structure as follows: IE cheng: the simultaneous alignment ofthe body and vital breath; j ^ ching: the tranquility that it produces; jf EJE(ch'ing) ming: the clarity and luminosity associated with deep meditative experi-ence in many traditions throughout the world; si hsti: complete emptiness,wherein consciousness is totally devoid of content. It is in this profoundintrovertive experience that the adept directly apprehends the One, the Tao.31

The Denouement presents the practical benefits of this process of innercultivation by using one of the most characteristic phrases of the Lao-Tzu: wu-wei erh wu pu-wei $£ ^ ffjj M F̂ M- Thus, holding onto this experience of theOne amidst the vicissitudes of daily life enables one to take no intentionalaction and yet accomplish whatever task one undertakes.

VI. Kuan-Tzu if 13: 'Hsin-shu, shang' <[> % ± (Techniques of the mind, I)

The Kuan-Tzu is a complicated collection of essays mostly devoted to politicaland economic thought that contains 76 essays in 22 chapters (chuari). Itoriginated in the state of Ch' i towards the end of the fourth century B.C. andwas added to over a period of perhaps two centuries. ' Hsin-shu, shang' is oneof four related essays in this collection that discusses Taoist inner cultivationpractice and its benefits for rulership. It is particularly closely related to ' Nei-yeh', which is devoted exclusively to this practice and its cosmic context andeschews any explicit discussion of its political applications. ' Hsin-shu, shang'takes the inner cultivation theories from ' Nei-yeh' and applies them to govern-ment, arguing that they give the sage-ruler the mental clarity, spontaneousresponsiveness, and ' inner power' (Te) to practice the wu-wei art of rulership.This distinctive application of inner cultivation to government coupled withits presentation of a cosmology based on Tao and Te and its deliberate use ofConfucian, Mohist, and Legalist ideas within this Taoist framework identify' Hsin-shu, shang' as one of the most important sources for Syncretist Taoism.32

'Hsin-shu, shang' consists of two related parts: a series of terse statements,often in verse, and a line-by-line explanation of these statements, mostly inprose. In our sixth passage the verse statement presents an image taken from' Nei-yeh' in which the inner cultivation practice of emptying the mind andattaining numinous awareness is conceived of a process of sweeping clean the

31 For a specific conceptual parallel see the Chuang-Tzu passage on the 'fasting of the mind',which contains the following phrase: P§ Jf ^ ^ - m # 4> ^ til - (HYC, 9/4/28).

32 Roth, ' Who compiled the Chuang Tzut', 88-92, 95-9.

EVIDENCE FOR STAGES OF MEDITATION IN EARLY TAOISM 307

abode of the numen (shen p) . 3 3 The explanation presents the stages of meditat-ive experience that derive from this process of emptying:

Statement34

i t * 51 fln H ffi til • IBiAMfiBffi l fMfte- iMM '&- if j® A # •

n i l ' m <n> r^j w s-!s

35

The Way is not far off yet it is difficult to reach its limit.It dwells together with man but is difficult to grasp.Empty out your desires and the numen will enter its abode.If the abode is not purified, the numen will not reside there.

Explanation

m. ft ̂ m,z innsA & m m - 3 6 « m A » m m.

I ! ^ W l» • 10 * A * # - & H " ^ «

The Way lies within Heaven and Earth. So vast, there is nothing outside it; sominute, there is nothing within it. Therefore the text says, ' It is not far off yetit is difficult to reach its limit.' It dwells together with man, without any gap.Only the sage is able to attain the empty Way. Therefore the text says, ' I tdwells together with man but is difficult to grasp.'

That which the Sage directs is his [inner] concentration. Cast off desires andyour body and breathing will become aligned. When you are aligned, you willbecome tranquil. When you are tranquil, you will become concentrated. Whenyou are concentrated, you will become detached. When you are detached, youwill become lucid. When you are lucid, you will become numinous. The numinousis the most honoured. Thus when the lodging place is not cleaned out, thehonoured one will not dwell in it. Therefore the text says '... if it is notthoroughly purified the numen will not reside there.'

The preparatory stages are spoken of briefly as ' purifying the abode of thenumen' in the statement and ' directing one's inner concentration' by ' relin-quishing desire' in the explanation. The text next proceeds using the character-istic sorites reasoning through a series of familiar stages: JE cheng: alignmentof the body and vital breath; fp ching: tranquility; iff ching: a refined state ofmental concentration; BJ§ ming: lucidity; and, finally, the attainment of numin-ous awareness, J$ shen. The only new variant in this sequence is the stagereferred to as ' solitude' (tu ;jg), that occurs between ching and ming. This term

^Kuan-Tzu, 16/2blO: tfc Sfc £ •&;( If £) Jfif &$ g 3fc •.34 Kuan-Tzu, 13/lalO (Statement) and 13/2b5 (Explanation).35 This emendation to delete 75 and replace it with ^, the variant in the Chu Tung-kuang

%i M % edition of 1579 is from Kuo Mo-jo H5 W %, Hsu Wei-yii fp jji iS, Wen I-tom — %, Kuan-Tzu chi-chiao f f i t (Peking: Chung-hua shu chu, 1955), 634.

361 emend the explanation to fit the sentence from the statement that it is paraphrasing.37 This emendation is from Kuo Mo-jo, et al, Kuan-Tzu chi-chiao, 641.381 have emended j j to J£ because of the considerable semantic evidence for this from the

other passages examined here and further, because of the possibility that the initial error wascaused by a similar-form corruption of the original graph.

39 Kuan-Tzu chi-chiao, 641.

308 HAROLD D. ROTH

is found elsewhere in similar contexts in early Taoist literature and seems torefer to a particularly deep form of inner concentration in which duality hascompletely dissolved.40

There is no denouement presenting the benefits of inner cultivation herebecause the author is herein commenting on a statement that does not addressthese benefits. Furthermore, since the entire essay contains many references tothese benefits, there is apparently no need to present them here.41

VII. Huai-nan-Tzu jgr j% ^- 7:'Ching-shen' iff f$ (The numinous essence)

The Huai-nan-Tzu is a work of 21 essays on a wide variety of topics that wasintended as a compendium of knowledge for the Taoist ruler. Completed in139 B.C. by the retainers of Liu An, the second king of Huai-nan, it representsthe final flowering of Huang-Lao thought before it was eclipsed byConfucianism under the Han Emperor Wu. It can be seen as a final attempton the part of Liu An and his Huang-Lao philosophers to dissuade the emperorfrom his developing conviction that Confucian doctrines were best for rulingthe unified empire.

The ' Ching-shen' essay contains the most complete presentation of innercultivation theory found in China to this point and it fully discusses both itsphysical and its self-transformative benefits. It is therefore not surprising thatthe apophatic preparatory practices that we have seen in the preambles of ourother passages are so fully set forth in our selection from this essay.42 Even acursory glance at them, however, will show that, while more explicit than ourprevious passages, they contain many familiar ideas. The basic process involvesintentionally stabilizing the breathing, eliminating desires, harmonizing percep-tion, conquering perturbations of the will and attention so that the mind isfocused, the numinous essence is abundant and the vital breath is retained:

'iflij ft tg g 5* E m m ^ ft m m » K % m m a « £ • B I J E

m m wi %i& m m ft * m &• a mm n <Z.>T^ ® mm m &m

& • «** & m M. ^ tst fJ m • mmn- t% JW a • a wi m • » m? ! < # • & m. m * H tn • K s t ^ i s t e - m * m & * at Aw a ^ tg * •Now if the blood and vital breath are concentrated within the Five Orbs anddo not flow out:

Then the chest and belly are repleteAnd lusts and desires are eliminated.When the chest and belly are repleteAnd lusts and desires are eliminatedThen the ears and eyes are clearAnd hearing and vision are acute.

4 0 See, for example, the only discussion of meditative stages from the ' Inner Chap t e r s ' of

Chuang-Tzu, where Pu Liang-i is said to directly perceive his own solitude (^ 3D), a stage directly

before he is able to ' be without past and presen t ' ( fg ^ ^ j <%•). Chuang-Tzu yin-te, 6/41.4 1 For an analysis of this aspect o f ' Hsin-shu, s h a n g ' , see my ' Psychology and self-cultivation

in early Taoistic t hough t ' , 620-25 .4 2 A concordance to the Huainanzi, (ed.) D . C. Lau and Chen Fong Ching (Institute of Chinese

Studies Ancient Chinese Texts Concordance Series, H o n g Kong: Commercial Press, 1992),7/55/20-24.

EVIDENCE FOR STAGES OF MEDITATION IN EARLY TAOISM 309

When the ears and eyes are clearAnd hearing and vision are acute,We call this ' lucidity'.

When the Five Orbs (and their associated emotions) can be assimilated by themind and their functioning is without error:Then perturbations of the will will be conqueredAnd the circulation (of the vital breath) will not be awry.When perturbations of the will are done away withAnd the circulation (of the vital breath) is not awry,Then the numinous essence is abundantAnd the vital breath is not dissipated.When the numinous essence is abundantAnd the vital breath is not dissipated,Then one is breathing according to natural guidelines.When one breaths according to natural guidelines,One attains equanimity.When one attains equanimityOne becomes fully absorbed.When one becomes fully absorbedOne becomes numinous.When one is numinous then:

With vision there is nothing unseen,With hearing there is nothing unheard,And with actions there is nothing incomplete.

For this reasonAnxiety and worry cannot enterAnd aberrant vital breath cannot seep in.

In the sorites section of this passage the author states that these conditionsgive rise to patterned and regular breathing li j§, which I regard as analogousto the alignment of the vital breath in passages II and IV-VI and to attainingthe ' heavenly' or natural flow of breathing in passage III and the jade knobinscription. This is followed by the experience of balance (chu'n j%), whichseems virtually identical to the equanimity (p'ing zp) of passage II. Next onebecomes fully absorbed, (t'ung j§), which I take to mean that there are nopsychological obstructions to one's awareness, which now penetrates to thedeepest levels of consciousness.43 Finally one reaches the familiar numinousawareness, the level of pure and spontaneous consciousness that the innercultivation tradition often sees at the core of one's being. The denouementspeaks of the benefits of this introvertive practice in terms similar to those wehave seen before. They, in fact, parallel the ' wu-wei' rhetoric seen in the Lao-Tzu and in passages IV and V above.

43 T'ung usually means to circulate or to flow through without obstruction. From this comesthe associated meaning of to understand. My translation here, ' to be absorbed' is an attempt totake these meanings and apply them to an epistemology of breath meditation in which theawareness, i.e. the conscious focus of the adept, is the subject of this verb. When one is fullyabsorbed in inner meditation, there are no longer any mental obstructions to one's awareness. Itis like our experience of being fully absorbed in reading a book or seeing a motion picture. Inthis experience, our awareness is totally absorbed in what it is experiencing and flows freely inthe constantly changing objective field of the book or film. In this passage, because consciousnesshas been emptied through apophatic practice, the absorption is in an empty internal field, a purenuminous or spiritual consciousness in which the unitive power of the One is directly apprehended.

310 HAROLD D. ROTH

Analysis

The table below summarizes the testimony of these passages on the existenceof stages of meditation in early Taoism.44

It shows how all six passages follow the same rhetorical structure, withalmost no deviation from it.

While there is certainly some variation among the specific phrases of thepreamble, all, except the po-shu passage, advocate a number of related typesof apophatic processes in which the consciousness of the adept is emptied ofits normal contents, which include lusts and desires, various kinds of intellectualactivity, and various other egotistical cognitions within the untransformedindividual. It seems likely that these processes occur during the practice ofbreath meditation, which, according to our sources, seems to result in thepractitioner experiencing a deep and natural breathing in which the flow ofthe vital breath is perfectly regular and aligned. The Huai-nan-Tzu passageprovides the most direct evidence of this in its presentation of the initial stagesof apophasis in which the ' blood and vital breath are concentrated within theFive Orbs and the chest and belly are replete with vital breath.'

The apophatic processes found in these passages generally fit well withother early textual sources of Taoism. ' Nei-yeh' also talks of calming the mindthrough regular breathing and through the elimination of desire, perception,and intellection and offers a general characterization of these processes in themetaphor of 'sweeping clean the abode of the numen'.45 In the Chuang-Tzuwe find two metaphors for apophasis, the ' fasting of the mind' and ' sittingand forgetting'. The latter metaphor is even associated with specific phrasesthat are quite similar to those in our sources, for example:

ai&ig- HK it. m- mm- s m- <mn xm°I drop off limbs and body, expel eyesight and hearing, cast off knowledge, andmerge with the Universal Thoroughfare.46

While there are variations in the different lists of meditative stages, bothin terms of detail and of individual technical terms, there is a remarkablesimilarity among them. This is especially true given that they are separated intime by about a century and a half (or more, if we consider the jade knob),and that they come from a wide variety of textual sources. Particularly strikingis the consistent order in which the common terms occur. For example, chengjE and ching $$ invariably occur in the same order: alignment of body andbreath precedes tranquility; and ching and shen |$ also always occur in thesame order: refined mental concentration always precedes numinous awareness.This order has ample precedent in the inner cultivation tradition. For example,we find that alignment precedes tranquility in four passages in ' Nei-yeh' andthat mental concentration preceding numinous awareness is implicit thereas well.47

In the ' Huang-Lao po-shu' and Huai-nan-Tzu passages, the numinous innerawareness of the shen is the ultimate attainment. In the Lu-shih ch'un-ch'iu,

441 have omitted the jade knob inscription from the table because it is unique among thesepassages in apparently not discussing the phenomenology of meditative stages. This uniqueness,which undoubtedly comes from its antiquity, does not disqualify it from consideration along withthe other passages; indeed, it is the prototype of the rhetorical structure exhibited by all of them.However, to include its instructions for guiding the breath in the table would be like comparingapples and oranges.

45 Fo r a discussion of these processes, see, for example , ' Psychology and self-cultivation inearly Taoist ic t h o u g h t ' , 6 1 1 - 2 0 . F o r the reference to this me taphor , see Kuan-Tzu 16/2blO.

46 Chuang-Tzu yin-te, 6 /92 -93 .47 Kuan-Tzu, 16/2a8, 2b8, 3 b l , 4a6 , a n d 16 /4a l , respectively.

EVIDENCE FOR STAGES OF MEDITATION IN EARLY TAOISM 311

Chuang-Tzu and Kuan-Tzu passages there is the further level of attainment:the One, emptiness, or the empty Way. Elsewhere I have argued that phrasessuch as these refer to one of two major aspects of mystical experience in earlyTaoism, the ' introvertive' union in which the individual totally merges withthe Way.48 This then leads to a second mystical experience when the adeptreturns from the introvertive union to the world of multiplicity and simultan-eously perceives both unity and diversity in experiencing the world through aself-less ego. This ' extrovertive' mystical experience is at the basis of ChuangChou's being able to ' see all things as equal' in ch. 2 of the Chuang-Tzu andof the ability to 'do nothing and yet leave nothing undone' in the Lao-Tzu.Such extrovertive mysticism is also the basis of the benefits of apophaticpractice presented in the denouement in our passages.

There is also a striking consistency in the benefits of inner cultivationamong our sources. All maintain that such practice gives one the ability toperceive what others cannot, to respond spontaneously in a way that mostpeople cannot respond and to act effortlessly and selflessly and yet accomplishanything one undertakes. These would have undoubtedly been attractive qualit-ies of mind for both practitioners and the various rulers of late Warring Statesand early Han China to whom most of the texts that contain these passagesseem to have been addressed.

Implications

The passages analysed in the present study demonstrate a distinct similarity inrhetorical structure and technical terminology. The most reasonable explana-tion for this is that these passages are, in some fashion, related to one another.Yet they come from diverse textual sources that few have seen as related. Ihave taken the similarities in these passages to be indicative of their havingderived from a common basic practice of breath meditation whose goal is toproduce a profound transformation in the practitioner in which the individualego is gradually calmed, clarified and then, ultimately transcended in a unitivemystical experience, after which it is returned to the phenomenal world andreconstituted from a more universal perspective. I see these passages as havingbeen written by practitioners of this discipline who developed a relativelyconsistent way of conceiving of and contextualizing these experiences.

When taken together, these passages provide compelling evidence for thepresence of stages of meditation in early Taoism. They also provide a fullercontext for the few reference to meditative praxis found in the Lao-Tzu andthe ' Inner Chapters' of Chuang-Tzu. While it must remain beyond the presentdiscussion, these meditative stages, while certainly much less detailed here thanin other cultures in which meditation is practised, show striking parallels withthose enumerated in the yogic traditions of Central and South Asia and themeditative traditions of the Christian West.49 This could imply that there arecertain fundamental commonalities in psychological experiences of transforma-tion that are found cross-culturally and throughout human history.

In addition, we have seen that not only do these textual sources seem tobe related to one another in a common Syncretic Taoist perspective, but thatthey are also closely linked to the Individualist sources that are the earliestproducts of this tradition, Kuan-Tzu''s 'Nei-yeh' and the 'Inner Chapters' of

48 Haro ld D . Ro th , ' Some issues in the s tudy of Chinese mysticism: a review essay ' , ChinaReview International, 2 /1 , 1995, 154—73; a n d idem, ' L a o z i in the context of early Daois tmeditat ive p rax i s ' .

49 See the summary tables in Brown, ' T h e stages of medi ta t ion in cross-cul tural perspective, '272-84 and Chirban, ' Developmental stages in Eastern Orthodox Christianity,' 300-301.

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sal

ignm

ent.

alig

ned

tran

quil

equa

nim

ous

sere

ne

unad

orne

d

conc

entr

ated

num

inou

s

perf

ectly

num

inou

s: t

hen

seei

ng a

ndkn

owin

g ar

ene

ver

delu

ded

...

LU

-shi

hch

'un-

ch 'i

u3.

4: 'A

sses

sing

othe

rs'

Har

mon

ize

ears

and

eyes

; lim

itlu

sts

and

desi

res;

let

go o

f w

isdo

man

d sc

hem

ing;

cast

off

clev

erne

ss a

ndpr

eced

ent.

..

noth

ing

inju

res

the

heav

enly

conc

entr

ated

num

inou

s

atta

in t

he o

ne

resp

ond

toal

tera

tion

s an

dtr

ansf

orm

atio

nsof

thi

ngs;

be

gran

d an

d de

ep;

be u

nfat

hom

able

...

retu

rn t

o th

eun

hew

n

LU

-shi

hch

'un-

ch 'i

u25

.3:'

Hac

ing

Lim

its'

Bre

akth

roug

hpe

rtur

bati

ons

ofth

e w

ill;

rele

ase

the

fette

rs o

f th

em

ind;

cas

t of

f th

eco

nstr

aint

s to

Inne

r Po

wer

;br

eak

thro

ugh

bloc

kage

s of

the

Way

.

alig

ned

tran

quil

clea

r an

d lu

cid

empt

y

take

no

acti

onan

d ye

t no

thin

gis

left

und

one

Chu

ang-

Tzu

23:

' Ken

g-sa

ngC

hV

Pen

etra

tepe

rtur

bati

ons

ofth

e w

ill;

rele

ase

the

fett

ers

of t

hem

ind;

cas

t of

f th

eco

nstr

aint

s to

Inne

r Po

wer

;pa

ss t

hrou

ghbl

ocka

ges

of t

heW

ay.

alig

ned

tran

quil

luci

d

empt

y

take

no

acti

onan

d ye

t no

thin

gis

left

und

one

Kua

n-T

zu13

:2b:

' Tec

hniq

ues

ofth

e M

ind

I'

Cle

an o

ut t

helo

dgin

g pl

ace;

cast

off

des

ires

;di

rect

inn

erco

ncen

trat

ion.

alig

ned

bala

nced

conc

entr

ated

soli

tary

luci

d

num

inou

s

atta

in t

he e

mpt

yw

ay

Hua

i-na

nT

zu7

:' T

he N

umin

ous

esse

nce'

Con

cent

rate

bloo

d an

dbr

eath

; fill

che

stan

d be

lly;

elim

inat

e lu

sts

and

desi

res;

puri

fy s

eein

g an

dhe

arin

g; c

onqu

erpe

rtur

bati

ons

ofth

e w

ill.

..

patt

erne

d

abso

rbed

num

inou

s

seei

ng:n

othi

ng i

sun

seen

;he

arin

g:no

thin

gis

unh

eard

;ac

ting

: no

thin

g is

unac

com

plis

hed

314 HAROLD D. ROTH

the Chuang-Tzu. This evidence also strongly suggests the possibility that theyare the products of the same lineage, or of several closely related master-disciple lineages. If this is true, then it supports the hypothesis that there is acommon practice of inner cultivation that links together the three aspects ofearly Taoism enumerated above, and that this practice served as the distinctive' technique' (shu $j) around which early Taoism formed. This further suggeststhat the early Taoists were more a community of practitioners who wrotephilosophy to elucidate, define and transmit their practice than a group ofphilosophers who thought about the world as an object of intellectual inquiry.The larger implications of this, of course, are that Taoism is a relativelycontinuous tradition without the ' great gap' between philosophical and reli-gious forms which may have only arisen because a rather restricted view ofthe nature of early Taoism became the accepted canon.