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The Metaphysical Polemics of the Tao Te Ching: An Attempt to Integrate the Ethics and

Metaphysics of Lao TzuAuthor(s): Moss RobertsSource: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 95, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 1975), pp. 36-4Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/599156 .

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THE METAPHYSICAL POLEMICS OF THE TAO TE CHING:

AN ATTEMPT TO INTEGRATE THE ETHICS AND METAPHYSICS OF LAO TZU

Moss ROBERTS

NEW YORKUNIVERSITY

The Confucian elf seeks to determinethe developmentof the other men or phenomena)and sees this as a harmoniousrealization. But to Lao tzu this action of the self upon theother is destructive, and he seeks to eliminate the effect of the self, envisioning theliberation of the myriad species for their independent individual development. The Taote ching'sargumenthas ethical, economic,metaphysical and other aspects.

SELF, OTHERS AND THINGS,1 chi, jen and wu,aare the three main categories into which the Con-

fucians of the Four Books (taken together for

argument's sake) cast their statements about hu-

man affairs, their ethical and social propositions.They begin with the Self, in whom Heaven has

implanted a natural energetic will to cultivate a

moral competence and thus achieve a higher no-

bility than that conferred by mere birth. This

Self, the "hero" of the Analects, is called the

chiin tzu, the sovereign's son. The chiin tzu de-

serves to succeed a sovereign, i.e. to rule, not byvirtue of blood right but by realizing and mani-

festing the potential endowed in him by Heaven.

The translation used in this study is "royal self."

When his training or cultivation is completed,the royal self turns outward to act upon "others"

and "things." His mission is to consummate theinborn capacity of these categories beyond the

self. Conversely, the entelechy of others/things

depends on the self's action. This capability of the

self is described by the Chinese term te, "virtue,"above all a dynamic term implying effects. Rightextension of the self's "virtue" is called JENbin the Analects and Mencius. The closing passageof Analects, Book Six expresses the point in aneat formula:e

Now, on the question of JEN- establish for the otheras you would desire for the self: attain for the otheras you would desirefor the self.

In the Chung yung, the term ch'engd replacesJEN. Conventionally translated "sincerity," ch' eng

1 The conventional translation of wua as "things,"

"phenomena"is supplemented with "species" in the

17th century sense: "Theoutward appearanceor aspect,the visible form or image of something ..." O.E.D.

is philologically closer to "consummation," " "re-alization" or "bringing to fulfillment."

The opening of the Ta hsiieh2 offers the mostdetailed spell-out of the process of extension:

Categorize the species before advancing knowledge,advance knowledge before formulating thought,formulate (also ch'eng, bring to fulfillment) thoughtbefore rectifying the mind, rectify the mind before

extending the self, extend the self before guiding the

development of a household, guide the developmentof a householdbeforeruling a state, rule a state before

pacifyingthe empire.

The pivot of this improbable gamut of presup-positions, from taxonomy to utopia, is the fifthof the series, extending the self or hsiu shene.

Legge's translation, "self cultivation" is only partly

correct. Hsiu refers to the serious attention tothe psychological and epistemological mattersdescribed by the first four terms of the Ta hsiieh

series, but hsiu also means a lengthening, ex-tension or projection of the self and thus describesthe self directing itself outward to affect the otheron completion of the first four terms. The prin-cipal difference between the Ta hsiieh and the

Chung yung on the question of extension is thatthe latter expands the sphere subject to the self'sinfluence to include all phenomena, adding wu tojen. The Chung yung signals this conjoining ofthe natural to the social by a shift in terms from

JEN to ch'eng. The former is confined to social

2 References to the Four Books are to James Legge,The Chinese Classics, O.U.P. Translations are originalexcept where indicated. References to other classicsare to Shih-sanchingchu-shu,I-wenyin-shu-kuan,Taipei.References to the Tao te ching are to Ssu-pu pei-yaoedition.

36



ROBERTS: Metaphysical Polemics of the Tao te ching

and ethical events in the Chou period, the latterdescribes natural or ethical events indifferently.

For Lao tzu and for Chuang tzu the fulfillmentof others and things results not from the projec-tion of a royal self's virtue but from the retraction

or disestablishment of the self. Having a self(shen)f is a calamity. Tao te ching (TTC) 13 says,"The reason we have calamity is because we havethe self. When we come to have no self, what

calamity is there?" Action upong the things ofthe world is eliminated by the elimination of the

agent. TTC 16 says,

Knowing the norm [the natural cycle of creation] iscalled enlightenment. Not knowing the norm meansmisdeeds of ill fortune. Knowing the norm meansan encompassing receptivity ... the TAO implies

long maturation. Submerge he self and there will beno

aborting[ofphenomena n normalcycle].This fundamental opposition to the cause of the

self is actually on behalf of the phenomena. De-

velopment of the theme leads to a thorough-going polemic against the Confucians, taking upnot only the social and ethical questions but alsothe related psychological, epistemological and met-

aphysical questions. We may begin to considerthe dimensions of the problem by contrastingtwo passages from the TTC with one from the

Chung yung.

Truly it is the man of utmost capacity to bring tofulfillment

(ch'eng=

"sincerity")who can exhaust hisown nature: who, able to exhaust his own nature, canexhaust that of others: who, able to exhaust that of

others, can exhaust that of all species (things). Thus,he can enhance the creativity of HeavenandEarthandtake his place as their peer (Chungyung 22).When we do away with "actingupon"g (them), the

people flourish of themselves. When we cherish sta-sis,3 the people govern themselves]... the peoplereduce themselves to primitivity when we have nodesires(TTC 57).If the kings and feudal lords can hold to it (i.e. no

"actingupon"), the ten thousand species will flourish

(bloom) of themselves. But when they bloom desirestirs. So we suppress desire with the primitivity ofno-names .... With stasis through no-desire theworldwill stabilize itself (TTC37).

3 Waley's "quietude" The Way and Its Power, Ever-green) seems too negative or passive for ching. Thegraph suggests rather "a state of static balance or equi-librium among opposed tendencies or forces"(WebsterThird International under "stasis").

The contrast between "exhaust" (chin)l and

flourish/bloom" (hua) is worth exploring as eachterm expresses the different effect of the self onthe other sought by the Confucians and the Tao-ists. Whether chin is interpreted as "perfect,

fully realize" or more narrowly "empty com-pletely, exhaust" the point remains: subjectedto action of the self, the nature of others or thingsis radically affected, almost assimilated into thatof the agent or exhauster, who becomes Heaven'sexecutor. There is a strong hint of this theme inthe passage from the Analects quoted above. "Es-tablish for the other as you would desire for theself." The self defines the direction the other isto take, teleologically. And if such be the end ofthe dynamic influence called "virtue," the an-cient homophonic gloss acquireJ is richly de-served. The self's aggressiveness in presuming to

fashion determinatively the destiny of the otheris made by the Confucians to appear as a harmoni-ous assimilation based on an ultimate kinship-the alleged identity of the nature of self, othersand things.

Hua, on the contrary, which Waley has too

violently rendered "transform," is a horticulturalterm signifying organic growth, development ac-

cording to the intrinsic nature and time cycle of

something, hence "bloom" or "let bloom," sig-nificantly modified in the TTC passages by theadverb "of itself." The alleged beneficiary, the

object or target of the royal self's effort, is Laotzu's concern. A concern for the other Mo tzuhad voiced within Confucian assumptions, Laotzu now voices in opposition to them. From the

"objective" point of view Lao tzu argues that thefulfillment of the species is achieved individuallyand independently if the self is contained. Laotzu nowhere speaks of nature, the common de-nominator that makes "virtue" conductible drawingunequal others upwards to a single self, becausenature implies potentiality-a to-be-acted-upon.Wang Pi, using TTC $64 to interpret the phrase"no acting upon" (wu wei) in TTC #2, makes

the point neatly: "The self-so is already sufficient(unto itself). With acting upon there is ruin."kHence TTC #38: "The highest virtue does notexert its virtue." The result is the myriad diversityof the phenomena in bloom.

From the Taoist point of view, what causes thedeleterious relationship between the self and theother? In a word, desire. Desire, evoked by the

sight of the variety and attractiveness of things,leads men to devise means to apprehend or ap-

37



Journal of the American Oriental Society 95.1 (1975)

propriate things for their own satisfaction. Con-

versely, Lao tzu believes that if desires are elim-

inated, if the interior of man is voided, the self

will turn back on itself and thus free all other selves.Desire has epistemological consequences and it

has economic consequences: it leads to a kind oflooking at the phenomena, a kind of describingor naming of the phenomena, and a kind of acting

upon the phenomena, a technology. Lao tzu's

antidote is p'u,1 primitivity. TTC #19: "Embrace

primitivity, minimize personal interest, make de-

sires negligible." And the passage cited above

(TTC 437) says: "When the species bloom desire

stirs. So we suppress desires with the primitivityof no-names."

The proscription of names is crucial in checkingthe injury desire spells for the things of the world,because the use of names is the first step man

takes to convert things into what is apprehensible.Naming was one of the ways Adam asserted his

dominion. TTC t32 says: "The TAO was ever

nameless. Primitivity, however insignificant, can

be impressed into service by no one. If the lords

and kings can maintain primitivity, the ten thou-

sand things will present themselves as guests ...

when they initiated social control there were

names ..." The avoidance of names meant, in

effect, the avoidance of sensory data-what Chuangtzu called "the fasting of the mind." TTC t12

says: "The five colors make our eyes blind. Thefive tones make our ears deaf ... The chase

and the hunt madden the mind, and goods hard

to get lure men astray." This chapter ties the

epistemological and economic themes. "Five" is

a name, a conventional form men cast onto the

data in an effort to define, enumerate and control

them. And Lao tzu carries his opposition to ap-

petite further-to the social and technical "con-

trivances" that improve human appropriation of

others and things. TTC t28 says: "When primi-

tivity disintegrates it becomes instruments-for-

use." The primitive contentment of "the bellynot the eye" (912) is lost. The only kind of vision

that Lao tzu approves is kuan,m contemplation,the observing of the phenomena with innocent

sacramental wonder--a viewing that, unlike the

scrutiny that begins with naming and ends with

exhaustion, in no way aims at objects, has no

design on them. Free of desire such viewing leaves

things intact, as is. The self renounced, "without

going out the door one can know the world"

(TTC #47).

For the Confucians, the highest form of actingis expressed as a sublimation of desire. Analects4.3 says: "The truth is that it is the JEN who canlove and hate others." Raw affection, not dis-

passionate judgment, is how the moral intelligence

of the JEN expresses itself. The JEN may exertgreat pressure (positive or negative) on others,

giving free rein to their natural feelings, because

they are beyond mere subjectivity. "The superiorman (chiin tzu) is catholic and not partisan"

(A2.14, Legge tr.). The theme of sublimatednature is touched on again in A2.4: "At seventyI followed my heart's desire without exceedingthe measure" and elaborated by Hsun tzu: the

chiin tzu

trains his eyes so that they desire only to see what is

right, his ears so that they desile to hear only what is

right, his m nd so that it desires to think only what isright. When he has truly learned to love what is right,

his eyes will take greater pleasure in it than in the

five colors: his ears will take greater pleasure in it

than in the five sounds . . . (Encouragement to Learn-

ing).4

Such self perfection and self satisfaction is the

result of prolonged discipline. Thus the Con-

fucians speak of LI (Ceremonies/social forms)before they speak of YUEH (Music).n A8.8 says:". . . established in LI, consummated in YOEH."

LI is something that constricts,o that binds action

in form. But in music the naturalfeelings

are

at one with form, sublimated but free. The

restraints of LI may be necessitated by the con-

tradictions of self and other: A3.7 says, "The

royal self eschews contention. But if there is no

alternative, why not (contend) in archery ? Bowingand yielding they ascend the (shooting) dais, de-

scending, they exchange toasts. Thus their con-

tention becomes dignified (chiin-tzu-like)." But

beyond the containing and transforming of con-

tradictions through LI, the Confucians envision

an ultimate harmony. A 1.12: "In the functionof LI, harmony is what is most valuable." In

the opening of the Chung yung,P the transfor-mation of emotion to harmony through archeryis expressed in a single formula: "When the emotions

are released and conform perfectly (<hit bull'seye)with synchron icity (ceremonial music for the archer's

timing), we call it harmony."q The underlinedare technical terms of archery. The harmonymay be understood as the "realization" or "cx-

4 Burton Watson, Hsiin Tzu, Columbia paper), p. 22.

38



ROBERTS:Metaphysical Polemics of the Tao te ching

haustion" of self, other and things in Chung yung22 cited above.

Marksmanship, an aristocratic competence, isthe material practise underlying the discipline ofLI and the transference principle of JEN, the

contraction and projection of the royal self.Mencius 2A7.5 says: "The JEN are like marksmen.The marksman sets himself straight before

shooting .. ." Chung yung 14.5 (Legge's tr.) says:"Confucius says, 'In archery we have somethinglike the way of the superior man (chiin tzu). Whenthe archer misses the centre of the target, heturns round and seeks for the cause of his failurein himself.'" The Li chi chapter "MarksmanshipExemplary" (She i)r says: "What can compare to

marksmanship as a service which may bring to

perfection Ceremonial and Music? It is somethingto perform frequently as a means to establish

virtuous conduct." Not only Ceremonial and Musicbut the sacramental meal was connected with

archery competitions. The "Marksmanship Ex-

emplary" says: "Anciently, the tourneys of the

target-lords always began with a banquet cere-

mony ... It was the established practise of the

Son of H-eaven to have the target-lords presentannually to Him gifts and men of skill. TheSon of Heaven would then put them to the testin the Hall of Marksmanship. Those whose de-meanor was congruent with Ceremonial Form,whose sliots synchronized with the appropriateCeremonial

Music,and whose shots were

usuallycentered, were enabled to participate in the sac-ramental offering of meat." T'huswe find clusteredaround this practise all thai Lao tzu condemns:

gratification of the senses and appetite, the ap-pealing play of sound, color and social form, theconcentration of wealth and the markings of sta-tus-best epitomized perhaps in the term WEN,which originally denoted the markings on animalsbut was extended to denote the social markings,the artifices of language, custom, and law thatadd up to "civilization."

The royal Self as marksman appears a number

of times in the Four Books. However, there aresome less obvious applications of the metaphorthat deserve mention. For example, there maybe one concealed in the title Chung yung, popularlytranslated Doctrine of the Mean. For the actual

words, center + use, a verb-object compoundwould be as natural as a noun-noun one. As averb chung means "to strike the bull's eye" and

by extension "to conform perfectly" a usage thatoccurs in the text. Yung means "use/use-worthy/

specific function."5 Taking the two together wearrive at a possible reading that is entirely con-sistent with the thesis of the text: to strike true,to hit the individuated functions of the phenomena.

There may be, too, a latent archery metaphor

in the oft-cited Analects 4.15 translated by Legge"My doctrine is that of an all-pervading unity."The Chinese for "all-pervading" kuan,S actuallya verb in the text, has the primary sense of "pierce"and, as early as Ode ;106 "pierce the target."A revised translation might be: "With our uni-

fying principle we find the mark (in all occasions.)"This describes the "reciprocity" that links Self andOther.

The archer's aim, unlike the contemp lativekuan,mpurposefully and menacingly squinting to singleout the target, exploits the distinctive designs ofthe species. Is there, however, any actual phil-ological link between the words "target" and

"species" in Chinese? In the west animal skinswere used on shields at an early date and there isevidence that the Chinese used them for targets.The "District Archery Meeting" section of theI li says: "With respect to targets in general, forthe Son of Heaven there is a 'bear' target on awhite ground; for the feudal lords (= target-lords, hou is one of the words for target) there isa 'deer' target on a red ground; for the knightsa cloth target on which a deer or pig is sketched .. ."

Although Steele6 interprets these all as masks (a

word not in the text), it may simply have been thecase that actual heads or skins were used by the

higher ranks and drawings on cloth by the lessernobles. It is noteworthy, in passing, that shields

may have borne animal designs. Ode t128 hasa reference to a "dragon-figured shield." The

philological point is that both wu and went origi-

nally described the natural coloration and pat-terning on the coats of animals, and it may bethat one of the connotations of these semanticallyrich words is "target."

There is some indication that Lao tzu is re-

sponding to the militaristic overtones of this coin-

plex ethical metaphor in Confucian writing.Witness his reiteration of the term shou,U "hold/defend." TTC #5, #16, and t37 contain relevant

passages. ;37: "If the target-lords and kings canhold to/guard it (= this TAO), the ten thousand

species will bloom of themselves." W16: To attain

5 Ch'eng I's introduction offers "no substituting for"

and "fixed principle" as definitions of yling.6 John Steele, The I Li (Probsthain, 1917), p. 115.

39



Journal of the American Oriental Society 95.1 (1975)

the culmination of emptiness (= no desire) holdto perseverance in stasis." #5: "Much talk often

spent; better yet to hold chung."'7 As early asthe I ching, shou was understood as the oppositeto kungW "attack." Lao tzsu's ethical metaphor

expresses a principle of defense without aggres-sion that he has extended from Mo tzu.

To summarize the preceding discussion, we havetouched on some of the ways Lao tzu seeks tocontain and diminish the self and to sever thenexus between the self and the other. Lao tzuseeks to return the self to a primitive content-ment-no acquisitive looking and naming, no useof tools-and the virtue he applauds is a hsianX

virtue, a virtue that blurs distinctions (hsiian =

muddy colored), leaving phenomena camou-

flaged. Thus protected from human acting, the

phenomena are liberated, free to bloom.

But the culmination of Lao tzu's polemic is hismetaphysical critique, his critique of Heaven. Bywhat authority does the royal self presume to act

upon the other? To answer this here we can onlyrefer to a few essentials of complicated politicaland historical developments. In the early Chou

period, a Heavenly Mandate was claimed as asource of legitimacy, superseding the ancestralsanction by which the Shang kings ruled. How-

ever, if the Heavenly Mandate began as an alter-native justification of power, it was soon to absorba key attribute of its opposite number, progenitive

power.In the Odes we find Heaven

"givingbirth"

to the multitudes; we find the phrase Son of

Heaven; etc.. The Confucian reformers sought to

generalize the category of recipients of the man-date. Confucius challenges political power throughbirth right in A7.22: "Heaven gave birth to thevirtue in me." And the opening of the Chungyung boldly declares: "The Mandate of Heavenmeans Nature." As the Confucians seek to re-establish this genetic-ancestral concept on a moral-ancestral basis, the assertion of "parental" su-

premacy of the self over the other is retained andsophisticated. But the Mandate of Heaven retains

its significance. A16.8: "The royal self stands inawe of three things: the Mandate of Heaven ..."All chiin tzu are mini Sons of Heaven, that is to

say mini representatives of Heaven, and theyare the living embodiment of Heaven beyondwhom Heaven exists in no separate form. The

7 A variously interpreted line. Is chung "the inner

state/man" or "the emptiness=no desire within" or a

"striking potential" to be held in?

mandate is something by which Heaven is un-derstood to have transferred its authority to some-one who acts in its behalf. Moreover, the right to

pass on the mandate is not retained by Heaven,which intervenes in the transmission only oc-

casionally, in crisis. Heaven is thus fully incor-porated and there is no appeal around its surrogate.The social reality had to do with the effort tocontrol the inheritance of land and titles. The

philosophical reflection was the mimesis of the

principle of perpetuity. The Chung yung 20.18

says: "Sincerity (bringing to fulfillment) is the wayof Heaven; to bring things to fulfillment is the

way of man." CY 26: "The ultimate (power to)fulfill has no ceasing; not ceasing it endures;enduring it becomes attested ..." A6.21 expres-ses the same principle; "The JEN are immortal,"i.e. the JEN can project a moral influence across

generations.

Against the concept of surrogation, or its sub-

limation, mimesis, Mo tzu raised his counter-

principle, the will of Heaven. The force of theterm will is clear. A9.25 says: "The commanderof the forces of a large State may be carried off,but the will of even a common man cannot betaken from him" (Legge, tr.). The will is inalien-

able, untransferable, sufficient and authoritativeunto itself, and commanding universal compliance.This was, of course, no more than a revision ofConfucian theory. Mo tzu's effort to free Heavenfrom the

gripof

royaltyand

beginto define

it asa quasi-objective proto-legal entity still leavesman dominant. Mo tzu only attacked ming, the

mandate; Lao tzu attacked t'ien, Heaven.Lao tzu's strategy is to subordinate everything

to an overriding principle, TAO, a fundamentalcreative process that is at the same time a negatingprocess. This brings us to the paradox at the heartof the TTC. To liberate the ten thousand speciesfrom human dominion, Lao tzu reduced man tothe level of all entities. But no sooner has thisform of dominion been eliminated than therelooms up over the species a yet more dread au-

thority, a TAO or universal process that, likeHeaven, confers life, but that also reclaims it.TAO is the common parent of ten thousanddiscrete phenomena that share no nature in com-mon; they are only bound individually (self-so) totheir author. In their subjection, the phenomena,including man, enjoy the absolute equality oftheir freedom from one another. This levellingconception is expressed as a social thesis in chapters74, 5, 7, and 9, e.g. TTC t77: "The Way of Heaven

40



ROBERTS:Metaphysical Polemics of the Tao te ching

is to take from those with too much and supple-ment those with too little. The way of man isnot so." But the dominant theme is the meta-

physical levelling, the fearful symmetry TAO im-

poses on the species when, after having conferred

a season of life upon them, it ruthlessly negatesthem all, sweeping all off the stage of the earthwithout connection to predecessors or successors.As TTC #16 puts it in a bureaucratic metaphor,the TAO issues a ming (mandate, life, mission)to each of the species and then recalls each inturn to deliver, like a dutiful envoy, a final report

LoI the profusionand plenitude of the species! Each

homingto its sourceagain ... coming to rest (in TAO),surrendering ts life (= reporting back to a superiorafter a mission, a bureaucratic pun). This is theconstant norm(of the TAO's process).

So generous, so unsparing. Surrendering its cre-dentials to its author, each of the species quits the

stage bearing no transcendent capacity, no natureor potential of continuity, no whit, in short, ofTAO's supervening authority. Each thing is boundto its lifetime. Season supplants generation. Thehelix descent pattern of the Confucians is sup-planted by a closed circle. In a compressed wayTTC #40 states the theme:

Reversal is the dynamic of the TAO. The tenthousand species are born of Being. Being is bornof

non-being.Sired by a non-entity, the species have naughtbut their common fate, their participation in the

grand process of negation, homebound to TAO(cf. Wang Pi on TTC 11chiao = kuei).

It is in this context that the term non-being,the second major term of the TTC, can be consideredas a unique formulation. The late Professor P.A. Boodberg pointed out in private discussionthat originally the graph wit ("non-being") waswrittenY and not.z That would make it graphicallyas well as phonetically related to radical #43

wang,aa "defective, crippled, warped." Is Laomaking a graphic pun, "defective Heaven"? TheShuo wen cites the following definition among itsentries for wu, nonbeing: "Heaven buckling in thenorthwest." The terms "crippled" and "buckling"

describe something curving or twisting back onitself. The cosmological implication is that theTAO works backwards, retracting all it produces.The cosmogonic implication is that the source ofall things is not some mighty ancestral figure or

some majestic realm but a nebulous, nameless,and lumpen thing.8 Lao tzu extends the disparag-ment of his sovereign concept in TTC t62: "TheTAO is the aoab of the ten thousand things."What is ao? Waley translates "the southwestcorner of the house." This seems to echo theShuo wen entry above, with southwest instead of

northwest; perhaps the occluded corner of theuniverse where, according to one early myth,the "roof fell in." Waley's note reads: "Where

family worship was carried on; the pivotal pointround which the household centred." Dictionaryentries include the following: "southwest corner

of the house, where light can not reach; dark

corner; hidden from view; accumulation of grasses( ?compost); pigpen; softened by cooking ( ?stewed);place to honor a newly received corpse by sacrificial offering of food; that part of the house theson prefers not to occupy." Professor Boodbergsuggested to me that ao may have originallyreferred to the dumping ground for the remnantsof the sacramental meal, a consecrated yet unap-pealing place about which people would not be

overly explicit.These references to the dead by wu, non-being

and aoshow how remorseless and profane theTaoist critique is. Mo tzu had subordinated the

ancestral sanction by alleging ghosts as enforcersof Heaven's will opposing the common collectivedead to the noble ancestral dead who speak throughthe temples, ceremonially evoked by a royal self.But Lao tzu does not seek to revise Confucianism.

Finally disparaging the very concept he establishedto disparage the Confucians he departs with ni-hilistic scorn, leaving no mystic splendor. Thatis his metaphysical polemic.

8 The metaphoricaffiliations are interesting. We may

think, for example, of the cripples that populate thelandscape of the Chuang tzu, and also of Hsiin tzu'sformula "Man's nature involves evil." The phoneticfor 'evil,' ya, originally depicted a man with a crookedback.

41



Journal of the American Oriental Societl 95.1 (1975)

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42

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