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Treatise on the Substance of the Dao道体论

Period
Tang · Attributed to Master Tongxuan (one tradition identifies him with Sima Chengzhen), composed around the height of the Chongxuan school in the early Tang (7th century).
Canon division
Taixuan Section
Collected in
Zhengtong Daozang, Taixuan Section
Category
Daoist Philosophy
Fascicles
One Fascicle (Juan)

Synopsis

The Treatise on the Substance of the Dao (Daoti lun) is a short philosophical treatise of the Tang Chongxuan (Twofold Mystery) school discussing the ontology of the Dao, in question-and-answer form, treating the relations between the Dao and things, being and non-being, substance and function, and the one and the many. The text argues that the Dao is "neither being nor non-being" and "both being and non-being," that the substance of the Dao is not separate from the myriad things yet is not identical with them either — "the Dao and things are mutually identical" (dao wu xiangji); it analyzes the workings of the Dao using the categories of "substance and function" and "root and trace," and makes extensive use of the Buddhist Madhyamaka mode of argument through double negation, echoing the Chongxuan thought of Cheng Xuanying and Li Rong. Its systematic discussion of the category of the "substance of the Dao" is quite prominent in the history of Daoist philosophy, and it is regarded as one of the representative texts of Tang Daoist ontology. There has long been disagreement, without settled conclusion, over the identity of its author, "Master Tongxuan," variously identified as Sima Chengzhen (whose posthumous title was Master Zhenyi, not Tongxuan) or Zhang Guo, among others.

Key Ideas

  • The substance of the Dao is neither being nor non-being, both being and non-being
  • The Dao and things are mutually identical, substance and function are one
  • Discussing the Dao through Chongxuan double negation
  • The distinction between root and trace

Structure

One scroll, in question-and-answer form, divided into several sections.

Editions

  • Zhengtong Daozang edition

Full Text & Online Resources

Related scriptures

Pivot of Meaning of the Daoist Teaching, Record of the Mysterious Pearl, Scripture of the Original Bound (Benji jing)

Related figures

Sima Chengzhen
References
  1. 卢国龙《中国重玄学》
  2. 任继愈主编《道藏提要》
  3. Kristofer Schipper & Franciscus Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon, 2004