Traces of Darkness in Early Daoism: The Evolution of Vision Metaphors in the Laozi

Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 20 (3):407-431 (2021)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

An interesting feature of the language of many Daoist texts is their atypical idealization of Darkness and Obscurity, which contrasts with the positive connotations of Light and Clarity in virtually all great philosophical traditions. This article highlights a formerly unnoted difference between the received and the excavated Guodian 郭店 versions of the Laozi 老子, which reveals an interesting change in the use of Light/Darkness symbolism through the evolution of the text: while the received Laozi uses both metaphorical schemes to roughly the same extent, the presumably earlier Guodian Laozi lacks almost all of the “bright” references that appear in later recensions, thus constituting a much “darker” version of the text. The article discusses the philosophical meaning of this terminological shift and the possible reasons for its occurrence, and closely analyzes three cases in which this process of “textual illumination” seems to have taken place during the transition between the Guodian and received version of the text. Alongside more specific implications such as the formerly unknown linkage between ming 明 and chang 常, a suggested stratification of chapter 55, and the possible relationship between the proto-Laozian materials and the Zhuangzi 莊子, this article also proposes a more general hypothesis according to which the absence of light metaphors in the Guodian version represents the jargon of an earlier “dark” stratum of Daoism, traces of which were preserved in some of the texts known to us today.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Laozi.Ronnie Littlejohn - 2016 - Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Darkness and Light: Absence and Presence in Heidegger, Derrida, and Daoism.Steven Burik - 2019 - Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 18 (3):347-370.
State Maternalism: Rethinking Anarchist Readings of the Daodejing.Sarah Flavel & Brad Hall - 2020 - Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 19 (3):353-369.
Daoist Philosophy.Ronnie Littlejohn - 2016 - Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Governing Through the Dao: A Non-Anarchistic Interpretation of the Laozi. [REVIEW]Alex Feldt - 2010 - Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 9 (3):323-337.
The limit of language in daoism.Koji Tanaka - 2004 - Asian Philosophy 14 (2):191 – 205.

Analytics

Added to PP
2021-08-16

Downloads
11 (#975,863)

6 months
4 (#319,344)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Metaphors we live by.George Lakoff & Mark Johnson - 1980 - Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Edited by Mark Johnson.
Metaphors We Live By.George Lakoff & Mark Johnson - 1980 - Ethics 93 (3):619-621.
The Complete Works of Zhuangzi.Burton Watson (ed.) - 2013 - Columbia University Press.
Mysticism and Philosophy.W. T. Stace - 1960 - Philosophy 37 (140):179-182.

View all 18 references / Add more references