The Laozi and the Zhuangzi as a Philosophy of Co-becoming: Acknowledging Non-knowing for Co-existence, Shouldering Softness for Co-living

Gongsheng—co-existence, co-becoming, co-living—is the existential reality of nature and the basic principle of the continuous evolution of living beings. In the language of classical Chinese philosophy, gongsheng is the operation and manifestation of the “Heavenly Principles” (天理). As the Zhuangzi says, “Heaven and earth are born together with me, and the ten thousand things and I are one.” As members of this world, it is the natural task for human beings to participate in the transformation of heaven and earth and shoulder the ethical mission of the co-living of all beings. Nevertheless, the “dao of man” is often alienated from the “dao of heaven” that “takes away where there is excess and adds where there is lack”; instead, people “take from those who have too little and give to those who have too much.” The dao of man has departed from the dao of heaven. The egotistical desire toward self-righteousness, self-satisfaction, self-aggrandizement, and self-glorification drives human beings to expand and strengthen themselves without limit, turning what could have been a win-win situation into a “winner takes all” battle of life and death. From ideological conflicts of various kinds to destructive wars at various scales, such scenes of “strength against strength” have occurred repeatedly in human history. Our world today may be seen as the result of these human self-strengthening tendencies veering out of control: mass extinction of species, the greenhouse effect, environmental destruction, ethnic conflicts, regional warfare, clashes between Great Powers. The human civilization is under serious challenge, and there is an ever-urgent need to call attention to the idea of co-living and co-existence. As the Laozi says, “[T]he softest things in the world run roughshod over the firmest things in the world.” May the world today reflect on the possibility of co-living and co-existence through this idea of softness. Drawing from selected chapters and passages in the Laozi, this chapter will attempt to elucidate its multifaceted outline of a “dao of gongsheng” by explaining several key terms of the text—“no eternal, unchanging dao” (fei chang dao), “what precedes the highest deity,” “achieving unity,” “dao of heaven,” “dao of man,” “diminishment,” “softness,” the “power of obscurity,” “lowness,” using weapons “as a last resort”—in the hopes of uncovering the intellectual resources and potentials the text provides for a philosophy of co-becoming. The chapter will conclude on the disentanglement of any “ultimate solution” or confrontational mindset through “humor” and “non-knowing”—a source from which a sturdy platform of co-existence, co-living, and co-becoming may spring forth.