(W.E. Talk) Thomas Michael: The Westward Transmission of Eastern Learning—Why Does Daoist Thought Resonate More Profoundly?(2)

CNS: How do you understand the concepts of "you"（有）and "wu"（无）in Daoism? Does Western philosophy have similar concepts?

Thomas Michael: The chapter forty of the Daodejing says, “All things are born of being (you); being is born of non-being (wu)”. That is, first you have “wu” (in other words, “non-existence”), and then it produces “you” (means “existence”), then it produces all beings. Thus, “wu” is identified with Dao.

Western philosophical thoughts have been deeply influenced by religions, like Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. That results in a very different way to see the concept of “you” and “wu” with Asian way. When Westerners speak about God, He is a positive entity that is always identified with “you”, i.e. something existent. Westerners view God as “pure good” and a complete being, i.e. entire “you”. And when Western philosophy talks about non-being or “wu”, it’s typically understood as “the absence of goodness and God”. It’s the absence of existence itself, this to be called “evil”. Therefore, “non-existence” or “wu” has often been equated with “evil”.

Since the 20th century, Western philosophers have begun to understand the value of “non-existence” or “wu” as Asian philosophers like Nishida Kitaro wrote a lot about the philosophy of “wu”. It opened a lot of Western eyes to a different Eastern way of understanding “non-existence”.

CNS: What lessons can be learned from the Daoist ideas for today’s world?

Thomas Michael: Respect and care for life, as well as for death. That’s the biggest thing can be learned from the Daoist ideas.

In our world, there’s too much non-respect for life. Driven by power and money, some people are willing to hurt others and destroy the well-being of the earth and humankind without really much hesitation. They don’t care lives of animals, they will drill for oil at the expense of the environment, and taking rivers and oceans and nature as tools for profit.

I constantly criticizing such practices. Climate migration is the consequence of such behavior. Now things are getting very serious with global challenges such as climate change, which is destroying the lands, causing people leaving their homelands and resulting in huge numbers of immigration, and it consequently worsens all kinds of social problems with immigration.

CNS: The idea of the “unity of Heaven and man (天人合一)” is an important concept of Chinese philosophy. What’s your view on this idea?

Thomas Michael: In Chinese philosophy, Daoism and Confucianism have different understandings of the “unity of Heaven and man”. When Laozi and Zhuangzi talk about this concept, they talk about the “unity of Nature and man” instead of the “unity of Heaven and man”. This “nature” refers to the “heaven and earth”, a couple of natural area. But if you read Confucius, it never talks about the “unity of Nature and man”, but the “unity of Heaven and man”. This “heaven” in the view of Confucius exists as a moral authority. Thus, Confucianism perceives the “unity of Heaven and man” as that human can develop their moral to match the moral nature of heaven.

In Chinese understandings of the world, human beings have a relationship of unity with nature. This is different from the Western perception of man and nature. Westerners believe that the world was created by God, and that God gave it to human beings to use as a resource.