A Dialectical Analysis of the Tripartite Qualities of 'Dao' in the Guanzi: Intricacy, Expansion, and Solidity

Chapter 1: Textual Positioning of Guanzi's Neiye: Where Does It Come From$14

I. The Nature of the Guanzi

To study this passage, we must first clarify its textual origin—the nature of the Guanzi itself.

The Guanzi is traditionally attributed to Guan Zhong, but pre-Qin scholars already recognized that it was not the work of a single person or period. Han Fei stated in his Five Vermin (五蠹): "Now, all the people in the realm speak of governance; those who store the methods of Shang [Yang) and Guan Zhong have them in their homes." This indicates that during the Warring States period, Guan Zhong's teachings were widely disseminated, forming a school of thought that rallied around his name. The Guanzi is, in fact, a compilation accumulated over generations by the Guan Zhong school of thought (scholars in the Jixia Academy who centered their work on Guan Zhong's ideas).

The Jixia Academy, established outside the Jixia Gate of the capital city of Qi, Linzi, was founded during the reign of Duke Huan of Qi (or perhaps King Wei of Qi, according to some accounts) and declined during the reign of King Jian of Qi, lasting for over a hundred years. Records of the Grand Historian (史記), in the "Hereditary House of Tian Jingzhong Wan" (田敬仲完世家), states: "King Xuan delighted in scholars and rhetoricians such as Zou Yan, Chunyu Kun, Tian Pian, Jie Yu, Shen Dao, and Huan Yuan—seventy-six individuals in total—all of whom were granted aristocratic ranks and served as Grand Officers, though they did not administer affairs but engaged in debate." The Jixia Academy gathered the most outstanding thinkers of the Warring States period, and the chapters Xinshu Shang (心術上), Xinshu Xia (心術下), Baixin (白心), and Neiye (內業) within the Guanzi are known by scholars as the "Four Chapters of Guanzi" or core texts of the "Jixia Daoists."

II. The Meaning of the Title "Neiye"

What do the characters "Neiye" mean$15

"Nei" (內) means internal, as opposed to "wai" (外, external). "Ye" (業) is explained in the Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字) as "a large tablet" (大版). Duan Yucai's commentary extends this to mean undertaking, or achievement. However, in this context, "ye" should be taken in its original sense of "what one engages in" or "what one cultivates." Thus, "Neiye" means inner cultivation or inner undertaking.

Conversely, Guanzi contains chapters like Mumin (牧民, Shepherd the People), Xingshi (形勢, Forms and Trends), and Quanxiu (權修, Exercising the Mind), which are "waiwang" (外王, external kingship) chapters. "Neiye," however, exclusively discusses the Way of inner sageliness. This aligns precisely with the Great Learning's (大學) assertion: "From the Son of Heaven down to the common people, all must regard self-cultivation as fundamental." However, the Great Learning's discourse on self-cultivation emphasizes the sequence of investigating things, extending knowledge, making intentions sincere, and rectifying the mind. In contrast, "Neiye"'s discourse on self-cultivation focuses on the internal connections and cultivation practices among the categories of Qi, Mind, Shen, and Dao.

III. The Relationship Between Neiye and Laozi and Zhuangzi

The intellectual origins of Neiye can be traced back to Laozi.

Chapter Ten of Laozi states: "Holding the vital spirit and embracing unity, can you avoid separation$16 Concentrating Qi to achieve softness, can you be like an infant$17 Cleansing the profound mirror, can you be without blemish$18"

These three questions remarkably echo the "Six Questions" in Neiye:

Can you grasp it$19 Can you unify it$20 Can you know good fortune and calamity without divination$21 Can you cease$22 Can you conclude$23 Can you obtain it from yourself without seeking it from others$24

Both texts employ rhetorical questions and point towards the possibility and ultimate state of internal cultivation. However, Laozi's three questions are more concise, while Neiye's six questions are more detailed and richer in layers.

Consider also Zhuangzi's Human World (人間世): "If you unify your mind, do not listen with your ears but listen with your mind; do not listen with your mind but listen with your Qi. Listening stops at the ears; the mind stops at what it corresponds to. Qi is that which is empty and awaits things. Only the Dao gathers in emptiness. Emptiness is called 'fasting the mind'."

Zhuangzi's discussion of "fasting the mind" (心齋, xīnzhāi) here, in essence, refers to the same cultivation tradition as Neiye's "keeping the whole mind within" (全心在中) and "one intention grasping the mind" (一意摶心). However, Neiye places more emphasis on the cultivation of Qi, while Zhuangzi focuses more on the state of emptiness.

IV. Examination from an Ancient Perspective: The Transmission of Shamanism, Historiography, and the Dao

If we extend our perspective further back to antiquity, we must ask: What are the origins of this set of cultivation practices described in Neiye$25

During the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, those who mastered the arts of communicating with Heaven, Earth, spirits, and ghosts were the shamans (巫觋, wūxí) and historiographers (史官, shǐguān). Guoyu, in the "Conversations of Chu" (楚語下), records a passage where Guan Shefu explains to King Zhao of Chu: "In ancient times, people and spirits were not mixed. Those whose spirits were not scattered or divided, and who could be solemn, reverent, and sincere, whose wisdom could ascend and descend and be in accord, whose sagacity could illuminate widely and clearly, whose clarity could shine brightly, and whose hearing could penetrate deeply—if so, then the bright spirits would descend upon them. For men, they were called xi; for women, they were called wu."

Guan Shefu's description of the shamans' qualities—"spirits not scattered or divided," "solemn, reverent, and sincere," "wisdom could ascend and descend and be in accord," "sagacity could illuminate widely and clearly," "clarity could shine brightly," "hearing could penetrate deeply"—how similar are these to the cultivation state described in Neiye! "Keeping the whole mind within" corresponds to "spirits not scattered or divided"; "Once the four limbs are proper and the blood-Qi is tranquil" corresponds to "solemn, reverent, and sincere"; "The form of the mind-Qi is brighter than the sun and moon" corresponds to "clarity could shine brightly"; "The sound of non-utterance is swifter than thunderous drums" corresponds to "hearing could penetrate deeply."

This raises a significant question: Does the cultivation tradition of Neiye inherit from ancient shamanism$26

Based on textual evidence, the answer is likely affirmative. A crucial origin of pre- Qin Daoist thought is the rationalization and philosophization of the ancient shamanic tradition. As religious reforms such as "severing the connection between earth and heaven" (絕地天通, juédì tiāntōng) occurred from the Zhou dynasty onwards (as mentioned in Book of Documents, "The Edict of Lü" (呂刑): "Then he commanded Chong and Li to sever the connection between earth and heaven, so that there would be no more descending transmissions"), shamans no longer held exclusive rights to communicate with spirits. The cultivation techniques originally belonging to shamans gradually entered the populace and were absorbed and transformed by various schools of thought. Neiye is an outstanding crystallization of this transformative process—it transmutes shamanic techniques for communicating with spirits into practices for self-cultivation and mind management for Dao cultivators; it reinterprets the religious experience of "spirits descending" into a naturalistic explanation of "the acme of vital energy."