According to Lao Tzu, water is the softest element but simultaneously also the most powerful. One need only gaze at the magnificent and majestic mountains and valleys, which are carved out over millennia by water’s relentless force. That a constant drip can wear through a stone is a fundamentally important Taoist concept. What appears weak eventually conquers what appears strong. This idea is vividly demonstrated in the ancient Chinese art of tai qi. Softness lies at the very essence of Chinese tai qi. Relaxation of limbs combines with slow and gentle movements creating an extreme softness which develops into a powerful force: thus the weak can conquer the strong. Tai qi tempers force with grace, yin with yang and rapidity with slowness as well as controlling movement with softness. One could describe it like cotton wool wrapped around a core of steel. The practice is founded on the performance of a succession of movements: one move connects to another; the force may pause but the will is ever present. The fluid movements of the body flow gracefully like the spinning of the silkworm, like drifting clouds and flowing water. In the realm of a tai qimaster, there are no others in the world but himself. The interior and exterior worlds combine, so an accomplished tai qimaster coexist between the Earth and the Heavens.
Chinese traditional music too has been significantly influenced by the Taoism popularized by Lao Tzu. This music comes from Jiangnan (areas south of the Yangtze River), which abounds in bamboo and silk: two natural elements which have nourished a branch of Chinese folk music Jiangnan Sizhu. Nature is thought of as the source as well as the soul of Chinese folk music. A longing for nature can be discerned in the clear, elegant, natural and harmonious rhythms of Chinese folk songs. This life attitude of respecting and returning to nature has a close parallel with the ideas of Lao Tzu about nature. Thousands of masterpieces of ancient classic music such as Lofty Mountain andGushingCascade, GuanglingSan, AMoonIsMirrored in the Second Fountain, Wild Geese Descending on the Sandy Beach, Moonlight over the River in Spring and The Moon Is High thematically speaking all have in common an absolute adherence to Lao Tzu’s belief that “the Tao is just nature.”
In the West, the traditional classical form of music tends to be more magnificent and grandiose than Chinese folk music, which places more emphasis on grace and silence. Lao Tzu always emphasized the importance of “nothingness”: a house is suitable to live in, he observed, just because there is a space in it, that is to say, it is just the “nothingness” that makes a house livable. The flexible and unpredictable nature of Chinese music also comes from this “nothingness.” Sudden pauses abound in Chinese music, especially ancient music, which leaves an even larger space to the musicians because the pauses contain much more than mere silence. Such music tends to be artistic, flexible, unpredictable, and imaginative rather than expressionistic.
The Heavens is circular and the Earth is square. This is a traditional characterization of nature in ancient Chinese philosophy. The game of go is a graphic illustration of such ideas. The board is square, symbolizing the Earth, while the pieces are round, symbolizing the Heavens. There are 361 junctions on the board which approximates to 365 days in a year.
The Chinese people worshipped nature in ancient times and thus they created such a form of entertainment as an illustration and a symbol of their views on the Heavens and the Earth and nature. The board is simply drawn with horizontal and perpendicular lines while the pieces are divided into white and black. It was not only an entertaining game but also functioned as an important symbol of yin and yang, the two opposing forces of nature. That the game of go has become a worldwide phenomenon is because it is different from any other games like chess or checkers. There are no pieces more powerful than any others; all pieces are simply either white or black, but from them endless variations result. Of all games, the properties and rules of the game of go are the simplest, but endless variation inevitably results. This again echoes a central tenet of Taoist teaching:“The Tao bears one; one bears two; two bears three; three bears all the things of the world.” The game of go also starts from the simplest movements and then produces boundless complex variations.
These traditional arts that have taken deep root in the Chinese culture are endowed with identifiably Chinese characteristics. These characteristics are undoubtedly a reflection of the natural philosophies that lie at the core of the Taoist thought of Lao Tzu. Of all ages, Taoist ideas have invested Chinese culture and art with a unique, exquisite tone as well as an aesthetic beauty that places emphasis on inner spirit rather than on outward forms.
As the master Lao Tzu said, “ The Tao that can be named is not the eternal Tao; the names that can be named are not the eternal names….”
