Hugur - 01.06.2008, Qupperneq 46

44
Ragnar Baldursson
Abstract
The “processology” of the sage and “inactive” actions
Daoism is integrated into Chinese culture and mentality, complementing Con-
fucianism in a complex manner. The influence of the little booklet by Laozi,
Daodejing, on Chinese mentality and, by extension, on the whole world, is quite
remarkable, considering that he probably is a mythical figure who never existed
in reality.
The concept of Dao constitutes a major contribution to the development of
human understanding of the world. It identifies the basic principle of the world
as continuous processes of change where contrasting aspects of each and every
phenomenon constantly transpose themselves. Growth and regression, birth and
death, good and evil, are but two aspects of the continuing processes comprising
the material world.
Laozi uses “Dao” as the verbal expression for the underlying principle, point-
ing out at the beginning of his book that the expression (name) of reality is not
reality itself and the expression of a process (principle) does not constitute the
process in itself.
The concept of “Dao” was a fashionable concept in Ancient China, with an
unclear and ever-changing meaning. It has the meaning of a “road”, implying
direction and movement. It was i.a. used for “governmental policies”, “profes-
sional carriers”, “philosophical doctrines”, and “principles”. All these meanings
can be found in Daoist writings. However, as a Daoist principle it is actually
quite similar to the fashionable modern concept of “process” which is frequendy
used by people who prefer clarifying their meaning with indeterminate state-
ments. Modern man recognizes that nothing is static in the world, everything
is subject to ineluctable processes where contrasting aspects of all phenomena
are constantly being transposed; time itself can be described as a never-ending
process of non-existence being transformed into existence and then back into
non-existence.
The Daoists realised the universality of processes and the transient nature of
reality long before Western philosophers managed to overcome their metaphysi-
cal conception of the world. Furthermore, the Daoists realised that the key to
successful governance consists in the application of the principle of processes
(Dao) underlying every situation. It is fixtile to try to ignore or reverse underlying
processes. Rather, good governance is constituted by the identification of these
processes and ways in which they can be harnessed in a positive way through
“inactive actions”.