| The Xiang er commentary to the Lao zi is one of the most important texts of early religious Daoism. The present work examines the relationship between metaphysical conceptions of the character of reality and concrete religious practices in the context of this text. In the commentary metaphysics and practice are tightly intertwined, and a remarkable degree of bidirectionality exists between them. Metaphysical claims are used to provide theoretical justification for advocating certain forms of practice and criticizing others, but at the same time, specific practices themselves provide an epistemic warrant for the metaphysical beliefs in question. Thus, neither metaphysics nor practice is reducible to the other.; The Xiang er conception of the Dao is the principal feature of the commentary that creates this powerful connecting link between metaphysics and practice. The Dao is understood in a personified, embodied way. This is a conception of the Dao as taking human form in history and demonstrating an active concern for humanity through its teachings, precepts and practices. Ways of describing the Dao in metaphysical terms—that is, in terms of its role in structuring the ultimate character of reality—are, at the same time, multi-vocal ways of describing how the Dao should be practiced and the human qualities and behaviors that such practice is intended to nurture. The axial virtues, as I have called them, of simplicity, unity, universality, primordiality, and power, are five such ways of describing qualities of the Dao that have implications at the metaphysical and practical levels. Through tracing out the implications of these virtues at each level, this work seeks to demonstrate the particular character of the relationship between these levels in the Xiang er commentary and to highlight the importance of the personified, embodied conception of the Dao that is so central to the commentary and to Celestial Master Daoism. |
