Мистерия Дао. Мир «Дао дэ цзина»

The first part «Eternal Wanderer» represents a history and main idea of early Taoism called «laoism» by the name of Lao-tzu as the most brilliant representative of this school. Author especially uses the notion «laoism» to divide the early stage of development of Chinese mysticism from the late stage represented by the Taoist alchemy, art of the reaching «eternally life», meditative methods.

We must differ the real Lao-tzu as a philosopher and mystic from the mythological personage of the same name. The last one was made sacral as a «Lord Lao-jun», that became a hero of a popular tradition and a local spirit. It is very hard to say something precision about the life and activities of the real Lao-tzu. He was a «bookkeeper». It seems that Lao-tzu was not a creator of the main Taoism philosophical stream nor the one of the Taoist school. He belonged to the stratum of «shi» — a class of individuals, drawn from downwardly mobile nobility, so called «small hoses». Representatives of a such class had served as bookkeepers (like Laotzu), minor administrators, scribes, etc. The most important character of their state of mind was a highly developed sense of social responsibility that draw there toward the creation of concepts of the harmonization of the Underhaven.

So we must separate a very mobile and complex circle of philosopher (often had no any connections with each other) that can be named as «laoist» that differ there representative from the later Taoism. In the same time this branch was not purely philosophical school that was based on the esoteric speculation without special mystical practice. Dao De Jing shows only the initiative or speculative level of the large tradition that also includes very complex rituals and liturgy the reminicenses of wich can be seen in some paragraphs.

It is no any evident proof that Lao-tzu was an author of Dao De Jing but he can be one of the compiler of this text. In the base of Dao De Jing lay the citation of mystics, popular proverb, saying about spirits. This compilation we can name as «agrafa» the citation of that had no connections nether with later Taoism (e. g. alchemy, prolongation of life) nor with any stable spiritual traditions. These citations were commented by «laoists» in the spirit of their concept о life and searching «the benefit of Dao». This can explain the very complex, inconstant and very variable structure of paragraphs and its meaning that seems to be in some contradiction with each other. Formally we must speak about the Dao De Jing as a meditative (so as a non-logical or metha-logical) text and as a text of initiations, mystical visualization. Lao-tzu put into words only the textological part of very complex spiritual and prereligious traditions. Some paragraphs are related with the.very archaic traditions expressed by the meaning of «sprite of valley», «mysterious female», etc.

The passages that deal with «Dao» as the «ancestor», «the One» and «the refuge for the myriad of things» indicates that in the later part of the first millennium ВС. begun to form a monotheistic concept of some non-formalized God or Highest Spirit. This development was interrupted and the further genesis of Taoist teaching was directed toward the occultism, polytheism and immortality.

At the same time Dao De Jing in some part is closely related with the political and social situation of that time — the struggle between states, increasing of the difference between «big» and «small hoses», between «shi» and highest aristocracy that expressed in the Doctrine of the «returning to the simplicity» and «desire non-desire».