Figures of Taoism: Zhao Ziqin 赵自勤

Zhao Ziqin was a scholar of the Tang Dynasty. He once served as the Director of the Imperial Library.

In the second year of Tianbao (753 AD), he was transferred from the position of Assistant Secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources to be the Governor of Kuozhou.

In philosophy, he took "emptiness" as the supreme ontology, thus bridging Taoist thought with Buddhism. Firstly, he believed that "emptiness" is the original unified entity. He said: "The substance is chaotic, the qi is vast and indistinct. It exists at the beginning of heaven and earth, permeates the midst of heaven and earth, and cannot be fathomed. Its name is emptiness" (Fu on Emptiness, the same below).

Secondly, he held that the basic characteristic of "emptiness" is that it has no form or shape. When you face it, you cannot see its head; when you follow it, you cannot see its tail. It cannot be heard or touched. When it spreads out, it can pervade the entire universe; when it is gathered, it is not enough to fill a handful. He said: "When viewed in its grandeur, it is vast and resembles the appearance of the primal embryo; when examined carefully, it is subtle and condensed, embodying the essence of the supreme Dao. Therefore, Laozi said: There is a thing Chaos, born before heaven and earth. Silent and empty—who can increase or decrease it? Neither bright nor dark—how can one discuss its obscurity or clarity? It benefits all things with the virtue of containment; it encompasses heaven and earth with the name of covering and carrying."

Thirdly, he thought that "emptiness" is not separated from "existence"; it is precisely because of "emptiness" that "existence" can come into being. He said: "That which is praised without having virtues will have its praise endure; that which functions without having a form will have its function be inexhaustible." He further regarded "emptiness" as the fundamental condition on which all things depend for their existence. He believed that plants and trees thrive by virtue of emptiness, the sun and moon move through emptiness, wild geese and rocs flap their wings relying on emptiness, and singing birds transmit their voices through emptiness. He affirmed the role of nothingness and held that true perfection lies in non-action.

He said: "It contains the great transformation through nothingness,and gives rise to divine functions in a state of indistinctness. Those skilled in planning have no use for their strategies; those skilled in observing have no need to tire themselves with looking up and down." He equated the emptiness and stillness advocated by Taoism with the nirvana of Buddhism, believing that all different things and constantly changing phenomena will eventually end in formlessness. He asserted that "knowing that all action ends in formlessness, and transforming all things to return to a single principle," then "both form and emptiness are eliminated," "both things and the self are equalized," "vast and boundless, enduring as the earth and lasting as the heavens—neither form nor appearance, neither existing nor expanding." Therefore, he understood that "the great image has no form; it discards ornament and substance to become a entity; the supreme constancy does not change, merging past and present to become the eternal." He considered the world as illusory, fixed and unchanging, and eternally empty and quiet, which is close to the Buddhist concept of nirvana. His works include Fu on Emptiness, compiled in Volume 438 of The Complete Prose of the Tang Dynasty.