The meaning of Simplifying Affairs in Taoism? 什么是简事

The meaning of Simplifying Affairs in Taoism?

One of the methods of Taoist cultivation proposed by Sima Chengzhen (司马承祯). The term means that a practitioner of the Dao should reduce and simplify involvements, responding to things without being burdened by them.

The meaning of Simplifying Affairs in Taoism?

Sima Chengzhen pointed out that although human life "must necessarily attend to affairs," "the ten thousand affairs cannot all be entrusted to one person alone." One should therefore "seek outwardly among things while illuminating inwardly within oneself. Know the allotments of life and do not strive for what exceeds them; recognize what is appropriate in affairs and do not undertake what is not appropriate. Undertaking what is not appropriate wastes one's intelligence and strength; striving beyond one's allotments damages one's form and spirit. When the body is already unsettled, how can one reach the Way? Therefore, for the practitioner of the Way there is nothing better than reducing and simplifying affairs." Sima Chengzhen held that wine, meat, fine silks, fame, rank, and property are all "the excess desires of emotion—not the effective medicine of benefiting life"—and should therefore be relinquished.

From this attitude of "Jian Shi" toward external things, Sima Chengzhen further advocated that even the study of the immortals should be approached with ease and simplicity: "In all study of the immortals, one must first know ease and simplicity. If a teaching touches on the strange and bizarre, it is just enough to cause people to cling to delusion with no foundation to return to." He held that complex and cumbersome techniques are harmful and without benefit for Internal Alchemy cultivation.

This teaching resonates with the ideal of simplicity found in the Dao De Jing, emphasizing that genuine Taoist practice requires a deliberate reduction of external entanglements as a prerequisite for inner realization.