The meaning of The Middle Way in Taoism 什么是中道

The meaning of The Middle Way in Taoism

Originally a Buddhist term, "Zhongdao" refers to the impartial path, viewpoint, or method that transcends the "two extremes" (liang bian, 两边).

The Madhyamaka school of Mahayana Buddhism designated the "Eight Negations" (ba bu, 八不) right view as the Middle Way. Jizang (吉藏), the central figure of China's Sanlun (三论) school, identified this Middle Way with Buddha-nature. The Taoist Zhuangzi Chongxuan (Twofold Mystery) school absorbed the ideas of the Buddhist Madhyamaka school and borrowed the concept of "Zhongdao" to denote a particular stage in the process of cultivating the Way of the Twofold Mystery.

The meaning of The Middle Way in Taoism

Li Rong's commentary on the Laozi (Laozi Zhu, 老子注), Chapter One, states: "The Way of the Middle Harmony neither overflows nor falls short, is neither existent nor non-existent." This clearly indicates that clinging to either existence or non-existence constitutes a partial affliction requiring dissolution. Such a Middle Way is "Xuan" (玄, Profound Mystery). Not only must the two extremes of existence and non-existence be broken through, but all other pairs of opposites—stillness and agitation, female and male, yielding and forceful—must likewise be viewed through the Middle Way. This teaching echoes Confucianism's doctrine of the Mean in its emphasis on balance, though reaching it through a distinct philosophical path.

The Chongxuan school further advocated "when the affliction departs, the medicine departs; when the extreme is gone, the Middle is forgotten"—meaning that once the attachment to existence and non-existence has been broken, the Middle Way itself must also be negated. Through this double negation—negating existence and non-existence, and then forgetting the Middle—one enters the realm of The Dongzhen Section of the Twofold Mystery, the supreme culmination of Dao cultivation.