What is the Non-Thing That Makes Things Things in Taoism? 什么是物物者非物
Paul PengWhat is the Non-Thing That Makes Things Things in Taoism?
A philosophical proposition in Zhuangzi.
From Zhuangzi · Knowledge Wanders North:
“Is there that which existed before heaven and earth a thing?
That which things things is not a thing.
What is the Non-Thing That Makes Things Things in Taoism?
What is the Non-Thing That Makes Things Things in Taoism?A thing cannot come before things,
for as long as there are things,
there is no end.”
Heaven, earth, and all things are finite; the Dao is infinite.
The finite cannot be produced by the finite, but must come from the infinite.
Hence: “That which things things is not a thing.”
Things arise neither from absolute being nor from absolute non‑being.
If there were being and non‑being,
even before them there would be neither being nor non‑being.
Therefore, that which things things is not a thing,
and can only be the Dao.
The Dao is real and trustworthy,
non‑active and formless,
self‑rooted and self‑originating.
It produces heaven and earth,
and is the ground of the existence of all things.
The Dao gives rise to all things;
things are but changing forms and shadows,
manifestations of the Dao.
