Understanding Double Mystery: Daoism in Early Tang as Mirrored in the FDLH (T 2104) and Chongxuanxue

Abstract

a Laozi: xuan zhi you xuan, zhong miao zhi men. Commentary: The man who has desires, he is being hindered only by his [one-sided clinging to] being. The gentleman who has no desires, he instead is hindered by his [one-sided clinging to] non-being. Thus he [i.e., Laozi] says the first xuan in order to eliminate these two [onesided] views. But then he is afraid, that the adept may be hindered by this xuan. So, when he says xuan again, he eliminates also this last illness. Thus he not only obtains, that there are no more hindrances, but he also obtains, that being without hindrance in itself does not become a hindrance. This is the rejection, that's why he says xuan and again xuan.Before he took the Dao of the one middle in order to eliminate the clinging to the two extremes [of being and non-being]. Once the sickness of the [clinging to the] two extremes is eliminated, one also has to eliminate the medicine of the one middle. Therefore medicine and illness are both eliminated. This is the highest of the wonderful and the finest essence, it explains completely the principle and penetrates exhaustively the nature [of all things]. How would this not be door and window of all saints and also the dharma gate of all mysteries. 3

The Yijing and Chongxuan Xue: An Onto-Hermeneutic Perspective

“…10 Its popularity in the early Tang capital of Changan was due not only to its sophistication but also to the fact that it managed to reconcile crucial issues arising in the process of integrating Daoism from the fragmented traditions of the Six Dynasties into a formally structured and state-supported religion. 11 After the middle of the Tang Dynasty, chongxuan xue gradually faded; Du Guangting writing in the ninth century mentions it, but the main flourishing seems to be over. Chongxuan xue was almost completely forgotten, until in mid-twentieth century Chinese, Japanese, and then Western scholars re-discovered it.…”