For the Western mind, Taoist paradoxes are at the same time intriguing and annoying. On the one hand, they may arouse curiosity; on the other hand, they make Aristotelians impatient. If Yang-Tzu, Lao-Tzu, and Chuang-Tzu wanted to convey an key message, why did they not use straightforward words?
Taoist paradoxes often rest on the concepts of Yin and Yang, that is, the idea that the universe is composed of opposite elements, and that both are necessary to render it whole.
In chapter 2 of the Tao Te Ching, Lao-Tzu mentions good and bad, difficult and easy, long and short, and high and low, amongst other pairs of opposites.
Lao-Tzu acknowledges that paired elements are connected in various ways. In some cases, one element succeeds another in terms of time; in other cases, one element complements the other; and so on.
Most importantly, Lao-Tzu mentions doing and non-doing as examples of this duality. The wise individual will get things done, sometimes by doing something, and other times by doing nothing. He can also teach or convey a message by doing or by not doing.
Taoist duality and Heraclitus
Aristotle (384-322 BC) would have vigorously contested the concepts of Yin and Yang. They resemble the doctrines of Heraclitus, from the 6th century BC, doctrines that Aristotle had replaced by strict logic and taxonomy.
Heraclitus, a contemporary of Lao-Tzu, also considered that the universe was composed of opposite elements, such as night and day, cold and hot, and so forth.
According to Heraclitus, opposite elements came in conflict with each other, but at the same time, they kept each other in check. As a result, the opposites kept the world in balance.
Lao-Tzu retakes the Yin and Yang concepts in chapter 42 of the Tao Te Ching. He says that Yin and Yang complement each other and enable the world to achieve harmony.
The Yin and Yang concepts are anathema to the Aristotelian mind, which focuses on breaking down complex elements into simpler ones. Aristotelian logic wants to categorize each entity, identify its behaviour, and predict its future. It wants to get just one answer to each question, and discard the alternatives.
Taoists accept that, on many occasions, they will get several answers, none of them perfect, and that it is rarely worth it to devote extra efforts to identifying the very best. Why? Because extra efforts are unlikely to pay off in most cases.
Lao-Tzu would not have bothered to debate whether nights are better than days, or summers better than winters, or doing better than not doing. He saw complementary elements as part of a continuum to be accepted and enjoyed.
Lao-Tzu and Yin Yang
Aristotelians benefit from their precision, but Taoists benefit from their serenity. Lao-Tzu expressed this idea beautifully in the Tao Te Ching, chapter 10, where he exhorts us to accept all shapes of dualism in the world.
The wise person, explains Lao-Tzu in chapter 10, can focus on the issue at hand while looking further, lead people without imposing his will on them, deal with problems while accepting that he does not have total control, and take a step back to look at the whole picture.
Without accepting the Yin and Yang, it becomes impossible to move forward fast in some situations. Disciples of Aristotle find it hard to make decisions with partial or loose information. They have problems making a choice when all alternatives are incomplete or deficient in some way.
In contrast, Taoists accept the Yin and Yang as normal. Lao-Tzu recommended us to stay in balance ourselves, to preserve our peace of mind, our sense of harmony, but did not insist on getting the world perfectly categorized and organized.
Lao-Tzu took for granted that life will often present us with less-than-perfect solutions, and that on many occasions, we are not going to make the best choice; that’s too bad, but that’s life.
Taoists consider Yin and Yang complementary, but unequal. In some situations, one element will overpower the other, until the moment comes when the trend is reversed.
Yin Yang and Aristotle
For instance, the softness and flexibility of youth will decay, eventually, into the dryness and rigidity of death. Chapter 78 of the Tao Te Ching praises the softness and flexibility of water in overcoming obstacles, but doesn’t say that it can win all battles and prevent natural decay. The Yin and Yang cannot be abated.
Western culture had never accepted concepts similar to Yin and Yang, especially in the field of ethics. The whole point of the Aristotelian “Eudemian Ethics” and “Nicomachean Ethics” is to identify virtue and practise it consistently.
However, Aristotle sometimes defined virtue as the golden mean between two extremes. For example, he rated generosity as a virtue, but warned against going too far and giving away everything we have, thus condemning ourselves to poverty.
It’s virtuous to be generous, explained Aristotle, but we will have to strike a balance between recklessness and exaggerated parsimony. The golden mean needs to be identified taking our personal situation into account.
Indirectly, Aristotle was acknowledging a moral framework that is not far away from the Yin and Yang. In practice, we will need to examine both alternatives before defining the scope of virtue in any particular case.
Yin Yang and Elizabeth of Portugal
Take for instance Elizabeth of Portugal (1271-1336), who is reputed to have been one of the best mediators in history. If we trust mediaeval chroniclers, Elizabeth was able to negotiate a peace between her husband, the king of Portugal, and Nicholas IV, the Pope. She was barely twenty years old at that time.
In the next decades, she brokered agreements between the king and his estranged brother, her child and her step child, and another reconciliation between her husband and the next Pope.
Did Elizabeth seek to attain perfect justice in each case? No, not at all. She was perfectly conscious that, in most disputes, a black-versus-white approach is not going to solve the problem.
Elizabeth managed to put together unlikely deals because of her flexibility. She was ready to forgive and forgo some items in order to achieve a larger goal. Lao-Tzu would have praised her for embracing the Yin and Yang, and I do not think that she would have found it offensive.
If you are interested in putting effective insights into daily practice, I recommend my book “The 10 Principles of Rational Living.”