I have tried my hand at interpreting Tao.
C.G. Jung Letters, Vol. 1: 1906-1950
To: Richard Wilhelm [Temporarily [till end of Sept.] Tower Bollingen, Ct. St. Gallen 10 September 1919
Dear Friend,
My commentary is now more or less finished. It has turned out to be rather more extensive [than I expected], because it represents a European reaction to the wisdom of China.
Please would you read it first so that you may correct any Chinese blunders.
I have tried my hand at interpreting Tao.
I haven’t inserted any mandala pictures but can easily do so afterwards if you think it expedient.
Naturally the whole thing is too long for the Revue.
I would therefore suggest that the Revue picks out a few plums and publish them.
Further, I would like to tell you that a philological introduction or commentary from your side would be in the highest degree desirable.
For this purpose I enclose the notes you gave me in Kusnacht.
The reader ought to know something of the philosophical and religious background of the ideas in the text.
Its approximate date should be indicated.
The extremely interesting amalgamation of Taoism with Mahayana was quite new to me.
A reference in similar texts (such as the Hui Ming Ching), if any are accessible, would also be most desirable.
Please excuse these importunate but I am inspired by these texts that are so close to our unconscious.
My MS will go off to you as soon as it is copied out.
You won’t need it for the philological part.
It would be useful to have a short explanation of the concepts Tao, sin, ming, shen, gui, hun, and po from the characters, which should be reproduced along with them.
In my commentary I have explained the symbols and psychic states in some detail, exclusively of course from the psychological standpoint, and at the same time drawn parallels with our psychology.
It runs to some 53 written folio sheets of about 39 lines each.
The Table of Contents is included.
I hope your health continues to make good progress.
To save time it would probably be better if you sent the whole MS, your discussion [or introduction], the text, and my commentary directly to the “Revue.”
The main thing is the book edition.
With very best greetings.
Your devoted Jung.
P.S. It has just struck me that in my commentary I have suggested using “logos” for “hun” instead of “animus,” because “animus” is a natural term for the “mind” of a woman, corresponding to the “anima” of a man. European philosophy must take into account the existence of feminine psychology. The “anima” of a woman might suitably be designated “Eros.” ~Carl Jung to Richard Wilhelm, Letters Vol. 1, Pages 67-68.
Tao Anthology
Only in this spiritual centre is there any possibility of salvation. The concept of the centre was called by the Chinese Tao, which the Jesuits in their day translated as Deus. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Pages 470-471.
Taoist meditation is mainly concerned with the curious transformations of Yang and Yin. ~Carl Jung, Modern Psychology, Page 43.
The “Processing” is the alchemistic procedure; this, Taoism and the Book of Changes are all the same thing, according to Wei Po-Yang. ~Carl Jung, ETH, Lecture XIII, Page 109.
Confucianism was the recognised state religion in China, it subordinates the interests of the individual to those of the state, whereas Taoism is essentially a religion for the individual. ~Carl Jung, ETH, Page 142.
The central idea of Taoism is no moral question, but is the Tao, the indefinable essence of the right way, and this is also the mystery of alchemy. ~Carl Jung, ETH, Page 142.
The goal of alchemy is not merely material, it is partly in “the Beyond”, and is almost exactly similar to the goal of Taoism, where the whole effort is directed towards finding or creating Tao. ~Carl Jung, ETH, Page 143.
‘The subtlest secret of the Tao is human nature and life.’ ~Hui Ming Ching, Cited Secret of the Golden Flower, Page 94.
According to the Hui Ming Ching, the ancient sages knew how to bridge the gap between consciousness and life because they cultivated both. In this way the shelf, the immortal body, is ‘melted out’, and in this way ‘the great Tao is completed’. ~Carl Jung, Secret of the Golden Flower, Page 95.
Without doubt, also, the realization of the opposite hidden in the unconscious, i.e. the ‘reversal’, signifies reunion with the unconscious laws of being, and the purpose of this reunion is the attainment of conscious life or, expressed in Chinese terms, the bringing about of the Ta0. ~Carl Jung, Secret of the Golden Flower, Pages 95-96.
Hun [Animus], then, would be the discriminating light of consciousness and of reason in man, originally coming from the logos spermatikos of hsing, and returning after death through shen to the Ta0. ~Carl Jung, Secret of the Golden Flower, Page 116.
Eternal is the Golden Flower only, which grows out of inner liberation from all bondage to things. A man who reaches this stage transposes his ego; he is no longer limited to the monad, but penetrates the magic circle of the polar duality of all phenomena and returns to the undivided One, Ta0. ~Secret of the Golden Flower, Page 18.
In Buddhism, this return to Nirvana is connected with a complete annihilation of the ego, which, like the world, is only illusion…In Ta0ism, on the other hand, the goal is to preserve in a transfigured form, the idea of the person, the “traces” left by experience. ~Secret of the Golden Flower, Page 18.
A man who holds to the way of conservation all through life may reach the stage of the “Golden Flower” which then frees the ego from the conflict of the opposites, and it again becomes part of Ta0, the undivided, Great One. ~The Secret of the Golden Flower, Page 73.
Taoism degenerated terribly but has lately undergone a renaissance while Confucianism is at present degenerating. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lecture III, 17May 1935, Pages 209.
Taoism has also a kind of Yoga but it is less well known than the Indian. The Chinese Yoga is very much less founded on dogma, the Yogin is left to find his own way through his difficult experiences. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lecture III, 17May 1935, Pages 209.
As the Chinese would say, the archetype is only the name of Tao, not Tao itself. Just as the Jesuits translated Tao as “God,” so we can describe the “emptiness” of the center as “god.” ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 258-259.
The third degree of [Alchemical] conjunction is universal: it is relation or identity of the personal with the supra-personal atman, and of the individual tao with the universal tao. . . . ~Carl Jung, CW 14, Para 762.
Only my intellect has anything to do with purusha-atman or Tao, but not my living thralldom. This is local, barbaric, infantile, and abysmally unscientific. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 32-35.
As the Chinese would say, the archetype is only the name of Tao, not Tao itself. Just as the Jesuits translated Tao as “God,” so we can describe the “emptiness” of the centre as “God.” Emptiness in this sense doesn’t mean “absence” or “vacancy,” but something unknowable which is endowed with the highest intensity. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 257-264.
In China, for instance, a philosopher like Hu Shih is ashamed to know anything of the I Ching, the profound significance of Tao has got lost, and instead people worship locomotives and aeroplanes. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 322.
The truth is one and the same everywhere and I must say that Ta0ism is one of the most perfect formulations of it I ever became acquainted with. ~Carl Jung, Letters Volume 1, Pages 559-560.
The central idea of Taoism is no moral question, but is the Ta0, the indefinable essence of the right way, and this is also the mystery of alchemy. ~Carl Jung, ETH, Page 142.
The goal of alchemy is not merely material, it is partly in “the Beyond”, and is almost exactly similar to the goal of Ta0ism, where the whole effort is directed towards finding or creating Ta0. ~Carl Jung, ETH, Page 143.
Confucianism was the recognized state religion in China, it subordinates the interests of the individual to those of the state, whereas Ta0ism is essentially a religion for the individual. ~Carl Jung, ETH, Page 142.
In Buddhism, this return to Nirvana is connected with a complete annihilation of the ego, which, like the world, is only illusion…In Ta0ism, on the other hand, the goal is to preserve in a transfigured form, the idea of the person, the “traces” left by experience. ~Secret of the Golden Flower, Page 18.
Taoism has also a kind of Yoga but it is less well known than the Indian. The Chinese Yoga is very much less founded on dogma, the Yogin is left to find his own way through his difficult experiences. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lecture III, 17May 1935, Pages 209.
The “Processing” is the alchemistic procedure; this, Ta0ism and the Book of Changes are all the same thing, according to Wei Po-Yang. ~Carl Jung, ETH, Lecture XIII, Page 109.
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