The character 神 in the Analects and Early Daoism

Hey, gang. My assignment was slightly different in that I compared and contrasted the use of a character in the Analects with its use in early Daoist material:

The classical Chinese lexical item 神 (shen) is translated variously as spirit, god, numen, or daemon. None of these English terms fully evokes the meaning of 神 in classical Chinese, and its meaning is largely dependent upon the context in which it is used. It appears in both the Analects of Confucius and in various early Daoist texts, taking on different meanings in each. I will briefly sketch below some of the similarities and differences in the uses of 神 in the Analects and in early Daoist sources, most notably the Neiye.

The character 神 occurs only six times in the Analects (according to my informal search), so it will be helpful to examine each instance of its occurrence. In three instances (6.22, 8.21, 11.12) it occurs paired with 鬼 (gui), most often translated as "ghosts" to form the collective noun that refers to spiritual beings in general. These spiritual beings were the general objects to which 禮 (li), the rites, were oriented. This included both ancestral spirits and the spirits (or gods) of mountains, rivers, etc. In this context then, 神 refers generally to spiritual beings. In 3.12 the use of 神 seems to be further narrowed to mean specifically ancestral spirits, or those that are invoked in rites performed, "as though the spirits were present." The final two instances of 神 in the Analects are particularly telling of the Confucian perspective.

In 7.35 Zilu prays to, "the gods of the heavens above and the earth below," for Confucius' recovery from a grave illness. When he informs Confucius that this practice is based on a eulogy or ritual form Confucius replies that he has then been praying for himself for a long time. I take this to imply that Confucius was aware of the ritual form but not the significance of appealing to the gods of heaven and earth for relief from illness. In 7.21 we likewise learn that 神 was one of the things about which Confucius, "had nothing to say." Although Confucius emphasized proper performance of 禮, his concern seems to be entirely upon the significance of the rites to the regulation and maintenance of social order, and not upon their original "spiritual" significance.

For Confucius, 禮 extends to mean all forms of ritual propriety, not simply religious or spiritual practice. Some of the rites--indeed most likely all of the official rites performed by the ruler--had as their object 神, but 神 were very abstract and not directly related to the causative social effects of 禮. In this respect the nature of 神 and their relationship to man is not a primary concern for Confucius, but it is also clear that 神 are considered specifically separate from and exterior to man, and that they are part of some unseen spiritual reality. These attributes are common also to the early Daoist position, but developed in an entirely different direction.

Inward Training or the Neiye represents a cosmology and psychology based on the concepts of 道 (dao), 神 (shen), 氣 (qi), and 精 (jing). While it is not necessary to outline in detail here, this cosmology and psychology holds basically that 道, the Way, is the progenitor of phenomenal things and that its phsyio-psychical substrate is 精, vital essence, which when properly refined from 氣, vital energy/breath, and stored within the heart-mind of a cultivated individual allows access to 神, the numinous, which can nurture and guide the individual in extraordinary ways. Here, 神 shares with the Confucian use a definite sense of other-ness from man (hence the translations numinous or daemonic), and a sense of a subtle spiritual reality. In fact, because 神 is subtle it is associated with 天 (tian), heaven or the heavens, which is itself a collection of all that is subtle (in a manner of speaking). In the Analects 7.35 神 is the term associated with gods of the heavens (as opposed to 祇 (zhi), the gods of the earth). This propensity of 神 with the heavens is what allows the cultivated individual in the Neiye to, "not resort to divining by tortoise or milfoil / Yet know bad and good fortune" (XIX.4-5). In both traditions--indeed in early China in general--divination was considered a method of discerning the "patterns of heaven" which influenced events in the realm of man. The realized individual of the Neiye is able to spontaneously perform such divination because he or she directly apprehends an element of this numinous reality. Despite these similarities, the emphasis placed upon 神 in early Daoist texts is markedly different than that of the Analects.

Where Confucius' project was specifically social, the early Daoist project is specifically individual. Confucius is not very interested in 神 because he is only interested in harmonious relationships among people, not among people and any kind of subtle reality--even if he would theoretically admit that such a subtle reality existed. The early Daoist authors of the Neiye, however, were intensely interested in the nature of this subtle reality and how an individual could relate to it. This interest is in many ways different even from the "spiritual" aspect of the Confucian 禮, and may reflect the influence of Chu shamanism on early Daoist thought and practice. In their usage then, 神 takes on a much more complicated meaning that would extend throughout the early Daoist sources of the classical period.

The different uses of 神 in the Analects and Neiye underscore fundamental differences between the Confucian and early Daoist worldviews, but also belie some basic similarities in their understanding of the structure of the universe. Although the two outlooks would later evolve into distinct and competing schools they both share certain ideas fundamental to early Chinese intellectual life.

References to the Analects are the Ames and Rosemont translation used in class. References to the Neiye are from Harold D. Roth, Original Tao, New York: Columbia UP 1999.