The “Unhewn Log”
Another core Daoist idea is that of “unhewn log” or pu. This is the idea that all things, even human beings, have an innate nature that is perverted when it is forced to conform to external control. Civilization---especially in the form of Confucian ceremonies, rules, and, rituals---twists and perverts people's essential nature. Although the ancient Daoists had no theory of “socio-biology”, I suspect that they would agree that there is a basic, ideal sort of life built into our human genes that civilization often distorts. Daoist literature not only complains about how society twists our lives, it also paints visions of a sort of ancient utopia where people can live their lives in harmony with their essential nature.
In a world of ultimate integrity, men would dwell together with the birds and the beasts. They would come together in tribes with the myriad things. What would they know of superior men and petty men? Equally without knowledge, they would not stray from their integrity. Equally without desire, this is called “the simplicity of the unhewn log”. With the simplicity of the unhewn log, the people would attain their nature. Then along comes the sage, assiduous in his exercise of humaneness, plodding in his exercise of righteousness, and all under heaven begin to doubt. Music begins to multiply, rites begin to proliferate, and all under heaven begin to divide. Therefore, if the simple, unhewn log remained intact, who would carve a sacrificial vessel from it? If the white jade remained unimpaired, who would make scepters and tallies from it? If the Way and integrity were not discarded, who would choose humaneness and righteousness? If the attributes of our individual natures were not set aside, what use would there be for rites and music? If the colours were not confused, who would make colourful patterns? If the five sounds were not confused, who would conform to the six pitch-pipes? The carving of the unhewn log into instruments is the fault of the craftsman: the impairment of the Way and integrity with humaneness and righteousness is the error of the sage.
Zhuangzi, Horses Hooves, Mair, trans.
Modern people do not live lives governed by the strict rules of filial piety and decorum of Confucianism, but we are hemmed-in by other regulations that are in many ways even worse. We live our lives based on clock time, which means that for many people arriving at work as little as five minutes late can result in a gut-wrenching inter-personal conflict with their boss. We not only don't live in harmony with the “birds and the beasts”, our society is engaged in a genocidal war against them. In many ways, our competitive “growth at all costs”, capitalist lifestyle is every bit as constrained as the one lived in a Confucianist house-hold. We have merely traded a domineering mother-in-law and over-bearing father for a boss and the gnawing fear of unemployment. The need to kowtow before an altar of the ancestors has been replaced by the need to feign enthusiasm for the company vision statement. Henry David Thoreau's belief that "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation, and go to the grave with the song still in them" is just as true today as it was in his time---and even when Zhuangzi put pen to paper.
I personally do not believe that human beings are as defined by our “essential nature” as the idea of the unhewn log would suggest, but I do agree with Zhuangzi that there are some ways of living that work better for people than others. It is a bald truth that our civilization has painted itself into a corner and cannot go back to the utopian vision of small village life that the Daoists painted. (I suspect that this was no longer possible even in Zhuangzi's time.) But through social and political activism it is possible to change our current civilization to one that is in harmony with the best qualities of human beings. We can incrementally move towards a society more in harmony with nature, less competitive, and, more free. By holding onto the ideal of the unhewn log, we will have a star to guide us on that journey.
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