Cosmogony and the Origin of Inequality

Abstract

The present article examines how classical, early medieval and medieval Taoist sources theorise inequality as an outcome of cosmogonic processes, and how these same sources project eliminating inequality through a reversal of those processes. The first part of the article considers utopias from the Laozi daode jing [Formula: see text] (Laozi’s Scripture on the Way and its Virtue) and Zhuangzi [Formula: see text] (Book of Master Zhuang) and from the early medieval writings of Ji Kang [Formula: see text] (223–262) and Bao Jingyan [Formula: see text] (3rd to early 4th centuries). From these, a number of themes common to Taoist utopias emerge, namely communitarian primitivism, the condemnation of knowledge, and the endorsement of a de-civilising programme of cosmogonic reversion which aims for a return to the golden age of natural spontaneity. The second part of the article is devoted to the mature utopian vision of the ninth-century Wunengzi [Formula: see text] (The Incapable Master). In addition to elaborating on previous themes, the Wunengzi contributes two new ideas to Taoist utopian discourse: first, the distinction between intelligence, which develops naturally, and human knowledge, which is an artificial contrivance; and second, the conviction that an ideal society is achievable through engagement with existing political structures. The conclusion examines basic similarities between Taoist utopias and early modern to modern European counterparts, challenging the validity of Eurocentric notions of a ‘Taoist anarchism’.