From Noncoercive Action to Shapelessness: On the Ontological Ground of Laozi’s Political Philosophy

The theoretical proposition that sages or ideal rulers wuwei 無為 (act noncoercively) to achieve ziran 自然 of people has been clearly identified as the key claim in the political field, as posed by Laozi. However, this proposition leaves two questions worth further consideration. Firstly, how does this political claim relate to other, somewhat negative, political claims in Laozi, such as bushangxian 不尚賢 (not promoting those of superior character)? Secondly, why and in what sense should ziran of people and things be affirmed? Correspondingly, the purpose of this paper was to elucidate that those seemingly negative political claims are critiques of the ruler’s youwei 有為 (coercive action) in governance, in accordance with the viewpoint of noncoercive action, and to argue that the affirmation of the value of ziran must be established in the metaphysical realm of shapeless Dao instead of in the political realm. On the grounds of Dao, although the content of ziran involves the diversity of states of things, a permanent change of those states really establishes the measures and criteria of the ziran of things.