Huashu - Contents

Contents

While generations of Chinese literati have studied the Huashu as a philosophical text, notably in terms of Neo-Confucianism, Western scholars are only beginning to appreciate it. Alexander Wylie (1901:158-159) first described the book, "The 化書 Hwa shoo or "Book of Transformation," written by 譚峭 T'an Seaou in the early part of the 10th century, is an ethical treatise, strongly impregnated with Taouist tendencies." The earliest European-language translation of the Huashu was in German. Alfred Forke (1934:338-49) discussed Tan Qiao's philosophy and translated over 20 articles.

Joseph Needham and others studying the history of science and technology in China have rediscovered the Huashu, which he called (1956:444) "a work of much importance". Note that Needham's unusual system of romanization is changed to pinyin, for instance, substituting for "Than Chhiao".

Evaluating Chinese proto-scientific texts from the Tang and Song dynasties, Needham cites Xingying 形影 "Objects and Images" (1.7),

Of all these books, the most original from the point of view of the philosophy of science is probably the Hua Shu. (if he was really its author) developed a special kind of subjective realism, in which he emphasized that though the external world was real, our knowledge of it was so deeply affected by subjective factors that its full reality could not be said to have been seized (this, of course, is an attempt to express his point of view in modern terms). First he considers an infinite regress of images of an object in oppositely placed plane mirrors. The form and colour of the object ( 形) is perfectly retained in each of the successive images (ying 影). Since it can exist without them, it is not alone and in itself complete ( 實), but since they perfectly reproduce its form and colour, they are not in themselves empty ( 虛); or, as might be said in modern terms, it is not fully real, but they are not fully unreal. Now that which is neither real nor not-real, concludes, is akin to the Tao. (1956:450)

Moeller (2004:152) notes Tan's room of parallel mirror images "is obviously indebted to an earlier Buddhist example." The Huayan patriarch Fazang used an illuminated statue of the Buddha inside a room of mirroring mirrors to illustrate Indra's net to Empress Wu Zetian. Needham additionally (1956:450) cites a zoological example of subjectivity from Xiaoji 梟雞 "Owls and Hens" (1.9) – written eight centuries before John Locke made the primary/secondary quality distinction. "For the owl, says, the night is bright and the day dark; for the hen the converse is true, as for ourselves. Which of the two, he asks, in good Taoist style, is to be considered 'normal' and which 'abnormal'?"

Needham (1956:451) refers to Shehu 射虎 "Shooting Tigers" (1.11), which relates optical illusions with Daoist philosophy of perception. "A man may shoot at a striped stone, he says, under the impression that it is a tiger, or at a ripple on the water, under the impression that it is a crocodile. Moreover, even if these animals are really there, his attention may be so concentrated on them that he will simply not see the stones or the water beside them."

The Huashu article Sijing 四鏡 "Four Lenses" (1.10), with the earliest known reference to the basic types of simple lenses, metaphorically illustrates relativism and, in modern terms, subjective idealism.

I have always by me four lenses. The first is called 璧 (the 'sceptre', a diverging bi-concave lens). The second is called 珠 (the 'pearl', biconvex). The third is called 砥 (the 'whetstone', plano-concave). The fourth is called 盂 (the 'bowl', plano-convex). With the object is larger (than the image). With the object is smaller (than the image). With the image appears upright. With the image appears inverted. When one looks at shapes or human forms through such instruments, one realizes that there is no such thing as (absolute) large or small, short or long, beautiful or ugly, desirable or hateful. (tr. Needham 1956:451, 1962:117)

Needham notes that Giambattista della Porta's 1593 De refraction, optics parte was the first European treatment of these fundamental lens types.

Dahan 大含 "Great Containment" (1.24) discusses how sound originates from disturbances in qi 氣 "air; vapor; pneuma; energy; vital force", a theory that Needham (1962:207) calls "far more advanced than the Pythagorean conception of sounds as a stuff composed of numbers."

The void ( 虛) is transformed into (magical) power (shen 神). (Magical) power is transformed into . is transformed into material things ( 形). Material things and ride on one another ( 形氣相乘), and thus sound is formed. It is not the ear which listens to sound but sound which of itself makes its way into the ear. It is not the valley which of itself gives out echoing sound, but sound of itself fills up the entire valley.
An ear is a small hollow ( 竅) and a valley is a large hollow. Mountains and marshes are a 'small valley' and Heaven and Earth are a 'large valley'. (Theoretically speaking, then) if one hollow gives out sound ten thousand hollows will all give out sound; if sound can be heard in one valley it should be heard in all the ten thousand valleys. Sound leads (back again) to ; leads (back again) to (magical) power (shen 神); (magical) power leads (back again) to the void. (But) the void has in it (the potentiality for) power. The power has in it (the potentiality for) . has in it (the potentiality for) sound. One leads (back again) to the other, which has (a potentiality for) the former within itself. (If this reversion and production were to be prolonged) even the tiny noises of mosquitoes and flies would be able to reach everywhere. (tr. Needham 1962:207-208)

Several other Huashu articles mention this Daoist transformational series between xu 虚 "emptiness; void", shen 神 "spirit; god", qi 氣, and xing 形 "form; shape; material things". They are said to be reversible back to emptiness (1.1), to exist everywhere (1.3), to all be one (1.16), to all contain each other (2.19), to transform from life to death and back to emptiness (1.20), and, adding a transformation from xing to jing 精 "essence" (cf. the Three Treasures), to underlie all human problems (1.15).

Other scholars quote the Huashu from Needham. Galeotti, Menconi, and Fronzoni (2003:90) suggest "surprising references to the butterfly effect" in "Great Containment" (1.24). Davies (2003:4) compares Francis Crick's The Astonishing Hypothesis with "Shooting Tigers" (1.11) that uses "optical illusions and human inattention to press the view that we pick out certain elements of reality to form our world-picture."

The Huashu has untold significance to the histories of philosophy and science. One final example mentions classical conditioning a millennium before Ivan Pavlov discovered it. Geng Xin 庚辛 "The Geng and Xin " (5.10) recounts how two neighbors, figuratively named after the 7th and 8th Celestial stems, used different materials to construct fish ponds.

The Geng's fish pond had a bamboo railing that made a ce-ce 策策 sound when leaned upon, and the Xin's had a wooden one that made a tang-tang 堂堂 sound. Both families fed their fish daily and the fish learned to leap out of the water when they heard these sounds. But even if they were not being fed, the fish leapt whenever they heard these respective sounds. Thus, the Geng's fish could be called with ce-ce and the Xin's fish with tang-tang, which is a Food Transformation.

The Huashu, unlike most other Daoist classics, is not available in English translation, with the unpublished exceptions of a MA thesis and a PhD dissertation.