Overview
- Introduction
- Muddledness as Cosmological Precedence
- Muddledness in Everyday Life
- Muddledness as Oneness
Introduction
The topic of muddledness is essential to understand—but it’s also difficult and complicated. Muddledness is linked to confusion, so perhaps it’s appropriate that the subject is also confusing. But we must try nevertheless.
Why is muddledness important? First, it’s the cosmological precedence to existence, so if we want to ask where this world originated, we must grasp muddledness. Second, muddledness is an important part of everyday life. We normally value order and abhor disorder, and yet we must not become so used to our repulsion that we forget that disorder is just as important as order. In fact, like the cosmos itself, any achievements we want must be preceded by disorder and confusion. Third, we should look at muddledness itself as oneness. Philosophically, it represents that which cannot be divided, measured, or limited by normal means. As a result, it’s linked to other concepts such as emptiness and nothingness. Fourth, somewhat surprisingly, muddledness represents oneness. It isn’t the oneness of birth and vitality, but a oneness that cannot be penetrated or divided to get meaningful structure. The oneness of dissolution represents mystery—the state that affects our personal lives, but whose internal features we cannot know or explain.
Muddledness as Cosmological Precedence
Heaven and earth emerged from the “muddled,” hùn, 混. Some alternate meanings are “mixed; mingle; drift; confused; dirty; muddy.” (Dàodéjīng, ch. 4, 15, 25)
Everything was completely muddled
before heaven and earth were born.
Silent! Empty!
Independent, without alteration,
circling but not dangerous,
it may be considered the mother of the world.
—Dàodéjīng, ch. 25
This word plays a role in the cosmological views of Dào. It’s part of the term, hùndùn, 混沌, the name for primal confusion, which is the undifferentiated and unorganized mixture from which the universe emerged. (A related term, dùndùn, 沌沌, appears in chapter 20.)
Why did that happen? No one can say with certainty, but the idea that nothingness preceded the muddled and that the muddled led to the order of the universe is the Dàodéjīng’s declaration.
Like nothingness, the muddled isn’t exclusively tied to the origin of existence. Take paper for example. Making it begins with pulp. Bamboo, mulberry, or rag fibers were the earliest materials and are still used today. Raw material is broken and separated by pounding and mixed freely in a vat with water. Glue and sizing are added. After this, a fine silk mesh is dipped in the mixture and the wet layer is pressed dry. The fibers within the paper become arranged randomly, bound together by countless combinations. Just as hùndùn led to this world, the muddled repeatedly leads to new birth.
Muddledness in Everyday Life
When reciprocal pairs operate together, we have order. When they fall apart, there’s disorder. The Dàodéjīng calls that the “muddled,” hùn, 混. Muddledness is further related to namelessness, nothingness, nonbeing, and emptiness. All of these states are indefinable and indivisible; are beyond conventional knowledge; and they alternate with what we usually describe as real and desirable. This can be explained through five ideas.
- First, all values we regard as positive are defined by what they are not: “All know goodness as good—because they already know bad.” (Dàodéjīng, ch. 2)
- Second, all accomplishment emerges from disorganization. “A nine-story tower rises from heaps of dirt.” (Dàodéjīng, ch. 64)
- Third, energy can be lost. Being can shift toward nonbeing. Entropy must always be taken into account: “some things may decrease yet increase, while others may increase yet decrease.” (Dàodéjīng, ch. 42)
- Fourth, while the Dàodéjīng values Oneness, unity risks disintegrating or failing to form: “Heaven got One by clarity;” (Dàodéjīng, ch. 39) but otherwise: “if heaven did not get clarity, we’d fear it splitting.” (Dàodéjīng, ch. 39).
- Fifth, order alternates with disorder. Everything “returns to nothingness” (Dàodéjīng, ch. 14) That alternation forms cycles:
Returning is the motion of Dào.
Delicate is the usage of Dào.
Myriad things in the world
were born from being.
Existence births
from nonexistence.
(Dàodéjīng, ch. 40)
Here are major terms in the Dàodéjīng that are related to muddledness:
- Nameless wúmíng, 無名: “nameless; obscure.” (Dàodéjīng, ch. 1, 32, 37, 41.) “Namelessness is the beginning of heaven and earth.” (Dàodéjīng, ch. 1)
- Nothingness wú, 無: “not to have; no; none; not; to lack; un-; -less. (Dàodéjīng, ch. 1–3, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 19, 20, 24, 27, 28, 32, 34, 35, 37–41, 43, 46, 48–50, 52, 57–59, 63, 64, 69, 70, 72, 75, 78–80.)
- Nonbeing wúyǒu, 無有: “nonbeing; nonexistence.” (Dàodéjīng, ch. 19, 43)
- Emptiness xū, 虛: “emptiness; void; abstract theory or guiding principles; unoccupied; timid; false; humble; modest; weak (health); virtual; in vain.” (Dàodéjīng, ch. 3, 5, 16, 22, 53)
- Limitless wújí, 無極: “no limits; everlasting.” (Dàodéjīng, ch. 27)
When you encounter these terms, it’s worthwhile to keep their interrelationships in mind.
The Muddled as Oneness
Look, it can’t be seen—
call that name dim.
Listen, it can’t be heard—
call that name faint.
Grab, it can’t be gotten—
call that name slight.
These three cannot be finely questioned
and the muddled becomes one.
—Dàodéjīng, ch. 14
Muddledness as Mystery
The Dàodéjīng explains that unity is also mystery. We can see it. We can describe it. We can use it. But we can’t fully explain why it forms.
These two sides issue forth together
but have separate names.
Together, they are called mysterious.
Mystery on mystery, the gate to many mysteries.
—Dàodéjīng, ch. 1
“Mystery,” xuán, 玄, means “black; mysterious; profound.” (Dàodéjīng, ch. 1, 6, 10, 15, 51, 56, 65) The ideogram shows a thread suspended from a hanger as it’s lowered into dye. We can’t see into those inky depths but we know that change will result. Similarly, our search for knowledge emerges from darkness.
Mystery designates what we sense and comprehend beyond our normal intellects. We cannot completely explain it, but we know that it’s significant.
Muddledness is a mystery. But we need not spend our time being mystified. By understanding muddledness and its place in our world, we gain insight into the whole of Dào.