The Nomadic Alternative – Page 196

View. Hoarded property was indeed theft, but the root cause of

social disorder was the technical innovations, which necessarily

provoked men to lust after things. The Taoists objected to machinery

on moral grounds. "Bend the fingers of the technicians", said

Chuang Tzu; "Smash their axes and plumb lines. Throw away their

compasses and set squares." Men who could defile natural substances

with punch and saw would do the same to their fellow men. The

principle of the weighing machine could be used to perfect the rack.

Hell was a torture chamber, metallurgy and weapons the invention

of a horned devilish monster. "Whatever machines might be invented",

says another text, "it would be for the benefit of the feudal lords."

The archaic Chinese ideogram for 'implement, machine or apparatus'

was also used for 'fetters or shackles' and comes from a verbal

root meaning 'to frighten or overawe'.

But Taoism was not anti-scientific in temper. The Taoists simply

objected to anything that went against the grain. Instead of looking

forward to future scientific achievements, they looked back to a

time when men had known more, not less, about the workings of the

Universe. Their scientific method demanded that the individual should

plunge himself into the totality of nature, to see and know "all

the ten thousand things" moving and at work, and to treat nature

as a loving personalized entity. By naming each bird or animal,

insect or fish, flower, tree, rock, mountain, stream or star, he

communicated directly with them and so recreated the Universe in

his mind. And this passionate concentration on the workings of nature

induced that state of radiant calm the Epicureans knew as ataraxy

and which Thoreau was trying to perfect by Walden Pond.

"Prehistoric ethics" did not propose a reversion to primitive

conditions. As long as the tentacles of government continued to

throttle men, Taoists were driven to call on their own inner

resources to recover the gratifications of the "age of perfect virtue".

Later it became the active duty of a Taoist to become a hsien or

true man, his quest personal immortality in this world, his hope

to be "freed from bondage by the Ruler above". Techniques to advance