Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat. 1823. “Extrait d’un mémoire sur Lao-tseu, Philosophe chinois du sixième siècle avant notre ère, qui a professé les opinions attribués à PLATON et à PYTHAGORE (I).” Journal asiatique. July 1823. pp. 3–15.
Abel-Rémusat begins by stressing that there must have been much communication and shared ideas between men at the very foundations of civilization, much of which is now forgotten. Many shared stories and ideas may in fact have been simple parallel developments; thus the study of human myth may tell us much about the human spirit. However, some stories or philosophies are simply too weird to be parallel developments, and these are the ones that interest the historians:
| Pour l’objet qui l’occupe, l’antiquaire laisse de côté ces méprises oommunes dans lesquelles notre raison se laisse naturellement entraîner, en tout tems et en tout lieu, par un effet de sa faiblesse et de son orgueil; mais il s’attache de préférence à ces erreurs si singulières, à ces imaginations si bizarres, ou à ces subtilités tellemont raffinées, qu’il est difficile de croire qu’elles aient été trouvées deux fois. Pour lui, les plus fortes absurdités sont les meilleures, parce qu’elles sont mieux caractérisées, et que les conclusions qu’il en déduit sont plus rigoureuses. | For the purpose of his work, the antiquarian leaves aside these common mistakes with which our reason naturally involves itself, in every time and in every place, as a result of its weakness and of its pride; but he attaches himself by preference to those errors so singular, to those imaginations so bizarre, or to those subtleties so refined, that it is difficult to imagine that they could be discovered twice. For him, the strongest absurdities are the better ones, because they are better characterized, and because the conclusions that he can deduce from them are more rigorous. |
But if a good scholar can derive historical value through the rigorous analysis of myths, fables, and human errors, surely we may also get something of historical value through the comparative analysis of ancient systems of philosophy.
Next, Abel-Rémusat introduces his European readers to Daoism, one of the three major Chinese religions. Its leader, Lǎozǐ 老子, lived some 2400 years ago, and wrote a book called Livre de la Raison et de la Vertu (Book of Reason and Virtue, an interesting translation of Dàodéjīng 道德經). Abel-Rémusat mentions the Daoist fable that Lǎozǐ traveled to the West, teaching his philosophy to eager students in the Occident.
He notes that there are all sorts of ridiculous hagiographical stories about Lǎozǐ, but reading his texts will open one’s eyes to a different side of the teacher:
| Au lieu du patriarche d’une secte de jongleurs, de magiciens et d’astrologues, cherchant le breuvage d’immortalité, et les moyens de s’élever au ciel en traversant les airs, je trouvai dans son livre un véritable philosophe, moraliste judicieux, théologien disert et subtil métaphysicien. Son style a la majesté de celui de Platon et, il faut le dire aussi, quelque chose de son obscurité. | In place of the patriarch of a sect of jugglers, of magicians and of astrologers, seeking the elixir of immortality and the means to fly up into the sky and travel through the air, I found in his book a true philosopher, a judicious moralist, an eloquent theologian and a subtle metaphysician. His style has the majesty of Plato’s and, I must also say, something of its obscurity. |
Abel-Rémusat gives some translations from the Dàodéjīng, and continues to defend the intelligence and beauty of Lǎozǐ’s thought:
| Comment en effet donner une idée de ces hautes abstractions et de ces subtilités inextricables où se joue et s’égare l’imagination orientale? Il suffira de dire ici que les opinions du philosophe chinois sur l’origine et la constitution de l’univers, n’offrent ni fables ridicules ni choquantes absurdités; qu’elles portent l’empreinte d’un esprit noble et élevé, et que dans les sublimes rêveries qui les distinguent, elles présentent une conformité frappante et incontestable avec la doctrine que professèrent un peu plus tard les écoles de Pythagore et de Platon. | How indeed to give an idea of the high abstractions and inextricable subtleties in which the Oriental imagination plays and misleads itself? Suffice it to say that the opinions of the Chinese philosopher on the origin and constitution of the universe offers neither ridiculous fables nor shocking absurdities; that they have the imprint of a noble and elevated spirit, and that in the sublime reveries that they distinguish, they present a striking and incontestable similarity with the doctrine that the schools of Pythagoras and Plato would a little later profess. |
These similarities include the primacy of the Dào 道, which, because Abel-Rémusat translates it as “Reason”, seems similar to the primacy of the Logos. Like Pythagoras, Lǎozǐ speaks of the Two emerging from the One, the Three emerging from the Two, and so on, in an “algebraic” cosmogony.
Abel-Rémusat guesses on this basis that Lǎozǐ must really have traveled west, or at least his ideas must have. For in Lǎozǐ we have “the basis of the Orphic faith, and of that antique Oriental wisdom in which the Greeks went to instruct themselves at the school of the Egyptians, of the Thracians, and of the Phoenicians.” He justifies the possibility of this movement by stressing how trade caravans, hospitality to travelers, and so forth could have facilitated movement in the ancient world.
