Philosophy Compass 9/10 (2014): 663–671, 10.1111/phc3.12171 Daoism and Wu David Chai * Chinese University of Hong Kong Abstract This paper introduces the concept of nothingness as used in classical Daoist philosophy, building upon contemporary scholarship by offering a uniquely phenomenological reading of the term. It will be argued that the Chinese word wu bears upon two planes of reality concurrently: as ontological nothingness and as ontic nonbeing. Presenting wu in this dyadic manner is essential if we wish to avoid equating it with Dao itself, as many have been wont to do; rather, wu is the mystery that perpetually veils Dao while serv- ing as the root and counter-balance to being, and yet, Dao also imbues things with wu to the extant that their physical makeup and usefulness, or lack thereof, can be traced back to their source in Dao. This does not only mean that Daoist cosmogony and metaphysics are inherently informed by nothingness/ nonbeing instead of being/beings but that it works to unground all moral and epistemological norms in play, a feat no other school of thought in ancient China could accomplish. Daoism sees within the rawness of nature and the expanse of heaven a means by which to expound the life-world of the myriad things therein. It has been variously called a school of monism, mysticism, skepticism, relativism, and fatalism, but these terms miss the mark in that they only touch upon the corners of its thought, leaving the core unaccounted for. As Daoist philosophy is concerned about letting go and letting be so as to achieve cosmological harmony and ontological self-enrichment, one would expect to find great importance attached to the themes of quietude ( jing ) and vacuity (xu ). Indeed, there is much to be said for each of these, and yet, it falls upon an even more profound one to inform the Daoist enterprise – wu (nothingness/nonbeing). This paper will thus give an account of Daoist wu, arguing that it acts as the ontological facilitator for Dao’s creativity while marking the absence of things ontically. Textual examples will be derived from the Daodejing, Zhuangzi, Liezi, and Wenzi. 1. Wu as Cosmological Creativity Ancient Chinese cosmogony differs from its Greek counterpart in one important aspect: the role of nothingness. In the case of Daoism, its cosmogonist argument lacks the ecstatically divine hues of the Greeks while its onto-cosmological 1 holism holds wu to be the wellspring from which being arises: ‘The myriad things of the world are born from being and being is born from nothingness.’ 2 While wu can be understood as either nothingness or nonbeing, the semantic difference warrants careful attention when applying them to Daoism. To clarify, in the above example, nothingness is preferred over nonbeing in that the text is speaking to the creational unfolding of the cosmos. Selecting nonbeing instead would imply Daoism is espousing creatio ex-nihilo, which it is not: ‘Dao gives birth to the One, the One gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, and three gives birth to the myriad things.’ 3 Of the many ways to explain the One, cosmologically, it is a pre-bifurcated state of reality in which nonbeing and being are unnamed and undifferentiated as such; they co-arise as the dyadic number two. © 2014 The Author(s) Philosophy Compass © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd