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Concept
Zuowang
Summary
Zuowang () is a classic Daoist meditation technique, described as "a state of deep trance or intense absorption, during which no trace of ego-identity is felt and only the underlying cosmic current of the Dao is perceived as real." According to Louis Komjathy, this is one term for Daoist apophatic meditation, which also goes by various other names in Daoist literature, such as "quiet sitting" (靜坐 jìngzuò), "guarding the one" (守一 shǒuyī), "fasting the heartmind" (心齋 xīnzhāi), and "embracing simplicity" (抱朴 bàopǔ).
Zuowang instructions can be seen in classic Taoist texts from as early as the Chinese Warring States Period, such as the Zhuangzi. The term also appears in the title of an influential manual from the Tang dynasty (618–907), the Zuowanglun, and continues to inform Daoist contemplative practice today.
Chinese zuòwàng compounds the words zuò 坐 "sit; take a seat" and wàng 忘 "forget; overlook; neglect".
In terms of Chinese character classification, this zuò character 坐 is an ideogrammatic compound with two 人 "people" sitting on the 土 "ground"; and wàng 忘 is a phono-semantic compound with the "heart-mind radical" semantic element and a wáng 亡 "lose; disappear; flee; die; escape" phonetic and semantic element. Wáng 亡 and wàng 忘 are etymologically cognate, explained as "(Mentally lost:) absent-minded, forget" (Karlgren, or "'to lose' (from memory)"
Accurately translating zuòwàng is problematic. Compare the remarkable similarities among dictionary translation equivalents.
"be in a state of mental abstraction" - Herbert Giles
"to sit in a state of mental abstraction" - Robert Henry Mathews
"oblivious of oneself and one's surroundings; free from worldly concerns" - Liang Shih-chiu & Chang Fang-chieh
"oblivious of one's surroundings, free from worldly concerns" - Lin Yutang
"1 be oblivious of oneself and one's surroundings 2 be free from worldly concerns" - John DeFrancis
Kohn explains translating wàng as "oblivion".
Official source
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