Ziran is a key concept in Daoism that literally means "self so; so of its own; so of itself" and thus "naturally; natural; spontaneously; freely; in the course of events; of course; doubtlessly" (Slingerland 2003, p. 97; Lai, p. 96). This Chinese word is a two-character compound

Compound (linguistics)

In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme that consists of more than one stem. Compounding or composition is the word formation that creates compound lexemes...

 of zi (自) "nose; self; oneself; from; since" and ran (然) "right; correct; so; yes", which is used as a -ran suffix

Suffix

In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...

 marking adjective

Adjective

In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....

s or adverb

Adverb

An adverb is a part of speech that modifies verbs or any part of speech other than a noun . Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives , clauses, sentences, and other adverbs....

s (roughly corresponding to English -ly). It is worth mentioning that in Chinese culture, the nose (or zi) is a common metaphor for a person's point of view (Callahan, 1989). Compare Sanskrit: Sahaja

Sahaja

Sahaja is a term of some importance in Indian spirituality, particularly in circles influenced by the Tantric Movement...

.

Origin

The word 'ziran' first occurs in the Daodejing (17, 23, 25, 51) and refers to the structure of Dao

Tao

Dao or Tao is a Chinese word meaning 'way', 'path', 'route', or sometimes more loosely, 'doctrine' or 'principle'...

, which cannot be referred back to anything else. It is generally accepted that the philosopher Laozi

Laozi

Laozi was a mystic philosopher of ancient China, best known as the author of the Tao Te Ching . His association with the Tao Te Ching has led him to be traditionally considered the founder of Taoism...

, author of the Daodejing, coined the term. Ziran is a central concept of Daoism, closely tied to the practice of wuwei

Wu wei

Wu wei is an important concept of Taoism , that involves knowing when to act and when not to act. Another perspective to this is that "Wu Wei" means...

, or effortless action. Ziran can be seen as the positive side of the Dao, with wuwei opposing it as the negative. Ziran refers to a state of "as-it-isness," (Fu, 2000) the most important quality for anyone following Daoist beliefs. To become nearer to a state of ziran, one must become separate from unnatural influences and returned to an entirely natural, spontaneous state. Ziran is related to developing an "altered sense of human nature and of nature per se" (Hall, 1987). When it comes to sensibility of Taoism, the moral import can be most found in ziran.

Recent reinterpretation

Ziran has been interpreted and reinterpreted in a great number of ways over time. Most commonly it has been seen as a model that was followed by the Dao, Heaven, Earth, and Man in turn, based on the traditional translation and interpretation of Chapter 25 of the Daodejing. Wang's more modern translation (2003) eliminates the logical flaw that arises when one considers that to model oneself after another entity may be to become less natural, to lose the 'as-it-isness' that ziran refers to. Wang reinterprets the words of Chapter 25 to be instructions to follow the model set by Earth's being Earth, by Heaven's being Heaven, and by the Dao being the Dao; each behaving perfectly in accordance with ziran. This interpretation reaffirms that the base nature of the Dao is one of complete naturalness.

Existence by Ziran

Wing-Chuek Chan provides another translation of 'ziran:' "It is so by virtue of its own" (2005). This brings up ziran's link to another Daoist belief, specifically that the myriad things exist because of the qualities that they possess, not because they were created by any being to fulfil a purpose or goal. The only thing that a being must be when it exists in accordance with ziran is ultimately natural, unaffected by artificial influences.

Additional information

Ziran and Tianran are related concepts. Tianran refers to a thing created by heaven that is ultimately untouched by human influence, a thing fully characterized by ziran. The two terms are sometimes interchangeably used (Chan, 2005). It can be said that by gaining ziran, a person grows nearer to a state of tianran.

Ziran can also be looked at from under Buddha's influence, "non-substantial". It is then believed to mean 'having no nature of its own' (Pregadio 2008, pg. 1302). In this aspect it is seen as a synonym of real emptiness.

D. T. Suzuki, in a brief article penned in 1959, makes the suggestion of ziran as an aesthetic of action: "Living is an act of creativity demonstrating itself. Creativity is objectively seen as necessity, but from the inner point of view of Emptiness it is 'just-so-ness,' (ziran). It literally means 'byitself-so-ness,' implying more inner meaning than 'spontaneity' or 'naturalness'"