Wang Bi
Wang Bi (王弼; 226–249) was a Chinese philosopher of the Wei period and a leading figure in Xuanxue ("Learning in the Profound"). His commentary on the Tao Te Ching became one of the most influential philosophical readings of the text.[1]
Reading of the Tao Te Ching
Wang Bi read the Tao Te Ching primarily as a philosophical work rather than as a manual for longevity or a text centered on a deified Laozi. He interpreted the Dao as wu (無, nonbeing): the source or ground of the ten thousand things, which cannot itself be one being among others.[1]
This reading treats the relation between being and nonbeing as central to the text. Wang Bi connected naturalness (ziran) and nonaction (wu wei) with freedom from the dictates of desire, applying them to both self-cultivation and government.[1]
Reception
Wang Bi's and Heshang Gong's commentaries were principal vehicles for the transmission of the Tao Te Ching in China.[1] Cheng Xuanying's later Chongxuan interpretation followed the philosophical tradition of Xuanxue writers including Wang Bi, while drawing on a Daoist religious framework and Buddhist ideas.[2]