The Meaning of Frugality, One of the Taoist “Three Treasures”

Ji Huaide

We are all familiar with the idea of valuing frugality and shunning extravagance, but raising the virtue of “frugality” to one of the Taoist “Three Treasures” carries a deeper meaning.

Chapter 67 of the Tao Te Ching says: “I have three treasures, which I hold and keep: the first is compassion, the second is frugality, the third is not daring to be first in the world.” The Taoist “Three Treasures”—compassion, frugality, and humility—are the basic principles by which Taoists conduct themselves, practice the Tao, and cultivate within the world, and they are inner principles that those cultivating the Tao must guard firmly at all times.

Diligence and thrift have been traditional virtues of the Chinese nation since ancient times and are deeply engraved in our national character. “Frugality is the common ground of all virtues; extravagance is the greatest of evils.” “Look back over the states and families of former worthies: success came from diligence and thrift, ruin from extravagance.” “For every bowl of porridge and every meal, remember how hard it was to come by; for every half-thread and strand, always bear in mind how hard materials are to produce.” … These maxims, still familiar to us today, have passed down from generation to generation the Chinese cultural tradition of esteeming diligence and thrift.

Since ancient times Taoism has valued frugality and shunned extravagance. It promotes the traditional virtue of thrift and opposes bad customs; it promotes practicality and care for the environment and opposes greed for the grand and luxurious; it promotes cultivating oneself and nurturing virtue and opposes an extravagant lifestyle; it promotes simplicity and moderation and opposes ostentation and waste.

Taoism is one of China’s five major religions and the only one among them native to China. Taoist culture is an important part of traditional Chinese culture, bound by blood to the mother body of Chinese civilization, and the value of esteeming frugality and shunning extravagance has always been an important idea in Taoist culture. Through Taoism’s long development of doctrine and practice of faith, “esteeming frugality and shunning extravagance” has remained an important cultural element of Taoist teaching.

When it comes to Taoism’s “esteeming frugality and shunning extravagance,” the most famous statement is none other than the classic line of the Tao Te Ching: “I have three treasures, which I hold and keep: the first is compassion, the second is frugality, the third is not daring to be first in the world.” Laozi honored “frugality” as one of the “Three Treasures,” establishing the special importance of esteeming frugality and shunning extravagance in Taoism.

In fact, the Tao Te Ching contains many other related statements, for example, chapter 12: “The five colors blind the eye, the five tones deafen the ear, the five flavors dull the palate, racing and hunting madden the heart, and goods hard to obtain hinder one’s conduct.”

Chapter 19: “Show plainness and embrace simplicity; lessen selfishness and reduce desires.”

Chapter 29: “The sage discards the excessive, the extravagant, and the extreme.”

Chapter 44: “Great love of things must lead to great expense; much hoarding must lead to heavy loss. Therefore, one who knows contentment suffers no disgrace; one who knows when to stop meets no danger, and can long endure.”

Chapter 46: “There is no calamity greater than not knowing contentment; no fault greater than the desire to acquire. Therefore the contentment of knowing contentment is constant contentment.”

Chapter 53: “The court is spotless, the fields are overgrown, the granaries are empty. They wear embroidered finery, carry sharp swords, gorge on food and drink, and have wealth to spare—this is called the boasting of robbers. It is not the Tao!”

Chapter 59: “In governing people and serving heaven, nothing is better than thrift. Only through thrift does one submit early.”

From this we can see that Laozi placed great importance on building the quality of frugality. We can also see that the frugality Laozi advocated is not only material thrift and avoidance of extravagance, but also includes “frugality” on the spiritual level—a pure heart and few desires.

Taoist culture emphasizes “the wondrous union of body and spirit”; the relationship between spirit and matter is not one of opposition, and few desires in spirit and thrift in material things complement each other. Experience has also shown that people who are content and at ease in spirit can face a lower material standard of living with greater composure and are better able to resist the temptations of luxury and pleasure.

Besides giving equal weight to few desires in spirit and thrift in material things, the Tao Te Ching also passes judgment in terms of its core idea, the Tao: “frugality” accords with the Tao, while “extravagance” is contrary to the Tao. The Tao is the highest object of Taoist faith, and linking “frugality” with the Tao gave the esteem for frugality and rejection of extravagance a religious meaning. In Taoist doctrine, rules, and practice of faith, the content of esteeming frugality and shunning extravagance was steadily enriched and became one of the important moral and behavioral norms for later Taoists.

First, the precepts in Taoist scriptures contain many articles stressing frugality and the rejection of extravagance. For example, the early Taoist classic Xiang’er Commentary on the Laozi admonishes believers: “Those who seek long life do not labor their essence and thought in seeking wealth to nourish their bodies, do not rob the ruler of salary without merit to glorify themselves, do not indulge in the five flavors; their clothes are worn and their shoes have holes, and they do not contend with the vulgar.”

The Taoist precept text Ten Precepts of Initial Perfection of the Heavenly Worthy Void Sovereign says: “The eighth precept: do not be insatiably greedy or hoard wealth without giving it away; practice thrift and be kind to and relieve the poor.” Only thus can one “make the ground of the heart empty and at leisure and let material desires dissolve; in time one will naturally unite with the Tao and become perfected.”

The Most High Lingbao Jingming Method of the Scripture of Flying Immortals Delivering People, in its article “Do Not Forget Frugality,” requires: “Wash away filth with lye water, without adornment; fill the stomach with millet and wheat, without delicacies from the kitchen.”

Article 12 of the Ten Matters of Dignified Conduct of the Mysterious Gate requires: “All articles and things must simply be frugal and economical, and must not be spent carelessly.”

The Supreme Secret Essentials (Wushang Biyao), quoting the Dongshen Jianqian Jing, says: “Those who wish to cultivate the Tao and share the destiny of the Three Heavens should disregard extravagance and breadth and delight in frugality and economy.”

There are many more Taoist scriptures dealing with esteeming frugality and shunning extravagance. From the precepts above we can see that it is not only a norm of conduct for Taoists’ religious life, but is also linked to the ultimate Taoist faith in long life and attaining the Tao. In Taoism’s historical practice, the sages of old often took diligence, thrift, self-restraint, and austere practice free of extravagance as an important way of spiritual practice and awakening to the Tao.

Patriarch Qiu Chuji of the Quanzhen school (Complete Perfection) lived in seclusion and practiced for thirteen years, first at Panxi in Baoji and then on Mount Longmen in Longzhou, Shaanxi. During his reclusion he had “no smoke or fire for cooking, and not even a bamboo basket or gourd ladle,” “draping himself in a tattered, patched robe and sitting alone in the cold emptiness”—an extremely austere life. Not only Patriarch Qiu but the whole group he represents, the Seven Masters of Quanzhen, underwent hard ascetic practice, during which they deliberately reduced their material living conditions to a very low level in order to temper their hearts and natures and realize the Great Tao.

The Yuan writer Yuan Jue’s Record of the Yeyue Abbey records: “The Northern Patriarch founded Quanzhen, whose learning puts first the endurance of hardship and toil and the diligent working of the fields; thus in dwelling, clothing, and food, they dare not enjoy anything they have not produced themselves. Unkempt and unwashed, living on coarse fare, they cut off worry and envy, and are at peace with what others cannot bear.” Led by their patriarchs, the Quanzhen Taoist priests of the Jin and Yuan fed themselves by working the land and reclaiming wasteland, winning the respect of people from all walks of society. This touches on the social function of Taoism’s esteem for frugality and rejection of extravagance: a good remedy to help govern the state and bring peace to the land.

From a single person to a whole nation, all kinds of resources, wealth, and even manpower are limited within a given span of time and space. If human desires go unchecked, the present will inevitably overdraw on future development and the strong will squeeze the living space of the weak. So people must consciously examine themselves and curb excessive desires, knowing contentment and knowing when to stop, and those in high positions must follow the Way of Heaven, reducing what is in excess to make up what is lacking, so as to ensure social fairness and guarantee the basic survival and development of the common people. Therefore Taoist records contain a classic type of dialogue: an emperor asks a Taoist priest he admires about the art of long life, and the Taoist priest answers by urging the emperor to esteem frugality and shun extravagance.

The Comprehensive Mirror of Perfected Immortals Who Embodied the Tao Through the Ages records that when Emperor Minghuang of the Tang summoned Luo Gongyuan and asked him about the art of long life, Luo Gongyuan replied: “Your Majesty should follow the non-action of Yao and Shun and continue the simplicity and restraint of Emperors Wen and Jing.”

Da Jingzhi, an eminent Taoist of Mount Mao (Maoshan), also submitted a memorial to the emperor, saying: “The five thousand words of the Most High put first the discarding of extravagance and excess and compassion and frugality; they are Your Majesty’s precious teacher and the bridge by which to reach the Tao.”

The moral instruction of the common people is reflected more concentratedly in Taoist morality books. The Treatise of the Most High on Action and Response (Taishang Ganying Pian) condemns “slaughtering and cooking animals contrary to propriety, and scattering and wasting the five grains.” The True Scripture of Lord Guan for Awakening the World advocates “pitying widows and widowers and relieving those in distress, valuing grain and cherishing blessings,” and condemns “loving extravagance and deceit and not valuing thrift and diligence,” using clear right and wrong, reward and punishment, to guide people to esteem frugality and shun extravagance.

Finally, if we shift our view to the broader relationship between humanity and nature, we can still see that Taoism’s ideal of esteeming frugality and shunning extravagance complements the Taoist ecological view that the Tao follows what is so of itself and that heaven and humanity are one.

Taoism holds that all things with form contain the nature of the Tao. All things are born of the Tao, and every natural thing is a link in the Tao’s process of creating and expressing value; therefore all things have an intrinsic value of existence in themselves. Yet in the course of living with nature, humans are inevitably involved in a process of mutual “robbing.” Taoism acknowledges that this is real, and holds that humanity’s taking and use (robbing) of the myriad things should be kept within an appropriate measure, so that harmony and mutual benefit between humanity and nature can be achieved.

The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of the Hidden Talisman (Yinfu Jing) puts it thus: “When the three robbers are in their proper measure, the Three Powers are at peace.” The Scripture of Great Peace (Taiping Jing) says: “The Way of Heaven hates killing and loves life. All that wriggles and moves has awareness; do not lightly kill, injure, or use it. Only when something may be harmed so that transformation can proceed, and is needed to accomplish a task, may one use it—and then only when there is no other choice.” This idea of “using only when there is no other choice” vividly embodies the Taoist ecological view of esteeming frugality and shunning extravagance.

Esteeming frugality and shunning extravagance has always been not only a traditional virtue of the Chinese nation but also of pivotal significance in Taoist doctrine and faith. As a living religion handed down for thousands of years, Taoism developed a distinctive religious and cultural content in its idea of frugality. Esteeming frugality and shunning extravagance has long been an important norm of conduct for Taoist believers and one of the important ways of cultivating perfection and embodying the Tao, and the idea of frugality also runs through Taoism’s views of society, nature, and the cosmos. The sages of Taoist history have left us not only a rich spiritual legacy but also a great many shining examples of esteeming frugality and shunning extravagance. We should uncover and promote the rich cultural wisdom of Taoism in this regard, putting it to use today to educate and guide the people.