From “Blending Qi to Achieve Harmony” to “Supreme Harmony”: A Study of the Concept of “Harmony” in Yan Zun’s Laozi zhigui

While scholarship has predominantly focused on the “harmony” of Confucian ethics or the functional and generative “harmony” of pre-Qin Lao-Zhuang Daoism, this study identifies a unique conceptual system of “harmony” in Han Dynasty Daoism through a textual excavation of Yan Zun’s Laozi zhigui. Yan Zun transcends the relatively abstract generative narratives of pre-Qin Daoism by creatively substantializing “harmony” into “supreme harmony”, positioning it as a pivotal stage in the four-tiered cosmogonic schema of “Dao–De–Shenming–supreme harmony”. By regarding “supreme harmony” as the “ancestor of Heaven and Earth” and the ontological foundation for the nature and life of all things, Yan Zun endows “harmony” with a definitive ontological status. This cosmological and ontological category further permeates the domains of self-cultivation and state governance. In the realm of self-cultivation, Yan Zun advocates for “valuing the body and nourishing the spirit”, promoting the practice of spirit and qi embracing and tranquil non-action to achieve the existential realization and transcendence of individual life; in the realm of state governance, he criticizes rites and laws for harming natural harmony, proposing that the ruler should “embody the Dao and tread upon harmony”. This approach establishes a governance of non-action that aligns with the “utmost softness” of supreme harmony, thereby reconstructing an ideal political order where “harmonious qi flows freely.” The concept of “supreme harmony” advocated by Yan Zun not only marks the maturation of Han Daoist qi-cosmology, but also offers a new theoretical horizon for re-understanding the transformation of the concept of “harmony” from ethics to ontology in Chinese philosophy.