Abstract

The Later Daoist idea of multiple vertical states of intelligence is well known. The idea can also be found in the early Daoist sources, evidently not as a whole doctrine but as fragmented implications. This paper wishes to study the early Daoist references to multiple states of the intelligence and their functions in relation to each other. Explicitness of the texts in differentiating two major levels of intelligence leaves no room for doubt about existence of such ideas in early Daoism. The supra-individual states of intelligence surpass the limits of the individual states to attain an unmediated knowledge. Determination of the Daoist intelligential outlook as intellectual helps us to avoid misrepresentation of the tradition as a rationalist or sensationalist one.