The Vinegar Tasters

The Vinegar Tasters is a well known painting.  In it we see three men standing around a vat of vinegar.  Each has dipped his finger into the vinegar and has tasted it.  The expression on each man's face shows his individual reaction.  Since the painting is allegorical, we are to understand that these are no ordinary vinegar tasters, but are instead representatives of the "Three Teachings" of China, and that the vinegar they are sampling represents the Essence of Life.  The three masters are K'ung Fu-tse (Confucius), Buddha, and Lao-tse, author of the oldest existing book of Taoism.  The first has a sour look on his face, the second wears a bitter expression, but the third man is smiling.

To K'ung Fu'tse life seemed rather sour.  He believed that the present was out of step with the past and the the government of man on earth was out of harmony with the Way of Heaven, the government of the universe.  Therefore, he emphasized reverence for the Ancestors, as well as for the ancient rituals and ceremonies in which the emperor, as the Son of Heaven, acted as intermediary between limitless heaven and limited earth.   Under Confucianism, the use of precisely measured court music, prescribed steps, actions, and phrases all added up to an extremely complex system of rituals, each used for a particular purpose at a particular time.  A saying was recorded about K'ung Fu'tse: "If the mat was not straight, the Master would not sit."  This ought to give an indication of the extent to which things were carried out under Confucianism.

To Buddha life on earth was bitter, filled with attachments and desires that led to suffering.  The world was seen as a setter of traps, a generator of illusions, a revolving wheel of pain for all creatures.  In order to find peace, the Buddhist considered it necessary to transcend "the world of dust" and reach Nirvana, literally a state of "no wind."  Although the essentially optimistic attitude of the Chinese altered Buddhism considerably after it was brought in from its native India, the devout Buddhist often saw the way to Nirvana interrupted all the same by the bitter wind of everyday existence.

To Lao-tse, the harmony that naturally existed between heaven and earth from the very beginning could be found by anyone at any time, but not by following the rules of Confucianists.  As he stated in his Tao Te Ching, the "Tao Virtue Book," earth was in essence a reflection of heaven, run by the same laws- not by the laws of men.  These laws affected not only the spinning of distant planets, but the activities of the birds in the forest and the fish in the sea.  According to Lao-tse, the more man interfered with the natural balance produced and governed by the universal laws, the further away the harmony retreated into the distance.  The more forcing, the more trouble.  Whether heavy or light, wet or dry, fast or slow, everything had its own nature already within it, which could not be violated without causing difficulties.  When abstract and arbitrary rules were imposed from the outside, struggle was inevitable.  Only then did life become sour.

Pgs 3-4