Summary: The Nature Of Daoism

The author of Document 7 encourages living a life of simplicity an being humble. Those two aspects follow the strong belief in this ethical system of finding the Dao, or the way, that represents a balance in life as brought up in Documents 6 and 7. In Document 6, there is a symbol that represents the balance between two forces, yin and yang. Yin represents females and the evil in the world, while yang represents all that is good and males. There is a circle in both yin and yang to represent the balance. Secondly, unlike Legalism and Confucianism, there is a strong belief in Daoism in not taking part in the government. In Document 8, the point of view is not interfering with the people in order to have success in taking over the empire. They believe that people will do better on their own without the government controlling them according to Document 8. Their beliefs against governing can be noticed in the Yellow Turban Rebellion against the government that lead to the end of the Han Dynasty. Also, because their beliefs have lasted to future time periods, Daoism was banned in China in 1949 under communism. In the Daoism perspective, there is a very different approach to government and society when compared to the other major schools of

Chinese philosophies, like Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism, were brought in by the Chinese to help implement a strong and fair governing system in order to keep the citizens of China. They would use the different ideologies and find a similarity in all of them in order to keep together the empire. With Daoism, the government would put their trust in the people to self govern themselves and thought that political involvement and education were not needed. Confucianism would revolve around family values and order in the empire. Finally, Legalism would use fear to keep the people in check with harsh laws.

Laozi explains the naturalness of the Way. You must follow the Way with your own interpretation. Daoism is a lot of self, and how you interact with others. For example, you must interpret the way and not force anything, “When the good strives to be good it is no good” (Chapter 2). “Those who preserve the way do not desire fullness,” Laozi explains how the Way is a lifestyle and you must follow it throughout life (Chapter

The founder of Daoism was a sage named Laozi. Laozi and other sages wrote the main Daoist literary work, the Daodejing, which educated disciples of Daoism on the main topics of the philosophy. The Daodejing contained the most basic principles of Daoism, such as dao and wuwei. In addition to this, Daoism had a great effect on Chinese culture and art. After Daoism was prevalent in the Warring States time, many art pieces depicted nature as a huge, vast being and humans as small, powerless to nature’s forces.

The practice of Daoism and reading the Daodejing teaches individuals to flow with life while keeping a balance in all aspects of the their daily life. Daoism does not make a distinction between metaphysics, epistemology, or other ways of thinking. It also does not make a distinction between philosophy and religion. Instead, both philosophy and religion are thought of as one in the Daodejing. For this reason, Daoism is an exemplary type of philosophy for those who want to focus on their own self-realization and development while keeping in touch with those around them and nature.

When deciding on a philosophy, Daoism is the best decision for society. Each individual is being trusted to make their own decisions instead of following orders. Government is viewed as the cause of all problems and therefore does not exist. Life is a self guided tour and if a government began to make laws, the tour could be cut short and different paths may not be allowed. Society instead chooses to trust each individual to make their own decisions throughout their life. People are taught to trust their gut and go by what they personally think is right instead of following directions and “playing safe”. Everything an individual learns is from their own experience and past decisions. This also improves responsibility and self reliance.

Over the ages, religion has been an important part of history and is used to understand the unknown. Daoism is a philosophical religion with Chinese origin. Laozi is thought to be the creator of Daoism and is often worshipped as a God. In Daoism, there are many different versions of the religion. Daoism is a easily influenced religion because of the beliefs, practices and history.

While Confucius and Laozi differed in their views about virtue with others, they both require some form of harmony. Confucius thought a gentleman enacted certain virtues such as benevolence, justice, filial piety, and loyalty, and these are important in order to reach the Way through ritual to avoid shame. He felt ritual depended on the harmony of these virtues, but it did not take precedence, because "harmony cannot be sought for its own sake, it must always be subordinated to ritual". Instead, ritual is equal to a love of learning, because there is no limit of knowledge to gain. While he recognized those who can act without comprehension, he felt learning trounced innate knowledge. In contrast, Daoists believe simplicity provides a better life for the people than wisdom from learning, because it can lead to artifice. Laozi felt "when the great Way is neglected there arises benevolence and justice". He felt virtue only arises after the harmony of the Way has disintegrated. According to Daoists, harmony arose from the Way in the form of yin and yang, which regulates everything on heaven, earth, and in humans. This principle, however, requires that our actions are already predetermined, and they cannot affect harmony. Each individual would have to have an immense amount of trust for this system to work. However, in Confucius' society individuals would be able to

In Daoism, One reaches immortality through following the natural way of the Dao and independence of the mind. The underlying similarity bringing these two together is that they are both trying stop the cycle of reincarnation, freeing there soul from their physical body allowing it to return back to the original source. A second contradiction arises when Laozi starts to recognizes the values his society once held dear were deteriorating. As a result he made the decision to remove himself in order to detach from anything related to social norms, allowing him to embrace individuality, spirituality and spontaneity. In contrast, Confucius sees the primary rulers who are supposed to be morally perfect sons of heaven became corrupt which in societal dysfunction. His teachings sought to correct the injustices in society through proper ancestral worship and conforming to social norms. The micro-similarity in this case is that both individuals saw a problem that needed a remedy and provided a cure. Furthermore, Confucius claimed that the Nobel man understands righteousness in regards to giving back to those who need it and that the golden rule an aspiring Junzi should live by was not to do to others what one does not want done to ones self. While Laozi described the true man as one would never desire material objects, form attachments, just simply enjoying the simple things in life on a day to day

They lived in harmony With the Dao (Which meant the way of the Cosmo)and had nothing to with the world of politics and administrative. they also didn’t do anything, yet they still accomplish nothing. Daoism also found it pointless to waste time and energy on challenging problems. Daoism believed that the way to live in happiness was for people to learn and live naturally. The reason why this I didn’t choose this philosopher was because even though it’s a peaceful ,we can't live in harmony with nature without having desire and if they only think by just waiting our chaos will end , it won’t are just going to freak out and do their own thing rather than ending the political and social

Daoism has everything to do with nature. It plays the most important role in human development and knowledge . It states that humans should help

The basic concepts that are the most important for understanding the Daoist view of reality is described simply in our Revealing World Religions courseware. Essentially, Daoism teaches that there is an ultimate reality. This ultimate reality serves as the basis for everything and everyone in the universe. This is a trait of the religion that is similar to that of other ancient wisdoms. The introductory lecture on Daoism introduces the translation of the Dao. The Dao is representative of “the path” or “the way”. The concept relates specifically growing power that surges and flows through all things, living and non-living. The idea of the Dao is to serve as a regulator for natural processes, nourisher for balance within the Universe, and an embodiment

Let’s celebrate the malleable reality (Jason Mraz, “Live High”). It is no secret that I am a ratty seventeen-year old girl, my opinions change like the seasons. In the Daoist religion, the Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi, rejects barriers. Daoists observe that most people see the world from their perspective and divide things into opposites and similarities. To attain understanding of the world, it is imperative to go beyond simple opposites. For Daoist philosophers, change is not necessarily change, but adaptation. Basic Daoist teachings suggest paranormal and normal are not opposite, but relative.

In another way, Daoism was based upon the teachings and writings of Laozi, whose views varied from the ideals of Confucianism. In summary, there has been a transformation in the Chinese culture due to founding contemporaries the philosophies workings of the three major social beliefs, Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism. The three major social belief systems faced issues such as political order, humane treatment and how to unified society. Although there are distinct similarities and differences between the groups each established their own defined game plan or path in search of an optimistic future for china in order to solve or evict the many problems that plagued everyday

Daoism is synonymous with Taoism; in this religious philosophy, the way of nature is central theme of life. It was founded by Lao Tzu in 500BC in China. Lao is believed to have authored the “Dao de Jing”, which details the Daoist beliefs. Dao is a concept, a way, a principle that will lead a person to a happy, peaceful life. Dao can be achieved by incorporating the Three Jewel of Taoism that are humility, simplicity and compassion in one’s life. According to Dao, de Jing “The Way to Heaven is to benefit others and not to injure”.15 Further, there is no concept of good and evil, the Dao is simply the universe, which is perceived as a self- sustaining entity that generates energy called qi. Like other Chinese traditions, Daoist also have great reverence for the spirits of ancestors as well as spirits of nature that is plants, animals, rivers, etc. 16