Lao-tse and His Thought

Lao-tse was a great thinker and philosopher in ancient China.

According to Shi Ji (Records of the Historian), Lao-tse’s first name was Er and his family name was Li. He was born in the 53rd year of King Ding' s reign of the Zhou Dynasty, i.e. 604 B.C. Carrying on the ideology of metaphysics from the older generations and remolded it boldly, he came out with the great book Tao Te Ching ( The Scripture of Ethics), which was the scripture of Taoism and laid the foundation for Taoists. 1155815

Tao Te Ching is composed of two parts: Tao Ching and Te Ching. What is the relationship between dao and de? Dao is the most basic principle in the philosophy of Lao-tse; and de is the interpretation for this principle. Tao Te Ching has two volumes with over 5000 words in 81 chapters. Do not look down upon such a thin book because its influence on the ideology of human beings has been very deep. The ideological system of Tao Te Ching can be classified into three segments: his universal view, life view and political view. These segments are interwoven with one another and show a theory of imaginary magical idealism.

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Lao-tse's universal view is mainly embodied in his interpretation of dao. Lao-tse believed that the universe itself was vast and boundless, and was the mother of all things. Dao was eternal and moved without stop. This point of view was clearly reflected in his interpretation for dao in Tao Te Ching. Lao-tse said that there was something formless yet complete, that existed before heaven and earth, without sound or substance, independent, unchanging, all pervading, unfailing. One may think of it as the mother of all things under heaven. Its true name we do not know, so dao (way) is the by-name that we give it. Lao-tse then gave a deeper interpretation for dao. He said that dao was an unvarying way that could not be explained but existed eternally. Since it could not be named, it was called dao, which was an eternal unvarying name for it. The following is one of the most well-known words of Lao-tse: "The way (dao) that can be told of is not an unvarying way; the names that can be named are not unvarying names." Lao-tse did not just define the term dao, but also expounded its influences and functions on governing a state. According to Lao-tse, the king with dao knew the law of great dao, and then people would submit to his authority. It was because people submitted to him and he did not hurt them that the state could be stable and peaceful. 1155815

Lao-tse’s life view and political view are mainly embodied in his thought wuwei (non-action). All the rulers in China boasted of their rule with wuwei. The characters hung in the hall of the Forbidden City were no other than wuwei. Then, what is the exact meaning of wuwei 7 In the opinion of Lao-tse, tao was real for ever and could support all the things under the heaven and on the earth, and meanwhile could do anything. This was Lao-tse's thought of wuwei: "Dao never does , yet through it all things are done." The thought of this philosophy was that the action of all the sages of Taoism came from their intuitive wisdom so that they were spontaneous actions and were in harmony with the surroundings. They did not need to force themselves or the things around them, but just adapted their actions to the laws of dao. This is the real meaning of the thought wuwei of Taoism. Literally, wuwei means non-action. Joseph Needham believed that wuwei meant to curb actions that were against nature. Zhuang-tse stated that wuwei did not mean doing nothing and keeping quiet, instead, it let everything develop to the full satisfaction of its nature in its own way. According to Joseph Needham, if actions that went against nature could be curbed, disharmony could be avoided. Thus, human beings could be in harmony with dao, and their actions could achieve success. This is the real meaning of the hard-to-understand words of Lao-tse: "Dao never does, yet through it all things are done."

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