Lao-Tzu
(570?-490? bc), Chinese philosopher and reputed founder of Taoism. He was born in the province of Henan (Ho-nan) and was a court librarian. According to tradition, he is the author of the Tao-te Ching (Classic of the Way and Its Virtue), a philosophical treatise. By far the most translated Chinese literary work, this small book has had an enormous influence on Chinese thought and culture. It teaches that “the way” (tao) is realized through recognition and acceptance of nothingness; that is, wisdom is understanding that weakness truly equals strength, that happiness depends on disaster, and that passivity is the greatest action.
Taoism
Attributed to the Chinese philosophers Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu (flourished 4th century bc), Taoism is the specifically Chinese form of a way of liberation. In certain respects it resembles Buddhism, and Taoist terms were used liberally in translating Buddhist texts from Sanskrit into Chinese. Like Vedanta and Yoga, Taoism was adopted ordinarily by older men who had played their part in society according to the basic patterns of convention provided by Confucianism in China. In common with Mahayana Buddhism, Taoism allows for the return of the liberated sage into worldly affairs. Its principal text, the Tao Tę Ching (Teaching of Tao), attributed to Lao-tzu, was written as a manual of advice for rulers.
Taoism proper, as found in the teachings of Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu, must be distinguished carefully from the so-called Taoist cult of divination, alchemy, and magic that is Taoist in nothing but name. Pure Taoism has never been organized and has remained the pursuit of independent scholars and philosophers both in China and Japan for more than 2000 years. It regards the natural universe as the operation of the Tao (“way”), which eludes all verbal and intellectual comprehension. Experience of the Tao is to be realized through kuan (“silent contemplation of nature”) and wu-wei (“the absence of mental and physical strain”), which is equivalent to the Buddhist attitude of not grasping. Taoism emphasizes strongly the union of the individual and nature, suggesting that one controls the environment not by fighting it but by cooperating with it as a sailor uses the wind when tacking against it. Taoism is the philosophy underlying jujitsu, the so-called gentle way of defending oneself against an opponent by using the opponent's own strength to defeat him or her. Similarly, it teaches that one should control oneself by trusting rather than opposing one's natural feelings and instincts, by channeling them in the directions in which one wants them to go rather than resisting them.
[Book Cover] |
[Contents] |
[Foreword] |
[Introduction] |
[Formative Years] | [Space to Start] | [Tools of Trade] [Concept Renderings] | [First Break] | [East by Southeast] | [Working Manner] | [Space Transitions] | [Seasons' Home] | [Sunsets' Place] | [Pied á Terre] | [Something Different] | [Restrained Elegance] | [Dream Zones] | [In Comfort] [Prestige Investments] |
[Asian Gallery] | [Lighting] | [Objects] | [Flowers] | [Afterword] | [Professional Profile] [Personal Profile] | [Sign Guestbook] | [Guestbook]
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