DAO DE JING (TAO TE CHING)

DAO DE JING Dao de jing The most important Taoist text is the“Dao de jing” (“Tao te ching”, “The Way and Its Power”), a 5000-character synopsis of Taoist beliefs reportedly written by Lao-tzu shortly before he died. This short book was divided into eighty-one chapters in the traditional edition ad was the inspiration for a primarily philosophical form of Taoism. It is very different from the Confucian “ Analects.” According to Columbia University’s Asia for Educators: The “Dao de jing” is a compilation reflecting a particular strain of thought from around 300 B.C. It is traditionally attributed to a mysterious character known as Laozi (“the old master”). There is no evidence that such a person existed at all. As best as we can tell, the text was written by several authors over a period of time roughly around the third century B.C. The Daodejing has been tremendously popular. It exists in several different versions and became one of the bases of both the philosophy of Daoism and the related but distinct Daoist religion. Like the Confucian Analects, the Mencius, the Han Feizi, and others, the Daodejing is the product of that period in Chinese history when the kings of the Zhou dynasty had lost all real authority and their kingdom had disintegrated into a coterie of feudal states that squabbled and fought with one another in evershifting arrangements of alliances and enmities.” [Source: Asia for Educators, Columbia University, Primary Sources with DBQs, afe.easia.columbia.edu ] Dr. Robert Eno of Indiana University wrote: The “Dao de jing” “as we have it today appears to be a composite text which reached something like its final form during the third century B.C., but much of which existed perhaps a century earlier. Its author is said to have been a man named Laozi, or the “Old Master.” Despite the fact that we have a great deal of very specific biographical information about Laozi, including accounts of how Confucius studied with him, it is very unlikely that there ever was any one person known by such a name or title who authored the book we now possess. Instead, the power of the book itself has attracted a collection of legends which coalesced into the image of the Old Master, an elusive and transcendent sage of the greatest mystery. [Source: Robert Eno, Indiana University, Chinatxt chinatxt /+/] “The text takes its name from two key concepts within it. In Confucianism, the “Dao” (or the “Way”) refers to the teachings and institutions of sages from the past. In the “Dao de jing” it refers to a cosmic force governing all Nature. The essence of this force cannot be captured in words; in fact, human language, with its narrow definitions, hides rather than reveals the Truth of the universe..therefore, Daoism tends to see speech as the enemy of knowledge. Because the word “ tao “also means “to speak,” Daoists sometimes refer to the Dao as a Word beyond the realm of human words. The term “”te”” refers to a type of charismatic virtue or earned social leverage that individuals were thought sometimes to possess. An early use of the word denoted the prestige of a patrician whose wealth and accomplishments had created in others a sense of awe or genuine debt, such that they served him willingly. Confucians used the term to denote the sort of inner moral virtue that they believed spontaneously attracted people and led them towards ethical improvement. In certain religious contexts, “de” referred to mysterious powers that individuals might possess, and various types of self-cultivation schools referred to accomplishments engendered by their training regimens as “te”. /+/ “There are innumerable translations of the Tao de jing Among the most reliable is D.C. Lau’s (Penguin Books, 1963; rev.

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Hong Kong: 1989). We now have recovered partial or nearly complete manuscript versions of the “Dao de jing” from the late fourth and mid-second centuries B.C., and scholars’ views of the text are continually evolving.” /+/ Good Websites and Sources on Taoism: Robert Eno, Indiana University indiana.edu; Religion Facts Religion Facts Religious Tolerance religioustolerance.org ; Stanford Education plato.stanford.edu ; Taoist Texts Chinese Text Project ; Taoism chebucto.ns.ca ; Chad Hansen’s Chinese Philisophy hku.hk/philodep Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy iep.utm.edu; Wikipedia article on Chinese Philosophy religion Wikipedia Academic Info on Chinese religion academicinfo.net ; Internet Guide to Chinese Studies sino.uni-heidelberg.de lots of dead links, but maybe helpful RELATED ARTICLES IN THIS WEBSITE:TAOISM factsanddetails.com; RELIGION IN CHINA factsanddetails.com; CONFUCIANISM factsanddetails.com; CLASSICAL CHINESE PHILOSOPHY factsanddetails.com; BUDDHISM IN CHINA factsanddetails.com; FOLK RELIGION, SUPERSTITION, FUNERALS factsanddetails.com; TAOISM factsanddetails.com; HISTORY OF TAOISM factsanddetails.com; TAOIST BELIEFS, PRACTICES AND DIETIES factsanddetails.com; ZHUANGZI factsanddetails.com; PASSAGES AND STORIES FROM THE ZHUANGZI factsanddetails.com; JIXIA AND THE NATURALIST SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT IN CLASSICAL CHINA factsanddetails.com; RELIGIOUS TAOISM, TEMPLES AND ART factsanddetails.com; TAOISM AND SAGES, HERMITS AND SEX factsanddetails.com; TAOISM, IMMORTALITY AND ALCHEMY factsanddetails.com; TAO TE CHING: CHAPTERS 41 TO 81 factsanddetails.com; GUANZI, QI AND INNER ENTERPRISE factsanddetails.com RECOMMENDED BOOKS: Tao Te Ching (also known as Dao de jing, Daodejing and sometimes translated as “The Way and Its Power”): “Tao Te Ching” (Penguin Classics) by Lao Tzu D.

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