Living in harmony with Dao

• Dao = the way

  • Dao, as described by daoism itself, = the way of Nature; ultimate source/principle of order in the universe

    • An unseen force; less like a God, more like an energy

    • The origin of the universe

Story of Lao Tzu, “founder” of daoism

• Born in 604 BCE after being conceived by a shooting star

• Born 82 years old → very wise

  • Age is a mark of wisdom in China

  • Sought out during his time for his wisdom

• Worked as a government archivist

  • Eventually got frustrated with corruption → left

    • Came across Han-Ku Pass, told to write down his teachings:

Tao Te Ching = foundation of daoism text, supposedly written by Lao Tzu

• Brief to read, hard to dissect

  • Filled with many paradoxes

• Name = “book of the way”

  • Helps with te → virtue acquired by being harmonious with dao

Chuang Tzu, “second founder” of daoism, 369-286 BCE

• Wrote the text Chuang Tzu → filled with stories and lessons

  • Mainly about relativity of different things

Balance of yin and yang = daoism

• Yin = negative, feminine, dark, weak, passive

• Yang = positive, masculine, light, strong, active

• Need both for balance

  • Advocates more of a need for yin since yang is found more often in sages (since they were all male)

  • One cannot exist without the other

Depicts death as one’s return back to dao

Sage = master of daoism; sees the basic foundation/unity of nature, not distracted by the complications of it

• Wuwei = the act of harmony by not doing anything

  • Teaches to embrace the passive side of yin, suppress the active side of yang

• Requires humility and noncompetition

• Naturalness = being the way nature intended, not being pressured by social or personal standards

• Naturalism = resisting the urge to meddle with nature

• Nonagression