Culture of Ancient China :: Ancient World Culture

Imagine a collection of poems whose date of authorship has not been determined. Imagine a Chinese thinker about whom myopic is known and whose authorship of the poems has been challenged. Then read statements like these Accept being unimportant and Give up learning, and put an end to your troubles. You have entered the mysterious origination of The Tao Te Ching.Despite their cloudy and distant origins, the poems make many statements that may sound curiously familiar to contemporary Americans. The Tao describes the allure and artificiality of wealth as it reaffirms the cling to of a modest, balanced life Amass a store of gold and jade, and no one can protect it. / Retire when the work is done. / This is the way of paradise -- a refreshing antidote to the keeping-up-with-Joneses syndrome. The Tao relocates humans in an ecological context where the company of humans is but part of a natural world commit Love the world as your own self then you can truly care for all things. How app ropriate this injunction is today, when many people have-to doe with that they must care for the physical environment that must, in turn, care for them. At the same time, the Tao questions the value of abstract thinking in favor of selfless march Give up sainthood, renounce wisdom. / It is more important / To realize ones true nature. And, the Tao recognizes the limitations of coercive power and encourages leading, not dominating, certainly a desirable profile for leading of the future, where consensus-building might take place of patriarchal authority.For all its difficulties (of translation, of transliteration), the Tao offers a restorative vision of a balanced human life lived in the context of a natural world community.