Taoism and Confucianism

In Lao Tzu's view things were said to create "unnatural" action (wei) by shaping desires (yu). The process of learning the names (ming) used in the doctrines helped one to make distinctions between good and evil, beautiful and ugly, high and low, and "being" (yu) and "non- being" (wu), thereby shaping desires. To abandon knowledge was to abandon names, distinctions, tastes, and desires. Thus spontaneous behavior (wu-wei) resulted ( Wing - Tsit Chan 136, 791).

Contemplating the remarkable natural world Lao Tzu felt that it was man and his activities, which constituted a blight on the otherwise perfect order of things. Thus he counseled people to turn away from the folly of human pursuits and to return to one's natural wellspring (Wing - Tsit Chan 148, 141-142, 163, 169)

The five colors cause one’s eyes to be blind.

. . .

Simplicity, which has no name, is free of desires.

The keynote of Confucian ethics is jen, variously translated as "love," "goodness," "humanity," and "human-heartedness.

And the world will be at peace of its own accord (Lao Tzu in Wing-Tsit Chan 158).

The five flavors cause one’s plate to be spoiled. ' Lao Tzu writes:

Tao invariably takes no action, and yet there is nothing left undone. On the other hand they believed that by doing so one could ultimately harness the powers of the universe. He who never fails always succeeds. Thus Taoism, in a peculiar and roundabout way, became a political philosophy. The formulation follows these lines:

The Taoist sage has no ambitions; therefore he can never fail. The ruler should cultivate moral perfection in order to set a good example to the people.

It is only those who do not seek after life that excel in making life valuable. In education Confucius upheld the theory that "in education, there is no class distinction" (Lao Tzu!

15:38 in Wing-Tsit Chan 44)

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In the view of some scholars, Confucius will be revered in the future as China's greatest teacher; Confucian classics will be studied, and Confucian virtues, embodied for countless generations in the familiar sayings and common-sense wisdom of the Chinese people, will remain the cornerstone of ethics.

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Approximate Word count = 829
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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