Great post. I respect Laozi immensely for acknowledging the reality of human interaction, way before having any understanding of DNA, evolution, etc., and how the Daodejing skirts but seldom falls into wishing to have its cake and eat it. I wonder sometimes what he/they would have thought of democracy, really any system beyond hereditary rule and divine right, because it seems the idea never occurred to them.
Amazing insight! Laozi basically laid out the modes of human actions: the way of Heaven and the way of Human. The assumption is that humans may not necessarily act in accordance with the way of Heaven, or the Tao.
Laozi's political thinking is revolutionary because it rejects the so-called Mandate of Heaven bestowed upon a ruler. The Tao is higher than any ruler or sage, and no one can claim to possess the Tao.
When governance is aligned with the Tao, there is stability and peace; when misaligned and mismanaged, chaos and degeneration would follow, regardless of the system type.
The Neo-Taoists in the Wei-Jin era systematized Taoist political thinking. Everything operates and evolves spontaneously without external dictation or divine control by a Creator. So, political order originates from the natural order. When a political order deviates from it, instability and collapse would follow.
This is also in accordance with the general spirit of the Yin and Yang, the innate transformation of things, and constant flux.
Historically, Taoism has been perceived as a stream of anarchism. Unfortunately, this line of interpretation failed to grasp the comprehensive take of Taoist political thinking, which is predicated on the Taoist metaphysics — spontaneous transformation of things.
"Laozi's political thinking is revolutionary because it rejects the so-called Mandate of Heaven bestowed upon a ruler. The Tao is higher than any ruler or sage, and no one can claim to possess the Tao." - That is really interesting, I've never gone so far to make that leap. That's one way to see it, but I see someone has to have the Mandate of Heaven there always has to be a person ruling. A fascinating document, that it survived is the most interesting aspect of it.
It's true. A political order without a political authority is anarchy. Even Mencius has said that it's absolutely justifiable to depose an autocratic and incapable ruler.
What's fascinating about the early Taoists and Confucians is that they established the tradition of Tao 道統 and the tradition of political power 政統, two complementary forces often in conflict against each other. And the tradition of political power has to be tamed by the tradition of Tao. But the tradition of Tao was not really institutionalized in ancient China, especially after the unification of the Qin. An analogy in Europe would be the secular authority and the dignity of the church.
At any rate, as in Europe, these ideals always smack into something hard when we try to apply them. I tend to have the thought that the power structure predates many of these ideas, at least their formalizing.
Great post. I respect Laozi immensely for acknowledging the reality of human interaction, way before having any understanding of DNA, evolution, etc., and how the Daodejing skirts but seldom falls into wishing to have its cake and eat it. I wonder sometimes what he/they would have thought of democracy, really any system beyond hereditary rule and divine right, because it seems the idea never occurred to them.
Amazing insight! Laozi basically laid out the modes of human actions: the way of Heaven and the way of Human. The assumption is that humans may not necessarily act in accordance with the way of Heaven, or the Tao.
Laozi's political thinking is revolutionary because it rejects the so-called Mandate of Heaven bestowed upon a ruler. The Tao is higher than any ruler or sage, and no one can claim to possess the Tao.
When governance is aligned with the Tao, there is stability and peace; when misaligned and mismanaged, chaos and degeneration would follow, regardless of the system type.
The Neo-Taoists in the Wei-Jin era systematized Taoist political thinking. Everything operates and evolves spontaneously without external dictation or divine control by a Creator. So, political order originates from the natural order. When a political order deviates from it, instability and collapse would follow.
This is also in accordance with the general spirit of the Yin and Yang, the innate transformation of things, and constant flux.
Historically, Taoism has been perceived as a stream of anarchism. Unfortunately, this line of interpretation failed to grasp the comprehensive take of Taoist political thinking, which is predicated on the Taoist metaphysics — spontaneous transformation of things.
"Laozi's political thinking is revolutionary because it rejects the so-called Mandate of Heaven bestowed upon a ruler. The Tao is higher than any ruler or sage, and no one can claim to possess the Tao." - That is really interesting, I've never gone so far to make that leap. That's one way to see it, but I see someone has to have the Mandate of Heaven there always has to be a person ruling. A fascinating document, that it survived is the most interesting aspect of it.
It's true. A political order without a political authority is anarchy. Even Mencius has said that it's absolutely justifiable to depose an autocratic and incapable ruler.
What's fascinating about the early Taoists and Confucians is that they established the tradition of Tao 道統 and the tradition of political power 政統, two complementary forces often in conflict against each other. And the tradition of political power has to be tamed by the tradition of Tao. But the tradition of Tao was not really institutionalized in ancient China, especially after the unification of the Qin. An analogy in Europe would be the secular authority and the dignity of the church.
At any rate, as in Europe, these ideals always smack into something hard when we try to apply them. I tend to have the thought that the power structure predates many of these ideas, at least their formalizing.
Another incredible piece. I learn so much from your work every time you post. Thank you so much!
Thanks so much, Patrick! I'm glad you find the writings useful!