List of Taoist Classics "You May Like"
Taoist thought mainly develops along two routes: one is "doing nothing", paying attention to quietism, and standing aloof from the world. It prevailed in the Warring States Period and the early Western Han Dynasty, and advocated inaction, while the other was a philosophy of life that let nature take its course. It is "the unity of man and nature" and strives for the harmonious unity of nature and man.
Taoism's "Tao gives birth to one, two, three and everything" simply explains the essence of everything. What is Tao? Tao is vanity, chaos and the starting point of all things. Taoism finally wants to achieve the original state of nothingness through the sublimation of self-thought.
Taoism advocates health preservation, takes the "harmony between man and nature" as the guide, and stresses the so-called "stealing heaven and earth, seizing nature, preserving five elements and knowing gossip", breathing with nature, nourishing essence and consolidating the foundation, and letting nature take its course.
Taoist thought occupies an extremely important position in Chinese traditional culture. Taoism, with its seclusion, made many intellectuals in China retire to the truth. Tao Yuanming abandoned his official position and returned to agriculture, which was also influenced by Laozi and Zhuangzi's thoughts. This kind of thinking can make intellectuals show an open mind when dealing with setbacks, and can also make them not regret burying themselves, thus maintaining a calm mind.
Taoism is one of the most important and influential philosophical thoughts of China. Many ideas are practical and related to metaphysics. Sometimes a simple sentence from Taoism can explain complicated truth. But Taoism tends to go to extremes because it despises narrow utilitarianism.
For example, Taoism advocates absolute nothingness and opposes all actions, even all the progress of human culture, knowledge and technology, and denies the value of civilization; Oppose authority and social hierarchical order, criticize social malpractice and give up social responsibility, be indifferent to the sense of participation, that is, so-called "passive seclusion", distrust or even completely reject any concrete and feasible social reform measures, and so on. These historical limitations and negative aspects have had many adverse effects on China's traditional culture, and they have also eroded the spirit of the Chinese nation, which we must also pay attention to.