Chinese Philosophy And The Ch'in Dynasty

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Chinese Philosophy And The Ch’in Dynasty

Chelsea Moss

Chinese philosophy includes three major schools of thought, which have had the greatest impact on Chinese culture: Taoism, Legalism, and Confucianism.

Lao Tze, the father of Taoism, believed that the human is basically good. His views followed that of morality and humanistic laws. Legend holds that he was conceived while his mother glimpsed at a falling star. After being in the womb for 62 years, he was born with a full head of grey hair and an old tangled beard, and large earlobes. No one knows how his unique birth correlates to the beginning of his major Chinese philosophy, although it does reflect some sort of inner spiritual force, which is Taoism.

Taoism is the most mystical of the three major schools. As the name suggests, the focus on the Tao, or the “Way.” Now, what is the Tao? There are several complicated answers to this, but most simply, the Tao is the natural flow of the cosmos. Nature follows the Tao, humans with their conscious wills go against the Tao. The goal of the Taoist is to harmonize with the Dao and thereby become one with the cosmos, with nature, with all things. Here is a poem that represents the Tao well:

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The Way that can be experienced is not true;

        The world that can be constructed is not true.

        The Way manifests all that happen and may happen;

        The world represents all that exists and may exist.

        To experience without intention is to sense the world;

        To experience with intention is to anticipate the world.

        These two experiences are indistinguishable;

        Their construction differs but their effect is the same.

        Beyond the gate of experience flows the Way,

        Which is ever greater and more subtle than the world.

For each experience, it proposes a slightly different meaning but, ...

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