The Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu, an introduction

Lao Tzu

The traditional view is that the Tao Te Ching, the central classic of the taoist school of thought, was written by a man named Lao Tzu who was an older contemporary of Confucius (551-479BC). Many modern scholars however believe that there was no such historical personage and that the work is perhaps better viewed as an anthology compiled of short passages, some reflecting the doctrines of the time and others representing sayings of considerable antiquity. Either way it seems likely that the work is a record of an oral tradition and thereby without unique definitive interpretation; many of its ideas were probably common property to the followers of various different schools sharing a common tendency in thought.

The tao [way] is said to be that principle responsible for the creation and support of the universe. Since it exists before the universe, it can be thought of (if only perhaps in a figurative sense) as the generating force.  Early traditions in Chinese thought usually had the role of creator belonging to t'ien [heaven] with the tao then defined as the way that heaven followed (or as the way that man ought to follow). But with the work of Lao Tzu the tao becomes a completely independent entity. There is a blurring of the line between the tao as a thing and the tao as an abstract principle, and the two are said to be necessarily confused because they share the common characteristic of transcending the senses. While the tao is often described in terms of tangible qualities as if it were a concrete thing, Lao Tzu affirms that no terms can properly be applied to it since all such descriptors, in being specific, necessarily limit its description. If it is to be said to be like certain particular things then it cannot, by implication, be like certain other things. In trying to better capture a description of its nature, the whole idea of opposite terms becomes important. There is, throughout the work, an inference of there being something fundamental in that canon of opposites which structure our language and our view of the world; there is the inference that it says something about the essential nature of the universe and that that something is illuminated by our attempts to describe the tao. Consistently in these attempts then, it is always the lower terms - the "weak", the "submissive" and the "bent" - that are thought of as being the more useful (or at least, as less misleading) in such descriptions. This is important for the development of the later ethical part of the doctrine.  Lao Tzu concludes to characterize the tao as plural in manifestation but singular in essence, as totally real but totally unknowable, as nonpersonal and amoral. He urges that men should model themselves upon the tao, as the path of least resistance through life. In order for them to do that, they must appreciate how it functions.

source http://www.kheper.net/topics/Taoism/Taoism.htm

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