Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University
Ancient Western Philosophy
Lectured by:
Mis. Raminda
Lao Tzu
Reported by:
Ven. Sandasara
ID: 5401201087
First Semester of 3rd Year
Faculty of Buddhism
Major in Philosophy
Contents Pages Preface
Introduction 1
Background of Lao Tzu’s life 1
Religious Views 2
Virtues and Ethics 2
Politics 3
Leadership Principles 4
Introduction
Lao Tzu is a Chinese philosopher, the founder of Taoism and the spiritual leader of Chinese people in the history. He laid down many doctrines and philosophical concepts such as leadership principles and ethics in political process, etc. Little is known about his background because there are very few resources available found by later scholars. In my papers, I will focus in fives fields of his teachings such as background history, leadership and ethics and so on. In the next following sections, such topics as described above will be written in details as much as possible.
Background of Lao Tzu’s life
Lao Tzu was born in 6th century BC. He is also believed to be contemporary with Confucius by Chinese historian Sima Qian due to the Record of Grand Historian. He is also the author of The Tao Te Ching in which the most important Taoist Thoughts are found. Lao Tzu was born in the village of Chu Jen in the Kingdom of Ch'u. Lao Tzu spent most of his life as an archivist in the library of the Zhou Dynasty court, but he did not like that job because he only had to spent his time for thinking, so he quit when he saw things were getting corrupt, and then went into exile. Lao Tzu became disturbed by the corruption he saw everywhere around him and decided to take the easy way out- literally, and leave the country. He traveled west on a water buffalo to reach the great desert.
Religious Views
Lao Tzu’s religious philosophy appears in his legendary book, “Tao Te Ching” in which almost all of his teachings can be found. Taoist teachings are based in Tao Te Ching which is laid down by Lao Tzu.
1Tao (pronounced 'Dao') can be defined as 'path', or 'road'. The
way of the Tao is the way of Nature and of ultimate reality. Tao is often described as a force that flows through all life. A happy and virtuous life is one that is in harmony with the Tao, with Nature.
The term “Taoism” comes from Tao which means living in harmony with nature. Nowadays Taoist teachings are becoming very popular in western country as environmental crises are global threat which is needed to solve by all countries around the world. As awareness of environment is growing rapidly among western society as if it is human responsibility to save nature because all beings live interdependently in nature, Taoism are also capturing people attention as it is one particular religion which mainly focuses on preservation of nature.
Living in harmony with nature is also the metaphysical points of view in Taoism.
Virtues and Ethics
Virtues and ethics are integrated. One who follows ethical rules means he or she is virtuous, so both of them will be discussed altogether.
Virtues and ethics by Lao Tzu also appear vastly in Tao Te Ching which is believed that Lao Tzu wrote. Concerning with virtues, it say in Tao Te Ching:
2A person of great virtue is like the flowing water. Water
benefits all things and contends not with them. It puts itself in a place that no one wishes to be and thus is closest to Tao. A virtuous person is like water which adapts itself to the perfect place.
It is clear to understand that one’s purified mind is like water which brings benefits to all living beings and trees, etc. To achieve purified mind, we all have to live in the way we don’t spoils our own abode. Nowadays some people are becoming very worried about maintaining nature where all beings live dependently on each other.
To understand ethical rules laid down by Lao Tzu, we also have to have a close look at Tao Te Ching because it is only one source in which all of his teachings could be found. However, the Taoist ethics in the present day will
be excluded because that is considered to be extradition by later Taoist scholars; not purely by Lao Tzu. In Tao Te Ching chapter thirty one:
3Weapons of war are instruments of disaster. They are rejected
by all beings. Thus a person of Tao will not dwell upon them. According to the ancient custom of Ying and Yang, a man of virtue values the left which is represented by Yang.
These ethical views are strongly against war. Even today war can be seen around the globe. Very destructive such as chemical weapons are still using against innocent human beings like children and women. The world is still in difficult situation to avoid war in which killing is unavoidable. Lao Tzu is the one who strongly condemns using weapons against humanity. It is one the reason that Taoism is gaining momentum of people’s embracement.
Although Lao Tzu’s ethics is against war and weapons, it is also found that there are others ideas or concepts concerning with war and weapons. It can be seen in the following quote:
4And a man of war values the right which is represented by
Ying. Weapons are instruments of evil, and are not valued by a man of virtue. They are only used as the last resort to attain peace when all else have failed. If their use is necessary, it is best to employ with calmness and tranquility. Even it if means victory, it is not something pleasant. Those who rejoice over the victory, enjoy killing. He who delights in killing will not be favored by the people and shall not bring harmony to the world.
The statement shown above seems to be political means rather than ethical concern. However, it is also closely connected to ethics because ethics and politics are like the wheel and its track. In that statement, it can be understood that there might be a situation where wars and weapons are allowable to use. For instance, if a group of robbers who are threatening the peaceful society, the government should use weapons because to punish
3 Tao Te Ching, Chapter Thirty One
such violent people for the good of people. Nevertheless, using weapons are neither to be proud nor honorable. If there are any other means to solve such problem are applicable, it is to be favorable.
Politics
Political philosophy of Lao Tzu is quite interesting because he emphasizes governing people on compassion, freedom and naturally ruling people without very strict rules. He said in Tao Te Ching as below:
5Govern a nation with the right principles. Fight a battle with
the tactics of surprise, rule over the world with peace and natural effort. How do I know that this so? By the following: The more prohibitions that are imposed on people. The poorer the people become. The more sharp weapons the people possess, the greater is the chaos in the country.
It is true that the more people feel that they are controlled, the more they will try to escape, for human free will is against restriction. It is why the freedom of thoughts and speech are becoming very popular nowadays. Furthermore, if government uses a lot of money for weapons, its people become rebellious against them because the country becomes poorer. It is eye-witnessed somewhere like in the middle-east that people becomes so rebellious because their government restricts too much the people. Many governments have been overthrown by protestors. It is just the result of the government’s ignorance about people’s freedom and equality.
Leadership Principles
There are five bases principles of leadership by Lao Tzu. There may be other ideas of him, which is applicable in leadership. However, the five
principles below are the core ideas of him for leading people spiritually. They are:
1: clear mind
2: simplicity
3: balance
4: Stoop low
5: Letting go
Clear mind—which means a leader must have a clear direction to go. Otherwise, he might lose the way. Yes, it is true if the leader doesn’t have certain destination and future, how can his followers believe and rely on him. If leader can’t lead, so we’d rather not have him.
Simplicity—it means a leader should be simple to gain respect from people. This idea seems to come from his spiritual thinking and practice. As he is a spiritual leader, simplicity becomes his leadership principles. If spiritual leaders such as monk don’t stay simply, they will suffer criticism from people.
Balance—which means a leader must consider both good and bad effects when he makes decision. If he decides only by looking at the benefits with ignorance about bad effects, there would be problem. Everything has two sides. So a leader must properly weigh both good and bad to avoid huge bad consequences rather than good result.
Stoop low—which means a leader should be humble to receive power from people. For example, rivers and oceans stoop low to receive water from stream, thus rivers and oceans become very powerful, but the power comes from the stream. A leader should follow this principle because the power of the leader comes from his followers although they are lower than the leader. If a leader is very arrogant, so people will not support him.
