Taoism in China
TAO TE CHING
ORIGINS

The Tao Te Ching (Dao De Jing) was
compiled around 500-400 BC
(Confucius’ era)
 Tao – The way of the universe
 Te – virtue
 Ching – classic/book

Attributed to Laozi (The old
one/master)
 But
is probably a collection of works
by many authors.
LAOZI ON HIS WATER BUFFALO
THEMES IN THE TAO TE CHING

It is made up of 81 short poems focusing on
the balance of Yin Yang in the universe and in a
person and society.
 Live
simply and letting be …union with
emptiness/primordial/passive/yin
 Relativity of good and bad or yin/yang balance –
the duality of nature
 Three Jewels: Compassion, Moderation, Humility
 Government being the least involved in people’s
lives.
TAO TE CHING ON KNOWLEDGE & WISDOM
 Knowing
others is wisdom; Knowing the
self is enlightenment. Mastering others
requires force; Mastering the self requires
strength. He who knows he has enough is
rich. Perseverance is a sign of will power.
He who stays where he is endures. To die
but not to perish is to be eternally present.

Pick one sentence to copy down and journal a
few of your own thoughts about that line (why it
is significant to you – what we can learn).
THE TAO TE CHING ON NON-BEING/EMPTINESS
We shape clay into a pot, but it is the
emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.
We hammer wood for a house, but it is the
inner space that makes it livable. We work with
being, but non-being is what we use.
 Empty your mind of all thoughts. Let your heart
be at peace. Each separate being in the
universe returns to the common source.
Returning to the source is serenity.

THE TAO TE CHING ON LETTING BE/PASSIVISM
 Keep
sharpening your knife and it will be
blunt. Chase after money and security and
your heart will never unclench. Care about
people’s approval and you will be their
prisoner. Nothing in the world is as soft and
yielding as water. Yet for dissolving the hard
and inflexible, nothing can surpass it. The
soft overcomes the hard.

Pick one sentence to copy down and journal a
few of your own thoughts about that line (why it
is significant to you – what we can learn).
THE TAO TE CHING ON RELATIVITY
The Tao doesn’t take sides; it gives birth to both
good and evil.
 What difference between yes and no? What
difference between success and failure? Must
you value what others value, avoid what others
avoid?
 Throw away morality and justice, and people will
do the right thing. Throw away industry and profit,
and there won’t be any thieves.
 Journal on do you think people are innately good
or will naturally do the right thing? OR journal on
the second bullet (answer questions).

THE TAO TE CHING ON GOVERNMENT
When the Master governs, the people are hardly
aware that he exists. Next best is a leader who is
loved. Next, one who is feared. The worst is one
who is despised.
 If you don’t trust people, you make them
untrustworthy.
 Whoever relies on the Tao in governing men
doesn’t try to force issues or defeat enemies by
force of arms. For every force there is a counter
force. Violence, even well intentioned, always
rebounds upon itself.


Copy down the bolded area above and just write
“agree” or “disagree”
THE TAO TE CHING ON RITUAL

When the Tao (Way) is lost, there is goodness.
When goodness is lost, there is morality. When
morality is lost, there is ritual. Ritual is the
husk of true faith, the beginning of chaos.
 Though
Taoists do celebrate holidays and have
festivals and rituals (like burning ghost money)

Explain the significance of the above quote
“When Tao is lost there is goodness...” What is
being said about ritual? Can you give any
examples where ritual is the husk of true faith
and the beginning of chaos?
GODS IN TAOISM
Pantheon: evolved from Chinese folk religions
(everything in nature has a god)
 The Three Pure Ones

 Heaven,

Earth, Humanity personified
The Eight Immortals
 Associated
with medicine, defense, magic, judge,
poet, music, immortality, lotus flower

Demons – forces of nature like earthquakes or
ghosts of people who died violently or
meaninglessly
TAOISM UNDER MAO
Under Mao’s rule Taoism nearly went extinct
with the injunction that religion was “the opiate
of the people” and was unscientific and
outdated.
 In 1954, the Religious Affairs Bureau and Land
Reform movement expelled Taoist (and
Buddhist) monks/nuns from temples and
destroyed the temples and artifacts.
 After a decade of Communist rule Taoist monks
were reduced from 5 million to 50 thousand.

TODAY’S PRACTITIONERS OF TAOISM
Deng Xiaoping (Mao’s successor) created the
Religious Freedom Clause in 1982 that allowed
Taoists the “right of religious belief.”
 Temples and Monasteries were reopened and
fundraising initiatives rebuild some of what was
lost.
 31 million practitioners worldwide – but mostly
in China (some in Cambodia, Singapore and a
huge following in Taiwan)
