Lao Tsu (also know as Lao Tse or Laozi) was a Chinese philosopher during the 6th Century B.C. Despite some controversy over his existence, his contribution to the Chinese and World Philosophy is undeniable.
The Tao Te Ching, also know as Daodejin, is a book of 81 chapters organized in two books. The name approximate translation is "The Classic of the Virtuous Way". Next to the Bible it is the most translated work of literature. Tao Te Ching is not free of polemic. It is know from copies and chronicles of later writers, and biographers, who tell different stories or arrange the chapters differently. There is even a relevant debate about his influence over Confucius. Nonetheless this book is a masterpiece of world literature.
Valuable teachings from The Tao Te Ching are relevant personally, as well as for governments and leaders.
Personally I found lessons of austerity and frugality very though provoking.
But I have three precious things which I prize and hold fast. The first is gentleness; the second is economy; and the third is shrinking from taking precedence of others.
It is better to leave a vessel unfilled, than to attempt to carry it when it is full. If you keep feeling a point that has been sharpened, the point cannot long preserve its sharpness. When gold and jade fill the hall, their possessor cannot keep them safe. When wealth and honours lead to arrogancy, this brings its evil on itself. When the work is done, and one's name is becoming distinguished, to withdraw into obscurity is the way of Heaven.
The analogy with water was popularized by Bruce LeeThe highest excellence is like (that of) water. The excellence of water appears in its benefiting all things, and in its occupying, without striving (to the contrary), the low place which all men dislike. Hence (its way) is near to (that of) the Tao.
Another area of wisdom refers to how the world works and evolves. Similar to much later teachings of Michael Polanyi, F.A. Hayek or the different schools of System Dynamics, Lao Tzu explains the value of spontaneous order when he explains that the Tao precedes even the Gods because the constant is change.
The Tao that can be described is not the enduring and unchanging Tao.
The work is done, but how no one can see; 'Tis this that makes the power not cease to be.
Movement is a necessary condition for change. Let movement go on, and the condition of rest will gradually arise.
However the key lessons relates to government are as relevant today as in the Ancient times. No wonder why Murray Rothbard considered Lao Tzu the first
Governing a great state is like cooking small fish.
Therefore a sage has said, 'I will do nothing (of purpose), and the people will be transformed of themselves; I will be fond of keeping still, and the people will of themselves become correct. I will take no trouble about it, and the people will of themselves become rich; I will manifest no ambition, and the people will of themselves attain to the primitive simplicity.'
Therefore he who would administer the kingdom, honouring it as he honours his own person, may be employed to govern it, and he who would administer it with the love which he bears to his own person may be entrusted with it.
The people suffer from famine because of the multitude of taxes consumed by their superiors. It is through this that they suffer famine. The people are difficult to govern because of the (excessive) agency of their superiors (in governing them). It is through this that they are difficult to govern.
A book worth reading and discussion in a Socratic Dialogue.The sage does not accumulate (for himself). The more that he expends for others, the more does he possess of his own; the more that he gives to others, the more does he have himself.
My rating four stars.
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| Symposium room at Universidad Francisco Marroquín |
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