Confucius, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi

Selected Passages from the Chinese Philosophers in The Path

Michael Puett, Christine Gross-Loh, Michael Puett, Christine Gross-Loh

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781501147456
• Topic: Filosofia
• Subtopic: Filosofia orientale

An ebook companion to The Path by Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh that puts together a broad selection of translated excerpts from the ancient works of Chinese philosophy discussed in the book. This free ebook gives readers a chance to deepen their understanding of The Path by Michael Puett & Christine Gross-Loh by reading translated excerpts from the original works of Chinese philosophy discussed in the book. It includes selections from the teachings of Confucius, the Mohists, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, and Xunzi, among others.

The Laozi

The Laozi uses language and metaphor to overturn many of our assumptions about how humans can and should live in the world. It offers a particular argument for how things—events, situations, people, even the cosmos itself—emerge. Once we understand this process, we can learn to alter situations. Real power lies in weakness rather than strength, in water rather than rocks, in softness and suppleness rather than hardness.

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The Way that is planned out is not the enduring way;

The name that can be named is not the enduring name.

The nameless is the beginning of Heaven and earth,

And the named is the mother of the myriad things. (1)

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Thirty spokes join together at one hub; the usefulness of the cart resides in its nothingness.

Clay is pulled to make vessels; the usefulness of the vessel resides in its nothingness.

One cuts doors and windows to make dwellings; the usefulness of the dwelling resides in its nothingness.

Something is what makes them beneficial; nothing is what makes them useful. (11)

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Reach the extremity of emptiness,

And hold fast to the firmity of stillness.

The myriad things become active together,

And I thereby watch them return.

Things are teeming and multifarious,

But each returns to its root.

Returning to the root is called stillness. (16)

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When his [the ruler’s] achievements are completed and tasks finished,

The people say, “We are like this naturally.” (17)

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When the great Way is discarded,

There is humaneness and propriety.

When knowledge and cleverness emerge,

There is great artifice. (18)

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There is a thing chaotically completed,

born before Heaven and earth.

Still and quiet,

standing alone yet unchanging ,

going around yet never becoming weary,

and capable thereby of being the mother of all under Heaven.

I do not know its name,

Its nickname is “the Way.”

If forced to give it a name, it would be called “Great.” (25)

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The Way is nameless.

Although the uncarved block is small,

no one is able to subordinate it.

If princes and kings are able to hold fast to it,

The myriad things will submit on their own. . . .

The people will adjust themselves,

yet no one will order them. (32)

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The soft and weak overcome the hard and strong. (36)

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The Way constantly does nothing, yet nothing is not done.

If lords and kings are able to hold to it, the myriad things will be transformed of themselves. (37)

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The Way gives birth to the One,

the One gives birth to the two,

the two give birth to the three,

the three give birth to the myriad things.

The myriad things carry the yin and embrace the yang

and blend the vapors so as to become harmonized. (42)

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All under Heaven had a beginning.

It can be taken as the mother of all under Heaven.

Once you have obtained the mother,

you can thereby know the sons.

Once you have known the sons,

you can return and hold fast to the mother. Until the end there will be no harm. (52)

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Therefore the sage says:

I do not act with effort, yet the people are of themselves transformed,

I enjoy stillness, yet the people are of themselves corrected.

I do not actively interfere, yet the people of themselves prosper. (57)

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The reason rivers and oceans can rule over the hundred valleys is that they are good at taking the lower position. And so they can rule over the hundred valleys.

This is why, when a sage desires to be above th...

Table of contents

• Cover
• A Note of Explanation
• The ‘Analects:’ Confucius
• ‘The Nature That Emerges from the Decree’
• The Mohists
• The ‘Mencius’
• The ‘Laozi’
• The ‘Inward Training’
• The ‘Wuxing’
• The ‘Zhuangzi’
• The ‘Xunzi’
• About the Authors
• Copyright