The Concept of Non-being and Being Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Concept of Non-being and Being - Essay Example Laozi was born in the Chu, in the Zhou dynasty and was the curator of the royal archives at the court of Zhou. He founded and taught Daoism. He is reputed to have been commended by Confucius and consulted by him on the rites. On the occasion of Laozi’s departure from China, he was supposedly requested by Yin Xi, the official in charge of the border pass, to write down his teachings. This resulted in a book of about five thousand Chinese characters, divided into two parts, discussing the meaning of the Dao and Virtue. The debate continues as to whether Laozi was a legend and whether the Daodejing is the work of a single writer, or a compendium of texts, compiled by several authors. However, the date of the Laozi is generally acknowledged to be the fourth century B.C. E. (Shan. Stanford Encyclopedia). The word Dao Way. Over the years, Dao has come to designate natural laws and principles. Laozi advocated the Dao as the origin of all things and as the ultimate reality. The Laozi deals with the Dao, how it finds expression in virtue (de), through the practice of naturalness (guan) and non-action. The four great categories of existence are man, the earth, heaven and the Dao, which are interrelated. The underlying, basic tenet of Daoism is that all things originate from the Dao and then return to the Dao. All things are structurally constituted of opposites: such as good/evil; beauty/ugliness; tranquility/agitation. The concept of virtue, or ‘de’ in Daoism, connotes the â€Å"spontaneous creative capacity inside all things† (Shen. 358), which leads everything back to the Dao. Virtue is the inherent day in all things after they come into being. Human beings can attain the supreme virtue through the effort.