Daoism as Philosophy of Lao Zi

Abstract

Daoism or Taoism is one of the major intellectual trends in Chinese philosophy and spiritual pillar of Chinese faith system, philosophic Daoism or Dao Jia, and spiritual Daoism or Dao Jiao being thus termed respectively. As identical to Daoism, ancient Chinese used to describe it as the scholarship and worship based on its intellectual initiator Lao Zi or Lao Tzu, therefore we believe that he is the patriarch scholar and a peer philosopher to Confucius, the masterpiece of Dao De Jing (or Tao Te Ching, with 5000 words in tis total 81 chapter) to his credit being considered as one of the greatest works full of creative originality in human culture. As a cultural legend, Dao De Jing has been enormously influential in molding Chinese culture, standing for natural philosophy in Chinese spirituality, and its intellectual merits being appreciated far and wide as source of wisdom in current transformation of human civilization. Being concise in words and rich in thoughts, Dao De Jing has being serving as the spiritual incubator for wisdom since its compilation, bringing out open-ended philosophic storage for human society and its mental resources having never been exhaustive in human employment. The greatest contribution of Dao De Jing is its peculiar explanation to Dao or Tao, the key concept based on which the systematic Dao-styled culture is established, and hence constituting the mega trend of oriental culture in the form of bilateral relations with Confucius and Mencius scholarship and triangular relations with Confucianism and Chinese Buddhism.