Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
There are times, however, when the Taoist sage must act in some
ways. He must endeavor to keep vanity, greed, envy, and sophistry
at bay for his population. He takes action only if his pristine utopia
of loosely associated agricultural communities is threatened by ambi-
tious nation-builders or teachers spreading dangerous, fallacious
ideas:
Exalt not the wise,
And the people shall not contend.
Prize not rare objects,
And the people shall not steal.
See not desirable things,
And the people's hearts shall not be disturbed.
Hence, in his government the sage
Empties their minds
And fills their bellies,
Weakens their ambitions
And strengthens their bones.
He ever makes the minds and hearts of his people
Devoid of knowledge and devoid of longings
So that the “wise ones” will not dare interfere.
In acting through nonaction,
There is nothing he does not govern well.
Lack of contentment leads to an unnatural striving for larger accom-
plishments and greater heights, and this the Taoists deplore. They also
warn against the danger of overdoing things and striving for the
utmost. They would not like all of the modern talk of “striving for
excellence” or “reaching for the stars.” For them, this striving would
smack of an anxiousness born of alienation from the tao. They would
rather muddle along in mediocrity. Hold back a little, stay content, live
long, be happy.
Preserving or recovering the Taoist paradise is, then, primarily a
matter not of acting but of refraining from action. The wisest ruler
refrains from doing too much. Doing too much is, after all, what
ruined the Taoist agrarian paradise of small, scattered agricultural
communities and combined them into larger, unnatural units.
Taoism is, then, a mystical and intuitive contemplation of the nature
of the universe. Its essence is, however, quite applicable to practical,
worldly affairs. As a political ideology, Taoism idealizes the era before
the rise of civilization and its attendant problems. Taoists did, obvi-
ously, realize that civilization was here to stay and that there could
probably be no literal return to the lost Taoist paradise and its
Search WWH ::




Custom Search