Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
assemble your forces; your enemy will then have no idea of your over-
all strength. Emerge from behind the scenes and hit the enemy hard,
then quickly evaporate back into the woods. Continue this pattern
for some time and you will gradually frustrate the enemy and rob
him of his vitality and will to fight, while preserving your own. Do
not fight the enemy on his own terms but on yours, which will likely
be strange and aggravating to him. This style of warfare enabled
the Americans to prevail against the British and the United Empire
Loyalists in the American Revolution. (Ironically enough, it is also
the strategy the Viet Cong used to defeat the Americans in Vietnam.)
CONFUCIANISM AND TAOISM
Confucians and Taoists had decidedly different views of the world;
Taoist attitudes might smack of irresponsibility to Confucians, but
Confucian moral teachings might strike Taoists as pretentious and
foolishly off-center. Nevertheless, the great majority of Chinese came
to see Taoism and Confucianismnot as exclusive but as complementary.
People could subscribe to Confucianism as a public, governmental
ideology while embracing Taoism in their personal lives. Thus, after
Confucian thought was made China's official state ideology in the
second century B.C., a busy and worried Confucian government
bureaucrat could go home at night and be more of a Taoist. Taoism
reminded him not to take worldly concerns too seriously and to relax
every once in a while. Taoism helped him prepare for his pressing
duties the next day. It lent balance and sanity to his life. Taoist ideas
might not have been directly applicable to the task of governing in the
age of civilization, but Taoism, whichwas much too appealing and com-
pelling to disappear entirely, acted as a tonic, a corrective content to
remain in the shadows and behind the scenes, where the tao belongs.
This Confucian-Taoist synthesis was not always a completely com-
fortable one, but it became part of Chinese culture and the Chinese
consciousness. Most of China's greatest emperors and dutiful
government officials were essentially Confucianists at heart; most
of the great poets and painters were, on balance, more Taoist. Thus, a
cultured Confucian gentleman might not always be pleased with the
antics of a free-spirited Taoist poet, but he would often tolerate them
because the Taoist pole of his consciousness would gently remind
him that great creative geniuses do not always completely subscribe
to Confucian conventions of politeness and decorum.
As different as Taoism and Confucianismmay seem at first and even
second glances, they share several characteristics. First, both systems
