教甄◆英文科題庫下載題庫

  The Daoist diagnostic reading of the situation was not at variance with the Confucians’, but their approach was radically different. Laozi opted for a fundamental re-examination of the value system which was thought to have sustained the human community. He questioned not only the unintended negative consequences of humanism, but also the reasons underlying great humanist ideas such as humanity and rightness. He believed that not only does power corrupt, but even the most refined culture corrupts the true nature of being human. 5 in all positive values is a self-destructive mechanism. Yet Laozi was neither cynical nor 6 . He directed our attention to nature, the cosmic process, Dao. He invited us to transcend mental 7 , to resist verbalizing the Dao through conceptualization, and rather to see, listen, and experience it.    

 Laozi created a new 8 strategy to evoke the ineffable Dao. It cannot be talked about, but since it is omnipresent, it can be directly experienced. The grammar of action, or in Daoist terms non-action, employs seemingly negative values—weakness, lowliness, yieldness, backwardness, retreat, perplexity, submission, ugliness and feebleness—to depict the subtle, 9 functions of the Dao. Images of water, valley, ravine, baby, womb, clay and the uncarved block give the impression that the Dao as primordiality is 10 and inexhaustibly potent. The art of living is to emulate those natural processes that are consistent, steady, and enduring. A precondition for such a way of life is the spiritual discipline to transform our body into a vehicle of the Dao.