Taoism Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===''Tao Te Ching''=== {{Main|Tao Te Ching}} [[File:DaoDeJingWangBi.jpg|thumb|upright|1770 ''Wang Bi'' edition of the ''Tao Te Ching'']] Throughout the history of Taoism, the ''Tao Te Ching'' has been a central text, used for ritual, self-cultivation, and philosophical purposes.{{sfnp|Kohn|LaFargue|1998|p=158}}{{sfnp|Komjathy|2014|p=32}} According to legend, the ''Tao Te Ching'' (also known as the ''Laozi'') was written by [[Laozi]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.patheos.com/Library/Taoism.html |title=Taoism: Overview |website=Patheos |access-date=2011-05-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091016124951/http://www.patheos.com/Library/Taoism.html |archive-date=16 October 2009 |url-status=live }}</ref> Authorship, precise date of origin, and even unity of the text are still subject of debate{{sfnp|Eliade|1984|p=26}} and will probably never be known with certainty.{{sfnp|Watts|1975|p=xxiii}} The earliest manuscripts of this work (written on [[Guodian Chu Slips|bamboo tablets]]) date back to the late 4th century BCE, and these contain significant differences from the later received edition (of [[Wang Bi]] {{Circa|226}}β249).{{sfnp|Kirkland|2004|p=53-}}<ref name=stanford>{{cite book |chapter-url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/laozi/ |chapter=Laozi |title=[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] |publisher=[[Stanford University]] |quote=The discovery of two ''Laozi'' silk manuscripts at Mawangdui, near Changsha, Hunan province in 1973 marks an important milestone in modern ''Laozi'' research. The manuscripts, identified simply as "A" (jia) and "B" (yi), were found in a tomb that was sealed in 168 B.C. The texts themselves can be dated earlier, the "A" manuscript being the older of the two, copied in all likelihood before 195 B.C.<br />Until recently, the Mawangdui manuscripts have held the pride of place as the oldest extant manuscripts of the ''Laozi''. In late 1993, the excavation of a tomb (identified as M1) in Guodian, Jingmen city, Hubei province, has yielded among other things some 800 bamboo slips, of which 730 are inscribed, containing over 13,000 Chinese characters. Some of these, amounting to about 2,000 characters, match the ''Laozi''. The tomb...is dated around 300 B.C. |year=2018 |access-date=18 September 2011 |archive-date=28 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200428185936/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/laozi/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Apart from the Guodian text and the Wang Bi edition, another alternative version exists, the Mawangdui Tao Te Chings.{{sfnp|Kirkland|2004|p=53-55}} Louis Komjathy writes that the ''Tao Te Ching'' is "actually a multi-vocal anthology consisting of a variety of historical and textual layers; in certain respects, it is a collection of oral teachings of various members of the inner cultivation lineages."{{sfnp|Komjathy|2014|p=32}} Meanwhile, Russell Kirkland argues that the text arose out of "various traditions of oral wisdom" from the [[Chu (state)|state of Chu]] that were written, circulated, edited, and rewritten by different hands. He also suggests that authors from the [[Jixia Academy|Jixia academy]] may have been involved in the editing process.{{sfnp|Kirkland|2004|p=65-66}} The ''Tao Te Ching ''is not organized in any clear fashion and is a collection of different sayings on various themes.{{sfnp|Kirkland|2004|p=54}} The leading themes of the Tao Te Ching revolve around the nature of Tao, how to attain it and De, the inner power of Tao, as well as the idea of [[Wu wei|wei wu-wei]].{{sfnp|Van Voorst|2005 |p=165}}{{sfnp|Kirkland|2004|p=59}} Tao is said to be ineffable and accomplishes great things through small, lowly, effortless, and "feminine" (yin) ways (which are compared to the behavior of water).{{sfnp|Van Voorst|2005 |p=165}}{{sfnp|Kirkland|2004|p=59}} Ancient commentaries on the ''Tao Te Ching'' are important texts in their own right. Perhaps the oldest one, the ''[[Heshang Gong]]'' commentary, was most likely written in the 2nd century CE.<ref>{{harvp|Schipper|Verellen|2004|p=73}}</ref> Other important commentaries include the one from [[Wang Bi]] and the [[Xiang'er]] commentary.<ref>{{harvp|Schipper|Verellen|2004|pp=74β77}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page