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Chinese Philosophy - Philosophical Daoism

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Philosophical Daoism

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Daoist philosophy ( dao 道 "the Way") is on the one side the philosophy of the private man who frees himself the burden of the state office and tries to get rid of worldly sorrows and grievances, but on the other side, Daoist thinking also influenced other schools of state philosophy like legism and lead to the attitude of the Chinese rulers as ruling without action (wuwei 無為) once the state and its institutions are established - ministries, bureaus and offices will work automatically and running freely (ziyou 自由).
The father of the Daoist philosophers is Laozi 老子 who is said to have composed the "Classic of the Way and the Virtue", Daodejing 道德經. In his teachings, man is part of the universe and cannot change the course of nature but rather should feel as a part of the cosm and becoming one with trees, stones and the earth. Another early Daoist philosopher, Zhuangzi 莊子, even denies the patterns of common social behavior like logical thinking and ritual mourning. For him, things are relative to each other, and the only fixed basis is the natural way of the universe.
In many aspects, Daoism is familiar to Buddhism: The only possibility for man to acheive his true position in the world is by giving up knowledge, desire and asking for reasons, making himself free feelings and reflections.
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