Poetry· -400· Philosophy

道德經 (Tao Te Ching)

by 老子 Laozi

道德經 (Tao Te Ching): 1 recorded work traces back to it.

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What 道德經 (Tao Te Ching) influenced

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南華眞經 Zhuangzi

Nonfiction · -300

InfluenceHIGH

The Zhuangzi is the second foundational text of Daoism and it is written out of the first. It quotes the Daodejing, argues with it, and puts Laozi on stage as a character more than twenty times. What it inherits is the core position: that the Way cannot be named without being falsified, that deliberate effort is usually the problem, and that the useless outlives the useful. What it adds is method. The Daodejing states in aphorisms; the Zhuangzi argues in stories, jokes and dialogues between cooks, butchers, cripples and trees, which is why it became the literary source of the tradition while the earlier book stayed its scripture.

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道德經 (Tao Te Ching)

The Tao Te Ching or Dào Dé Jīng, also known simply as the Laozi, is an ancient Chinese classic text traditionally credited to the sage Laozi, regarded as the foundational Taoist text. Central to both philosophical and religious Taoism, it has been "profoundly influential" more broadly in Chinese culture, art and medicine.