The Daodejing: The Laozi

The texts Dao De Jing by Laozi written and the Zhuangzi by Chuang Tzu both written between the 4th-3rd Century B.C. both give perspectives of Daoism in different themes. Dao De Jing presents Daoism in a beautiful and mysterious, while the Zhuangzi presents Daoism with anecdotes and paradoxes. In the Dao De Jing, fundamental Daoism believes are beautifully interpreted in mysterious ways. Segment one explains how Dao cannot be explained or named, if so then it is not Dao.

Classical China Influences: Confucianism and Daoism The Confucius Analects and Daodejing contain underlying beliefs of how to live an effective lifestyle. The sayings of Confucius focus on achieving a strong ethical code from upholding classical traditions. He views an appropriate lifestyle as the attainment of benevolence, sense of propriety, and filial piety through the following concepts: Ren, li, and Xiao. Rather, The Daodejing conveys a vision of Dao, “the way”, as the source of all thing.

There are many Daoist influences to be seen in the Chinese art. Chinese paintings often include common themes from the Daodejing: the infinity, flow, and mystery of nature. To be more specific, the book’s images of the flowing river, the valley, or the uncarved block of stone are some of the typical elements in such paintings. Another significant field of art influenced by Daoism is poetry. Chinese poetry frequently recalls themes found in the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi: the joy of life in the countryside, away from the rushed atmosphere of the city; the change of seasons; harmony with nature; and general simplicity.

Many people have mistaken Confucianism as a religion. However, it is a system of belief, a philosophy. This belief emphasizes on respect and harmony of relationships. Moreover, it pushed for a well-ordered society by accentuating human relationships, a righteous leader and a good education. Confucius, a philosopher and a teacher, founded Confucianism.

Emperor Kangxi was the fourth and longest reigning emperor of the Manchu Qing Dynasty during the late 17th century until the early 18th century. Historians consider him one of the greatest emperors in history because his policies ultimately led the Qing Dynasty in becoming one of the most successful and flourishing societies globally and historically. Emperor Kangxi believed the role of the emperor was to be benevolent and respectful to all of his subjects, and to create harmony within the nation, with the hope of ultimately restoring and expanding the Qing dynasty into a prosperous and economic empire. Kangxi had strict criteria for state official prospects. He believed it was very important to look into a person's moral and spiritual values

Lao Tzu, also spelled Laozi, was a philosopher in China in the sixth century BCE. He is very influential in the East also has some influence in Western culture. Little is known about his life and history, but his writings that have survived the trials of time are insightful and provide humanity with extensive knowledge of his personal beliefs and intuitions. His writings have become so influential in Asia that an entire religion has been based off of them -- Taoism.

The Song Dynasty rose 56 years later after the Tang Dynasty fell. The Song Dynasty in itself was a dynasty which lasted from 960 to 1276, it’s divided into two time periods; The Northern Song(960-1127) and The Southern Song(1127-1279). The Northern Song was an era when the empire was smaller than the Tang Empire. It didn’t control an area of Central Asia that was controlled by the Tang Empire. However the Southern Song Empire wasn’t any better and controlled only about 60% of the land area that the Northern Song empire had been controlling.

In Chinese architecture you find many Taoist influences spread about. For example Taoist architecture, manly temples, tended to be built in natural environments, usually mountains and near bodies of water. The most prominent influenced Architecture in China would be the many sacred temples, and palaces. Yet evidence of Daoism has also been found in numerous nunneries, alters and huts around China. 2.

THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA The Great Wall of China is more than 6,000 km long and runs from the Yalu River on the border with North Korea to the Gobi Desert. The Great Wall was built to protect the Han Chinese people from Manchurian and Mongolian invaders. Minor kings, called warlords, built individual walls to defend their territories during the period of the Warring States (403 BCE to 220 BCE). These individual walls were connected into one Great Wall by the first Chinese emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi, during the latter part of his reign (246 BCE to 208 BCE).

In China there are three prominent religions that are followed, Daoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. Daoist are usually concerned with unity with the natural universe and everyone is born good. Confucianism is the establishing of human laws and rights that are maintained to prove that all humans are good. Buddhism takes the path of spiritual development hoping to see the true nature of reality because they believe that nothing is fixed or eternal. Confucianism and Daoism are both oriental religions that mostly follow Buddhism, their language is Mandarin or Cantonese and the influence was spread over East Asia for almost two eras '.

Qin Shi Haungdi was one of the most important emperors in Chinese history; as the first emperor he needed to centralize the political economical and military power as one group, (theqin-dynasty-ag.weebly.com/government.html created by weebly ) The unification of china meant that Shi haungdi would have to create a standardized measurement, weight and a system of law that would apply to every part of China. He made the banliang coin of the Qin state the single currency of the new Qin Empire. He made forms of bronze money, which came in a number of different shapes and sizes, became obsolete. The standardisation of coinage can be seen as both a symbol of the emperor’s political authority and as an important economic development.