The Daodejing circulates

The Daodejing teaches wu wei — acting with rather than against the grain of things — and distrust of rigid control.

Why it matters

Daoism offered China's great counter-voice to Confucian order: a vision of effective action as minimal, adaptive and natural. Its influence runs through Chinese medicine, painting, strategy and politics.

People

Laozi (traditional)

Related events

• 551 BCE – 479 BCE

  Confucius teaches in Lu

  Kongzi taught that social order grows from cultivated relationships, ritual propriety and moral example rather than coercion.

  Philosophy · east asia

• 1046 BCE – 256 BCE

  Zhou dynasty and the Mandate of Heaven

  The Zhou overthrew the Shang and justified rule through the Mandate of Heaven: a king keeps authority only while he governs justly.

  Civilizations · east asia

• c. 400 BCE – 300 BCE

  Zhuangzi's butterfly dream

  Zhuangzi's parable — did he dream he was a butterfly, or is a butterfly dreaming it is him? — made perspective and the limits of certainty playful and profound.

  Philosophy · east asia

Sources

• Encyclopædia Britannica — Daoism