Religions in China

While Daodejing and Zhuangzi focus mainly on social and religious aspects, Han Fei takes a more governmental stand point on moralities. However, all three are united by the major event of the time of their writings: the fall of the Zhou Dynasty. All three write about finding a balance which would make sense given the chaos of the period in which they were written. In this sense all three describe a means by which one can maintain order in life. For Daodejing "the Way" is talked about in a sense of finding a "constant" or balance. Zhuangi also believes in doing what is "constant". Zhuangi uses the story of the ox cutter as a metaphor for the way in which one should lead their life by going with what is given and working through it in a natural course. The ox cutter doesn't hack at the ox but instead knows to work with what he is given. Conversely, Han Fei writes about matters of the state and what makes a good leader but similarly believes there is a balance that must be achieved to do so. He sees that humaneness gets in the way of being an affective leader. He states "people by nature grow proud on love but they listen to authority" which to me has a less extreme resonance of Machiavelli's "it's better to be feared than loved." Han Fei believes that a good ruler can find a balance between what the people want and what the state needs. The only part that didn't make much sense was when he talked about not needing wise men or knowledge. The same was talked about in the beginning of Zhuangzi where he said knowledge is dangerous. I even in think in Daodejing there is references to learning. Maybe we could talk about this theme in class?