Taoism, The Principle of Wu-Wei Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Taoism, The Principle of Wu-Wei - Research Paper Example This paper will shed more light upon Taoism and the principles of Wu-Wei. Confucianism is a term which is very closely related to Taoism, a lot of can be learned about the Chinese people just by knowing more about Taoism and Confucianism. These are terms which reflect the spirit of the Chinese people and what they are made up of. The ancient Chinese society must be given credit for coining the term Taoism, the ideology and the beliefs of the Han nationality is often portrayed when people talk of Taoism. Ancient people in China used to worship spirits and gods and this was how this term originated. â€Å"Daoism encompasses thought and practice that sometimes are viewed as philosophical, as religious, or as a combination of both.   While modern scholars, especially those in the West, have been preoccupied with classifying Daoist material as either â€Å"philosophical† or religious, historically Daoists themselves have been uninterested in such categories and dichotomies.  Ã ¢â‚¬Å"(IEP.UTM) Taoism has raised a debate for the scholars across Europe; they have been completely discombobulated as to whether Taoism falls under religion or whether it falls under philosophy. Some scholars in Europe say that it should be classified under religion while some others say that it should be classified under philosophy so there is no general consensus when it comes to the classification of Taoism and much debate is going on amongst top scholars in Europe. It is very important to know more about the Han dynasty in order to know more about Taoism, no traces of Taoism were found when the Han dynasty ruled China but the beginning of Taoism can be found in important texts like Daodejing and the Zhuangzi. The Chinese people unanimously believe that a teacher by the name Laozi was mainly responsible for writing Daodejing, he was a very dedicated teacher who also opened a school for the Chinese children and single-handedly wrote Daodejing, it was a great achievement but not too many people know of this incredible achievement. People who followed Taoism were called Taoists and they had some similar beliefs, they understood the connection between nature and their bodies and this again was a great achievement. They also knew that God had not made them immortal and they trotted on the difficult path to become immortal. Taoists also believed in experimenting with their bodies, they found new exercises to keep themselves fit; they were also responsible for discovering interesting and new sexual positions. Chemistry was one subject which fascinated the Taoists and quite a few of them tried new experiments to discover something new which would help them but these experiments did not go down too well and many of them lost their lives trying to do too much. There were emperors who were also fascinated with Chemistry and they met with the same fate when they tried doing the same experiments, this clearly goes to show that there were hungry for success and wanted to find new things which would help their fellow human beings. Self-cultivation was a major objective of Taoism, every Taoist wanted to inculcate this quality in him and pass it on to their family members. â€Å"The teachings that were later called Daoism were first known under the name of Huanglao Dao in the 3rd and 2nd cent. BCE. The thought world transmitted in this stream is what Sima Tan meant by Daojia. The Huanglao School was a center of Taoist practitioners in the state of Qi (modern Shandong). Huangdi was the name for the Yellow