The document outlines the key concepts of Daoist philosophy and its relationship to aesthetics. It distinguishes between philosophical Daoism founded by Laozi and Zhuangzi, which seeks the essence of things, and religious Daoism which incorporates divination and alchemy. Core Daoist teachings emphasize flowing with nature, non-action, weakness and simplicity over Confucian social hierarchies and rationality. Daoist philosophy views beauty as the harmony of contradictions and coincidentia oppositorum, or reconciliation of opposites.

1. The Daoist Philosophy and
Aesthetics
San-pao Li, Ph.D.
Department of Asian and Asian American Studies
California State University, Long Beach
February 27, 2003

2. The Daoist Philosophy and
Aesthetics

3. The Daoist Philosophy and
Aesthetics

4. The Daoist Philosophy and
Aesthetics

5. Waldo Japussy,
The Tao of Meow
(Columbus, Ohio: Enthea Press, 1990)

6. Waldo Japussy,
The Tao of Meow
(Columbus, Ohio: Enthea Press, 1990)

7. Waldo Japussy,
The Tao of Meow
(Columbus, Ohio: Enthea Press, 1990)

8. An Outline
• Philosophic Daoism vs. Religious
Daoism
• Essential Teachings of Daoism
(Quotations from Laozi and Zhuangzi)
• Daoism vs. Confucianism
• Daoist Philosophy and the Chinese Concept
of Aesthetics

9. Philosophic Daoism
Founded by Lao Tzu (Laozi),
developed by Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi) during
the time of the “Hundred Schools,” seeking
the substratum of things and
the constancy of all phenomena.

10. Religious Daoism
Lao Tzu (Laozi) was deified.
Religious Daoists seek immortality through
superstitious practices including divination,
ritualistic ceremonies, and alchemy.

11. The Book of Lao Tzu
• Chinese civilization and the Chinese character
would have been utterly different if the Book of
Lao Tzu (Laozi) had never been written
• Even Buddhism has not escaped Daoist influence
• Influenced nearly all aspects of Chinese culture
• A combination of poetry, philosophical
speculation, and mystical reflection
• Distinguished by its gem-like brevity

12. A Yin-Yang Balance:
Confucianism & Daoism
• The Confucian and Legalist socio-ethical
thought-complex was masculine, hard,
managing, aggressive, rational, and
commanding
• The Daoist broke with it radically and
completely by emphasizing the
feminine, yielding, permissive,
withdrawing, mystical, and receptive

13. Tao (Dao)
The “name” for the
self-contained totality of
all there is and all that happens.

14. The Attraction of Daoism
• Its total disregard for norms
• Its exhilarating spirit of
freedom and individualism

15. An Outline
• Philosophic Taoism vs. Religious Taoism
• Essential Teachings of Taoism
(Quotations from Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu)
• Taoism vs. Confucianism
• Taoist Philosophy and the Chinese Concept
of Aesthetics

16. Essential Teachings of Taoism
Quotations from Laozi and Zhuangzi
• Dao (The Way)
• Wu-wei (Non-Action)
• Female/Water/Valley
• Weakness/Passivity
• Simplicity
• Tranquility (Stillness and Flux)
• Spontaneity/Naturalness
• Unity (of Multiplicity)
• Freedom

17. Tao (Dao)
The Dao could be described
as the natural flowing of
existence.

18. Tao (Dao)
Purposeful exertion of effort
may often obstruct the
natural flow of life.

19. Tao (Dao)
Allow things to take their own
fluid, graceful, peaceful paths
without our interference.

20. Tao (Dao)
Let life take its own course
unharrassed.

21. Tao (Dao)
Man becomes like a passive
leaf on a tree blowing in the
wind, unresisting and yielding.

22. Tao (Dao)

23. Tao (Dao)

24. Tao (Dao)

25. Tao (Dao)

26. Tao (Dao)
Transcending the world of multiplicities

27. A Daoist Secret
• drop one’s limbs…..detach from one’s body
• strip off all cognitive activities
• supreme quietude
• be oblivious of the existence of self
• the “transformation of things”
• mental/intellectual fasting
• be like drift wood and dead ashes

28. An Outline
• Philosophic Daoism vs. Religious Daoism
• Essential Teachings of Daoism
(Quotations from Laozi and Zhuangzi)
• Daoism vs. Confucianism
• Daoist Philosophy and the Chinese Concept
of Aesthetics

29. Daoism vs. Confucianism
• Whereas Confucianism is highly structured
and hierarchical, Daoism is fluid.
• Confucianism places the ultimate goal of
improvement at world peace, Daoism could
be said to aim at peace with the world.

30. A Yin-Yang Balance:
Confucianism & Taoism
• The Confucian and Legalist socio-ethical
thought-complex was masculine, hard,
managing, aggressive, rational, and
commanding
• The Daoist broke with it radically and
completely by emphasizing the
feminine, yielding, permissive,
withdrawing, mystical, and receptive

31. The true spirit of Daoism
The overriding concern of
Taoist philosophy is that
man must conform to
nature, not to society.

32. An Outline
• Philosophic Taoism vs. Religious Daoism
• Essential Teachings of Daoism
(Quotations from Laozi and Zhuangzi)
• Daoism vs. Confucianism
• Daoist Philosophy and the
Chinese Concept of Aesthetics

33. The Daoist Philosophy and
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of
philosophical inquiry
concerned with the
understanding of beauty.

34. The Daoist Philosophy and
Aesthetics
Alexander Baumgarten, Aesthetics
(1750)
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
Plato, Symposium
A. H. Muller (1779-1829)

35. The Daoist Philosophy and
Aesthetics
The Platonic notion of the beautiful is hardly
distinguishable from the good.
In the Chinese consciousness, the good must
demonstrate order and harmony.
Harmonized state of contradictions,
according to A. H. Muller (1779-1829),
represents the highest good.
Harmony is both an intrinsic quality of art
and the sine qua non of real freedom.

36. The Daoist Philosophy and
Aesthetics
Coincidentia Oppositorum
Reconciliation of the Opposites

37. The Daoist Philosophy and
Aesthetics

38. The Daoist Philosophy and
Aesthetics
San-pao Li, Ph.D.
Department of Asian and Asian American Studies
California State University, Long Beach
February 27, 2003

39. Please Keep in Touch
http://www.csulb.edu/~sanpaoli
sanpaoli@csulb.edu

40. Thank You
Your comments and suggestions
are greatly appreciated.