The “India” group should answer these
questions and prepare to answer a few of them in class.
Answer
TWO of the following:
Q1: The
poems of the Daodejing (which we discussed in class on Friday) are often
opposed to the ideals of Confucianism, which tells you exactly how to act, what
to say, and what to think. According to these chapters, what does it mean to be
a wise man or a sage? What does “right action” consist of?
Q2: Why
is the butterfly story at the end of Chapter Two an important way to understand
the ideas in all three chapters? How might it also be another way of explaining
the “finger and the moon” story?
Q3: This
book delights in the idea of paradoxes, which are statements that seem to
cancel each other out, such as this statement: “How can I know that what I said
I know is not actually what I don’t know?” (17). Why might paradoxical thinking
be vital to the practice of Daoism or of looking beyond names and actions?
Q4: The
image of the Yin/Yang hovers over the entire book, especially in this passage
from Chapter Two: “Nothing exists which is not ‘that,’ nothing exists which is
not ‘this.’” (12). What do you think it means that everything we see is also
its opposite? For example, everything beautiful is also ugly; or everything
difficult is also easy? How might these chapters attempt to explain this
yin/yang concept in the world?
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