The Way in the Chinese Classic Age Anna Hughes College

Many authors and teachers have dedicated their lives to formulating wisdom that will help others achieve The Way. According to them, The Way is how a person should live his or her life to achieve inner peace, self-actualization, and harmony. Among the great teachers in the Chinese culture are Laozi, Confucius, and Tao Qian. For hundreds of years, experts have tried to analyze the teachings of these great philosophers to ascertain their meaning. The Daodejing (or Tao Te Ching), Analects, and the poems of T’ao Qian all address The Way differently. While the ideas may even be contradicting at times, they all express truth about the human condition and The Way. There is an interesting and valuable lesson to be learned from each one of these great authors, teachers, and philosophers. Although these texts can be categorized as religious texts, I believe that they apply more to the individual than the divine. Especially during the Chinese Classic Age in which these texts were written, the focus was on the individual, the common, and the everyday – not the divine. A reoccurring theme throughout all of these works is The Way and how to achieve it, but all the teachers question if one can even be taught The Way or if it is something that...