ASIA 372 Study Guide - Quiz Guide: Taoism, Analects, Gautama Buddha
Document Summary
Regain the perfect civilization in western zhou dynasty. Music, ritual, the classics (cultural technologies) allow. Daoist civilization: problem solution: not more civilization but getting away from civilization. They are self-consciously rejecting: technology, urban culture. They believe the political & cultural efforts of confucius et al. are bound to fail. People who play in the system can"t change it. View that culture-society itself was the problem. Traditionally attributed to a gure named laozi. Laozi - supposedly older contemporary of confucius (taught him ritual) Border guard forced him to write book when he disgustedly left china, headed west. (some version) ended up in india, became the buddha shakyamuni himself explains later buddhism-taoism parallels. Put together by a group of primitivists over a period of time. Mix and match , always multiple versions in circulation. Horror at political, military chaos of warring states. Disillusionment with ruling class, whole prospect of confucian civilization. Commoners: shift from limited to mass, total warfare.
