Dao De Jing, Essay Example

The Dao De Jing, a work often attributed to the historical figure of Lao Tzu, is a philosophical tract, however one that deals with both greater metaphysical themes, as well as practical advice. By metaphysical themes, I intend to mean something that is beyond this world and something that is beyond existence. Accordingly, because of these lofty themes, it seems that the crucial part of the Dao De Jing is that it forces one to think on an emotional level, since its own text transcends our everyday concerns. In this sense, the Dao De Jin offers a radical account of emotions, wherein emotion does not mark a primitive and instinctual stance towards, as in the case of, for example, the Ancient Greeks who emphasized the rationality of logos, but rather that emotion represents a higher form of thought. Accordingly, emotion itself, including feelings and desires have to be thought on this higher plane of existence, but at once one’s feeling and desire should be streamed towards achieving precisely this emotional higher state.

Obviously, it can be said that this initial thesis perhaps overstresses emotion and the desire for desire and emotion itself, since by taking such an approach to the work does this not overlook the very practical advice that the Dao De Jing gives? For example, some of the parts of the text such as those which address the structure of Ancient Chinese government and society are pieces of a ruthless realism, one could suggest, in the sense that there is a practical advice being given to a statesman about how to run the empire. Yet perhaps such purely practical advice on the surface has instead to be read in terms of the deeper philosophical connotations of the text, which show an emotional break with the world and by this I mean human affairs, since it leads us up to a higher truth that is not reducible to a particular historical period or social situation.

I think that such an idea becomes apparent when the text employs many paradoxes, for example, from the very first line of the text. In this sense, we can say that the paradox represents a logical contradiction. This is to say that it breaks down and the common rational way of looking at the world, by using such contradictions. In this sense, the use of paradox and contradiction becomes a critique of merely rational discourses.

What kind of thought is then open up to the reader? Here, I would suggest that it is the emotion as a type of thought that transcends the logical thought. This is because the emotions, it seems, are better suited to grasping paradox. I can think, for example, about how I have conflicting viewpoints, even paradoxical viewpoints. Consider the following: if I am in love with someone who, I know from another perspective, is not suited for me, and will only bring me pain, yet I am nevertheless still in love, is this not a form of emotion where paradox reigns? Here, desire and feelings function in a manner that on the rational level are incoherent, but precisely these desires and feelings evoke a truth beyond the rational that is found in the paradox. Logically, this emotion does not make sense, but from a purely emotional perspective it does; logically, desire and feelings often are inconsistent, yet they can serve as a powerful motivating force within the plane of existence and even lead one to go beyond it.

This is why I think that the Dao De Thing represents a certain transcendent and emotive thinking, breaking through the deadlocks of practical existence. Certainly, the passages of, for example, political advice seem to be coldly rational. However, if we consider the work in a greater context, what is being opened to the reader is new realms of thought, in which we have to take another view of a situation. This is the very point of advice: someone, I think, gives to advice to another, because the person in need of advice cannot see this different perspective. And the ability to see this different perspective is a way of transcending the situation itself, so as to shed new light on it.

The emotional core of the Dao De Jing, therefore might not always be explicit, especially when considering the practical portions of the text. However, it is deeply grounded in fundamental paradoxes, and these paradoxes challenge us to think differently: I would say that this challenge to think differently is a challenge to think emotively, to think from a perspective of radical feeling, and to the extent that one strives to achieve this state, one is to think from a perspective of radical and explicit desire. It is when this foundation is established, where paradoxes may also be some times true, that we get a deeper insight into the different possibilities of existence, and it therefore also becomes possible to act in a manner that is thorough and profound.