Tao Te Chang: 29-43

In the introduction it is said that Confucius once visited Lao Tsu, who wrote the Tao, and came back "awed" by the man.

I have to say, I found that confusing, since Confucius and Tsu preach very different doctrines.

First of all, Confucius is a passionate believer in the good of instructing your mind, while Tsu often repeats that learning is bad, and that it is the root of confusion. Secondly, Confucius insists that learning the rites is extremely important, while Tsu states that, "now ritual is the husk of faith and loyalty, the beginning of confusion," (Twenty-Eight). Tsu disagrees with Confucius on two of his most important point. Another, smaller, thing is that Tsu, unlike Confucius, does not look down upon women, and often praises them.

However, I think that Confucius agrees, in a way, with wu-wei. I remember a passage where one of his disciples asks him how to sow rice (or something like that; I know nothing about farming), and he replies that if he is a just Lord, all the servants in the world will come to him and sow the rice for him. This is a form of wu-wei because the disciple would, "[do] nothing, yet [leave] nothing undone," as Tsu defines wu-wei in Thirty-Eight.

Another point on which they agree is that character makes up a person's goodness, which means that he is only good if he is born good. People who try to achieve goodness are fakers ("A foolish man tries to be good,/And is therefore not good," Thirty-Eight), and Confucius stated in The Analects that people who try to follow the Way are not as good as the ones who do it naturally. I don't think is fair. People should be given even more credit if they have to try hard to do right, than if doing the same thing is natural is natural. For example, if you love beef, and manage to abstain from it for the rest of your life, you should be given more credit than someone who doesn't like beef and so has no problem with not eating it. You have to put more effort in it even though you achieve the same results, and your strength of character should be observed.

In conclusion, though Confucius and Tsu have some similar opinions, I think that they're mostly different, and I'm surprised that Confucius admired him. When I read The Analects I got the feeling he was very intolerant of people who didn't see things the exact same way as he did. I guess I was wrong.