The Book of Jade Mirrors

What's Taoism about?

Taoism is both a practical philosophy and a religion.  In this book, I'm more interested in the philosophical side, not the religious. 

In fact, there are three main strands of Taoism, the original is Philosophical Taoism, this is where my interests lie.  It's fairly secular, but it's views on Chi and other things would (and do) give scientists a bit of trouble.  Philosophical Taoism is about aligning yourself with the Tao (more on that later) through development of virtue and being present in the moment.  It doesn't recognise any gods and being present in the moment is it's only real rite.  It's a dynamic and interesting path, without the tight strictures of other paths, the verses of the Tao Te Ching are designed to be pondered and meditated upon, this promotes the ability to think for oneself and form your own opinions.

The other two strands are Religious and Alchemical, one is what you get when a bunch of priests jump on the bandwagon, the other was concerned with the search for immortality, a paradox given the Taoist view of change and death.   The fact that a lot of people died due to the various brews and potions should pretty much make my point for me.  The early Taoists are considered by some to be the scientists of their time, but that's a misconception as they didn't make any use of the Scientific Method. 

Taoism originated in China, but is thriving all over the world, it's generally held to have it's source as the Tao Te Ching written by Lao Tzu around 500 years BC.  The traditions and principles of Taoism, however, are probably influenced by earlier forms of shamanism and some trace the roots of Taoism as far back as the I-Ching (the Book of Changes) circa 900 BC.  It should be pointed out, however, that the I Ching is at the heart of Chinese culture, so that wouldn't be a difficult feat!  The Tao Te Ching is comprised of a number of verses, each covering one aspect of Taoist thought, and is the first of the three major works of Taoism.  The second is the book of Chuang Tzu, which is more a set of stories (or parables) than verses, the third is the book of Lieh Tzu. 

There are some doubts that Lao Tzu ever really existed, these days many scholars think that the Tao Te Ching was authored by several people, there are also some variations between versions over time.  From this point on, I'll use refer to the originator(s) of The Tao Te Ching as Lao Tzu for simplicity.

There are a number of translations of each book, and I recommend using more than one, as one translation may shed different light to another.  There are a number of translations of each available on the Internet.