Ever seen or doodled a yin-yang symbol? Does the proverb \"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step\" ring a bell? You've brushed up against the Tao Te Ching, one of the most influential works of Ancient Chinese literature that's also the foundational text of Taoism (pronounced \"daoism\"), China's major native religion. Traditionally ascribed to a scholar called Lao-Tzu, the Tao Te Ching was likely a collection of related poems and proverbs by many authors, collected into an anthology around 350 BCE. In this episode, we walk through some of the main concepts, including the Tao as a cosmic force, the principle of wu wei, or non-action, and how you can see the tensions of China's Warring States Period (c. 475–221 BCE) shining through in the text.
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