Monday, April 26, 2010

Tao 道

Do Don't Do

The two Chinese word 'Wu Wei' or don't do which actually is a short term for the above phrase have also been often misinterpreted in old Chinese history where an Emperor got so fed up with it that he banned the teachings of Lao Tzu when he managed to seize actual military power in his reign. Guess which Emperor? The Emperor was annoyed that his ancestor had passed down the meanings of "The world can be ruled by letting things run their course; it cannot be ruled by interfering" which was supported by powerful ministers in court and his country divided by powerful warlords concerned more about consolidating their powers then going to war against the warring and pillaging nomadic tribes from outside the border. He was even powerless to stop his beloved sister being married off to a warlike nomadic tribe as a concession for peace and being insulted by the warring tribe when they pillage local villages on the borders for food, women and men as slaves and being forced to accept it as 'ruling without interfering'. End of the day when he managed to gain control of the military power, he trained his inferior army and sent spies to learn to improve the weapons and also to buy horses from other neutral nomadic tribe for his Calvary who has inferior horses compared to the nomadic tribes superior Calvary. In the past, war was fought on horse-backs, the enemy would attacked and then baited his army with running away and tiring his troops before turning back to attack the troops with the exhausted horses. He had then later turn the tables back against his powerful enemy and subduing them in a twenty years period with 'You asked for it', Ha-ha.....

The above was a good example of how the ancient Chinese sages teachings was even misinterpreted by the ancient Chinese themselves down along the way. Ha-ha, I' m Chinese too. The meanings of Lao Tzu' s teaching on 'Wei Wu Wei' or 'Action without action'. Its meaning is to be natural, e.g. To learn to swim, you have to learn to float in water first and as you are learning to float in water, you have to go with the water not against it as Flip Flapping with forceful energy in water would wear you out whereas if you relax or the so called 'let go', you would find that you are able to prolong your time in the water. An easier analogy would be a Chinese story of a famous butcher who was well-known for his superb skill in cutting meat precisely and super fast without wastage. His action has reached this innate level of Wei Wu Wei of cutting meat with being precise and natural(being part of it)without thinking or being too forceful, going with the flow instead. So Wei Wu Wei does not means that you don't do anything at all even when somebody wants to chop off one of your hands,
ha-ha, just kidding.

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