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Essay 1

In The Origins of the Legend of Lao Tan Lao-Tzu is depicted as one person from two

different kingdoms. There is a phrase on the first page that is interesting and is the following “a

good merchant fills his store-houses but appears to have nothing: a true gentleman is overflowing

with virtue but looks as if he was a fool” (pp.23) and this man was from Chou. The next phrase

that is interesting is “Lao-Tzu lived at least 160 years, some say at least 200 years, as a result of

cultivating the Way and nurturing longevity (pp.24)” and this man was from Ch’u. It appears that

those two phrases relate the best to the Dao De Jing the best (at least what we looked at so far in

class). With these couple of phrases it appears that the tale of Laozi is Daoist; but compared to

Confucianism to make it completely Chinese in origin.

The first phrase that I mentioned about the merchant filling his store house but appears to

have nothing seems to be referring to what the Dao De Jing says “he accumulates an abundance

of virtue.” This passage seems to be behind the description of Laozi, because a merchant with

nothing tangible to sell cannot be a merchant (for long). The first part also appears to be talking

about “that which is completely empty endures” in the Dao that we have read so far it mentions

that to follow the Dao to be whole you must be empty.

The second part of the first phrase I think came from the Dao De Jing as well and not

from Confucianism. In the first part of the Guodian it says “cut off knowledge and discard

disputation, cut off skill and discard benefit, and cut off purposiveness and discard worry.” By

cutting off all these things a person would look like a fool. Also, by cutting off these things a

person would appear to have nothing and therefore would appear to be the only one left in his

family, which would be a bad thing in Confucianism (have no family).

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The second phrase that I mentioned also appears to be written after the Dao De Jing and

to be Daoist in origin. In Confucianism you continuously live through being remembered by later

generations; but in Daoism there are passages that appear to try and lead you toward finding

immortality or long life. The second phrase mentioned that Laozi lived for as long as 200 years

by cultivating the Way thus was able to nurture longevity.

One of the parts of the Dao says “they are born and move, move and reach death” and

another passage says “through attempting nothing, everything will be done.” These two passages

would seem to promote a Daoist origin, because they are encouraging longevity and eventually

immortality. The first passage that I wrote appears to be talking about making only necessary

movements as to not waste the energy that feeds the souls. The second passage appears to mean

that through following the Dao things will fall into place on their own which will promote

longevity because you do not move or endanger yourself.

In conclusion, the tale of Laozi appears to be written after the Dao De Jing and Daoist in

origin, because of what appear to be references to the Dao De Jing. Also, with the discussion of

souls and long life in your body you can see the differences between Daoist thought and

Confucian thought.

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Paper #7

Please read the papers assigned to you carefully two or three times and then complete the following:

1) What is the author’s thesis statement?

The tale of Laozi appears to be written after the Dao De Jing and Daoist in origin, because of what

appear to be references to the Dao De Jing.

2) Does the author argue for his or her thesis consistently and logically? List three sentences that

support the main thesis.

His or her argument seems a little scattered and unorganized…

a. The second phrase that I mentioned also appears to be written after the Dao De Jing and

to be Daoist in origin.

b. These two passages would seem to promote a Daoist origin, because they are

encouraging longevity and eventually immortality

c. The first part also appears to be talking about “that which is completely empty endures”

in the Dao that we have read so far it mentions that to follow the Dao to be whole you must

be empty. 3) Were you convinced by the argument? Why or why not?

Not really, sorry. I had a hard time following what you were arguing and some of the things in your paper

did not seem to relate well with the other things, such as the opening paragraph when you talk about the

man from two kingdoms and the parts about Confucianism.

4) Write down two constructive suggestions that might improve the paper.

a. Move your first sentence of your conclusion to the beginning and make it your thesis. It

was the clearest sentence in terms of telling me what your argument really was, but it

didn’t come until the end.

b. Cut out or work on tying in better the parts of your paper that don’t solidly support that

thesis. The parts about Confucianism could be related better, they just seemed to come

out of nowhere. Maybe you could say something like, “A Confucian author would not

have made Laozi this way because of this.”