Course Description

Hello everyone, welcome to Tao Te Ching--the book of Te: learn the wisdom and language of the most translated Taoist philosopher. Tao Te Ching is a fundamental text for both philosophical and religious Taoism, and strongly influenced Legalism, Confucianism and Chan Buddhism, which when first introduced into China was interpreted through the use of Taoist concepts. Many Chinese artists, including poets, painters, calligraphers and gardeners, have been greatly influenced by Tao Te Ching. Its influence spread widely outside East Asia, and is among the most translated works in world literature, only next to Bible.

The passages in Tao Te Ching are ambiguous, with topics ranging from advice for rulers and profound religious experience of cosmic origin of Tao and its application in all realms of life. The book has 81 chapters ,this course teaches the second half of the book: the Book of Te. The central values of Tao Te Ching are: the ineffability of Tao, the privileging of the female attributes, the force of Yin--such as softness, yielding, humility, resilience and non-action effecting all actions. The returning movement as the movement of Tao, the interchangeability of the opposites, political rule with least interference, philosophical and religious experience of vacuity and power of nothingness.  It believes that the masters of Tao do nothing, while leave nothing undone. It is only when Tao is lost, that there are the artificial human standards of virtue, benevolence, righteousness and ritual. It believes that the great rulers are like the ocean, residing in a low place, and through its humility all states flow down and gather to it without resorting to military force and coesive measures.

 Tao Te Ching has been translated into Western languages over 250 times, its cryptic and poetic language is a famous puzzle which everyone would like to resolve. It exerted a profound influence on western philosophies: its dialects formed  Leibniz' and Hegelian dialectics, and influenced Schopenhauer and Nietzsche's opposition of the world of ideal and the world of the will. Many western thinkers, upon the disaster of the First World war and the contemplation of the ruins of western civilization, had looked upon Lao Zi's ideal of rulership in the vein "performing non-action to achieve all action" and freedom from state greed and violence as a welcoming antidote to the ruins of western civilization.

    In learning the course, print out the PDF of Analects text in the introduction chapter, and with it in hand, study the selected chapters in the following lectures (because there is no subtitle of the text in the video). For each lecture, I will explain word by word the meaning of the classical Chinese text, and then I will explain to you the philosophical implication of these texts, often comparing it with other schools of Chinese philosophies. Finally I will lead you to read the text twice so that you can recite and memorize them.



Professor of Chinese, English and Comparative literature

Hong Zeng

I am an award-winning professor of Chinese, English and Comparative Literature. I have taught Mandarin Chinese at all levels in prestigious American colleges altogether for 16 years. I have taught nine years as a tenure-track professor of Chinese and comparative literature at Carleton College, ranked No. 1 in undergraduate teaching in all liberal arts colleges in America, and have directed the Chinese program for two years at Hamline University (the first university in Minnesota). In both my second year coming to Carleton and Hamline, I more than doubled their Beginning Chinese Class enrollment. I have also taught at Swarthmore College, College of William and Mary and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Before I came to United States, I have taught English and American literature for 3 years at Beijing Foreign Studies University. I have two PhDs, one in Chinese and comparative literature from UNC, Chapel Hill, the other in  English and American literature, literature translation and second language education from Beijing Foreign Studies University. I have published five books in America (including two from Macmillan) on Chinese, English and comparative literature, film study, language study and language philosophy that are well-endorsed by world-renowned experts and book review journals in my field. I have earned 30000 dollars large grant from Asian Network in Chinese study.

Course curriculum

  • 1

    New Chapter

    • promo video

    • chapter 38'

    • chapter 39'

    • chapter 40'

    • chapter 41'

    • chapter 42'

    • chapter 43'

    • chapter 44'

    • chapter 45'

    • chapter 46'

    • chapter 47'

    • chapter 48'

    • chapter 49'

    • chapter 50'

    • chapter 51'

    • chapter 52'

    • chapter 53'

    • chapter 54'

    • chapter 55'

    • chapter 56'

    • chapter 57'

    • chapter 58'

    • chapter 59‘

    • chapter 60'

    • chapter 61'

    • chapter 62'

    • chapter 63'

    • chapter 64'

    • chapter 65'

    • chapter 66'

    • chapter 67'

    • chapter 68'

    • chapter 69'

    • chapter 70'

    • chapter 71'

    • chapter 72'

    • chapter 73'

    • chapter 74'

    • chapter 75'

    • chapter 76'

    • chapter 77'

    • chapter 78'

    • chapter 79'

    • chapter 80'

    • chapter 81'