Thought Atlasof Human Culture through ChronologyCompiled by Benjamin Kotler
China

Daodejing

Dao De Jing

attributed to Laozi · c. 4th century BC (compiled; traditional dating to the 6th century BC is disputed) · Chu region (China) · philosophy

The way that can be described is not the eternal way, and the wisest rulers govern, and live, by acting so little that things unfold on their own.

A terse, aphoristic text of some 5,000 characters organized around the concept of the Dao, an ineffable natural order that cannot be captured in fixed language or forced by deliberate action. Its recurring principle of wu wei, effortless or non-coercive action, applies equally to personal conduct and to statecraft, arguing that the softest, most yielding approach ultimately overcomes the rigid and the strong. Excavated bamboo-slip fragments from Guodian, dated to roughly 300 BC, confirm the text's core existed by the late Warring States period even as its final compilation and traditional attribution to Laozi remain debated.

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Fed into

  • Huangdi Sijing · c. 400-168 BC (buried, and so necessarily composed before, the sealing of Mawangdui Tomb 3 in 168 BC; rediscovered in 1973)
  • Zhuangzi · c. 350-150 BC (Inner Chapters earliest and most likely authentic to Zhuang Zhou; Outer and Miscellaneous Chapters added by later followers through the early Han)
  • Han Feizi · c. 250-233 BC
  • Lüshi Chunqiu · 239 BC
  • Huainanzi · 139 BC (presented to Emperor Wu of Han)
  • Mouzi Lihuolun · traditionally set c. AD 195 in the far south during the collapse of Han authority; many modern scholars date the text's actual composition later, some as late as the 4th-5th century AD, and it survives only in a later collection
  • Liezi · traditionally attributed to a 5th century BC Daoist philosopher; the received 8-chapter text is regarded by most modern scholars as a Wei-Jin period compilation (3rd-4th century AD) incorporating older fragments, edited by Zhang Zhan
  • Baopuzi · AD 317 (Inner Chapters)

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