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Tao Te Ching
THE TAOISM OF LAO TZU
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Tao Te Ching
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The Book
The Taoism of Lao Tzu Explained. The great Taoist philosophy classic by Lao Tzu translated, and each of the 81 chapters extensively commented. Click the image to see the book at Amazon (paid link). |
Tao Te ChingVictory Is Cause for Grief
Lao Tzu continues his reflections on war, begun in the previous chapter. Again, he protests any tendency to glorify it. War should be entered reluctantly and in grief. This is true for both parties, whatever the outcome. The noble warrior mourns the fallen ones, also those of the enemy.
War erupts as a consequence of some serious failure. People will die, and the outcome can be expected to accomplish no more than a correction of the initial failure. Maybe not even that. War improves nothing and rarely solves any problem. It's a funeral of grotesque proportions. What else to do but grieve it?
Weapons are nothing but tools of war and should be regarded as such. It would be vicious to call them beautiful or praise their effectiveness. They may be needed in the defense against tools of the same kind. There is no other need for them and no other value to them.
Weapons are needed, sadly, because they exist.
Still, all through history – in China as well as in every other country – war and its tools have been glorified. They still are. We revel at skillfully crafted weapons, their sharpness and precision. We turn past wars into legends of heroism and triumph, as if man excels only in such challenges.
We make wars exciting and regard peace as little more than the dull time between them. Peace is described as non-war, as if lacking any value or significance of its own. We would do much better to regard war as non-peace, moments of meaningless interruption in the process of history.
War just kills, but peace is really what we live for. Strangely, we seem to forget that in times of peace. Why do we need wars to remind ourselves of the blessing of peace?
Lao Tzu points at a fundamental flaw in our attitude. We quickly forget the horrors of war when they are absent, because we confuse the joy we felt at their end with the triumph of victory. The celebration of the return of peace becomes a cheering of the soldiers who ended the war by winning it. When soldiers are praised, so is war, whatever the returning soldiers might think about it.
No, war must be regarded as a funeral all through. That's what it is.
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Tao Te Ching Explained
Preface
Introduction
Literature
translated and explained by Stefan Stenudd.
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Tao Te Ching Explained
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