SuaveG – The Gentle Path

Chinese mythology, folktales, and literature

natural order

  • The Doctrine of the Mean: Confucian Wisdom for Balance and Harmony

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    Ana

    As one of the “Four Books” of Confucianism, The Doctrine of the Mean (Zhongyong) stands as a profound guide to living in harmony with oneself, others, and the natural order. Attributed to Zisi, the grandson of Confucius, this text was originally a chapter in the Book of Rites before being elevated to a standalone…

  • Tao Te Ching: The Ancient Chinese Classic of Wisdom and Harmony

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    Rob

    Among the world’s most influential philosophical texts, the Tao Te Ching (Dao De Jing) stands out as a masterpiece of brevity and profound insight. Attributed to Laozi (Lao Tzu), a mysterious sage believed to have lived in the 6th century BCE during China’s Spring and Autumn Period, this small book of just 81 chapters…

  • Caigentan 128. The cosmic order of self and society

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    Juan

    Man’s body is like a small cosmos. So long as his joy and anger are not excessive, and his love and hatred are not lopsided, there will be order and harmony.

  • Exploitation and oppression in “The Black Beast”

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    Ana

    In Strange Tales from Liaozhai: The Black Beast, an elder named Li Jingyi recounts an incident near Shenyang: A gentleman hosting a banquet on a mountaintop witnesses a tiger carrying an object in its mouth. The tiger digs a pit, buries the object (a dead deer), and leaves. The gentleman sends men to retrieve…

  • Dao De Jing – Chapter 76

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    Ana

    This chapter is a good embodiment of Lao Tzu’s dialectical wisdom of “softness overcoming hardness”. Laozi uses natural phenomena and life principles to reveal the eternal value of “softness” as the essence of vitality, while critiquing the destructive nature of “rigidity” against natural order.