When people meet unexpectedly far from their hometown, they say, “It is a small world.” People also say, our world has shrunk to a village, global village. Modern communication technology has brought people unprecedentedly closer especially since the end of the Cold War. We are facing a new world that humans have never faced before. Do you think we need a totally new way of life? Many scholars say YES, and they predict that different cultures will replace nations to compete with each other in this new world. The show on the stage of the new world will be around …

(written by You-Sheng Li) (This page was written mainly based on: Basic Theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine edited by Zhang Enqin, Shanghai: Publishing House of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 1990) (1) Excerpts from A New Interpretation of Chinese Taoist Philosophy: Taoist Influence on Chinese Medicine Chinese traditional medicine has been developed under the influence of Taoist philosophy and this association of Taoist religion with medicine has been regarded as its major attraction to the people. The differences between Chinese and Western medicine can be found in those parts that developed under the influence of Taoist philosophy.Chinese medicine considers …

(By You-Sheng Li) (1) General View Modern secondary society is fundamentally different from ancient primitive society, tribes and bands, which are here called primary society. The primary society has usually 150 members or so, and it has a headman as the leader. The headman has no forcible power but leads the society by persuasion and mutual understanding. The principle of social interaction is mutual benefit or reciprocity, which lead to an egalitarian society. Secondary society is any society which is either built on the top to many primary societies or is much larger than primary society of a few hundreds. …

By You-Sheng Li The Following is from the book, A New Interpretation of Chinese Taoist Philosophy. (You-Sheng Li, 2005) Chapter 12 Life Cultivation The Emperor of the Southern Sea was called Moment, and the Emperor of the Northern Sea was called Trice. The Emperor of the Middle Land was Murkiness. Moment and Trice often went to visit the Middle Land where Murkiness treated them well. Moment and Trice wanted to repay his virtue and said, “People all have the same seven holes in their heads to see, hear, eat, and breathe but Murkiness alone has none. Let’s see if we …

(By You-Sheng Li) A Taoist Fable of the Month (January 2008) A Note From the Author: Taoist classics easpecially Chuang Tzu and Lieh Tzu are famous for using fables, parables, and allegories to explore philosophical depth. Those fables are delightful to read but lend us some new perspectives to view life. Small Understanding and Great Understanding In the bare north, there is a dark sea called the pool of heaven. There is a fish that is thousands of miles across and nobody knows how long its body really is. It transforms itself into a gigantic bird called P’eng. Its back …

By You-Sheng Li (1) Taoism as an Organized Religion inside China Taoist philosophy, as a school of thought or a way of life, was established during the Axial era of China, 770-221 BCE. After organized religion, Buddhism, spread to China, Some Taoists organized themselves into a religion in the second century CE. Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism were the three main religions in Chinese history ever since. Chinese people usually visited their temples to worship but did not officially joined any of those religions. They could go to a Buddhist temple one day, and a Taoist temple next day. Taoism as …

By You-Sheng Li (2012) A few years ago, I attended a lecture given by a professor at the local library. His topic was the philosophy of language. As an example, he talked about how his young daughter learned to speak: As a toddler, she only managed to speak two or three words with visible difficulty in expressing herself. Then all of a sudden, she is chattering continuously with her mother or other girls around three and four. She speaks so freely without any visible effort and only has with difficulty in stopping talking. There is nothing in the world that …

By You-Sheng Li 1. An Introduction to Taoism As a philosophy of life, Lao Tzu (?604-484 BC) and Chuang Tzu (?369-286 BC) were traditionally recognized as the founders. Its origin goes back to the time when Chinese civilization began to emerge. Thus a sub-school of Taoist philosophy takes the name Huang Lao referring to the Yellow Emperor, the common ancestor to all Chinese, and Lao Tzu. After Buddhism spread into China during the Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD), Taoism developed into an organized religion. Daoist culture has long permeated the everyday life of ordinary Chinese people since it exerted great …

You-Sheng Li The Western and the Eastern cultures have evolved along different paths to reach their present forms. Kwang-chih Chang (2000) and C.C. Lamberg-Karlovsky (2000) pointed out that the Mesopotamian civilization from which the Western culture has derived represented a breakout from an earlier primitive pattern, and such breakout was absent in the emergence of Chinese and Maya civilizations. Thus many civilizations did not evolve according to the conventionally presumed technology-driven, man-conquers-nature Near Eastern model. This article introduces the concept of primary society and secondary society to delineate the different courses along which the Western and the Chinese civilizations have …

You-Sheng Li (edited 25/2/08) In Chinese history, intellectuals were Confucian in the government office but Taoist at home. Taoism became the guiding philosophy of Chinese spare time activities, including fine arts such as painting, music, calligraphy, and various ways to keep us in good health such as medicine and physical exercises. Typically Taoists were nonofficial hermits who devoted their talents to admiring nature and the Chinese landscape. The moral spirit of Chinese swordsmanship was to cut the throat of social power and wealth to help the poor, therefore nonofficial. Martial arts are also a form of physical exercise. As a …