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16298399 No.16298399 [Reply] [Original]

Is ancient Chinese wisdom just a way to troll Westerners? To be frank, this hardly makes any sense at all.

>> No.16298424
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16298424

>>16298399
Maybe? Iono

>> No.16298475

>>16298399
Neh mate, they are trolling the Tocharians.

>> No.16298479

>>16298399
Is this not simply an exhortation of asceticism? You might be straining your eyes too hard.

>> No.16298518

>>16298399
The sage is a ruler that follows the Tao.
Operative word “ruler”; this is a work primarily of political philosophy, but it’s wisdom can most definitely be extrapolated.
This section focuses on keeping the people simple—the exact opposite of what they are in today’s society.

>> No.16298519

>Got filtered by the Dao De Ching

LMFAO

>> No.16298524

>>16298399
Talks about labelling and narrowing. Think of it with that lense
Or just read the whole book and stop getting so Confuciused xD

>> No.16298561
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16298561

The five colors makes white, killing all distinction and knowledge.
All the tastes at once tastes like shit.
The true esoteric wisdom is hard to swallow/absorb, but easy for the heart once you have taken it in.

>> No.16298631

>>16298399
Lemme pull up the chinese text
>五色令人目盲
(five means like everything, so too many) The five colors make man blind
>五音令人耳聋
The five sounds make man deaf
>五味令人口爽
The five flavors impedes a man's ability to taste
>驰骋田猎
Galloping and hunting
>令人心发狂
Make a man's heart wild and mad
>难得之货
And so it is difficult to obtain his rewards (from hunting i guess)
>令人行妨
It hinders a man in his progress
>是以圣人为腹不为目
So in regard to a wise man, he (acts) for his belly, not for his eyes
>故去彼取此
He leaves the others, and takes this

The chinese is easier to understand desu, the way they write the english one is weird

Anyhow, most ancient chinese philosophical texts were written this way, especially the DDJ was written very vaguely, there's been like 100's of commentaries on it over the millenia, desu even chinese people need to read a commentary to understand the DDJ lol

>> No.16298638

>>16298631
And yeah the point is basically to not over indulge yourself, and live simply, pretty common theme in chinese philosophy