The Daodejing of Laozi was first written in classical Chinese between 6th BCE and 3rd BCE. The idea of Daoism was founded by Laozi, and is primarily focused around living with the Dao (Tao) and not against the Way. The Daodejing can be split up into three parts; Dao (Tao) equals the Way or natural living, De (Te) meaning virtue and power, and Jing (Ching) in context means classic. The main idea of the Daodejing simply put is, no being can abandon their place or change the “natural limits” without dismantling the balance of the Way. The key purpose is to live with the Way and not against it, otherwise any action is self-defeating. It is important to analyze the crucial chapters of the Daodejing line by line or even word for word, or else key…show more content… “Everyone in the world knows that when the beautiful strives to be beautiful, it is repulsive” (Ivanhoe and Laozi 2). It can be interpreted as, when an individual strives to be more and more beautiful, they see more of the opposite which is repulsive or ugly. The more beautiful something is, the uglier the opposite is. It puts an emphasis on one, but at the same time it puts emphases on the opposite. Similarly, the next line has a complementary meaning. “Everyone knows that when the good strives to be good, it is no good” (Ivanhoe and Laozi 2). This line puts emphasis on the term good, but there cannot be good without bad. If one knows what good is, he or she will consequently know what that bad is. The problem with both of the quotes is that it puts limitations on the person, as if their ideas are in a “box”. In the story about the farmer, the farmer’s son finds a wild horse and brings it home. Now, this at first seems good, because the farmer has a new horse, but later on the boy breaks his leg and this is now viewed as bad. The next day follows, and the army comes to the farmer’s house to take the boy to the war, but he does not need to go due to the fact that his leg was broken. A day ago, the boy breaking his leg was considered bad, and a day later it was considered good. By putting a label on what is good and what is bad, one is indeed limited and is narrow minded because in the end, what is good…show more content… “This is why sages abide in the business of nonaction, and practice the teaching that is without words” (Ivanhoe and Laozi 2). Wise men (sages) who know the Way and do not go against it, take part in nonaction. Nonaction is the Way, action is against it. Action has goals and an individual becomes closed mined and they develop tunnel vision, this is the underlining problem. If one has tunnel vision, then they can only see a minuscule part of the bigger picture. If they only see things as beautiful, then they are closed off from what is the ugly. If they only see the good, they will not see the bad. This is why the wise teach without words because it eliminates labels that essentially puts an individuals mind in a “box”. Just like the chair example, its called a chair because of the function it serves, but to something that has never seen a chair before would not use it the same way a human would. By labeling or giving names (words) to something limits what it can