—Xinnan Teng
I consider Tao Te Ching as great work. Great work, to me, is something that can inspire me and influence the way I act in ordinary life. There are two ideas in Tao Te Ching that I like most. One is the hypothesis of YinYang, alluding to balance in our universe. Yin and Yang have two different identities and representations, but they exist depending on the other. Once one of two disappears, the other one will no longer exist. In other words, while they depend on the other to live in the world, they are also contradicting the other. That’s really interesting because that’s also the reason why the villain would be in the world to contrast with kind people. Otherwise, there will be no distinction between good and evil. The other idea is that eventually, everything will end in the void. No matter how prosperously you thrive in life, finally, we all become dust in the universe. If successes are my achievement, this idea will console me when I try my best but obtain nothing. Because we know the end is the void, so even if we miss something in life, we shouldn’t regret it so much but instead moving forward. Tao Te Ching is a great work that is worth reading several times, and each time you will get a different understanding from it.
