An ancient Chinese philosophical and poetic text of 81 short chapters attributed to the sage Laozi, foundational to Taoism, presenting the concept of the Tao (Way) as the ineffable source of all things and the basis of wise, effortless action (wu wei).
Articulated the Taoist vision of the universe as arising from an undivided, nameless principle (Tao); introduced wu wei (non-striving action), complementarity of opposites, and the virtue of yielding as philosophical ideals, profoundly influential across East Asian civilisation and globally.
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