Between Acting And Non-acting--A Discrimination Of Non-acting Of Confucius And Lao-tse

In view of the serious situation of social chaos and distortion of human minds brought about by the decline of the civilization of Zhou Dynasty, both Lao-tse and Confucius coincidentally turned to the idea Non-acting to try to find a radical solution. Non-acting does not mean "to do nothing"; it basically means that one (or human beings) intentionally restrains or even prohibit himself from harmful action, so that things will go in totally it natural way. The purpose of the idea is to go back to the Genuineness.However, they took different approaches when putting it into practice. Lao-tse advocated this idea because he saw too much negative effects of human's actions. The core of his idea is to avoid human desire and cleverness and to reach a state of Nameless Rawness. Non-acting is the means as well as the purpose. While for Confucius. Non-acting is his ultimate ideal but not the meas. Confucius did not denied the positive value of human actions. He thought human should take good advantage of their innate wisdom and to feelings to get real knowledge about the Heaven and Human Nature, and try to follow their inner orientation. For him, the means is Action.The difference of approaches can be attributed to their different regulation of the Body-Origin of the world.Lao-tse borrowed a popular concept - Tao - to designate what he thought to bethe Body-Origin of the world. We say "borrow" because he thought that such a thing is not anything that can be named, as the real Body-Origin should exist before any naming. The world before naming is None - not nothing, just No-name; therefore it's also Being - but no more than a chaos. In such Namelessness, everything grows prosperously in a state of Genuineness. It was Naming that helps human beings acquire the knowledge of the world, and at the same time causes the spread of desire and cunningness. The only solution is to go back to the state of Genuineness.Confucius never touched the state of Namelessness. The Body-Origin of the world is the Heaven. Heaven his it Tao; when descending into human mind, it's Human Nature. When a human being goes back to its Human Nature, he is merged into the Heaven inwardly. There are two ways for a human being to return to his Nature: one is to adjust and direct his feelings to harmony though Courtesy and Music; the other is to experience his inner nature, which is called Ren by Confucius.Although there exists many differences between the two thinkers about Non-acting, they share the same directing value - to return to Genuineness. Lao-tse emphasized on returning to the state of Rawness to reach the Genuineness, while Confucius based its possibility upon natural feeling. Lao-tse's design lacks feasibility because it conflicts with the daily life, while Confucius has been accepted to some extent because he based his possibility upon the natural feelings of human beings.