On LaoTzu's Conception Of History

Lao Tzu ,the founder of Taoism , was a great thinker and philosopher. The famous book Lao Tzu, also known as Tao Te. As an important legacy of ancient Chinese history, LaoTzu's conception of history has made a positive or negative notable impact on philosophy, politics, life and nature and so on .In this paper, LaoTzu's conception of history is elaborated from three aspects. The first is his conception of history of restoring the old------"lay hold of the Tao of the old to direct the things of the present day", which is expressed in his idea of society, namely"a small country with a small population."The second is his conception of history of valuing common people , the meaning of which is to take people as the foremost , which is expressed in"The sage has no invariable mind of his own; he makes the mind of the people his mind."LaoTzu hated war with a really hellish hatred. He sympathized heartily with people who were exploited and plundered cruelly. He was strongly against severe punishment and excruciating torture because these forced people onto the road to ruin .The third is the dialectics , of which the core is Tao :"The movement of the Tao by contraries proceeds; And weakness marks the course of Tao's mighty deeds."The three aspects of LaoTzu's conception of history have a profound influence on various schools of thought such as Huanglao school, Confucianism, Legalist school, Mo school and so on.Still, there exist some wrong ideas in LaoTzu's conception of history due to the limitations of the times .He preaches the idea of a small country with a small population, advocates the policy of fooling the public and supports the idea of not being the first to do anything, which complies with the needs of the rulers and at the same time constrains the display of the people's subjective initiatives.However, LaoTzu's thought, on the whole, reflects the objective reality. He proposes the idea of"The master does nothing , Yet, he leaves nothing undone.", which is the blueprint used by the rulers of the early Han Dynasty to carry out the policy-----Reduce the burden of the people, live a stable life ,develop the production and restore the vitality of the country . LaoTzu's dialectics, his materialist conception and his idea to value the power of the people play an active role in the promotion of the development of history as well as ancient Chinese philosophy.