Huang Jui-hsiang, who works at the Tai-pei city government's Bureau of Business Management, is an avid reader of classical Chinese philosophy. He doesn't limit himself to any one school, but reads everything, including Laozi, Zhuangzi, the Analects, and Mencius. In his opinion, "All of these works are pearls of wisdom."

To draw a comparison between Laozi and Confucius, Huang uses the metaphor of two boys playing on the beach. One of the boys loves to build sandcastles, even though the waves keep coming in and washing them away. The other knows that the sandcastles will be swept away sooner or later, but he's happy just to be at the beach gazing out at the sea and sky, watching the tide rise and fall, and using his observant eyes to penetrate the secrets of the universe. "However," says Huang, "Confucius has more fun."

Huang finds the Analects and Laozi equally useful. As he sees it, Confucian thinkers feel that even though society is in continual turmoil, there is still greatness in the human heart, and that even though goodness may constitute the lesser part of human nature, we should not for that reason give up on ourselves. Confucius reminds us of our limitless possibilities, while Laozi reminds us of our limitations. Laozi isn't fooled by the high-sounding rhetoric that we all put out. He feels that all the righteousness in the world can turn in an instant to hypocrisy. That being the case, the best thing is simply to act in harmony with nature.

Some people study Laozi as a means of understanding management. Asked about the benefit of studying Laozi, Huang answers that Laozi would not have limited anyone to any single reason for studying his thought. There is no reason why it shouldn't be studied with a practical purpose in mind. For Huang, who holds a doctorate in soil science and has a deep understanding of environmental issues, Laozi learned from nature the principle of diversity, and for that reason wisely refrained from jumping to hasty conclusions. Laozi understood that a big rock represents different things to different observers. To an elephant, it is a good place to scratch one's back. Insects build their homes on it, and trees use it to protect their roots. From the standpoint of biology, nothing has just one use.

According to Huang, it may seem to a modern reader that the people of ancient times lived very different lives, but in fact their experiences do not differ so much from our own. All you have to do is put yourself in their shoes, and you will know what they are talking about. The classics are like "cultural genetic material." It forms a nation's character, and continually reproduces itself. Laozi was the first to express his ideas, and since then there has been an unbroken chain of people to support them. Ever the biologist, Huang asserts that this process even affects our biological genes.

"Living is a process, not a goal." For Huang, Laozi's philosophy provides a constant reminder that even as you broaden your world view, you shouldn't lose sight of yourself. You shouldn't allow yourself to get caught in whirlpools from which there is no escape. In his opinion, Confucius, Mencius, Laozi and Zhuangzi all wanted us to become ourselves. In the search for the self, Mencius was the most energetic, Confucius took the broadest view, Zhuangzi was the most detached, and Laozi had the deepest insight. The Bible, too, makes the point that it does one no good to gain the whole world if it comes at the cost of losing oneself.

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Huang Jui-hsiang