ABSTRACT
Lao Tzu had a Confucian regard for integrity and impartiality and for harmonious relations between man and his world, and he reserved a Confucian sorrow for those who coveted riches and were greedy for power. Lao Tzu's ideal state was "a small country of few inhabitants, whose plentiful implements, boats, carriages, and weapons are all in readiness but never used. The people are content with their food, clothing, and houses, and because distances are short one can hear the cocks crowing and the dogs barking in the next settlement, yet people grow old and die without visiting it". For as Lao Tzu had said: Heaven and Earth are ruthless, They treat all things like sacrificial straw dogs. In consequence China's abrasive militancy in foreign affairs faded, to be replaced without pain by the "smiling diplomacy" of a statesman who knew the virtue of water, as Lao Tzu had first perceived it.
