ABSTRACT
The two main Daoist texts are Daodejing by Laozi and Zhuangzi by Zhuangzi. The Daodejing and the Zhuangzi encourage freedom from convention, intuitive understanding of the nature of things, and blissful transcendence of mundane cares and worries. The Daodejing consists of eighty-one brief, poetic, philosophical statements that may have circulated orally before being compiled in the third century BCE. According to tradition, a court archivist in the kingdom of Zhou known as Laozi wrote the Daodejing in the sixth century. Having become disgusted with the kingdom's rulers, he decided to leave China and wrote the Daodejing when a border guard insisted that he leave behind his teachings. Teaching that what hinders people attainment of happiness and freedom is their own mind. Thus Daoism eventually came to involve magic, alchemy, and fortune-telling. A steady stream of new translations and commentaries shows continuing and international interest in the Daoist texts, especially the Daodejing.
