ABSTRACT
Daoism is not noted in the West for its moral vision. Frequently perceived as a doctrine of detachment and withdrawal rather than of moral commitment and engagement, it was summed up by Richard Wilhelm as ‘a philosophy of inaction, escape from the burdens of office, and retirement into a leisured way of life in the countryside’ (1931: 140), and Max Weber labelled it an ethic of ‘indifference’ which minimised the importance of worldly action (1951: 187).1 In ancient China itself, Daoists were often accused of teaching a doctrine of quietism and of retreat from social responsibilities, a criticism popular amongst Confucianists for whom the social dimension of human life, along with all its obligations and rituals, was paramount. The philosopher Yangzhu, a contemporary of Zhuangzi who had Daoist leanings, was notorious for his remark that he would not sacrifice a single hair of his head even if thereby he could save the whole world, and Zhuangzi himself was often seen as a representative of a selfish, hedonist philosophy which ignored the demands of society.2
