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1. The Chinese civilization is the only continuous civilization in the world. The Shang people of the earliest
known dynasty (16th -15th cent. B. C.) practiced Taoism. Taoism is a philosophy and religion founded upon
the teachings of Lao-Tse, thought to have lived in the 6th cent. B. C. and based upon the concept of Tao,
seeking to achieve practical and spiritual harmony with the universe.
Tao is a cosmic force which flows through all things and binds [связывать] and releases them. Taoism grew
from an observance of the natural world and a belief in cosmic balance maintained and regulated by the Tao.
According to Taoism, the way of the Tao is in accordance with nature while resistance to the Tao is
unnatural and causes friction. The best way for a person to live, according to Taoism, is to submit to
whatever life brings and be flexible. If a person adapts to the changes in life easily, that person will be
happy; if a person resists the changes in life, that person will be unhappy. One's ultimate goal is to live at
peace with the way of the Tao and recognize that everything that happens in life should be accepted as part
of the eternal force which binds and moves through all things.
2. The main similarity of these teachings is their striving for harmony. There are no strict gods whom people
worship as if they were slaves. Oriental religious and philosophical teachings are concentrated on the
harmonic balance of nature and human souls.
There are some diversities in these teachings. For example, Confucianism is mostly dedicated to
relationships between people, unlike Taoism and Shintoism, where people and nature are inseparably linked
and the goal of people is to maintain this balance.
This is a painting of a Chinese artist Shen Zhou. It shows a man on the edge of a cliff who observes
mountains in front of him. Behind the man we see a house and some trees. It must be a village there. The
whole painting is made with black ink. Most objects are placed at the right corner and there are a lot of space
in the rest of the picture. And the picture is drawn on paper, so these characteristics allow us to count this
work as a small-format painting. The interplay of light and slight shadows creates a misty and cool
atmosphere full of melancholy. The man might be a little sad and thinking about something abstract being in
communion with the enveloping grayness of the surrounding world. His mind is full of different thoughts.
He feels the power of the mountains and the tenderness of tiny drops of water in the air. This is balance, the
most important thing in the universe. Does he have balance in his soul? I don’t think so, I suppose he tries to
reach this kind of harmony, observing misty landscape, breathing fresh cool air and looking for something
which can’t be visible, something too small but too important, something that will change everything. Will
he find it?
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