Editing Taoism (section)

===Ethics===
{{Main|Three Treasures (Taoism)}}
[[file:Fishing Zhuangzi.png|thumb|Illustration of the tortoise in the mud parable from the ''Zhuangzi''. When some officials came to offer Zhuang zhou a job at court, he replied he preferred to continue to live a life of solitary simplicity, like a turtle who prefers to live in the mud than to be displayed at court.]]
Daoist ethics tends to emphasize various themes from the Taoist classics, such as naturalness (''pu''), spontaneity (''ziran''), [[simplicity]], [[detachment (philosophy)|detachment from desires]], and most important of all, ''[[wu wei]]''.{{sfnp|Chan|1963}} The classic Daoist view is that humans are originally and naturally aligned with Tao, thus their original nature is inherently good. It emphasizes doing things that are natural, following the Tao, which is a cosmic force that flows through all things and binds and releases them.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mark |first=Emily |date=2016-02-22 |title=Taoism |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Taoism/ |access-date=2024-04-27 |website=World History Encyclopedia |language=en}}</ref> However, one can fall away from this due to personal habits, desires, and social conditions. Returning to one's nature requires active attunement through Daoist practice and ethical cultivation.{{sfnp|Komjathy|2014|p=147}}

Some popular Daoist beliefs, such as the early [[Shangqing School|Shangqing school]], do not believe this and believe that some people are irredeemably evil and destined to be so.<ref name="Carrasco-1999">{{Cite book |last1=Carrasco |first1=David |title=Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions |last2=Warmind |first2=Morten |last3=Hawley |first3=John Stratton |last4=Reynolds |first4=Frank |last5=Giarardot |first5=Norman |last6=Neusner |first6=Jacob |last7=Pelikan |first7=Jaroslav |last8=Campo |first8=Juan |last9=Penner |first9=Hans |publisher=[[Merriam-Webster]] |editor=[[Wendy Doniger]] |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-87779-044-0 |page=691 |language=en |author-link=David Carrasco |author-link4=Frank Reynolds (academic) |author-link6=Jacob Neusner |author-link7=Jaroslav Pelikan}}</ref> Many Taoist movements from around the time [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] elements started being syncretized with Daoism had an extremely negative view of foreigners, referring to them as ''[[Hua–Yi distinction|yi]]'' or "barbarians", and some of these thought of foreigners as people who do not feel "human feelings" and who never live out the correct norms of conduct until they became Taoist.<ref name="Zurcher-1980">{{Cite journal |last=Zürcher |first=Erik |date=1980 |title=Buddhist Influence on Early Taoism: A Survey of Scriptural Evidence |journal=T'oung Pao |volume=66 |issue=1/3 |page=108 |doi=10.1163/156853280X00039 |jstor=4528195 |issn=0082-5433}}</ref> At this time, [[China]] was widely viewed by Taoists as a holy land because of influence from the Chinese public that viewed being born in China as a privilege and that outsiders were enemies.<ref name="Zurcher-1980" /> Preserving a sense of "Chineseness" in the country and rewarding [[Nativism (politics)|nativist]] policies such as the building of the [[Great Wall of China]] was important to many Taoist groups.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Spectacular China |publisher=Könemann |year=1999 |isbn=978-3-8290-1077-1 |editor-last=Guangwei |editor-first=He |location=Cologne |page=22 |translator-last=Wusun |translator-first=Lin |editor-last2=Hualing |editor-first2=Tong |editor-last3=Wenzhen |editor-first3=Yang |editor-last4=Zhenguo |editor-first4=Chang |editor-last5=Zeru |editor-first5=Li |editor-last6=Ruicheng |editor-first6=Dong |editor-last7=Weijan |editor-first7=Gong |translator-last2=Zhongping |translator-first2=Wu}}</ref>

Foreigners who joined these Taoist sects were made to repent for their sins in another life that caused them to be born "in the frontier wilds" because of Buddhist ideas of reincarnation coming into their [[doctrine]]s.<ref name="Zurcher-1980" /> Some Daoist movements viewed [[human nature]] neutrally.<ref name="Stefon-2016" /> However, some of the movements that were dour or skeptical about human nature did not believe that evil is permanent and believed that evil people can become good. Korean Daoists tended to think extremely positively of human nature.<ref name="Carrasco-1999a">{{Cite book |last1=Carrasco |first1=David |title=Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions |last2=Warmind |first2=Morten |last3=Hawley |first3=John Stratton |last4=Reynolds |first4=Frank |last5=Giarardot |first5=Norman |last6=Neusner |first6=Jacob |last7=Pelikan |first7=Jaroslav |last8=Campo |first8=Juan |last9=Penner |first9=Hans |publisher=[[Merriam-Webster]] |editor=[[Wendy Doniger]] |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-87779-044-0 |page=1058 |language=en |author-link=David Carrasco |author-link4=Frank Reynolds (academic) |author-link6=Jacob Neusner |author-link7=Jaroslav Pelikan}}</ref>

Some of the most important virtues in Taoism are the ''Three Treasures'' or ''Three Jewels'' ({{zh|labels=no|c=三寶|p=sānbǎo}}). These are: ''ci'' ({{zh|labels=no|c=慈|p=cí}}, usually translated as ''[[compassion]]''), ''jian'' ({{zh|labels=no|c=儉|p=jiǎn|s=|t=}}, usually translated as ''[[moderation]]''), and ''bugan wei tianxia xian'' ({{zh|labels=no|c=不敢爲天下先|p=bùgǎn wéi tiānxià xiān|l=not daring to act as first under the heavens}}, but usually translated as ''[[humility]]''). [[Arthur Waley]], applying them to the [[Political sociology|socio-political]] sphere, translated them as: "abstention from aggressive war and capital punishment", "absolute simplicity of living", and "refusal to assert active authority".<ref>{{harvp|Waley|1958|p=225}}</ref>

Taoism also adopted the Buddhist doctrines of [[karma]] and [[reincarnation]] into its religious ethical system.{{sfnp|Kohn|2008|p=123}} Medieval Taoist thought developed the idea that ethics was overseen by a celestial administration that kept records of people's actions and their fate, as well as handed out rewards and punishments through particular celestial administrators.{{sfnp|Kohn|2008|p=99}}

In its original form, the religion does not involve political affairs or complex rituals; on the contrary, it encourages the avoidance of public responsibility and the search for a vision of a spiritual transcendent world.<ref>{{Citation |title=Copyright |date=2009-01-01 |work=The Chinese Consumer Market |pages=iv |editor-last=Tang |editor-first=Lei |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9781843343325500139 |access-date=2024-04-27 |series=Chandos Asian Studies Series |publisher=Chandos Publishing |doi=10.1016/b978-1-84334-332-5.50013-9 |isbn=978-1-84334-332-5}}</ref>{{Citation needed|date=April 2024|reason=The original citation appears to be at the wrong page}}