by Xinhua writers Song Rui and Li Kun
TIANJIN, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- For 46-year-old American associate professor of philosophy Misha Tadd, the mountains and rivers in China unfold like living pages from the classic work Tao Te Ching, waiting to be read by those who know how to understand them, rather than just scenery.
This summer, Tadd became a special tour guide for his sister, who was visiting China for the first time. Their journey took them from the historical landmarks of Tianjin and Beijing to the rural landscapes of Shanxi Province in north China.
Tadd's account of this trip was about much more than sightseeing. It played out like a traveling lecture on Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu's ancient classics, with each landscape revealing a new lesson along the journey.
Tadd, who directs the Global Laozegetics Research Center at Nankai University in north China's Tianjin Municipality, has devoted years to studying the Tao Te Ching. In his view, tracing the classics back to their origins and engaging with the very landscape that inspired those philosophical ideas is itself a way of finding harmony with nature, a living encounter with the world that shaped Lao Tzu's way of thinking.
TAO ON TOUR
As they wandered through the Mazu Temple and the historic Five Great Avenues in Tianjin and stood before the Forbidden City and the Great Wall in Beijing, Tadd showed his sister how China breathes new life into its ancient sites. "Letting old buildings tell their stories on the modern stage, this practice itself embodies the wisdom of 'The Way follows nature' (dao fa zi ran in Chinese)," he said.
At the Foguang Temple and Nanchan Temple near Mount Wutai in Shanxi, the unassuming, centuries-old structures inspire another Taoist insight -- "The Sage wears coarse cloth externally, but embraces jade internally."
"These temples have survived for a millennium precisely because they are hidden in remote mountains and never sought to glorify themselves," Tadd observed. "Many once-splendid, lavishly decorated palaces have long been lost to history." He reflected that qualities like softness and obscurity, often seen as passive, can nurture the greatest longevity.
Traveling to Datong, Shanxi, the landscape opened up to reveal hillsides covered with solar panels, gleaming blue under the sun. Tadd pointed to them as a practical example of "wuwei," often translated as "non-action" or "effortless action."
"Using solar energy aligns well with the principle of 'wuwei,'" he explained to his sister. The panels convert sunlight into electricity with minimal disruption to the environment, he noted, a beneficial result of non-interference, especially when compared to the environmental impact of burning wood or coal.
But for Tadd, the relevance of "wuwei" extends far beyond solar panels. He sees it as a philosophical corrective to the human-centered thinking that has dominated the West since the Renaissance. While that mindset has driven scientific and social progress, it has also diminished humanity's sense of humility before the cosmos, a humility that Tadd believes is urgently needed today.
"As science and technology advance, we seem to be escaping the constraints of nature," he said. "But solving small problems, like protecting ourselves from the cold or heat, has created bigger ones, like climate change." The Tao Te Ching, he argues, offers a timely reminder: respect nature's rhythms, and learn to live with the universe rather than against it.
"On one hand, we need to reduce our energy consumption," he said. "On the other, we need to produce energy in a way that follows nature's course -- in a 'wuwei' way."
ROOTS OF REVELATION
These insights often bring Tadd back to his first encounter with the Tao Te Ching. At 14, growing up in a remote village in western Massachusetts, he found an English translation of the classics in his local library.
"It was a special edition -- each page of English translation was accompanied by a black-and-white photo of China's natural scenery, with the original Chinese text written in brushstroke over the images."
The beauty mesmerized the boy, who had always been enchanted by the forests and mountains. "The book describes the relationship between humans and the universe in a subtle way. It resonated with me deeply," Tadd said.
Tadd began learning Chinese, determined to draw closer to the ancient philosophy. As a junior in college, he chose to study in Xi'an, the ancient capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province -- a decision that set him on a path to a lifetime of studying Chinese culture.
Tadd finds that many of Lao Tzu's ideas stem from observations of China's unique geography that still resonate today. "Xi'an is in the Yellow River basin. In such an environment, you cannot ignore the power of water, because the river was once so difficult to control," he said.
Lao Tzu's idealization of water's softness, adaptability, and compliance is likely linked to these regional characteristics. By immersing themselves in such landscapes, ancient philosophers could more easily elevate local observations into universal principles about the cycles of yielding and unity in the cosmos, Tadd added.
HARMONY IN ACTION
Though the Tao Te Ching contains only about 5,000 characters, its concise verses carry profound meaning. It has found a global audience and become a source of cross-civilizational philosophy. This very phenomenon inspired Tadd to pioneer the field of "Global Laozegetics."
In 2022, he published "The Complete Bibliography of Laozi Translations: A Global Laozegetics Reference," which cataloged 2,052 translations in 97 languages. Today, the special collection at Nankai University's Global Laozegetics Research Center houses over 340 translations, a testament to the long and colorful history of cultural exchanges between China and the world.
Tadd champions experiential learning over purely academic research, convinced that the Tao Te Ching's legacy has a profound connection with living people and their stories and that within those natural landscapes, one can best appreciate the unfettered spirit of the Tao.
As more foreign students come to study in China, Tadd offers this advice: "Beyond experiencing the rapid technological development in big cities, they should also go to the countryside, to the mountains, even to the desert, to feel China's millennia-old beauty and the friendliness of its ordinary people."
He hopes international visitors will recognize China's environmental strides over the past two decades. "Environmental degradation knows no borders," he said. "Seeing China's progress, I think, can inspire people elsewhere to embrace sustainability."
The wisdom of the Tao Te Ching has become inseparable from Tadd's own character. "In China, I try to be like water, taking the shape of my surroundings, but not as a disguise or a loss of self. It's about adapting while staying true to who I am," he said. ■
