One of the excerpts we didn’t mention in class was 4:5.
“Confucius said, ‘Riches and honors are what all men desire. But if they cannot be attained in accordance with the Way they should not be kept. Poverty and low status are what all men hate. But if they cannot be avoided while staying in accordance with the Way, you should not avoid them.’
I think that these verses are very important because they demonstrate to us how dedicated people were to Daoism and Confucius’ teachings. As Confucius says, nobody wants to be poor but one should never give up their, “fundamental goodness” in order to become wealthy. He even says that people would “act according to” their “fundamental goodness” in times of difficulty. This implies that even when not in their right mind, the Daoist people are still thinking about virtue.
Could you imagine yourself giving up wealth you have stolen from people or even obtained through killing in war? If you followed Confucius teachings you would’ve been expected to. Dao is not just a religious concept but an entire way of life for these people. I would argue that they would give up anything is it meant they were following The Way.
You can also draw connections to wealthy Americans. The richest people in the nation have made their money unethically. Jeffrey Bezos has millions of people wanting to boycott Amazon, but people have become so dependent on the website that it is difficult to do. Several thousands also want to boycott smartphone companies because of how they are made through child and low wage labor. This is also next to impossible though because of how dependent our society is on technology.