Wang Chen, a 9th-century Chinese military commander, was sickened by the carnage that had plagued the glorious T'ang dynasty for decades. He wondered, How can we find a true pacifism, one that will end conflicts before they begin? How are we ever to rectify our self-destructive tendencies? For the answer he turned to the Tao Te Ching. This text had already been a philosophical linchpin of the Chinese tradition of Taoism for more than a thousand years. Wang Chen found in the Tao Te Ching a cosmological anchor for the patterns of human society & an explanation for the dynamics of conflict. Here is his own rendering of & commentary on the ancient text, elucidating the ancient classic's Tao of peace.Ó
