I started the EC in the Summer, instead of the Fall like you are supposed to. I wanted to get a little support for what I’d missed. This is obviously not a replacement for doing it in the right order, but Warren Reardon gave me a couple of videos to watch and catch up a little:
First, the fundamental notion of the “Way” as found in the early thinkers in the video, all of whom we read in the fall. I’m a fan of Xunzi, but I am probably the exception in that regard. People think of “Way” or “Tao” or “Dao” as a Taoist notion, but Confucius talked about it as well. I’ll note that before the word “Christian” crystallized, the earliest followers of Jesus were known as “Followers of the Way.” I’m not sure it’s going to show up explicitly in the seminar readings, but Confucianism certainly played a powerful role in Japan.
And then Zhuangzi (or Chuang Tsu), the early thinker who most developed Taoist ideas. He’s fun. As I said at breakfast, there’s a strong argument that the Chinese melded Buddhism with Taoism to create Ch’an/Zen Buddhism.