/ Naturalness /

“Naturalness”, as an important concept of Lao Zi􀆳s philosophy, refers to a natural state of being, an attitude of following the way of nature. In Lao Zi􀆳s eyes, Dao takes naturalness as its law. He emphasized that everything in the world has its own way of being and development: birds fly in the sky; fish swim in the water; flowers bloom and fall. All these phenomena occur independently and naturally without following any human will, and humans should not struggle to change anything natural. Lao Zi admonished people to give up any desire to control the world. Following the way of nature is the way to resolving conflicts between humans and the world. While in political philosophy, “naturalness” specifically denotes the natural state enjoyed by ordinary people free from the intervention of government supervision and moral edification. Taoism holds that in governance, a monarch should conform to the natural state of the people.