Tao. The Way and its power - ACE059.2

Wooded mountains, clouds, fields, farmer and water buffalo, growing mushrooms, etc. Commentary says "‘Tao’, meaning ‘the Way’ was a word the Chinese used more than two thousand years ago to explain the unexplainable, the relationship of Man to the Universe… the way Nature goes and the way Man should go in harmony with it … rooted in the soil of China … nurtured in the primeval myths and magic of a peasant people, and grew to influence almost all Chinese thought, art and action since then… ancestor of all doctrines…". Statue of Lao Tse: "The relevance of his teachings to life today is inescapable". Swirling clouds. Naval display. Commentary: "Led by Chairman Mao Tse-tung, the people of mainland China today have produced enormous changes in their society and politics…" Sailors and spear carriers swimming "in ordered formation" in the Yangtze. "The People’s Republic of China stands for continuous revolution. This idea, and the symbolism of swim itself, is a modern version of the old idea of ‘tao’." Ornamental fish. "Taoists feel that men and women live among the currents of time and change, like fish in water. Like fish, they learn to use those currents to guide their lives". Ornamental rocks, in pools, gardens and landscapes, "perhaps the most basic symbol of the tao". "Nothing ever happens twice in exactly the same way… " Fish. "Just as the fish has to find his way through the currents of life, so does the modern city dweller." Crowded streets. Tinsmith’s shop in Taiwan: shrine at the back where the tinsmith can "keep in touch with his dead relatives". Scenes at annual Ghost Festival, "… a sort of public link between the living and the dead", with offerings of incense and banquets in front of shrines. Symbolic decorations on buildings: dragons, phoenixes, deities. Monks playing musical instruments, chanting, etc.