Taocriticism in an Essay on Man

Abstract

Taoism, as a distinct type of philosophy, radically differs from many other philosophies in China, such as Confucianism and Mohism, by taking a much broader, much greater and more transcendental view of the world. Many similar notions of Tao have been found in the “An Essay on Man” in four epistles penned by Alexander Pope. Therefore, a challenging and daring approach to employ Taoist perspectives to interpret An Essay on Man penned would shed light upon new ways of undertaking literary criticism, namely, using non-western philosophical outlooks to re-read western literary works. The Taoist ideas used herein include oneness, small knowledge, instrumental mentality, and yin-yang. The method of using Taoism to read literary texts is dubbed Taocriticism.