After having read and loved Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea books I read that there was a Taoist theme running through them that lead me find out more about Taoism and to see if I could understand what teachings , if any, Le Guin was putting into her work.

Taoism is also known as Daoism and a rough translation into English is either “the Path” or “the Way”. That there is a natural balance to all things is mentioned and this is definately something that is clearly part of Le Guin’s work, and for that matter, many other authors.

Taoism believes that their is a harmony of opposites, love and hate, light and dark, male and female. Believed to have been founded around 600BC by Lao-Tse in an attempt to find a way to avoid the fighting  and conflicts that afflicted society during his lifetime.

Taoism, along with Buddhism and Confucianism, became one of the three great religions of China.

Taoist quotations

“Without going out of your door, You can know the ways of the world. Without peeping through your window, you can see the Way of Heaven. The farther you go, The less you know. Thus, the Sage knows without traveling, Sees without looking, And achieves without struggle.” Lao Tse.

To return to the relationship between Ursula Le Guin and Taoism, adherents.com puts it nicely “The principle of yin and yang operates in her work, and the traditional Western dichotomies — black and white, good and evil — become much more complicated and intertwined.”