Bucknell University Bucknell Digital Commons Honors Theses Student Theses Fall 2017 Nature and Human Flourishing in the Laws of Manu and the Daodejing Qijing Zheng Bucknell University,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.bucknell.edu/honors_theses Part of the Chinese Studies Commons, Comparative Literature Commons, Intellectual History Commons, Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons, and the South and Southeast Asian Languages and Societies Commons Recommended Citation Zheng, Qijing, "Nature and Human Flourishing in the Laws of Manu and the Daodejing" (2017). Honors Theses. 428. https://digitalcommons.bucknell.edu/honors_theses/428 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Theses at Bucknell Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Bucknell Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Nature and Human Flourishing in the Laws of Manu and the Daodejing by Qijing Zheng Dec 13, 2017 Approved by: James Mark Shields Digitally signed by James Shields Date: 2017.12.15 09:55:11 -05'00' Adviser: John Hunter Program Chair (proxy): Introduction By comparing the interpretation of dharma in the ancient Indian Laws of Manu (Manusmṛti ) with the concepts of dao 道 in the Chinese classic, Daodejing 道德經, I will demonstrate that, despite the plausible perception that the former represents despotic, hierarchical governance while the latter promotes freedom (and even anarchy), the two texts in fact share a similar envision of human flourishing through the following of one's nature, as well as a foundational belief that both laws and political ideals emerge from nature.