The Role of Scholarly Elites in Chinese History and Culture (Tang Essay

The Role of Scholarly Elites in Chinese History and Culture (Tang dynasty to the High Qing) - Essay Example They did this through their roles as active politicians in different dynasties, social reformers, philosophers and poets among other roles. The scholarly elites would compel people to practice certain things or to uphold new values for the society’s wellness. Some would also criticize the way some rulers were leading the Chinese dynasties and in most cases they would end up being the ambassadors of revolutionary changes in the political scene in ancient China. There are very many scholarly elites who lived in ancient China and their contributions to the history of China are still evident. This paper will focus on Lao Tzu, one of the most influential scholarly elite in the ancient China, who piloted the Chinese people to uphold the values of Taoism. Lao Tzu means old master in Chinese. Lao Tzu was a religious philosopher in ancient China who lived among other popular philosophers like Confucius. One of his most popular writing is the Tao-Te-Ching. The writing contained principles on the way to live in harmony in a community. Lao Tzu was born in the 7th century in Louyang in China. His real name was Li Erh. He worked for the King of Zhou as the custodian in the archives. He had several other names given to him by various people and religious leaders for his extensive wisdom. His wisdom can be attributed to his extensive study of the writings in the archives. He had access to a vast number of scholarly writings. Lao Tzu was a mentor to many other philosophers who would frequently visit him to get his point of view on contentious issues. He would always give them his counsel and most of them took it. When he reached 80 years of age, Lao Tzu decided to leave the kings place and he set out for the desert, citing that the experiences he had with the people was depressing since they had refused to follow the path of goodness. On his journey to the desert, a guard stopped him and asked him to record his wisdom. He wrote a book on all his wisdom and it