Taoistic Patterns in War and Peace

It is well known that Tolstoj responded warmly to Taoism from time that was first introduced to Tao Te Ching of Lao-Tzu in 18781 and that Taoist ideas were important in ideology and attitude of older Tolstoj.2 Although this direct influence came late, this ready acceptance is almost predictable in retrospect, for Tolstoj had long been employing patterns of thought surprisingly parallel to those of Lao-Tzu. Especially in case of War and Peace, something very much like a vision of Tao underlies psychology, characterization, and ethic of novel. This kind of analogy should not be carried too far-ignoring as it does such other lines of thought as Stoicism, Christianity, etc., which directly acted on Tolstoj earlier. Still, a demonstration of parallels can show a good deal about movement of Tolstoj's mind in sixties and also illuminate some aspects of novel by offering a new frame of reference.3 Here we would like to consider, in light of Lao-Tzu's Taoism, characterization of Platon Karataev, Pierre, and Nikolaj; character and military theories of Kutuzov; and total world view of War and Peace. Platon Karataev often voices stoic truths of Russian peasant and pieties of primitive Christianity, but in basic ways is strongly suggestive of Taoist sage, who gains power from quiescence, durability from acceptance. His deft undoing of his leg wrappings,4 which nudges Pierre toward a new life, is in line with Lao-Tzu's doctrine of economydoing nothing superfluous. From that point, Platon expresses and dramatizes a way of life much like Taoist Way. His peasant aphorisms, like Don't fret, friend-suffer an hour, live for an age (WP, XII, 3, p. 1073; SS, VII, 54), fit in with Lao-Tzu's he who is satisfied with his lot is rich ...; who dies and does not perish, has longevity.5 When Platon says, Where there's law there's injustice (WP, 1074; SS, VII, 55),6 is close to Lao-Tzu's denunciation of moral rules: If we could renounce our benevolence and discard our righteousness, people would again become filial and kindly (Ch. 19). Platon's view is that things happen not as we plan but as God judges; Lao-Tzu says that the Tao produces all things, nourishes them, brings them to their full growth, completes them, matures

Political science · Chinese history and philosophy · History · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought