Ever seen or doodled a yin-yang symbol? Does the proverb "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" ring a bell? You've brushed up against the Tao Te Ching, one of the most influential works of Ancient Chinese literature that's also the foundational text of Taoism (pronounced "daoism"), China's major native religion. Traditionally ascribed to a scholar called Lao-Tzu, the Tao Te Ching was likely a collection of related poems and proverbs by many authors, collected into an anthology around 350 BCE. In this episode, we walk through some of the main concepts, including the Tao as a cosmic force, the principle of wu wei, or non-action, and how you can see the tensions of China's Warring States Period (c. 475–221 BCE) shining through in the text.

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Our second episode on The Book of Job looks at three reactions to the work.

• William Blake's illustrations for The Book of Job (1780—1823), which were produced in several media for various patrons
• Franz Kafka's The Trial (1925), which has a similar air of oppression and unattainable justice
• Carl Jung's Answer to Job (1952), in which the famed psychologist puts God on the couch

If you want to see Blake's illustrations for Job, they're available (along with lots of other wonderful things) at the William Blake Archive. Click here to visit.

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Why do good people suffer? That's one of the key questions animating The Book of Job, one of the Hebrew Bible's three books of wisdom literature. In this episode, we walk through the story of a man who is plunged into despair and loss thanks to a bet between God and ("the") Satan. Journey through the story and some of the interpretations of the work—including one by Benjamin Franklin—and hear which phrases from Job would make good genre fiction titles.

Content Note: This episode makes one reference to male body parts while quoting scripture.

Also note: there were some sound quality issues on our end this week. Apologies for that!

If you'd like to read the transcript for this episode, click here. Don't forget to subscribe, share, rate, and review!

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