一般來說，老子被稱之爲道家思想之始祖，也通常與莊子並列爲老莊思 想的代表人物。老子思想之樞紐可說爲自然無爲，而這些自然無爲的含義被 認爲是離開混亂的世俗而歸於自然，甚至被擴大到通過調和陰陽道理，最終 追求長壽的黃老思想。那麽與其他諸子學一同，老子唯一著作≪道德經≫的 著述意圖也算屬於“理解”和“說服”的修辭學範疇。因爲老子通過≪道德經 ≫，打算將自己的價值觀宣傳給別人的關系。因此，本人從修辭學的觀點出 發試圖接近≪道德經≫，此過程中卻發現了至今在韓國及中國出版的譯本與 ≪道德經≫的真意向背而馳。本人根據王弼的版本重新開始翻譯了≪道德經 ≫，尤其著重於第38章的內容集中分析了。現在我們具體探討一下，到底老子通過≪道德經≫想要說明的內容所在。

Yeats published the first edition of A Vision in 1925 and the revised edition in 1937. He had poured the most intense concentration of his intellect into it for 20 years. It may be regarded as the greatest of Yeats’s works, containing some of the most penetrating and beautiful prose that he wrote. It is essential to any understanding of many of his most notable poems and plays. But many critics agreed it was difficult to read and understand; it is extraordinarily distilled, yet complex in an extremely precise way. In this thesis I compared “Unity of Being” in Yeats’s A Vision with “Dao” in Lao Zi’s Dao De Jing. I interpreted the similarity between the theories of Yeats and Lao Zi. In A Vision Yeats explained 28 incarnations according to the 28 phases of the moon, the Great Wheel and the deliverance of the bond of rebirth. His major symbols are the gyres, the double triangle or the primary or objective and the antithetical or subjective. The Four Faculties(Will, Mask, Creative Mind, and Body of Fate) and the Four Principles(Husk, Passionate Body, Spirit, and Celestial Body) are related to the two contrasting tinctures. The antithetical gyre is lunar, aesthetic, expressive, multiple, hierarchial, aristocratic, artistic, particular, creative. The primary gyre is solar, moral, dogmatic unifying, humane, democratic, scientific, abstract. There is a state of perpetual conflit between the gyres and the moment of harmony of the gyres. The gyres are living each other’s death, dying each other's life. In Dao De Jing Lao Zi explained the dual character of the “Dao” operate as Being-Without-Form and Being-Within-Form, or Heaven and Earth, interrelated so closely the two sides of a coin. Yeats wanted to teach us what is the ultimate reality is and we can attain the “Unity of Being” at the moment of harmony of antinomies. The ultimate reality because neither one or many, concord nor discord, is symbolized as a phaseless sphere, but as all things fall into series of antinomies in human experience it becomes, the moment it is thought of, what he describe as the Thirteenth cone. Lao Zi insisted, “the world is oneness, or unity, emerging from the moment of the Dao.” Yeats also told us, “Eternity, though motionless itself, appears to be in motion.”

There were so many common thoughts in Yeats’s poetry and Lao tzu’s philosophy on the Feminine Principl.” Both Yeats and Lao tzu lived in turbulent times. They thought the cause of anarchy in their world resulted from the True God’s absence as the Feminine Principle. Thus they were eager to support it as the Primary principle in the world. Yeats was a gnostic visionary. He believed in God’s androgynous Trinity; Man, woman and child. A Child is a daughter or a son. Yeats refused to accept the masculine Trinity. Yeats searched for the hidden Goddess who is called Sophia or Binah as the dark Mother in the Cabalah. Binah is identified with Saturn(male). So Sophia is androgynous. Yeats called Sophia by many names. Those included Rose, Countess Cathleen, Nimah, Helen and Jane as the symbol of immortal Beauty. All of his poetry owes much to a symbolism derived from the Rosicrucianism, Cabalism, Christian Gnosticism and Orientalism. Orientalism included the Taoism of Lao tzu. I read that Yeats was deeply impressed by the Chinese book, The Secret of the Golden Flower, which is explained Taoism. Because Taoism is s common with Yeats’s main poetic theme, which is the Feminine Principle and the hidden God. Although Lao tzu lived about 2,500 years ago, he had almost the same idea as Yeats. His main theme is Tao, the way which symbolizes the Feminine Principle, like Sophia in Christian Gnosticism and Cabalism. We can say Tao is intangible and permanent, governing the impermanent became it symbolizes the Mother of all beings. Tao especially symbolizes darkness. Thus I can say that “dark Sophia” in Yeats’s poetry is identical to Tao. Lao-tzu described that Tao stands for the feminine archetypal imagery such as water, darkness, valley, cave, abyss. Especially Lao tzu’s heavenly Virtue, Tao is called “Hyeon-bin” which means a black female. Thus Tao is identified with the dark Mother, Sophia in Yeats’s poetry. Also Lao tuz eulogized the virtue of Tao as water. For example, Lao tzu explained that “water’s virtue is the highest goodness.” This symbol of water symbolizes the Feminine Principle like Sophia’s characteristics in Yeats’s poetry. Thus, they all refused to accept the andro-centric society.