This seminar will explore the complex dialogue between two schools of classical Chinese philosophy, Confucianism and Daoism, with a focus on the earliest extant texts in these two traditions. We will read and discuss in detail the entirety of the Analects of Confucius, the Mengzi, the Daodejing of Laozi, and the Zhuangzi. Central themes of the seminar include the Dao, wuwei, pattern, form, emptiness, timeliness, virtue, ritual and what it means to be a human being. Discussion will draw on key commentators from later centuries, as well as situate these texts and ideas within the tumultuous history of early China during the Spring and Late Autumn and Warring States periods (770-221 BCE).