All Carrots, No Sticks -- But Still Read and Treasured

The Analects and Zhuangzi are, like the Jewish and Christian Bibles and their cousin, Islam’s Qur’an, ancient religious texts still read today. But something important separates the Chinese texts from their monotheistic counterparts: there is no threat of angering a god and burning forever in Hell if you don’t read the Chinese texts. Fear plays no part in winning readers for them. The Chinese texts seem to have lived so long because they’re worth reading in themselves, with no strings attached. They’re all carrot and no stick.

That says something worth thinking about.