Theme of Letting Go
From the beginning of Tao Te Ching, the concept of the Tao is clearly complicated. One feels for a moment that one has seized hold of the concept, but the next piece of information causes this incipient grasp to be discarded. One must let go to achieve the Tao, and the theme of letting go persists throughout the book to allow the reader who finishes the book to emerge with a sense of the Tao absent of the muddying possessiveness about the concept.
Theme of Indirect Consequences
The statements of Lao-Tzu in Tao Te Ching often appear amusing because of how they operate against the conventional knowledge of how to attain something and often even directly discard the exact value they uphold. However, the book is constructive; the craft in the theme of indirect consequences allows Lao-Tzu to divert attention from what might have otherwise been the terminal object to the Tao, a paradoxical concept that only makes sense in the context of the twisted language of the book.
Indirect consequences allow the reader to interpret blocks of words using poetics. Lao-Tzu engenders an inability to make sense of the book's statements without following the turns of phrase and their resultant meanings.
Theme of Glorification
Lao-Tzu focuses the book on the Tao. From this focus arises a concept that connects people to societies and to the historical narrative of their time and place; the concept of praise comes when someone who momentarily lives a life of Tao pauses in the wrong sort of inaction, one which desires the positive look of others. The theme of glorification serves as a backboard for Lao-Tzu's observations. It does so because Lao-Tzu uses the theme in two components. One of these is the taking of credit, which causes a belittling of the content which led to the praise, and the other is the acclaim given to heroes. Lao-Tzu criticizes this sort of glorification over the course of the book, primarily because of how it suggests value in short bursts of action with attention focused externally. Those who spend their time waiting for war are not acting from Tao.
