With the deterioration of the global environment

ecocriticism

a new paradigm of literary research that originated in the west

has developed into an international literary and cultural criticism movement. Cross-cultural ecological reinterpretation of classics has become an important research topic for ecocriticism. The Chinese cultural classic

the Tao Te Ching

has caught the attention of western ecologists because of its strong naturalistic orientation. They interpret the Tao Te Ching and explore its ecological connotations from multiple perspectives

for the purpose of greening the ecology of westem mainstream culture and thereby eliminating it's dominantly anthropocentric cognitive inertia. However

after reviewing their research it can be found that their ecological understanding of the Tao Te Ching has within it a serious bias. Mainly due to an ecocentric position

they' ve conducted a dualistic dissection of the text

stressing its ecological dimension

while playing down or even ignoring its social dimension

that of social justice

and more over fail to throughly investigate the complex relationship between the two. The result of which is a serious misreading of the Tao Te Ching. Therefore

as Chinese ecologists

we should take an environmentally just position

and through a holistic ecological view

comprehensively and accurately grasp the Tao Te Ching's connotations

so as to construct feasibly sustainable Taoist ecological ethics that are compatible with ecological justice and social justice.