In this paper，I aim to show the distance betweenemotivism and the culture of the Tao. Firstly，I will introduce the notion of emotivism drawing on the account of Alasdair MacIntyre. Secondly，following C.S.Lewis’s insights about the Tao as a sole source of value judgments in every human culture，I will aim to show the role that natural reason shares in that source. One may argue that，at least to some extent，Matteo Ricci owes his genius for bringing into the conversation the great traditions of China and Europe to his respect for natural reason. Ricci inherited this attitude from his European classical and medieval predecessors. Among them was Thomas Aquinas，one of the greatest thinkers of the West，who gives us a deeper insight into the sapiential dimension of natural reason. In the last part of my paper，I argue that Aquinas’s account of the natural wisdom manifest in the movements and changes of the external world secures his moral doctrine from emotivism.