Comparing Confucianism And Taoism

Confucianism and Taoism are two of the major philosophy in China. They have greatly influenced the culture of the China, and also to spread its influence all around the world. The connection between the two philosophy has influenced many people over time. Many intellectual thinkers, which influenced by these two school of thought have been able to reformed politics and culture, and able to shaped China into what we know today. We know that the school of Confucianism and Taoism are two separate school of thought with it each own teachings and ethical values that a person should follow by. Known for being polar opposite of each other on many different issues, but the schools indifferent shows the best aspect that people in our society should

Taoism is the school of philosophy that stresses on the importance of living harmoniously with the essence of our human nature and the nature that surround us. Taoism follows the principle of Laozi, who is the author of the book called Dao De Jing. Similar to Confucius’s The Analect, Dao De Jing is a guideline to understand the concept of virtue and how path to archive it. The ideology of Taoism is considered the polar opposite of Confucianism. Taoism illustrates the meaning of life through the concept of Dao which translate as "the way". They believed that everything happens naturally in the world, from the changing of the seasons to our nature to grow and change based on our surrounding nature. So in order for an individual to grow and improve themselves over a certain period of time, an individual must not hurry and change based on all the changes happening around them, as it would violate their own nature and steer them down to a wrong path. What that person need to do is to act naturally upon their nature. If no action is required of the individual to change the law of nature, then any action they take will be forced and unnecessary. This is the concept of wei wu-wei, which can be translate as “Action with Non-Action”. An example of wu-wei when Laozi said: “Do not exalt the worthy, so that the people shall not compete. Do not value rare treasures, so that the people shall not steal. Do not display objects

One of the thing that both of these school seems to be agree to one another is the focus on the individual on their natural surroundings such as society and the interaction between human and nature. As the individual need to improve their innerself in order to change society. In Confucianism, it is important for an individual to recognize their limitation and get in touch with all the past example and learn from it, in order to see how can the individual fit in the world. For Taoism however, it centers on the importance of nature and how it can bring harmony to the human being and society. Both philosophies encourage people to live life to the fullest and to fulfill all their obligations and duties. This means that people should respect their given roles in the society as parent to child, rulers to subjects. If the people in Western world recognized and follow either principles of Confucianism or Taoism, many of today issues like violence toward our fellow man, corrupted leaders, the lack of compassion of each other would be less apparent as people would practices on self improvement for sake of peace and order and they would focus their attention to learn and appreciate the little things in life that we take for granted such as the simplicity beauty in the rain, the crisps fresh air and the appreciation for the art. Peace is what