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The differences between Taoism and Confucianism and Buddhism
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Throughout history, Taoism has been one of the most influential religions of Eastern culture. This is certainly one of the most unique of all religions. Many Taoists, in fact, do not even consider it a religion; and in many ways it is not. Taoists make no claim that the Tao exists. That is what essentially separates Taoism from the rest of
the world religions: there is no heated debate or battle over Taoist doctrine; there have been no crusades to spread the religion. The very essence of Taoism is quite the opposite. Taoism's uniqueness and open-endedness have allowed the religion to flourish almost undisturbed and unchanged for over two thousand years.
The founder of Taoism was a man named Lao Tzu, who lived around the year 604 B.C.E. According to Chinese legend, Lao Tzu was an archivist in the imperial library at Lo Yang. He was known for his knowledge, although he never taught. When Lao Tzu left his position at the library, he went to the Chinese province of Chou. At the border, however, he was stopped and forced to write down his teachings. During this time, he wrote the Tao Te Ching, the major scripture of Taoism.
After Lao Tzu's death, a man named Yang Chu (440-366 B.C.E.) took up his teachings. A naturalist and philosopher, Yang Chu believed highly in self-regard and survival as the core of human nature and direction. His ideals were personal integrity and self-protection, and said that he was unwilling to pluck one hair from his head even if all humanity were to benefit from it.
The next influential Taoist philosopher was Chang Tzu, who lived from 350-275 B.C.E. He defined existence using Lao Tzu's teachings. He wrote fifty-two books in response to the Tao Te Ching, thirty-three of which still survive...
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...ity. While the two religions are fundamentally different, they rely upon each other to create a balance of their differences. Because of this, many people believe in and practice both Confucianism and Taoism. Neither probably would have survived if the other had never existed.
Taoism is in itself a very difficult religion to define. Little is known of its founder or its origins, and it has no clear doctrine or method of worship. The whole concept of Tao is extremely abstract and therefore cannot be fully explained, only understood. The religion may hold a completely different meaning for each person--it may be a form of philosophy, religion, or magic. The religion has guided countless individuals through life and toward union with the Tao. As it has influenced the past through its writings, Taoism may influence the world for generations more with its wisdom.
After watching the documentary The Long Search: Taoism: A Question of Balance—China, I am totally surprised by the details in the video, which explain every single aspect of people’s daily life in Taiwan as religious, especially Taoist. Since China does not consider itself as a nation of religious beliefs and practices, I do not actually think of what Chinese people do everyday as religious. However, after studying Religions in China for a semester, I finally realize that all the Chinese traditions and beliefs have evolved as a mixture of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. As a result, it all makes sense to see in the video that Taoism is a dominant religion that has deeply influenced individuals’ life in Taiwan.
...oundation of all living things that exist in this world. The mission of Taoism is not to force its beliefs on people, but to help them realize their inner-self and guide into a happy life in harmony with nature. To best summarize Taoism a quote from Lao-Tse can be used: "We believe in the formless and eternal Tao, and we recognize all personified deities as being mere human constructs. We reject hatred, intolerance, and unnecessary violence, and embrace harmony, love and learning, as we are taught by Nature. We place our trust and our lives in the Tao, that we may live in peace and balance with the Universe, both in this mortal life and beyond." There are thousands of religions that offer endless solutions to end suffering, to restore peace and unity in the world. For decades philosophers tried to come up with ways to find happiness, but in the end there was only one answer. The answer came from a some would call silly, others wise bear by the name of Winnie-the-Pooh, who discovered the secret for happiness in and old religion, founded by a great master Lao-Tse. This religion became the answer for the endless search for happiness and the answer was Taoism.
Kongzi (Confucius, a Latinized name) was born in 551 B.C.E., to a poor family of the lower nobility. Throughout his life, he relentlessly tried to gain an office with a prominent ruler of the time who was willing to adopt his various concepts. Unfortunately, Confucius died in 479 B.C.E., before such a change ever took place. However, he succeeded in winning over a handful of devote followers who continued his legacy and Confucianism later went on to become one of the most influential thought systems of Chinese history. Of his followers, Mencius and Xunzi became the most renown. Since Confucius did not succeed in completing a manual of his views, these followers had to derive their own interpretations of the system which now formulate, the Analects. The Analects portray an idealized gentleman, and his various duties in terms of the society, family and the rituals. Confucius explains about the way (Dao) which he believed, that if the people accepted its terms and were willing to abide, they would succeed in creating a utopian society.
In conclusion the teachings of Confucianism and Daoism judging from a pragmatic standpoint cannot coexist with one another. Although their main objective is similar which is to provide a valuable philosophy for the rulers to adopt, the philosophies themselves differ in many ways. If the Kings or rulers decided to embrace the Confucius philosophy then they would go against the Yin-Yang and flow of nature.
...ccording to it. It is the level of understanding and respect a Taoist has with nature, everyone around them, and everything. This mystery is the last feature that is important to defining a religion.
Taoism is one of the oldest religions in the world and its origins are rather mysterious. Formally there is no specifically known founder or date of foundation for Taoism; however, the individual accredited with the founding of Taoism “Began […] with the revelation of […] Lao Tzu (Taoism: The Origins of Taoism), which Buddhism. Taoism is a polytheistic religion with a wide variety of deities, and so Shamanism became an important part of the religion, as shamans were individuals’ connections to the different Gods of Taoism and protection from evil spirits; so in its initial structure a solid base of religious leaders formed, which would help the spread of the religion through education and role modeling (Hundoble). As for specific leaders of the religious movement, Lao-Tzu, an early philosopher and poet, is believed to have written the original founding principles of Taoism in the sixth century B.C., and as presented by King Shu Liu “of his work we have only the Tao-Teh-king [(the first Taoist literature)] which tradition attributed to him” (Liu 377). Zhao Daoling, another prominent Taoist leader, was the first of the Celestial M...
Taoism follows a much different idea of the "chain of being," than that of the other major religions (i.e. Hinduism, Judeo-Christian, Islam), which is very important in consideration of the ecological sensibility which stems from it. As opposed to a God-over-man-over-nature view of the world, Taoism states:
Taoism and Confucianism are two major Chinese philosophies. I say that they are philosophies because religions tend to worship deities and Taoism and Confucianism don’t seems to worshiping anything. To some they appear to be different, even clashing but to me, they seem very much alike but they come at it from different points of view. Both philosophies strive to reach harmony but in to very different ways. I do believe the reason they can co-exist is because they see Tao from two different ways.
..., when we look at the deeper meaning of education as seen in Confucianism and Taoism, we see that they consider education in much the same way. One must know the importance of self-realization and understand how they fit into the whole. This is a very important form of education. In this way, we will be better prepared to integrate the greater whole.
Taoism and Buddhism were born in the same century. Siddhartha reached enlightenment in approximately 535 B.C. and Lao Tzu’s teachings were recorded around 500 B.C. There are many similarities in the basics of these two religions. Some of the similarities can be seen clearly when examining the three meaning of Tao.
Tao-te Ching (in English pronounced “dow deh jing”) is believed to be written by Lao-tzu (6th century B.C). However, it is not for certain that he wrote the book. Lao-tzu is translated as “Old Master”. He was born in the state of Ch’u in China. It’s been said that he worked in the court of the Chou dynasty. The day that he was leaving the court to start his own life, the keeper of the gate urged him to write his thoughts as a book. Lao-tzu’s work mostly illustrates Taoism –a religion founded by Chang Tao-ling A.D. 150. His main purpose in this piece is practicing peace, simplicity, naturalness, and humility. Lao-tzu believes that people are overloaded with temporal objects in this world. He recommends his readers to let go of everything and always keep the balance in anything. In my opinion, Lao-tzu would more likely dislike our government and the way that people live nowadays. The reason is because majority of the people are attached to secular things. To paraphrase the famous, people have materialistic characteristics in today’s world which is completely against Lao-tzu’s view.
There is a similar bond between the Confucians and the Tao in the category rules and behavior. They both believe that you must act accordingly in some way. These two are different also in the sense that Tao believe the life is to be lived according to the Tao and Confucians believe to live it according to actions. Also, the Confucians believed you need to understand the relationship with family, and to follow the five goals of Confucianism. The Buddhists had a totally different idea for this though; they believe that you just need to follow behavior in the ways of the eightfold path and the nine precepts.
As one of the greatest founding novels of Taoism, Book of Chuang Tzu serves to strengthen Lao Tzu 's arguments in Tao Te Ching and lays the foundation for Taoism 's place in Chinese philosophy. Because Confucianism and Taoism are two competing philosophy schools that share more outstanding differences than similarities, the followers of both schools often refute and evaluate the ideals of the opposite school. However, the constant appearance of Confucius as the main character in more than twenty chapters in Book of Chuang Tzu not only surprises the readers, but also calls for deep analysis of the roles played Confucius in order to understand the true meaning of this ancient literature. While Chuang Tzu criticizes many of the Confucian ideas
Confucianism believes that their congregation should have human conduct over the idea of God in their lives, whereas Taoism is formed on the belief that its congregation should create a relationship with nature. This is pointed out by Smith in Experiencing the World 's Religions, “Confucius represents the classical, Lao Tzu the romantic; Confucius stresses social responsibility, Lao Tzu praises spontaneity and naturalness; Confucius focus is on the human, Lao Tzu’s on what transcends the human” (Smith 218). Another difference is Confucianism is based off of respect of others and their superiors, and Confucians are to follow a code of conduct with social harmony as a goal. On the other hand, Taoism is based on the contemplation of life and followers are to seek balance in their lives through following the path or
Lao-Tze founded Taoism around 550 BC. The goal in Taoism is achieve Inner harmony, pea...