Common
Knowledge of Chinese Culture
Taoism
At about the same time that Confucius was
endeavoring to get his principles adopted, there lived another of China's great men whose
views were diametrically opposed to those of Confucius, and whose opinions, or whose
reputed opinions, formed the foundations of a system as powerful over masses of the
Chinese as Confucianism itself. The man was called Lao Zi, the founder of Taoism,
and his work was Dao De Jing. In this work, Lao Zi has elaborated his idea of the
relations existing between the Universe and that which he called Tao. The primary meaning
of this name of a thing, which he declares to be without name is The Way, hence it has
acquired the symbolic meanings of the right course of conduct, reason, and it also
signifies the word.
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