Maaz Abdullah April 11,2017 World Religion 1150 – Net15 Valerie McIntyre Concept Analysis Essay What is Dao? Probably one of the toughest question people have asked about any religion. Dao is one of the most difficult religion to explain. Even it has influenced people in China but there are still few concerned whether to considered it as a religion or not. Ancient Chinese people were polytheistic and animistic, which mean they believed in gods of heaven, Earth and they also used to do sacrifices to the spirits of the universe (Hopfe 174-175). Later the Philosophers introduced to the concept of Ying and Yang, where Ying was considered as the negative force and Yang as positive force in nature. One of the main concept of Chinese religion …show more content…
Both of the religions are quite complicated and different from the most common definition of religion. Taoism or Daoism was founded by Lao-tzu who lived around 6th B.C.E., there is very little information about him but he was considered to be a noble and wise man and was the keeper of archives of Chou dynasty (Hopfe 178). During the time dynasty was falling apart he decided to leave the country and before leaving the country he wrote the book called Tao Te Ching means The classic of the way and its power of virtue. It 's a small book but its considered as one of the most influenced book in Chinese literature. The disciples of Lao-tzu tried to spread the words of Tao Te Ching and they followed the 4 main themes. The early Taoist philosophers believed that the Tao is defined as "the way" and no matter what people want people should always blend in with the nature to live a simple lives. The other main themes are "life is the greatest of all possessions", "life is to be lived simply" and "pomp and glory are to be despised". Each of the themes carry an important message and how people should live their …show more content…
Both of these religion were founded by righteous men but the way they see the religion or Nature is completely different from one another. Daoist are more about Nature 's way and going with Tao or the way of Nature. Taoism focuses more on itself and focuses more on individuals and how they can have a better lifestyle. While on the other hand Confucian focuses more on social work rather than focuses on individuals life. Confucians also believe in having a good strong government will make a better society and will stop people from doing evil. While Taoism was against the strong government they believed that it 's better to have least government and the ideal way of living is feudal