Taoism and Confucianism

[edepot]

Could Taoism or Daoism be a response to Confucianism in ancient China? We know that during a time in ancient China, Confucius and his theories and morals were integrated into the Chinese society when the emperor decided to listen and take advice from him. In essence, what Confucian thought did was to try to put order into society. Make holidays, festivals, activities, social organization, moral responsibilities, all fit a certain pattern and rule. People who deviate from these rules and structures laid out were considered bad for society. In other words, individuals, society, and life in general could be made better if they followed a certain hierarchy and within this hierarchy certain patterns of behavior are considered better than others. When a whole lot of people tried to fit themselves into predefined roles made out of them, there are bound to be some people who just don't fit in as many people have their brains hardwired differently. For example, people who had their brains through evolution hardwired for gathering or hunting or some other specialty of trait may not find a role suitable in this Confucian society. It can be said that gathering may be considered stealing, and hunting may be considered killing in current society, but lets get back to the point.

Taoism probably evolved or came into existence as a backlash against rules imposed on society that are overreaching. Like Confucian morals imposed on society back in ancient China. In those times, certain activities at certain times and the way you lay out your furniture or what you do during each time of the day, and how you should treat your family or neighbors were spelled out to the letter. Deviants to these rules were considered "wrong". It is the same with current society as those in power decide what is supposed to be "right" for society without taking into consideration that not all people will fit into the same genetic makeup the rule makers decide.

This is a complicated subject, so lets provide some examples of the other end of the spectrum: most Vikings during the ages past conquered by raping and killing and conquering others. Most of their genetic code was passed down through the generations. It became a problem as there were lots of killing and raping in those areas (northern parts of Europe like england and those areas). So what do they do? To handle the these problems they shipped the troublemakers to Australia, and now Australia of course have very stringent rules against importing violent games. Many were shipped to the USA to let them have their conquest blood in them, and to the detriment of the natives most got wiped out. In the USA the problems are taken cared of nowadays by jailing these people in prison. Of course, these are talking extreme cases of violence, raping, and conquest genes in their blood. Because of these conquests many native people (who may have a different mindset of priorities) became close to extinct or their population dwindled to insignificance.

But back on the subject. Since Taoism is probably a moral reflection of what happens when you impose too much rules on society, it becomes important to take into consideration what rules in society are overreaching. As there are a group of people in the world making up laws and rules dictating what is correct and incorrect, sometimes these rules do not serve a section of society because it happens that they don't have the genetic makeup to fit what the power wielders considered natural for them. This is important to consider because we know that in many countries with different races, the people who make the rules often make them to benefit themselves. Lets take capitalism, since the conquest of the United States by most anglo-saxons the founding members started importing slaves from africa and conquering the natives (it is in their genetic blood?) No longer can people gather food or hunt freely nor find shelter freely. They must get an education first, graduate, find work, earn money, then they can get good food and shelter. "Good" is important here because lets face it, most of the world is run by secret societies and the people in secret societies are picked from ivy league schools, and the people who control these schools are themselves members of these societies. After graduating, these people basically are picked to run the country or big companies (and most people at the top of these companies and government positions are themselves in these societies and handpicked with illusion of democracy).

In capitalism, the more money you have in the bank, the more you make, and if you have enough, you don't have to work again, just take interest payments. If you have no money, you basically are a worker for the rest of your life, a slave to labor. So why is education also important? Because in order to be go up "legitimately", you have to get into the correct school and secret society, so you can be handpicked to run certain parts of "system". Your salary will be higher, and with more money, the better food and shelter you got. Unfortunately, getting picked into the club (especially) and university is preordained if your parents or family was already part of the old "family" network. This part of the system is what actually determines the people who run the country, as most voters only pick from these chosen few. Unfortunately, this part is also not democratic, as people are chosen, not elected. Sometimes to control big companies, the board of directors are usually littered with people having membership in these secret societies, and it is through this method that business and government can pick and choose successors. This is why it is said that you must be "rich and white" (and Christian) to succeed because the money and the rule-makers created the system to benefit their secret family connections and using their secret society to run it. The detriment is benefit to only certain people with a certain genetic makeup and happen to be of a certain group of rich families.

The question is, are the rules made justly? Do they take into account people who may not have been born within a certain parameter of genetic makeup by the rule-makers? Remember what happened to the native indians (slaughtered) and imported africans (slavery) that existed because of certain conquering predispositions. As more rules on how you are to obtain your food and shelter(education, work, money first), how you are to mate (one wife, over 18, Christian marriage), and how you are to live(you can fill many in here), it becomes important to consider that certain rules benefit the thoughts of certain genetic makeup and to an extent certain races. Obviously, you just need to look at other countries in ancient times (and even now) to see not all consider the rules their natural way of living.

It is funny that democracy is used against China when basically it is similar to how China works... there is an inner circle (like the secret societies in Europe and USA) that basically pick aspiring members through china youth parties or red parties (like picking people from freemasons or other secret groups in the US). The only difference is that in China it is transparent... you know about these groups (well at least you know how the process works). In the USA and other European countries, these people are hidden, part of a secret society that work in the background providing an illusion that it is democratic. They each work with a different rule set than normal people, with ability to kill off people and nobody to question them, this is why certain people in the USA have heart attacks or diseases, health problems, or plane crashes when they don't fit in or do what they are told, and sometimes it reaches into many other countries.

So to get back on topic (again), taoism became an outlet for people in China that did not consider Confucianism, with its over-imposing rules, the solution to society. Could it be used to express similar displeasure in current society? Perhaps, perhaps not. It is mostly a philosophy in the west, and the practice in China is almost non-existent nowadays, although it is still popular in some parts of Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and other south eastern countries.

[doufuquanshifu]

Taoism existed before confucianism.

[edepot]

Thanks for your input. This is an interesting chicken and egg problem, or maybe totally separate in development, but their differences became wide spread first in 2nd century BCE. What is known though is that Confucius was born in the 6th century BCE and spread his influence first in that century. Taoism (Daoism) came from Tao Te Ching, which was written in 3rd or 4th century BCE (we actually don't know if Lao Zi ever lived, unlike Confucius, so we only know the first influence of Tao Te Ching came in the 3rd or 4th century BCE). BCE is before year 1, so the higher the century the earlier, thus Confucius did some teaching in the 6th century BCE, then someone came along LATER and wrote the Tao Te Ching in the 3rd or 4th century BCE.