Confucius And Lao Zi Research Paper

Indisputably, the sages Confucius and Lao-zi have been significant to Chinese culture. The principles of these sages have impacted Chinese norms. At times the ideas of these masters played critical roles in governing China. Meanwhile, the sages introduced their own forms of religious notions still existing in China presently. In fact, their understanding of their environments formulated their core ideas about the ultimate reality and how people ought to live. In the paper, I compare and contrast the approaches of Confucius and Lao-zi.

The sages Confucius and Lao-zi lived and saw the decline of feudal society in China. In seeing and observing the effects of the decline of the feudal society these sages were concerned with reforming the society. This contributed to their insights into meaningful principles for the thriving of the Chinese society. It is noted that Confucius advocated scholarship being significant for the governance of the Chinese society. Confucius thought of the success of the Chinese society being in the hands of the intellect and morally upright

The biographer Sima Qian wrote that Lao-zi cultivated the Dao and virtue (Urubshurow, 2008, p. 294). Thus, early Taoists were focused on this cultivation as their master than on classics as Confucius did. In the meantime, Lao-zi advocated wu-wei or actionless action being principle in activating the Dao. Urubshurow (2008) suggests that Daoists see a connection between sages and infants as the spontaneous acts of a baby are a reminiscent of actionless action (p. 294). Similarly, Lao-zi thrived with the cultivation of the actual cosmic power by doing nothing. Contrary, Confucius was concerned about the essence of the mandate of heavens. Confucius thought that rulers had an obligation towards the heavens. Thus, rituals and appropriate relations were important in the order of the cosmic events in ancient china for