How Did Lao Tzu And Confucius Perceive The Tao Differently?

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1) How did Lao Tzu and Confucius perceive the Tao differently? In other words, where did each advise to look in order to find the Tao? Lao Tzu perceived Tao as the indescribable force that flows through everything in the universe. He and other Taoist discourage even naming the force known as Tao, if it can be named it is not the true Tao. (Molloy) To experience the Tao of Lao Tzu one must leave behind thoughts of individual things and concepts. One would give up formal training and focus on searching for meaning to find the Tao. Confucius on the other hand perceived Tao in the human world as a force in right relationships. Tao is channeled and thus in which a person lives a noble life. There is a heavy emphasis on formal training to cultivate a person to exude virtues, thus find the Tao. 2) With Taoism and Confucianism diverging from and contradicting each other at so many junctures, how do they function together in Chinese society? …show more content…

Both hold the honor of initially being the subject of destruction under initial communist rule, but prior and more recently have gone hand in hand. This is due to the fact that even though there is a major disagreement on how to seek and know the Tao, other disagreements do not overlap so heavily. They both share many common beliefs on man, society and the universe. Their focuses also do not run the same, Taoism focuses on the search for the meaning of the Tao, whereas Confucianism focuses on society and its

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