From 403 to 221 bce China was torn apart by a period of war and political struggle for power. All of society was affected. Inevitably, the innocent suffered the most. Even then, Eastern philosophical spirituality revolved around the balance of yin and yang, the two contrasting but all-encompassing principles of the Dao. People began to wonder what had gone wrong, what they had done to destroy the harmony of daily existence.
The times might be compared to the destructive, intergenerational conflicts experienced during the 1960s in America. Race and politics, even gender, were examined anew, traditional values were questioned, and liberal and conservative traditions developed.
The conservative response centered on the teachings of K'ung Ch'iu, or Confucius. His philosophy was not to change existing society, but to do it better. Be a better son, a better farmer, a better politician. He taught that people must become what, in fact, they really were, even though their actions often failed to demonstrate it.
His writings revolved around the concept of ren (virtue) and li (the potential to rise above the animal). He taught that if you go through the motions enough, whether you feel like it or not, you will acquire the habit of doing what is right.
Confucius personified the yang side of Chinese reality. He was rational, thoughtful, left-brained, and part of the establishment. His object was to reform existing institutions.
Laozi, or Lao Tzu (the name simply means "the old man"), is considered to be the architect of Daoism (or Taoism). He was a contemporary of Confucius, and some traditions claim they met. Confucius was said to have remarked, "Of birds, I know they have wings to fly with, of fish, that they have fins to swim with, of wild beasts, that they have feet to run with. For feet, there are traps, for fins, nets, for wings, arrows. But who knows how dragons surmount wind and cloud into heaven? This day I have seen Laozi and he is a dragon."
Lao Tzu was yin to Confucius's yang, the liberal to his conservative, the hippie to his establishment. He was romantic, intuitive, feelings-oriented, and right-brained. His thinking was that reason and society were not answers to the problem but had become the problem itself.
Tradition even casts him as the first "drop out." We are told that at the ripe old age of eighty (some legends say he was 160), he became disgusted with the hypocrisy and striving of the world. Mounting his water buffalo, he rode west to Tibet, pausing at the border only long enough to write the Tao Te Ching before disappearing into history.
In truth, most Chinese were so steeped in balance that they prudently adopted both approaches to their social problems. Confucianism spoke to their social and family needs. Siddhartha's Buddhism answered questions about life and death, and Lao Tzu's Daoism spoke to their inner nature. It came to be said that Chinese officials were Buddhist by religion, Confucian at work, and Daoist in retirement. (Perhaps the equivalent can be seen in a man who goes to church, synagogue, or mosque on the weekend, wears a suit to a weekday business meeting, and rides off on a Harley during his vacation.)
But in essence, what for Confucius was the sum total of the ideal society-order and material gain, structure and formal learning-was, for Lao Tzu, the epitome of death and decay.
(See also Confucian Texts; Lao Tzu; Tao Te Ching)
Sources: Ellwood, Robert S., and Barbara A. McGraw. Many Peoples, Many Faiths. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999. Lao Tzu. Tao Te Ching. Trans. D. C. Lau. London: Penguin, 1963. Wing-tsit Chan, trans. and comp. A Sourcebook in Chinese Philosophy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963.
