Daoism vs. Confucianism
• Confucianism
– A system of thought representing
“conventional values”
– social-minded
– represents a higher form of moralism
– optimistic rationalism
– Humanism: humaneness (ren) and
righteousness (yi)
– family ethics: filial piety (xiao), proriety (li),
– ritualization of life
Confucian Views of Men and Society
• a sage ruler (sage king) is needed to keep social
and political order
– Which is maintained by proper hierarchy
– Example of modeled society can be found in a
golden age in the past.
• Man is the center of this mundane world
• gentlemen (junzi) in gov’t to help rule the state
• good government brings about good society
• good individuals: humane and righteous
• rites and music:
– sacrifice and ritual
– rules and regulations
• family is the base of society and state
– ethics and order
– Education
• Humanism
Daoism (based on DDJ and ZZ)
• Taoism/Daoism valued speculative thought
• Questioned and often times repudiated Confucian
values
• rejected all other “artificial devices” of civilization
• mocked ritual and propriety and decried group
conventions
• pessimistic about society
• man is not capable of keeping order and safety in society
• social man is a misguided being
•
•
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sought nature as refuge from man’s world
scorned government, feared progress and civilization
wary of technical skills
naturalism
Daoist Criticism of Confucianism

Confucian Virtues and regulations


humaneness and righteousness
 like web-toes, extra-fingers, and other physical superfluity
 not a part of human nature; their existence is of no meaningful
value
 not attributes of humanity because they were used to pursue
honor and wealth, thus were the sources of greed
 along with the rites and music, caused confusions in the world
 what made people “superior men”; what caused people to twist
their nature and die for
Good person

one who accepts the given characteristics and knows his/her own self
Lao-tzu’s/Laozi’s Critique of Confucianism
• The person of superior integrity
• Does not insist upon (display) his integrity.
• The person of inferior integrity
• Never loses sight of his integrity;
• For this reason, he lacks integrity.
• The person of superior integrity takes no action
• Nor has he a purpose for acting
• The person of superior humaneness takes action,
• But has no purpose for acting
• The person of superior righteousness takes no
action
• And has a purpose for acting
• The person of superior etiquette takes action
• But others do not respond to him;
•
•
•
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•
•
Whereupon he rolls up his sleves and coerces them
When the Way is lost, afterward comes integrity.
When integrity is lost, afterward comes humaneness.
When humaneness is lost, afterward comes righteousness.
When the righteousness is lost, afterward comes etiquette.
Etiquette is the attenuation of trustworthiness,
• And the source of disorder .
• Foreknowledge is but the blossomy ornament of the Way,
• And the source of ignorance.
(TTC/ddj, 1/38)
• Let there be a small state with few people,
– Where military devices find no use;
• Let the people look solemnly upon death,
– And banish the thought of moving elsewhere.
• They may have carts and boats,
– But there is no reason to ride them;
• They may have armor and weapons,
– But they have no reason to display them.
• Let the people go back to tying knots to keep records
• Let their food be savory, their clothes beautiful, their customs
pleasurable, [and] their dwellings secure.
• Though they may gaze across at a neighboring state,
– And hear the sounds of its dogs and chickens,
• The people will never travel back and forth,
– Till they die of old age.
(TTC/DDJ, 30/80)
• To Daoists, Confucian pursuit of knowledge
• interfered with the innate characteristics of things
• created distinction between men and other beings
• men separated themselves from the birds and the beasts
• treated the birds and the beasts as their possessions
• created mechanic devices to hunt (or kill) animals and nature
• complicated life, provoked debates, and divided people and
all creatures
• life should be as simple as “the simplicity of unhewn log”
• caused contention for profits and fame
• did not help people to realize and appreciate the Dao, but
would move people away from the Dao
More critiques
• Confucian sages
• the source of troubles in this world
• created more harms than benefits
• people do bad things in the name of humaneness and
righteousness
• the world would be in peace without the sage
• abandon wisdom and abolish sagehood
• forsake outer form and cultivate inner virtues
Denunciation of Confucius
• The Zhuangzi, chapter 29, “Robber Footpad”
(Daozhi 盜 跖).
• Daozhi: “Is not this fellow Kong Qiu, the clever hypocrite
from the state of Lu? Tell him for me, “You make speeches
and compose phrases, recklessly citing kings Wen and Wu.
You wear a cap decorated with twigs and branches and a
cummerbund of dead ox hide. You are wordy and prone to
exaggerate. You eat without plowing, dress without
weaving. You flap your lips and wag your tongue,
presumptuously fabricating right and wrong, thereby
confusing the rulers of all under heaven what is
fundamental. Your recklessly propound filial devotion and
fraternal duty, yet try your luck with the feudal lords, the
wealthy, and the honored. Your crimes are great, your
• offenses enormous. Go back wehre you came from
quickly! Otherwise, I’ll supplement my lunch with your
liver.” (p.300)
• “Come before me Hillock! If what you say goes along with
my thoughts you will live, but if it goes against what’s in
my mind you will die.” (p. 300)
• “Come before me, Hillock. Those who reprimand with gain
and remonstrate with words may all be said to be stupid
and crude commoners. To be tall and big, to be
handsome and good, and to please those who see me--these are virtues inherited from my parents. Even if you
had not praised me for them, do you think that I wouldn’t
have known about them myself?” (p.301)
• “Moreover, I have heard that those who are fond of praising
others to their face are also fond of slandering them behind
their back. Now, your telling me about a great city and
multitudes of people is because you want to reprimand me
with gain and treat me as a commoner. How could that last
long? The greatest city cannot be greater than all under
heaven. Yao and Shun possessed all under heaven, but
theirs sons and grandsons did not even have land enough
in which to stick an awl, Tang and Wu were established as
sons of heaven, but their later generations were severed.
Wasn’t this because their gains had been great?” (p.302)
• “Now you, sir, cultivate the way of Wen and Wu; you
manipulate the disputations of all under heaven to instruct
later ages. With your ample robe and broad belt, your
dissembling words and fraudulent conduct, you confuse
and delude the sovereigns of all under heaven,
• wishing thereby to seek wealth and honor. There are no
greater robbers than you, sir. Why don’t all under heaven
call you Robber Hillock instead of calling me Robber
Footpad? With your sweet phrases, you persuaded Zilu to
become a follower of yours. You had him get rid of his
peaked cap and remove his long sword, so as to receive
your instructions. All under heaven say that Confucius can
stop tyranny and prevent wrongs. In the end, however,
when Zilu wished to kill the Lord of the Wei, the affair
miscarried and they displayed his pickled corpse on the
east gate of Wei. This shows the imperfection of your
teaching, sir.” (pp.302-303)
• “Do you call yourself a nobleman of ability and a sage? But
you were twice driven out of Lu, had your traces oberated
in Wei, were isolated in Qi, and were beseiged in the area
of Chen and Cai, leaving no place under heaven where
• your person might be accommodated. It was your
instructions that brought upon Zilu this calamity of being
pickled. You, as superior, can do nothing for your own
person, and your subordinates can do nothing for others. Is
your way worth honoring, sir? (p.303)
• “There is no one whom the world esteems as much as the
Yellow Emperor, but even the Yellow Emperor was unable to
perfect his virtue and fought in the wilds of Zhuólu, causing
blood to flow for a hundred tricents. Yao was unkind, Shun
was unfilial, Yu was partially withered, Tang banished his
sovereign, and King Wu attacked Zhòu …These are the six
men whom the world esteems, but if we discuss them
thoroughly, they were all deluded by gain and forcefully
opposed their own emotions and natures. Their conduct is
thus quite shameful. (p.303)
• “Those whom the world considers worthy noblemen
include Bóyí and Shúqí took leave of the Lord of Gūzhú
and starved to death at Shou’yang Mountain, their bones
and flesh remaining unburied. Bao Jiao glamorized his
ocnduct and criticized the world, but he died with his
arms wrapped around a tree. When Shentú Dí’s criticism
went unheeded, he threw himself into the river carrying a
stone on his back and was eaten by fishes and turtles.
Jie Zhitui, being of utmost loyalty, cut flesh from his own
thigh to feed Duke Wen. When Duke Wen later turned
his back on him, Zhitui became angry and went away,
wrapping his arms around a tree and being burnt to
death. Tailborn had an appointment with a girl beneath a
bridge, but the girl did not come. The water rose, but he
would not leave, and he died with his arms wrapped
around a pillar of the bridge. These six men were no
• different from a dog whose carcass is hung outside the
door to ward off evil spirits, a pig that is sacrificed to the
god of the river, or a starved beggar who has frozen to
death in a ditch but still holds his alms gourd. They all put
a premium on fame and despised death, paying no regard
to the fundamental nourishment of their alloted life span.
There are none whom the world considers such loyal
ministers as Prince Bigan and Wu Zixu. Yet Zixu’s body
was cast into the Yangzi River and Bigan’s heart was cut
open. The world considered these two men loyal
ministers, but in the end they were laughed at by all under
heaven. Judging from the above cases, down to Zixu and
Bigan, none are worth honoring.
• As for what you’re trying to persuade me with, if you tell
me about the affairs of ghosts, that’s something I can’t
know anything about; if you tell me about the affairs of
men, it’s no more than this---what I have already heard
about and know. (pp.303-304)
• “Now, sir, I shall tell you about human condition. The
eyes desire to see colors; the ears desire to hear
sounds; the mouth desires to taste flavors; the will and
vital breath desire fulfillment. Man’s highest longevity is
sixty. If we exclude illness, death, and dread, the days
that remain on which we can open our mouths to laugh
amount to no more than four or five in a month. Heaven
and earth are timeless, but the death of man is fixed in
time. If we take an entity that is fixed in time and entrust
it to timelessness, its brevity will be no different from that
of Piebald Thoroughbred passing a crack in a wall.
• None who are unable to gratify their volition and to
nourish their allotted life span are in communication
with the Way.” (p.304)
• “Everything you have spoken, Hillock, is what I have
rejected. Go back immediately. Speak no more! Your
way is a frenzied and frantic affair that is deceitful,
clever, vain, and hypocritical---not what can be used
to fulfill the truth. It’s not worth discussing.” (pp. 304305)
Avoid Bipolarizing Daoism and
Confucianism
 Soft vs. Hard
 Yin vs. Yang
 Positive vs. Nagative
 Optimism vs. Pessimism
Daoist side of Confucius
 The Analects 2:1 (p.63)
 The Master said, “The ruler of virtue can be
compared to the Pole Star which commands the
homage of the multitude of stars without leaving
its place.”
 The Analects 3:7 (p.68)
 The Master said, “There is no contention
between gentlemen. The nearest to it is ,
perhaps, archery….
 The Analects (V:7, D.C. Lau)
 The Master said, “If the Way should fail
and I were to put to sea on a raft, the
one who would follow me would no
doubt be You (Zilu). Zilu, on hearing this,
was overjoyed. The Master said, “You
has a greater love for courage than I, but
is lacking judgement.”
 The master said, “In the eating of coarse rice and
the drinking of water, the using one’s elbow for a
pillow, joy is to be found. Wealth and rank
attained through immoral means have as much
to do with me as passing clouds.” (7:16)
“Dian, how about you? After a few dying notes
came the final chord, and then he stood up
from his lsue. “I differ from the other three in
my choices.” The Master said, “What harm is
there in that?” After all each man is stating
what he has set his heart upon.”
“In late spring, after the spring clothes have been newly
made, I should like, together with five or six adults and six
or seven boys, to go bathing in the River Yi and enjoy the
breeze on the Rain Alter, and then go home chanting
poetry. The Master sighed and said, “I am all in favor of
Dian.”
Was Taoism a “School”?
 Problems of Traditional Taxonomies

no clear indication of community in strict sense of the
word
Unclear about schools, master-disciple transmission
 Show only individuals and fragmentation of transmission over
generation


inevitably misinterpreted classical teachings
argued for the writers’ favorable system of thought.
 likely to engage in “the invention of tradition”
 inaccurately identified tradition, for instance, grouping Huangdi
and Laozi as Huang-Lao school.

 Claims of revealed texts (in Han times) were often connected
to Daoism

What defines Daoism?
 the knowledge of natural categories
 the manipulation of yin-yang correlations,
 the concepts of self-cultivation taught by Laozi and Zhuangzi
 empirical knowledge of plants and herbs, etc.
 Did a Confucian community, Ru community, exist as was
told by Han historian? What defines their identity?

Their ritual criteria of value vs. economic criteria of value.
Other Schools?
 Did a Mohist community exist?
 What defines Mohist community?
 Strong sense of communal life;
 Community stood as a big family characterized by
strict hierarchy and sense of brotherhood.
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Sacrifice for the community was encouraged.
The community maintained its own legal code
separate from the state
Stressed military defense skills for self-protection and
survival