Confucianism and Toaism

For the past few days in history class we have been studying Confucianism and Taoism separately. But today we looked at both of them together and compared and contrasted. I will say my thoughts and observations for each of them separately and then compare the two.

My Thoughts and Observations on Confucianism:

Confucius's teachings are regarded mostly in Asia , so China, Vietnam, Japan and Korea. Confucius, who lived in China during a state of turmoil and transition for the country during the Zhou Dynasty, wanted to create teachings to help China get out of a state of warfare and competition between the different feudal states. He tried to get solutions for unity. In passages from "On Humaneness," something called "The Way" is referred to a lot and that this just means the right way to live your life so being humane, respectful, and living your life with liberality, trustworthiness, earnestness and kindness. In the long run, the whole idea of Confucianism is to help others and everything will be okay. It is this idea of unity and everyone working together to make a better place. But the only way to help others is if you help yourself first and then you are worthy of helping others. You want to establish yourself and then help others do the same. Confucius said that the only way to be humane is to recognize yourself in other people. So this also goes with the unity idea and also means that everyone should be treated equally and the way you would want to be treated. Confucianism is kind of black and white. You either are something or your not. You are humane and if you are not humane then you must be the total opposite and you will have a really bad life. It is kind of the idea of Karma, if you are bad and mean to other people then your life is going to be bad. I don't really agree with all of his teachings because, like I said, he seems to black and white to me. I am humane but I am not totally humane, I even lack the knowledge of what the full definition of humane is. I think that not everything is one dimensional and people can have multiple layers to themselves. I think that I am a nice person but that doesn't mean that I am always nice to every single person I know and meet. So that is my perspective of Confucius's philosophy. 

My Thought and Observations on Taoism: 

I think that Taoism is pretty similar to Confucianism on a few things but the over all outlook is really different. Taoism was created by Lao Tzu who was contemporary of Confucius. Taoism started out kind of like the way Christianity started out. It was part of Confucianism but eventually broke off into it's own thing. Tzu, the founder of Taoism, was regarded and honored as almost a god. Tao actually translates to Path or road. Taoism isn't really a religion but more of a way of life. Actually maybe not even a way of life but a thing, an actual thing that is just there. It can't be described or explained it just is. If it were to be described it would be described as a force that flows through everything living. It is kind of like the force in Star Wars and actually Taoism is what the force in Star Wars was modeled after. Tao is what made everything and existed before anything else existed. In a quote that was in the reading, it says that "if you don't listen to me, then I will effect you." That is kind of a scare tactic and goes with the notion of Karma. The thing about Taoism that really makes it different is that it believes in helping only yourself and not others. But by helping only yourself you are actually helping others. Helping yourself is finding Tao and this will give you integrity and that, in turn, will help other people. So this religion is more of an individual religion and you can kind of do things your way and to your understanding of things. 

Differences and Similarities Between Confucianism and Taoism:

I think that the most major difference is the main philosophy of each of them which is the way to make things better. For Confucianism it is to help others and be humane at all costs. For Taoism it is to help yourself and find Tao in order to make the world better. So Confucianism is about unity and Taoism is about independence and self advocation. Similarities (other then the obvious of both being founded and followed in primarily China) are that they both have a kind of karma system. In both of the primary passages that I read explaining Confucianism and Taoism it says that if you don't do the right thing (the thing that each of the different religions are teaching so Humaneness for Confucianism and achieving Tao for Taoism) then your life will be bad. This is a kind of scare tactic and was probably put into place in both of the two religions to gain control into their own religion. Also another similarity is they both believe in achieving a higher goal. For Taoism it is actually finding Tao and for Confucianism it is following The Way and finding humaneness.