Running Head: AN ANAYLSIS OF TAOISM AND CONFUCIANISM 1

An Analysis of Taoism and Confucianism

And Chart Comparison of Christianity, Islam,

Wicca, Sikhism, Jainism, Taoism,

Confucianism and Shintoism

Ian Sheldon Banwell

Grand Canyon University

I
INT 463 – World Religions

December 21, 2008

 Running Head: AN ANAYLSIS OF TAOISM AND CONFUCIANISM 2

Taoism and Confucianism remain tenets quite apart from the atypical forms of faith

known today around the world. While Taoism contends that being right with the natural flow of

the universe, or flowing with the yin; representing negative action or female, and yang; being the

positive action or male, leads to doing good, the faith termed simply Confucianism details

exactly the opposite in maintain that doing good certainly results in being right or socially

correct with one’s own people and government, itself. (Grand Canyon University, "Module

Seven - Lecture," n.d.)

Tao continues to prove one such solution to leaving what might be a harmonious existence quite

remote from what might be deemed the forces of nature we collectively see as a way, or way of

Life, expecting to course seamlessly through what eventually becomes an inordinate degree of

difficulty circumventing the currents of life we call the Tao. It pertains to reluctance, at once

practiced and inherently maintained, not to struggle against the forces within the currents of

this Tao or flow, but to go masterfully through it at one with ourselves and condition. (Grand

Canyon University, "Module Seven - Lecture)

The web entry, The Difference: Tao vs. Confucianism (Glam publisher Network, ed., "The

Difference: Taoism vs. Confucianism," 2008), lists simply “Taoism seeks to describe the

Harmonious way to relate to oneself, others, nature, and the universe. One of the head-twisty

things about the Tao Te Ching is that it never specifically defines The Way. It’s a series of

verses, poems, and riddles. It emphasizes control but not dominance, fluidity but not

ambivalence, and mystery but not confusion. It’s full of helpful nuggets, like “Those with simple

needs will find them fulfilled,” and “To glorify wealth, power, and beauty is to inspire theft,

jealousy, and shame.” In its course, it’s also inspired some modern, pop culture–based
 Running Head: AN ANAYLSIS OF TAOISM AND CONFUCIANISM 3

philosophical treatises like The Tao of Homer (as in Simpson) and The Te [Virtue] of Piglet.”

Contrarily, Confucians seeks out the social order of the original, ethical feudal imperial

Leaders whose breakdowns of virtues lead to the social chaos that represented the very point of

beginning such a faith. As noted in the authoritative example The Universe List: Top Ten

Organized Religions and their Core Beliefs (Frater, ed., "Top Ten Organized Religions and their

Core Beliefs," 2007) by compiler and author J. Fratter, the tenet known throughout Asia

continues to exude core beliefs straying entirely away from the typical God-centered faiths in

that, “Confucianism aims at making not simply the man of virtue, but the man of learning and of

good manners. The perfect man must combine the qualities of saint, scholar, and gentleman.

Confucianism is a religion without positive revelation, with a minimum of dogmatic teaching,

whose popular worship is centered in offerings to the dead, in which the notion of duty is

extended beyond the sphere of morals proper so as to embrace almost every detail of daily life.”

Confucianism reflects the need for an order to be centered around the husband and wives’

separate duties, the respect and rapport between father and son or grandfather and father; as well

as determining certain essential structures so necessary to be grounded in one’s community

throughout the devotee’s lifetime and is rooted in the belief that the Gods might well be of a very

secondary nature, apart from and definitely behind an equitable social order where li, or the

course of life the way it should be lived ,is carried out by a superior indivividual relating to his

society with the inward goodheatness known simply as the jen. The discipline or faith, whatever

we might ascertain it as representing, maintains chiefly that all people should love one another,

while both practicing respect of each other and does not extend nearly as far as Christianity in

demanding an end result of right or good over bad or evil within our world . (Hopfe, Religions of

the World, 2006)

CHART
 Running Head: AN ANAYLSIS OF TAOISM AND CONFUCIANISM 4

ism
to
in
Sh

sm
ni
ia
uc
nf
Co

People are Good

sm
oi

in Life
Ta

Life to be Lived
Simple
ism
in

Belief in Creator
Ja
ism

Savior
kh
Si
a
icc
W
am
Isl
ty
ni
tia
ris

0 50 100 150
Ch

References
 Running Head: AN ANAYLSIS OF TAOISM AND CONFUCIANISM 5

Frater, J. (Ed.). (2007, July 31). Top Ten Organized Religions and their Core

Beliefs. Retrieved December 25, 2008, from The List Universe -

Listverse.com.

Glam publisher Network (Ed.). (2008, December 25). The Difference: Taoism

vs. Confucianism. Mental floss:Where Knowledge Junkies Get Their Fix.

Retrieved December 25, 2008, from

http://www.mentalfloss.com/difference/?p=43

Grand Canyon University. (n.d.). Module Seven - Lecture. Lecture. Retrieved

December 25, 2008, from Angel Blackboard Classroom.

Hopfe, L. M. (2006). Religions of the World (10th. ed.) (M. R. Woodward, Ed.).
Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.