Taoism-The art of letting it go.

Taoism (also spelled Daoism) may be a religion and a philosophy from ancient China that has influenced folk and national belief. Taoism has been connected to the philosopher Lao Tzu, who around 500 B.C.E. wrote the most book of Taoism, the Tao Te Ching. Taoism holds that humans and animals should sleep in balance with the Tao, or the universe. Taoists believe spiritual immortality, where the spirit of the body joins the universe after death.

Much of the thrust of Daoism, as we’ve seen, naturally motivates a reaction against the moralistic and elitist inclinations of Confucianism. Confucianism stood for a rigid, detailed, traditional pattern of hierarchical social behavior. Duties were assigned to all or any of one’s social roles—and an individual typically had many such roles, e.g., husband, father, minister, younger brother, teacher, student, etc.

One could escape this heavy scheme of obligations mainly in retirement or, paradoxically, the normal duty to spend three years “in mourning” for the death of one’s father. The withdrawal from society, the antipathy toward ritual roles, traditional “morality,” and any social structures or traditional culture suggests a sort of Daoist “ethos” as an antithesis to Confucianism in China.

One of the most ideas of Taoism is that the belief in balancing forces, or yin and yang. These ideas represent matching pairs, like light and dark, hot and cold, action and inaction, which work together toward a universal whole. Yin and yang show that everything within the universe is connected which nothing is sensible by itself.

Taoism became well-known within the eighth century C.E. because the religion of the Tang . within the following centuries, it existed alongside Buddhism and Confucianism (another philosophical religion). However, during the Communist takeover in 1959, Taoism, Confucianism, and other religions were banned. This caused a decline within the practice of Taoism in China. Many modern Taoists sleep in Taiwan, although recent reforms in China have increased the amount of Chinese Taoists.