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When Lao-tzu was born, he was believed to already be an older and wise man with white hair, this is the myth that gave him his name which means, “old master”.

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Confucius was born in 551 B.C. He had wandered throughout China as a government employee and a political advisor to the railing Chou family.

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He had wandered throughout China as a government employee and a political advisor to the railing Chou family.

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Lao-tzu left his home of Luoyang to live a quiet life, because he was saddened by a lack of goodness in society.

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In Taoism, a mysterious force called the Tao flows through everything in the universe.

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Confucius was a musician and a philosopher who had taught a small group of students.

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The goal of Confucianism is to learn to be human and act with virtue, or goodness, in society.

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Confucian texts such as the “I Ching,” or “Book of Changes,” explain rigid and certain procedures for events in the society. For example birth, marriage, and death.

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People who practice Taoism believe that everything in the world is actually one, even though it doesn’t appear that way.

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When people forget the oneness, opinions of good and evil or true and false happen.

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As Taoism changed as a religion, Taoist began worshipping many gods and ancestors.

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They paid attention to the body’s energy, called “chi” or sought to leave forever by following certain practices of the mind, spirit, and body.

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Taoism changed to China’s state religion in A.D. 440.

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Many people continue to practice it today.

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The best known writings were:
"Not to teach a man who can be taught, is to waste a man; to teach a man who cannot be taught is a waste of words. The wise will lose neither men nor words.”

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He was asked by the city gates keeper to write down his final thoughts.

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The book that Lao-tzu wrote in was the “Tao Te Ching,” (his final thoughts) became the most important text of Taoism.

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When Confucius had sadly passed in 479 B.C., the students he had taught decided to write down his teachings on ethics and morals and called them Lun-yü, which meant edited conversations.

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Many of these sayings still exist today.

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This kind of saying had made Confucianism the social philosophy of China for a long time.

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From when the Han family had ruled in 202 B.C. until A.D. 1911.

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Taoism and Confucianism have lived together in China over 2,000 years.

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They share common beliefs about man, society, and the universe.

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Both Taoism and Confucianism have served as guides.

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They have led China through the peaks and valleys of its vast history, the longest continuing story on the planet.