Taoist practice of psychic self-regulation has essentially solved the same task of ordering the mind as the Confucian culture. Confucianism and Taoism are quite closely related, although this is a relationship of antipodes and the unity of opposites.
Similarities in Taoism and Confucianism
Mental functions of a person must be trained and “educated” in a certain way, changing them in a particular direction.
Before proceeding to any business, especially such an important and responsible as management of other people, first of all you must “learn to control yourself”, i.e. your psyche.
“The root” of successes and failures should be primarily searched in yourself. The state of consciousness of a person who reached the limit remains completely unchanged if he looks up at the sky, gets down to the “yellow sources” (the kingdom of the dead) or, travels around the eight parts of the world.
Differences between Two Spiritual Traditions
Confucians focused their mental and physical strength mainly on the administrative activity and in the sphere of “high” and officially recognized culture. Taoists did not recognize any hierarchy of “higher” and “lower” activities, and, consequently, the possibility of using of Taoist methods of psycho training was virtually unlimited.
If in Confucianism mental training served only as one way of educating of the individual, in Taoism it took the central place.
“Unity with Tao” is entering into a certain state of consciousness when attempts of verbalization of direct sensory experience are stopped, a person refuses from truths and regulations imposed from the outside. At the initial stages of Taoist practice, when the state of inner peace is not stable yet, it was necessary to eliminate the strong irritants. Mental training on “non-action”, "devastation" of consciousness and “dispassion” initially flowed in secluded, quiet and deserted places.
Pathos of Taoism was not to achieve a “non-action” due to the depletion of your life, excluding from it full-blooded events, but to keep the equanimity of spirit in all situations and during any disaster.
Many Confucian officials who were in public service practiced Taoism, but most often secretly.
The situation in the Chinese culture was characterized by the interaction of the polar forces of yin (dark, the feminine) and yang (light, the masculine), where Taoism was identified as yin and Confucianism as yang. As an ideal embodiment of any development finding and maintaining an optimal balance between the polar tendencies where one of them cannot suppress the other, and they balance each other, not allowing the opposing tendency to grow into its extremity was proclaimed (Diffen).
Works Cited
Diffen. “Confucianism vs. Taoism”. Diffen. N.d. Web. 4 May 2016
