Differences between Confucianism and Taoism?

[nantogph]

What are the differences between the two lifestyle paths?

Did the founders of each live in the same era?

How do they view the soul, and life after death?

What are their views on the Judeo-Christian God and Jesus?

How do they view The Buddha?

What are their places of worship/learning?

[Marblehead]

So many questions and a thousand-fold times more answers.

 

The commonality between Lao Tzu and Confucius is that both were Chinese.

 

But actually, there are numerous commonalities between Lao Tzu and Confucius. I doubt one could find any commonalities between Confucius and Chuang Tzu except that they both were Chinese.

[woodcarver]

What are the differences between the two lifestyle paths?

 

Confucianism is kind of like Christianity in the way that people imitate Jesus to become like Jesus. The Analects of Confucius is pretty much a bunch of situations Confucius was in so you can do the same. He also gives a lot of advice.

 

The Tao Te Ching is like an instruction manual for finding Tao but also is very philosophically advanced compared to other great philosophers in history.

 

Confucians study a lot and reform themselves to set a good example to society. Taoists do the same unintentionally and without trying by harmonizing themselves with the Tao. The result is nearly the same and for me personally Confucius was a gateway to Lao Tzu and friends.

Did the founders of each live in the same era?

 

It's easier just to say yes.

How do they view the soul, and life after death?

 

Soul can mean a lot of things depending on the culture.

 

Lao Tzu suggests that all things return to the Tao and I'm not sure what Confucius said but I wouldn't be surprised if it was something similar. Sometimes they agreed on the larger-scale ideas.

What are their views on the Judeo-Christian God and Jesus?

 

I don't think they heard of them at the time but Confucius loves to learn new things and Lao Tzu would listen carefully.

 

How do they view The Buddha?

 

I don't know the answer to this but maybe similar to the previous question.

What are their places of worship/learning?

 

There is religious Confucianism and religious Taoism but not all Confucians and Taoists are religious. I don't really know what the religious ones do.

[dawei]

Are you familiar with:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinegar_tasters

 

The Vinegar Tasters (三酸圖, three sours; 嘗醋翁, vinegar tasting old-men; 嘗醋圖, 尝醋图), is a traditional subject in Chinese religious painting. The allegorical composition depicts the three founders of China's major religious and philosophical traditions:Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism.

 

The three men are dipping their fingers in a vat of vinegar and tasting it; one man reacts with a sour expression, one reacts with a bitter expression, and one reacts with a sweet expression. The three men are Confucius, Buddha, and Laozi, respectively. Each man's expression represents the predominant attitude of his religion: Confucianism saw life as sour, in need of rules to correct the degeneration of people; Buddhism saw life as bitter, dominated by pain and suffering; and Taoism saw life as fundamentally good in its natural state. Another interpretation of the painting is that, since the three men are gathered around one vat of vinegar, the "three teachings" are one.

 

---

 

Or course we can delve deep into the different paths but the destination was similar.

 

Your asking about their separate paths, which seems an interesting point.

 

My first answer is:

 

Confucianism: Looked to the past rules, rites, established ways of the past. Think the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors; The Zhou Rites;

 

Daoism: Looked to the past Sages... ancient ones who obtained the Dao... these ancient ones are starkly different than Confucian thought of Sage-Kings who possessed virtue; For LZ and those in the tradition, these rulers were DAO-Kings.

 

In my thinking, this is the difference: For Confucius, the Sage is represented as king.... For LZ, a sage is represented as DAO.

 

The counter comment will be that LZ often talks of instructing a ruler as if he is a sage.. there you go