core question: how can we live in harmony with reality?
Daoism/Taoism: indigenous religio-philosophical tradition that has shaped Chinese life for more than 2,000 years.
Daoism emerged in ancient China around the 4th–3rd centuries BC, around the same period as Classical Greek philosophy.
Dao (tao) means the way.
History:
In Chinese religion, the Taoist tradition—often serving as a link between the Confucian tradition and folk tradition—has generally been more popular and spontaneous than the official (Confucian) state cult and less diffuse and shapeless than folk religion.
There is also a tendency among scholars today to draw a less rigid line between what is called Taoist and what is called Confucian. The two traditions share many of the same ideas about man, society, the ruler, heaven, and the universe—ideas that were not created by either school but that stem from a tradition prior to either Confucius or Laozi Viewed from this common tradition, orthodox Confucianism limited its field of interest to the creation of a moral and political system that fashioned society and the Chinese empire; whereas Taoism, inside the same worldview, represented more personal and metaphysical preoccupations.
Main guy: Laozi
Main text: Tao Te Ching
themes: simplicity, Wu Wei, nature, balance
Main guy: Zhuang Zhou
Main text: ?
themes: perspective, uncertainty