The historical figure we know as Confucius actually was a man born as K’ung-Ch’iu, who lived from about 551 to 479 B.C., and for two millennia was known only within parts of what we today call China.

Scholars have debated whether Confucianism is a philosophical doctrine, a religious teaching, or both. The English word"religion" is commonly associated with institutional religion, which usually includes a priesthood, a belief system, and a ritual. Yet Confucianism is not associated with any priesthood. It does not teach that a god or gods should be worshiped, and it does not contemplate the possibility of life after death. Confucianism is not even associated, strictly speaking, with any dogmatic propositions or belief systems, but it does embrace a system of ritual that has some religious significance. For this reason, among others, Confucianism also may be called, in a very broad sense, a religion.

The major work about Confucius, entitled the Analects, offers further insight into K’ung’s own self-consciousness. It exposes his high regard for rituals and for the virtue and propriety that flow from them. K’ung’s personality clearly had a religious character, with a profound reverence for the will of heaven. The Analects are a record of K’ung’s conversation with his disciples, and these are the best sources for learning his teachings.

K’ung’s central doctrine is the virtue of jen, which is the affection and love involved in human relationships. For parents and kin, they reserved a special kind of love, because the roots of jen are filial piety and brotherly respect. Confucianism acknowledges the natural love involved in kinship. It also recognizes the natural feelings aroused by a neighbor’s need for help — any neighbor.

For the follower of Confucius, a parent’s love for his or her children extends to other people’s children as well. Filial respect for the aged extends to other people’s parents and to elders in general. Family relationships serve as models for social behavior in the efforts to achieve universal love. One should respect his or her elders, both in the immediate family and in other people’s families. We should be kind not only to our own children and juniors, but also to other people’s children and juniors. Indeed, these instructions are the source of cohesiveness and solidarity within Chinese culture.

But Confucianism is more than a guide to proper social behavior. It also prescribes certain rituals, including religious rituals. Confucianism has even been called "a ritual religion," or Li Chiao.

The Chinese ancestral cult was surrounded by ritual as was their worship of heaven as supreme lord. K’ung-fu-tzu stressed that it’s extremely important to have proper inner disposition when we engage in a religious or social ritual. Otherwise, propriety becomes mere formalism and even hypocrisy. Confucianism calls for rational morality and the kind of virtue that produces harmonious and responsible relationships with other human beings.

If we are to understand the Chinese and other East Asian cultures, then we must understand both Confucianism and Taoism. Indeed, it may be said that Chinese thought has centered more generally on two sides of existence: the more active, yang side, and the contemplative yin side.

The active yang force is associated with Confucian moral and social philosophy. It is seen as a masculine force, and it has been generally dominant during periods of political unity and social order.

The contemplative yin force has been associated more with Taoism. This passive side of things can be seen in naturalism and quietism, and the yin is seen as feminine.

But the yin and yang forces are not mutually exclusive, and Taoism itself is often represented by a circular design, with interlocking black and white shapes.

Taoism is both a philosophy and also a religion, and sometimes these two forms of Taoism are quite different. The problem is compounded by the fact that every school of Chinese thought and religion uses the word Tao, which means "the way."

Most Taoist philosophers have a genuinely religious desire to transcend the limitations of this life. It is a quest that’s as old as humanity itself. Taoist philosophers also have retreated from the world, but not so much in rejection of the evils of mortal existence. Rather they have withdrawn in protest of oppression by human political and social institutions. At certain times, Taoist alchemists won political favor at court. At other times, Taoist masters have fought political battles with both Confucianists and Buddhists. But most Taoists have preferred to remain anonymous and reclusive, and they have kept their beliefs mysterious.

Taoism has for most of its history been practiced under a shroud of secrecy. It began as a philosophy of recluses, and it gave rise to a religion whose followers usually have sought anonymity.

Many Taoist teachings are articulated in riddles, and the followers of this esoteric circle usually have revealed its secrets only to the initiated. This shroud of secrecy has been penetrated only recently.

Classical Taoist philosophy is found in two major texts. One is called Lao-Tzu, named after its author; the other is called Chuang-Tzu, also named after its author. The concept of the Tao appears to be a philosophic attempt to conceptualize an earlier Chinese religious belief.

In the Confucian classics, the supreme deity had been called "lord on high," and the god called "heaven" was sometimes given the role of a progenitor, or creator, but in Chuang-Tzu and Lao-Tzu, the Tao dominates. Here the Tao isn’t seen as a personal deity, but rather as a model for human behavior — the natural way, the human way. According to the Lao-Tzu, the Tao existed before the universe. It is the unchanging ancestor of all things, the source from which everything came to be.

Taoist practitioners believe they can discover this nameless first principle by following three methods: By contemplating the universe, by cultivating the proper disposition for meditation, and by adopting the proper perspective on life.
In Taoism, this proper outlook is expressed by the term Wu Wei, which literally means "non-action."

Wu Wei is best understood not as the literal absence of action. Rather it is acting without artificiality, without over-action, and without attachment to the action itself. The practical part of Lao Tzu is thus to live according to the way — a way of naturalness, simplicity, and even weakness.