Imagine secluding from the world, inhaling air, and drinking dew every day without

eating. This is the habitual life for many Daoists. Daoism is the most prestigious religion
with Confucianism and Buddhism in China. The concept of Daoism is to follow all and
respect their differences. “For humans are abstracted from the earth, the earth from sky,
sky from the way, and the way from what is beneath abstraction.” This simple sentence
from Laozi’s Dao De Jing represents Dao’s axiology, the study of value. It states humans
should follow the virtue of the earth, sky, and the way of nature. The earth’s virtue is
honesty because it is steady and carries on the world’s ethics. The sky’s virtue is self-
improvement because it carries itself in a system without others’ force. Water can
represent the way of nature. The best of kindness is like water. Water assists all and does
not compete. This is Daoism’s axiology which is the study of value. I will show you the
difference between Daoism and today's concept through its origin and connotations.

People claim Lao Zi to be the first person to establish Daoism during the period of spring
and autumn which is roughly between 770 B.C and 210 B.C. Let us look at a quote that
explains Daoism’s emergence. “Sages lives in the matter of inaction, sermon without
speaking as if all has no origin.” The sages in the quote are tribal leaders of ancient clan
societies that existed during and before the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties. We could
trace up to the era of Fuxi, Shennong, and XuanYuan, who are known as the three
emperors, and Lao Zi mentioned in Dao De Jing that rulers were trying to find the law of
Dao at the beginning of Chinese civilization. Therefore, the emergence of Daoism
originated in the primitive religion of ancient times.
Daoism has four primary connotations, cosmology, ontology, axiology of Dao, and
Daoism’s self-cultivation method. I am going to elucidate on Daoism’s self-cultivation
method. Daoism’s self-cultivation method advocates the thinking of "Learning
knowledge is by gradually accumulating experience, where learning Dao is by gradually
losing things, you learned." Therefore, learning Dao refers to the method of "reduction".
This method requires people to exclude their sensual experience and rationality. Then
they can experience the Dao directly and fuse into Dao. Daoism's self-cultivation method
also cultivates the form of life. Daoists made the way of nourishing life and making the
maintenance of healthy development of life the top priority of self-cultivation.

I had briefly introduced you to Daoism through its origin and connotations. Everyone has
their own Dao, and even Lao Zi can't fully understand it. Have you found the difference
between Daoism and the concept of today? Daoism is abstruse and has considerable
differences from today. If you are interested in Daoism, then find out more about it. If
you are interested in becoming a Daoist, remember three things in need to have, one is
kindness, two is frugality, and three is not fighting to become the first in the world.