Confucius Vs Laozi

In China's local culture, there are many schools of thought, but the most important two thoughts are Ru tradition and Daoist School, which are created by Confucius and Laozi. Confucius promotes a hierarchical and moral society while Laozi promotes a non-class and simple life. Although they are two contradictory propositions, they still have one consistence set of values, that is they all claim to go back and rebuild the lost Golden Ages.
Confucius advocated going back to an ideal society where people all following propriety. This is shown in the text when Duke Jing of Qi asked Confucius about governing. Confucius responded, “Let the ruler be a true ruler, the ministers true ministers, the fathers true fathers, and the sons trues sons.” (The
He specifically described this social state in The Tao Te Ching, he said “If a country is governed wisely, its inhabitants will be content. They enjoy the labor of their hands and don’t waste time inventing labor-saving machines. Since they dearly love their homes, they aren’t interested in travel. They may be a few wagons and boats, but these don’t go anywhere. There may be an arsenal of weapons, but nobody ever uses them. People enjoy their food, take pleasure in being with their families, spend weekends working in their gardens, delight in the doings of the neighborhood. And even though the next country is so close that people can hear its roosters crowing and its dogs barking, they are content to die of old age without ever having gone to see it.” (Tao Te Ching, 80) He tends to live in a peaceful life, no one could interrupt his life and he doesn’t need to worry about trivial things. There’s no complex interpersonal relationships, acute social conflicts, and unbelievable religious believes in his ideal
In Laozi’s mind, approaching the Tao is the only way to return and rebuild the lost Golden Age. This is shown in the text when he says, “If you don’t realize the source, you stumble in confusion and sorrow. When you realize where you come from, you naturally become tolerant, disinterested, amused, kindhearted as a grandmother, dignified as a king. Immersed in the wonder of the Tao, you can deal with whatever life brings you, and when death comes, you are ready.” (Tao Te Ching,16) Following Tao, we could live in the primitive life as Laozi wanted. We would not stumble in confusion and sorrow anymore, instead, we would naturally become tolerant, kindhearted, amused and disinterested. We could return to the primitive society as long as all people follow the Tao. And we can learn more specific about Tao in the text when Laozi says Tao is infinite, eternal, it can’t be seen, heard and grasped, Tao has an ambiguous concept. It existed long times ago before the time and space were, and it is the origin of all things that all things follow the Tao. Tao is the product of Laozi’s chaos society, it contains Laozi’s emotion for “not-doing”. This is shown in the text when Laozi says, “There was something formless and perfect before the universe was born. It is serene. Empty. Solitary. Unchanging. Infinite. Eternally present. It is the mother of the universe.