I have been seeing this "what is the Difference between Reigious Taoism and Philisophical Taoism" topic all the time, and people run into debates and stuff. I really want to ask you, the reader, to think about what is Chinese food compared to Chinese buffet, the chap sui? Real Chinese food isn't appealing, because it's not red and vibrant and such, and we don't serve with those nice presentation and all those delicious art work on top. Chinese people eat by tossing all those brown and black stuff into the pot, cook for a few hours, and they just serve it with the same pot and you will not like that kind of color as a non-Chinese. Sushi is much better looking to be honest, at least it's colorful and they made it nice and vibrant. Chinese food are tasty, but they aren't really nice looking all the time, and a normal Chinese really do not eat those vibrant color dishes you see int he buffet table. This is Chap Sui I found on google, some stir fried Chinese-food.
Now here is some real juicy Chinese food, called Dung Boh Yuk, invented by a poet. Super yummy and super not-attractive to the westerners.
Chinese people are not fancy on the look, and they eat this kind of food for many years. The vibrant and pretty presentation only kicked in after China is westernized and people start to really get into the science and modern groove. To survive in the society, in the world, Chinese made many changes to their culture to stay alive, and make things attractive for the "ignorant gwai lo" (no offense). That's right, Chinese themselves don't care if the food look colorful or not, it doesn't matter to them and they have been eating this kind of brown color dishes all the time. This is food! What do you want? Some gold sparkles on top? Well, the westerners don't like it, then Chinese made it differently, with a twist, and some new ideas made the food better looking, and now the westerners finally accepted Chinese food and slowly dig into the art, one small step after one small step.
Some westerners are very brave and they really dig into the "real" Chinese food, and they will eventually love it and they will realized how much they have been judging the food wrong by the appearance in the past. It's a whole new world, and you cannot even know how to explain it to the other friends in USA and such!
Taoism? It is the same. To be honest, there is no philosophy Taoism, because Taoism is always just Taoism. This Lao Tze guy is only "one" out of the many people in China and people took his "gift" that he left behind as a "treasure". The book isn't even a teaching material, it was a gift, and not even a book for people to learn. Have you wondered how many other wise people like him were in China back then and did not get on the history book? China is huge, and people there are smart, but many people don't get heard because they are not connected to the big-guys.
Another funny thing is, when a westerner start to have a feeling or urge of wanting to learn about Taoism, they will instantly want to learn Mandarin. Do you know, that the dialect of Mandarin isn't even a Chinese language back then when Lao Tze was around? Back then, they speak another kind of dialect! Mandarin only came into China in the VERY recent history.
Also, if you even dig into the real China today, where do you see a "school" or place that "teach Taoism" but only the philosophy? NONE! Everywhere that talks about Taoism, is a place for you to go and ordain, learn and there HAVE to be altars and stuff going on. Seriously, don't you see that this is the real thing and not the "tai chi and chi kung and some meditation" kind of stuff? Those "surface" teachings are to amuse, attract and make people outside come over only, it's not the core and not the heart of the teachings! Yes, we do have Tai Chi and Chi Kung, but that isn't what Taoism is about in the heart. Well, all I can say is, if you can accept the chap sui as real Chinese food, then you can accept those so called philosophy Taoism as Taoism. Otherwise, if you ask me, there is no such things. Taoism is Taoism, it's just lame and pathetic Taoism or a real deal lineage Taoism. Gwai Lo Taoism / americanized Taoism / outsider's Taoism maybe.
