Daoism vs Taoism: Is There a Difference?

Search for books on this subject and you will find Taoism and Daoism, the Tao Te Ching and the Dao De Jing, Lao Tzu and Laozi, Chuang Tzu and Zhuangzi. Are these different things? No. But there is a real distinction hiding behind the question, and it’s worth knowing.

Short answer: same word, two spelling systems

Taoism and Daoism are the same tradition. The difference is only in how Chinese is written in the Latin alphabet.

• Wade-Giles, a system developed by British scholars in the 19th century, writes the word for “way” as Tao.
• Pinyin, adopted in China in the 1950s and now the international standard, writes it as Dao.

Both are pronounced roughly “dow” (rhymes with “how”). The Wade-Giles T stood for an unaspirated sound closer to an English d, which is why pinyin switched to D. So “Taoism” was never pronounced with a hard T. It’s just an older spelling.

The common names in both systems

Older (Wade-Giles)	Modern (pinyin)	Chinese	Meaning
Tao	Dao	道	the Way
Taoism	Daoism	道家 / 道教	the tradition of the Way
Tao Te Ching	Dao De Jing	道德經	Classic of the Way and Virtue
Lao Tzu	Laozi	老子	“Old Master”
Chuang Tzu	Zhuangzi	莊子	Master Zhuang
Te	De	德	virtue, power
Ch’i	Qi	氣	breath, vital energy
T’ai Chi	Taiji	太極	supreme ultimate

Taoism and Tao Te Ching remain far more common in everyday English, which is why most books, and this website, use them. Academic writing increasingly prefers Daoism and Dao De Jing. You’ll even see the two mixed, as in “Lao Tzu’s Dao De Jing”. (Spellings like Tao Tse Ching are simply mistakes.)

The difference that does matter: philosophy and religion

There is a genuine distinction that sometimes gets attached to the two spellings. Chinese has two words for the tradition:

• Daojia (道家), “the school of the Way”: the philosophical tradition of the Tao Te Ching and the Zhuangzi. Ideas about nature, simplicity, wu wei, and the Tao itself.
• Daojiao (道教), “the teaching of the Way”: the religious tradition that took organised form from the 2nd century CE, with temples, priests, scriptures, rituals, gods and practices aimed at long life and immortality.

Western writers once drew a sharp line between “pure” philosophical Taoism and “later” religious Taoism. Scholars now see them as deeply intertwined: religious Taoists revere Lao Tzu (as the deified Laozi) and chant the Tao Te Ching. But the distinction is still useful when you’re reading. A book on Lao Tzu’s philosophy and a book on Taoist temple liturgy are about different sides of one tradition.

Some writers use “Daoism” for the whole tradition and reserve “Taoism” for the popular Western understanding of the philosophy. That is a convention, not a rule. Whichever spelling you use, you’re talking about the same thing.

So which should you use?

• Searching or reading for pleasure? “Taoism” and “Tao Te Ching” will find you more.
• Writing an essay or reading scholarship? Expect “Daoism”, “Dao De Jing” and “Laozi”.
• Speaking out loud? Say “dow” either way.

Read the text behind both names

In Taoism: Doomscrolling Blocker the book appears as the Dao De Jing, in the original Chinese with two classic English translations: James Legge (1891), who wrote “Tâo Teh King”, and Paul Carus (1898), who wrote “Tao-Teh-King”. Seeing their old spellings beside the characters is a nice reminder that the words have changed far more than the text. New to it? Start with our beginner’s guide to the Tao Te Ching.