Also taou-, tau-, tavism. [f. Chinese tao way, path, right way (of life), reason + -ISM.] A system of religion, founded upon the doctrine of the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao-tsze (or Lao-tzŭ), born 604 B.C., set forth in the work Tao tê king, ‘Book of reason and virtue,’ attributed to him. It ranks with Confucianism and Buddhism as one of the three religions of China.
1839. Chinese Repository, VII. 511. We have all this time been working through the mazes of Taouism … merely to give a better explanation of the notions of this sect.
1839. Gutzlaff & Reed, China Opened, II. xv. 209, section title, Taouism.
1858. Max Müller, Chips (1880), I. ii. 51. The religious system of Laotse, or the Tao-ism of China.
1903. Rev. Missions, March, 539. Taoism, an older religion than Buddhism—dating indeed from before the teachings of Confucius—was so purely beautiful as delivered by Lao-tsze, its great teacher.
