What is Daoism?

Daoism, sometimes spelled as Taoism, is a religious and philosophical tradition indigenous to China. But what is Daoism?

Bibliography:
There are several excellent intro books available. Here are a few I consulted for this video:

Ronnie Littlejohn, Daoism: An Introduction, 2009.
Livia Kohn, Introducing Daoism, 2008.
James Miller, Daoism: A Beginner's Guide, 2003.
Stephen Prothero, Religion Matters: An Introduction to the World's Religions, 2020.

00:00 Intro
1:00 The Dao Explained
2:53 The Dao De Jing
7:43 The Zhuangzi
12:00 "Religious" Daoism Intro
13:40 Tianshi dao
15:07 Quanzhen dao
16:13 Daoist Canon
16:45 Daoist Deities
19:05 Self-Cultivation Techniques
21:58 21st-century Daoism

[TheTycoonOtaku]

The fact that Daoism resists classification at every turn is very in line with the Dao. Our attempts to systematize and fit it into our notions of what a religion or philosophical system can be seen as an active attempt to resist the flow of things, that is that not everything can be put into neat boxes.

[williamchamberlain]

I like ( what I've been told is ) the early Daoist ; seemed very grounded in "the natural world is as it is, people are flawed, some people are mean, your mind is in your body along with your emotions and your base drives - let's try and make the best of it and not get too stressed"

[Ammo]

I was in the Air Force with a guy who practiced Daoism...his mother was from Taiwan and his father was from the Philippines. We were all a bunch of young men in a stressful situation, but he was always sorta laid back about it..roll with the flow seemed to be his way of handling things...

[katakesh]

Daoism was my first outside 'religion'

And I'm just glad you're covering it. It's so wonderful and vast

[Tonkhh]

Video idea - the religious aspects of modern day monarchies. As a brit watching the 11 days of national morning for Queen Elizabeth I noticed some religious aspects to the procession. She was semi diefied, people went on pilgrimages to see her coffin (waiting in line for up to 20 hours). Journalists who would never have seen her normal described it as an eye opening experience, with the other people queuing acting like a congregation. There's more to dive into

[eubalenaglacialis]

Thanks for covering this. Daoism is a part of folk life here in Taiwan.

[leprechaungiant]

This is the first YouTube video I’ve seen that conveys Wu Wei correctly. When people say “go with the flow” they usually infer pacifism, or the “Non action” as not doing anything. 
Also, Thanks for using Pinyin.

[seankessel]

Daoism really is my jam. It's the only psycho-spiritual-whatever system that makes any sense of the universe without tripping all over itself. Everyone should study it.

[jacquesdemolay]

This was one of my favorite videos of yours yet. So incredibly informative, leaving much to contemplate (as is often the case with your offerings). Thank you.

[tristanholderness]

Peking isn't the Wade-Giles for Beijing (which is Pei-ching, neglecting tone numbers). Peking is the postal romanisation. The Postal Romanisation is in some ways an elder sister of Wade-Giles, in that it came earlier and both developed from Giles' Nanking syllabary, but crucially whilst Wade-Giles transcribes according the Beijing dialect of Mandarin, the postal romanisation is generally based on the Nanjing dialect of Mandarin (which did not palatalise Middle Chinese g to Modern Beijing Mandarin Pinyin j before i)

[TransformARTive]

Finally waiting for you to cover my traditional background. I was raised Taoist and was a priest for the early part of my life. I done some lectures on the different aspects of Taoism around the country but been meaning to make some videos on the topic as well.

[kori]

ey yo finally covering daoism. nice

1:21 this is a common misconception but not correct: Peking is not Wade-Giles, it's an older Postal romanization (itself a sputtering of older romanizations). Actual Wade-Giles would be Pei-Ching. Same with Nanking -> Nan-Ching
you can tell it's way older because it preserves a <ki-> sequence that has gone through sound change in modern Mandarin Chinese

[hillbillypowpow]

My excitement is immeasurable and my day has been made

[stephanieparker]

I read a book called, “The Tao of Pooh” when I was a young adult.. it changed my life. I turned from a rock trying to force my way along in a world that didn’t make sense.. to a stream flowing along without force. I found peace. ❤ I still carry this decades later.

[VieShaphiel]

I'm Taiwanese and I appreciate the insightful introduction very much. Religion here is a lovely mess even on the most surface level, and Daoism is probably the most hard to grasp, as it feels to me like it permeates among people of all levels of literacy more so than Buddhism and Confucianism.

[JAGzilla-urlh]

Unsurprisingly, this did a better job of summarizing and explaining Daoism than several professional sources I've come across. I feel like I almost have some vague conception of what the religion is now, and that's better than they were able to do. Thanks!

[noizkapow]

Love you doing more world religions. Can you consider doing a video on Vietnamese religions? My bf's family is Buddhist but it's definitely it's own thing.

[MaryamMaqdisi]

Daoism was the first thing that truly challenged my religious identity, I’ll be forever grateful for that even if I definitely don’t practice it today

[leminjapan]

What a great video. Not only did I learn a lot, but I finished wanting to learn more. You're a great educator!

[songziyun]

What a great video about Taoism! As a Chinese I can't understand Dao until this video explain it in plain language! Thanks!