Name-dropping:
Tao-te Ching (pronunciation: dao de-ZHING).
The holy scripture of Taoism (pronuncia- tion: DAO-ism) compiled sometime before the third century BCE.

Lao-tzu (pronunciation: LAO-tsuh): Literally, “Old Man,” “Lao-tzu” is both the same book as the Tao-te Ching and the name of the person who purportedly wrote it. If this strikes you as confusing, just wait. It gets worse.

When to Drop Your Knowledge:
Fans of Chinese religion will obviously be pleased with your ability to intelligently discuss the Tao. But the surest cocktail party use for the Tao-te Ching is to calm down belligerent, verbose drunks. “To use words but rarely,” you can quote to them, “is to be natural.”

The Basics
The Tao-te Ching, originally known to its Chinese audience as Lao-tzu, is an extremely short, esoteric book of verse that, along with the works of Confucius, shaped Chinese philosophy and religion for two millennia. While Confucianism emphasized respect for authority, proper behavior, and building better communities through civilization, Taoism emphasized natural societies and, indeed, living in accordance with the world as it currently is.

This would be an excellent time to say what, exactly, the Tao, means—but sadly, we can’t. To quote the very first line of the Tao-te Ching: “The Tao that can be spoken of is not the eternal Tao.” But that won’t keep us from trying. Tao is often translated “the Way,” and it’s taken to mean the harmony of the cosmos. Our job, as people, is not to fight against that harmony, but instead, submit to it.

The Tao-te Ching is often considered an esoteric, mystical work, because it is rife with paradox. “My words are very easy to understand and very easy to put into practice, yet no one in the world can understand them or put them into practice,” for instance, doesn’t make much sense—at least not initially. But Taoism embraces such paradoxes and they often eventually prove sensical. Although “the strength of softness” may seem oxymoronical, Taoism takes the example of water: Although it flows with the stream and is exceedingly soft, it has the power to slowly wear down earth and rock. The goal of the Tao-te Ching is to help people accept the inevitability of change and find a way to end the conflict that results from resistance to change. It’s no wonder that most scholars believe it was authored during a tumultuous period of Chinese history marked by philosophical disagreements and warring factions battling for power.

Taoism first became popular in China in the late third century CE, and while neo-Confucianism remained the state religion until Mao Tse-tung made the state religion “worshipping me, Mao Tse-tung” in 1949, Taoism remained popular–and not necessarily mutually exclusive to Confucianism or Buddhism. In fact, it isn’t uncommon for people in China to identify themselves as being both Buddhist and Taoist, or Confucianist and Taoist, or all three.

The Tao of Everything
The Tao-te Ching itself espouses antimaterialistic values and a general opposition toward naked ambition. But this hasn’t stopped authors from capitalizing on the inherent “cool factor” of Taoism to twist its fundamental beliefs into fame and profit. The first, and generally least inaccurate, book in the “Tao of” genre was Benjamin Hoff’s 1983 The Tao of Pooh, which argued that we should all be more Taoist, and also more like Winnie the Pooh. But after that, the “Tao of” books spiraled out of control. A selection of the several dozen “Tao of” books currently in print:

The Tao of Physics
The Tao of Leadership
The Tao of Equus
The Tao of Sobriety
The Tao of Photography
And, of course, that major American literary classic, The Tao of Network Security Monitoring.

The Tao of Who?
In all probability, Lao-tzu never existed. Tradition states that Lao-tzu was an older contemporary of Confucius (who was a historical person, and lived from 551 to 479 BCE). But most scholars believe that the Tao-te Ching was not a single work from a single person but rather a collection that was refined over the course of decades and possibly even centuries. Still, images of Lao-tzu–a bearded and happy man with a more-than-happy man with a more-than-passing resemblance (skin color aside) to Yoda–abound.

Conversation Starters
◆ Lots of people think Taoism means “being chill.” After all, one of the guiding principles of the Tao is that one ought to go with the flow (the flow of the Tao, that is). But not all Taoists have been laid-back peacemakers. Far from it. Consider Guan Yu, the third-century Chinese general who is revered by Taoists as a guardian deity. Usually portrayed as a red-faced, sword-carrying warrior, Guan Yu helped overthrow the Han dynasty and is said to have severed more than a few heads.

◆ Early Taoists were obsessed with internal alchemy, which involves not the making of gold from base metals but rather refining one’s body and mind in the hopes of achieving long life and, ideally, immortality. Some attempted to bring a permanent and immortal harmony to their body through exercise and dietary restrictions (as, really, we do today). But other Taoist alchemists invented potions and charms that they hoped would give them long life. Internal alchemy was occasionally fatal, and always ineffective—but then again, so was regular alchemy.