This word has a number of meanings. In these early texts Daosm is manifest as a sophisticated view of the world which mediates on the nature of the world. There is a common disapproval of the unnatural and artificial.
Social convention is rejected in favour of the ecstatic and the immediate nature of experience.
Although Daoism is often set in opposition to Confucianism, both ways of thinking interacted with each other. There are many ways of translating the Dao De Jing . Tao The Tao that can be known is not Tao. The substance of the World is only a name for Tao. One experiences without Self to sense the World, And experiences with Self to understand the World.