Daoism Not as We Know It
Daoism as a school of thought does not appear until after political unification. Its first definition goes back to the summary by Sima Tan Si Ma Tan father of grand historian Sima Qian Si Ma Qian (145 86 BCE) of the Liujia Liu Jia (Six Schools) i.e. Yinyang, Confucius, Mozi, Law, Logic, and Dao. In his view, Dao Dao (Way) is supreme because it encompasses the best of all the others (Shiji jjie [Taipei: Wenhua tushugongsi, 1974] 70, 555) Daoism thus could be seen as eclectic and non partisan. The question is how and when was it formed? Central to Daoism, I would argue, is the idea of unity, spiritual as well as geopolitical. Kidder Smith argues Sima Tan personally invented Daoism and other schools himself, which just goes to show the extent of the problem (2003) To solve it we need to re evaluate Dao's role in the Qin empire, the elephant in the room. It was Qin that shaped the crucial transition from the Warring States to the Han empire a period still poorly understood.