Taoism begins with the Tao Te Ching, attributed to Laozi, and finds its playfulness in Zhuangzi. The Dao is not a being but a way — “the way that can be named is not the eternal way.”
Its defining movement is Wu-wei, often translated “non-action” but more precisely action without forcing — acting with the grain of things rather than against it. Water is its image: yielding, persistent, always finding the lowest place.
Religious Taoism developed alchemical, ritual, and meditative traditions over centuries. Philosophical Taoism has shaped Zen (via its encounter with Buddhism in China), Chinese medicine, martial arts, and much of East Asian aesthetics.