How did Confucius and Lao-tze use the concept of Tao in different ways?

This is a rather difficult question, as most of the ancient teaching are up to interpretation there is not one particular thought that can be said "This is what makes them different". However, that being said, I'll try my best to answer this....





Confucian view of Dao seems to resemble something rather like Karma. What you put out into the world ultimately comes back to you.





And Lao Tzu, believed to be the founder of Taoism, seems to say it is working in conjunction with qi and is the force guiding the natural order of things in the universe.





Or something like that and again this are very simplistic terms as the concept is interpreted in a multitude of ways.|||Lao Tzu is big and Confucius can be included in him, but Confucius is very narrow and Lao Tzu cannot be included in him. Lao Tzu is Tao. Confucius is Torah. 'Torah' is a Hebrew word, but I like it because it goes well with Tao. Tao means love, Torah means law. In the word 'tarot' is the word 'torah'.'Tarot' comes from two words: TORAH ROTA; it means the wheel of law, the rotating wheel of law. Torah means the law. Law is bound to be rigid and law is bound to be narrow. The law needs to be perfectly defined; if it is not defined, it will not be of any use. The law has to have definitions, clear-cut boundaries, only then can it be of any use.


The only thing that Tao wants you to understand is that life is more than reason, vaster than reason. Reason covers a small space, but that is not the boundary of the totality.|||Confucius used it as a philosophical concept standing for the right way of action -- moral, social, and political.


The Taoist used the term to stand for the totality of all things. It was simple, formless, desireless, without striving, supremely content.