What is the difference between Daoist and Taoist?

Question

I am doing a research paper, and I stumbled on these two religions. I heard they are the same, but I want to make sure!

Answer 1

Same thing, two different spellings.

Scholars used to use the Wade-Giles Romanization system to write Chinese words using roman letters. In that system, it was spelt 'Taoism'.

Wade-Giles was replaced by Pinyin in the 70s. In Pinyin, it is spelt 'Daoism'.

(The same thing happened when we stopped spelling it Peking and started spelling it Beijing)

Answer 2

Daoist is just a mis-spelling of the word Taoist. Or in other words, Daoist is how you pronounce Taoist. Many people don't know that T's in Chineese make the D sound. Thank God I came along to answer this question for you. I don't think very man people could of answered this.

Answer 3

The D or the T, really. It's usually said Taoist in Japan and Daoist in China, but it's the same thing.

Answer 4

Taoism is the English name for a cluster of Chinese religious and philosophical traditions. While there is a great deal of debate over how (and whether) Taoism should be subdivided, some scholars have divided it into the following three categories.[1]

a philosophical school based on the texts the Tao Te Ching (ascribed to Laozi and alternately spelled Dào Dé Jīng) and the Zhuangzi;
a family of organized Chinese religious movements such as the Zhengyi ("Orthodoxy") or Quanzhen ("complete reality") sects, which collectively trace back to Zhang Daoling in the late Han Dynasty;
the Chinese folk religion.[2]

The Chinese character 道 (pinyin Dào, Wade-Giles Tao4) "Way".The English word Taoism is used to translate the Chinese terms Daojiao (道教 "teachings/religion of the Dao") and Daojia (道家 "school of the Dao"). The character Tao 道 (or Dao, depending on the romanisation scheme) means "path" or "way", but in Chinese religion and philosophy it has taken on more abstract meanings. The compound Daojiao refers to Daoism as a religion; Daojia refers to the activity of scholars in their studies. It must be noted that this distinction is itself controversial and fraught with hermeneutic difficulty. Many scholars believe that there is no distinction between Daojia and Daojiao, and that the distinction is propagated by people who are not familiar with Taoism.[3]

Much uncertainty exists over the meaning of Taoism. In some countries and contexts (for example, the Taoism organizations of China and Taiwan), the label is applied to Chinese folk religion, which would otherwise not have a readily recognizable English name. However many, if not most, of its practitioners would not recognize Taoism (in any language) as the name of their religion. Moreover, the several forms of what we might call organized Taoism often distinguish their ritual activities from those of the folk religion, which some professional Taoists (Daoshi) tend to view as debased.

Chinese alchemy, astrology, cuisine, several Chinese martial arts, Chinese traditional medicine, fengshui, and many styles of qigong breath training disciplines have some relationship with Taoism

Answer 5

Transliteration can be tricky, its the same, pronounced the same, but the first sound has no precise English letter equivalent.

Answer 6

spelling