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50 free Taoism trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Taoism trivia for students of world religions and Chinese philosophy, tai chi practitioners, and anyone who has ever quoted 'the journey of a thousand miles'. The quiz starts with the basics - what the Tao means, Laozi and the archivist who supposedly wrote a book for a gatekeeper on his way west, the two-part Tao Te Ching, Zhuangzi and his butterfly dream, wu wei, ziran, the uncarved block, yin and yang - and moves through the history of the organised religion. That means Zhang Daoling's vision of Laozi in 142 CE and the Five Pecks of Rice, the Yellow Turbans, the Celestial Masters' deal with Cao Cao, elixir alchemists poisoning themselves with cinnabar and mercury, the Tang emperors who claimed Laozi as an ancestor, Wang Chongyang and the Quanzhen school, the Daozang canon, the Three Pure Ones and the Eight Immortals, the Wudang mountains, and Taoism's survival through the Cultural Revolution to official recognition today. Roughly a third of the questions are easy and the rest climb steadily. Every answer has been checked against a reference page and each question shows its source once you have answered.
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Q 01What does the Chinese word 'Tao' (Dao) most literally mean?
Way or path
In the Taoist sense it is understood as an enigmatic process of transformation underlying all reality.
Q 02What does the name Laozi, the legendary author of the Tao Te Ching, literally mean?
Old Master
Modern scholars think his biography is later invention and the book the work of several hands, the archaic name lending it anonymous authority.
Q 03According to tradition, at whose request did Laozi write the Tao Te Ching before departing to the West?
Yinxi, keeper of the Hangu Pass
The story has him serving as an official in the imperial archives before riding off, never to be seen again.
Q 04What is the personal name traditional accounts give to Laozi?
Li Er
A later imperial dynasty whose emperors were surnamed Li claimed him as an ancestor, and a legend ties his birth to a plum tree.
Q 05Into how many chapters is the modern Tao Te Ching divided?
81
Chapters 1-37 form the Daojing, the Classic of the Way, and 38-81 the Dejing, the Classic of Virtue.
Q 06What are the oldest excavated fragments of the Tao Te Ching, dating to about 300 BCE, called?
The Guodian Chu slips
The book is one of the most translated texts in world literature, though a conservative dating puts its modern form in the mid-third century BCE.
Q 07After whom is the Zhuangzi, the other foundational Taoist text, named?
Its traditional author, Master Zhuang Zhou
Almost nothing concrete is known of Zhuang Zhou beyond the book itself; Sima Qian's biography seems to be drawn from it.
Q 08In the Zhuangzi's most famous passage, Zhuang Zhou wakes unsure whether he had dreamed of being what?
A butterfly
The story plays with transformation, suggesting the line between waking and dreaming is another false distinction.
Q 09How many chapters does the surviving Zhuangzi have, as edited by Guo Xiang around AD 300?
33
He cut it down from an earlier 52-chapter version; the first seven, the Inner Chapters, are held to be Zhuang Zhou's own work.
Q 10What is the Taoist ethical concept of 'wu wei' usually translated as?
Effortless action or non-action
The paradoxical phrase 'wei wu wei' means action without action, and forcing one's will against the world's rhythms disrupts its harmony.
Q 11What element is wu wei associated with in ancient Taoist texts because of its yielding nature?
Water
Exerting one's will against the world's rhythms is held to disrupt its harmony.
Q 12What is the Taoist metaphor for original nature, translated as 'the uncarved block'?
Pu
It is a state one may return to; the related concept of ziran, 'self-so', describes naturalness and spontaneity.
Q 13What are Taoism's 'Three Treasures' or 'Three Jewels' of virtue?
Compassion, moderation and humility
Arthur Waley rendered them politically as abstaining from aggressive war, absolute simplicity of living, and refusing to assert leadership.
Q 21Which warlord officially recognised the Celestial Masters school in 215 CE?
Cao Cao
Zhang Lu surrendered his theocratic state in exchange for state-religion status, and his daughter married Cao Cao's son.
Q 22The early Taiqing tradition sought immortality by concocting elixirs from which toxic substances?
Cinnabar, lead, mercury and realgar
This 'external alchemy' later gave way to inner alchemy, neidan, working with the body's own energies.
Q 23Under which dynasty did Taoism peak, with emperors claiming descent from Laozi?
The Tang
Emperor Gaozong even made the Tao Te Ching a subject in the imperial examinations, and Xuanzong wrote Taoist works himself.
Q 14What is 'De' (Te), the second word in the title Tao Te Ching, usually translated as?
Virtue or power
It is the active expression of the Tao, the sagely power that comes from living in accord with it.
Q 15In the yin-yang concept, which force is described as passive, contractive and receptive?
Yin
Yang is active, expansive and repelling; the two are opposite but complementary and each needs the other.
Q 16What is the name of the swirling black-and-white diagram that represents yin and yang?
Taijitu
The diagram was first introduced by the Song-dynasty Neo-Confucian philosopher Zhou Dunyi.
Q 17Which Han historian first grouped the 'Taoist school' among six schools of thought?
Sima Tan
That label, daojia, describes the philosophical tradition; the term daojiao for the organised religion was coined by Lu Xiujing in the 5th century.
Q 18Who reportedly saw a vision of Laozi in 142 CE and founded the first organised Taoist religion?
Zhang Daoling
He preached that the world was ending and taught people to repent; followers of Zhengyi Dao still venerate him as the first Celestial Master.
Q 19What was the early Celestial Masters movement popularly called, after the levy it charged members?
The Way of the Five Pecks of Rice
It established a theocratic state in Sichuan; its leader Zhang Lu later surrendered it in exchange for official recognition.
Q 20Which late-Han uprising, sparked by Taoist secret societies, tried to create a Taoist theocracy?
The Yellow Turban Rebellion
The Celestial Masters kept out of it, survived, and won official recognition from a warlord in 215 CE.
Q 24What is the Daozang?
The Taoist canon of scriptures
Monks began assembling it in the 5th century; Du Guangting re-edited it in the 10th and Song emperors published new editions.
Q 25Who founded the Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) school of Taoism in 12th-century Shandong?
Wang Chongyang
It stressed inner transformation, monasticism and asceticism, and became one of Taoism's two great surviving branches alongside Zhengyi.
Q 26Which Quanzhen disciple founded the Dragon Gate lineage and Beijing's White Cloud Monastery?
Qiu Chuji
The White Cloud Temple remains the most important centre for training Taoist monastics on the Chinese mainland.
Q 27What are the two main sects of later Taoism, one focused on spells and ritual, the other on inner alchemy?
Zhengyi and Quanzhen
Zhengyi grew up among the Zhang clan in southern China during the Song and is still supported by hereditary Celestial Masters.
Q 28Who are the Three Pure Ones?
The highest gods of the Taoist pantheon
They merged the supreme deities of different traditions into a common trinity during the 6th century; the Jade Purity is the Original Heavenly Lord.
Q 29How many immortals form the famous group of xian said to live on islands in the Bohai Sea?
Eight
Their legends became especially popular in the Ming dynasty, and the most important of them is Lü Dongbin.
Q 30What is a 'xian' in Taoism?
An immortal being
The word also came to describe a principled, moral person; Taoist deities are roughly divided into gods and immortals.