Excerpt from the introduction to "Tao Te Ching /Daodejing: A Fresh Look at the Way and its Virtues"

Suffice it to say that both Taoism and Confucianism arose as very different responses to the same sociopolitical challenges. When tensions run high, there is a very natural (we might say left-hemisphere) inclination to rush in and impose order on chaos; against this, the Tao counsels the (right-hemisphere) wisdom of harmonization, grounded on holistic appraisal of the overall situation.
The incredible endurance of Taoist and Confucian principles in China is testament to how accurately they reflect the two sides of human nature. Also telling is that fact that the singular pursuit of power that has marked so much of western culture over the last few centuries is now in the process of being tempered by a commensurate interest in Taoism and other esoteric teachings. In all things, including spirituality, nature abhors a vacuum. Or as the Tao Te Ching teaches, “heaviness is the root of lightness.”