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Maybe one Stephen Flowers missed. The actual founder of Daoism is considered to be one Yang Zhu (养猪）who seems to have lived a bit before the school's rock-star figure, Lao Zi. Yang's most famous saying is he would not pluck a hair from his arm to gain the world, to help the world, or to save the world. Old sources differ as to the wording. Which, I know, makes him sound like as much a Libertarian as a mage. Still the imagery is suggestive of magic, plucking a hair to achieve an effect. Plus his concern was held to be with personal purity as opposed to a regnant order he found sullying. (Anti-cosmic bent, anyone?)
Most intriguing is his successor Lao Zi's criticism. That one censured Yang for "subverting the Great Relation between ruler and ruled." Given the thrust of most governments in historical times, one feels a certain strong sympathy with that recluse's behind the scenes machinations. A rather more focused and clear-sighted teaching, his, than the New Agey popular Daoism we mostly are fed, making it a sort of Mahayana Lite.
Most intriguing is his successor Lao Zi's criticism. That one censured Yang for "subverting the Great Relation between ruler and ruled." Given the thrust of most governments in historical times, one feels a certain strong sympathy with that recluse's behind the scenes machinations. A rather more focused and clear-sighted teaching, his, than the New Agey popular Daoism we mostly are fed, making it a sort of Mahayana Lite.