Categorization
There is debate over how, and whether, Taoism should be categorized. Livia Kohn divided it into the following three categories:
Philosophical Taoism (Daojia (Pinyin: Daojia)) - A philosophical school based on the texts Dao De Jing and Zhuangzi ;
Religious Taoism (Daojiao (Pinyin: Daojiao)) - A family of organized Chinese religious movements originating from the Celestial Masters movement during the late Han Dynasty and later including the "Orthodox" (Zhengyi ) and "Complete Reality" (Quanzhen ) sects, which claim lineages going back to Lao Zi or Zhang Daoling in the late Han Dynasty;
Folk Taoism - The Chinese folk religion.
This distinction is complicated by hermeneutic (interpretive) difficulties in the categorization of Taoist schools, sects and movements. Some scholars believe that there is no distinction between Daojia and Daojiao. According to Kirkland, "most scholars who have seriously studied Taoism, both in Asia and the West, have finally abandoned the simplistic dichotomy of Tao-chia and Tao-chiao, 'philosophical Taoism' and 'religious Taoism.'"
Hansen states that the identification of "Taoism" as such first occurred in the early Han Dynasty when dao-jia was identified as a single school. The writings of Laozi and Zhuangzi were linked together under this single tradition during the Han Dynasty, but notably not before. It is unlikely that Zhuangzi was familiar with the text of the Daodejing. Additionally, Graham states that Zhuangzi would not have identified himself as a Taoist, a classification that did not arise until well after his death.
Taoism does not fall strictly under an umbrella or a definition of an organized religion like the Abrahamic traditions, nor can it purely be studied as the originator or a variant of Chinese folk religion, as much of the traditional religion is outside of the tenets and core teachings of Taoism. Robinet asserts that Taoism is better understood as a way of life than as a religion, and that its adherents do not approach or view Taoism the way non-Taoist historians have done. Henri Maspero noted that many scholarly works frame Taoism as a school of thought focused on the quest for immortality.