Abstract: Laozi said that rites were “the head of a riot,which slight faithfulness and sincerity”.Most scholars take it to be a purposeful opinion offered by Laozi in opposition to the proposition of “exercising self-restraint and return to rites” by Confucius.With the deepening of the research on Laozi and the excavation of the underground unearthed documents,some records from ancient documents become open to discussion.By reasonably defining the 3 denotative categories of Laozi's “rites”,Duke of Zhou's “rites” and the “rites” of confucius,the following conclusion can be readily made:Laozi expressed his thought,aiming at Duke of Zhou's “rites”.And Laozi and Confucius did not denote the same level in their definitions of “rites” categories,still they were in agreement in their inner spirit and they both critically reformed Zhou rites.

Key words: Laozi, Confucius, Zhou rites, morality, benevolence and righteousness, Tao Te Ching/Daode Jing