The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 6 letter word TAOISM
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
T
A
O
I
S
M
More clues leading to the result TAOISM
- Switching sides, Chinese communist finds Lao Zi’s philosophy
- One is taken in by a most peculiar philosophy
- Eastern philosophy moved to Siam
- Chinese communist exchanging extremes for religion
- Communist swapping sides for religious belief
- Philosophy causing communist to swap sides
- Chinese thinking Maoist converted
- Religious movement‘s topics regularly cited in dull retrospective
- Philosophy of Orient‘s left-winger after change of ends
- Unorthodox aims to Chinese philosophy
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Lao Zi’s philosophy" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case lao zi’s philosophy = taoism.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.