How can Taoist text help deepen our understanding of Chinese history?

The Taoist text can help deepen our understanding of Chinese history because from the text, we learn how the philosophy afffected the way the  Chinese lived. For example, the article states "China had never had an alternative political model other than the emperor." this was the model followed for more than 2,000 years. Until Taoism. Unlike the previous Chinese mode, Taoism is a theocracy based on tianshi, or celestial masters. The celestial master was supposed to establish a new political structure, the “Great Peace,” in which every individual would be treated justly. This provided an important alternative to the norm of Confucianism. This was a new ideaology for the Chinese. We can also see that the present day mainstream Tasoism is a descendant of the second-century religious movement. First of all, Taoist printers still use many of the same terms and practice the same things. In addition, the ideas are the exact same, "The world of the dead is like the world of the living. Taoist priests are like cosmic lawyers. They can go up to heaven and extricate the dead from difficulties. Taoism gives you a way of controlling  your fate in another world." This has always remains the same. However, today the Chinese consitution guarantees freedom of religious belief but not religious practice. According to the New York Times article, "Much of what a traditional Taoist priest did is now illegal. They are allowed to do rituals but cannot claim to have actually accomplished anything with the ritual, or else it is called superstition. If you claim your ritual will actually heal someone or save their relatives, you can be thrown in jail for fraud."