Daoism evolved as a parallel system, less focused on serving in the imperial bureaucracy and more on cultivating one’s sense of connection with the natural universe (entailing a particular philosophical teaching on nature—i.e. we need to seek our underlying connectedness with it).
Aside from its philosophical perspective, Daoism can also involves religious activities.
From a religious standpoint, Daoism includes the worship of certain sages (wise men). These sages were regarded as having attained immortality through cultivating a personal connection with “the Dao,” or the primal force that animates the universe.
In cultivating a connection with the Dao, those sages in effect became divine, and so could be worshiped