Chinese Religions, Daoism and Science in China

As the native religion of China, Daoism (also spelled Taoism), together with Confucianism and Buddhism, comprises the main body of traditional Chinese culture. Daoists, in pursuit of the ideal of becoming immortals by practicing Dao, made great efforts to transcend conventional wisdom about life and knowledge and so helped both to define ancient science in China and to advance it through a great number of inventions.

Relationship between Daoism and science

For a long time, many Western translators, writers, and scholars misunderstood Daoist thought, largely overlooking its scientific and protoscientific aspects. Moreover, different understandings of what constitutes science have rendered the issue more confusing. While some scholars denied any link between Daoism and science, many studies have confirmed an important relationship between them.

Daoist thought is basic to Chinese science and technology. Daoism provided a philosophical foundation for the development of science; its love for nature, its conception of change, its unique mastery of the relationship between human beings and nature, and its pursuit of freedom are based on the exploration of nature. Daoist admiration for ancient scientific inventors, and their absorption of science and technology in history, show that Daoism tried to reach its religious ideal by means of science. In addition, Daoism's cultural structure is favorable for science. The unique Daoist ideal of material immortality is invaluable in stimulating the observation and exploration of nature and life, and the development of techniques of alchemy, medicine, and related fields.

Daoists regard Dao as the origin of all things, including human beings, and they believe that people can return to Dao and thus attain immortality. Because immortality can be acquired through learning, one's life rests with oneself rather than heaven. Daoist scriptures include such sayings as "Probe into the mystery of heaven and earth and understand the root of creation" (The Taoist Canon, Vol. 18, p. 671). In fact, such explorations serve the goal of achieving oneness with the Dao, which leads to becoming an omniscient and almighty immortal, a True Human of True Knowledge.

Unrealistic as immortality is, many Daoist ideas, techniques, and practices for longevity are reasonable and scientific. They constituted the most important part of Daoist spiritual heritage in the Middle Ages. Thus, Joseph Needham argues in Science and Civilization in China (1956) that Daoism "developed many of the most important features of the scientific attitude, and is therefore of cardinal importance for the history of science in China" (vol. 2, p.161). Similarly, Welch Holmes writes in Taoism: The Parting of the Way (1957) that "the Daoist movement has sometimes been called the Chinese counterpart of Western science … To a large extent the Daoists practiced experimental science" (p.134).

Daoist contributions to science

Hua Tuo, a famous Daoist doctor in the third century c.e., was the first to use a type of anesthesia called ma fei san. He also formulated the gymnastic techniques called wu qin xi (imitation of five-animal playing) for nourishing vitality of life. A text of Daoist prescription Zhou Hou Bai Yi Fang (Collection of prescriptions for hundred-and-one diseases fourth century c.e.), written by Ge Hong and enlarged by Tao Hongjing, contains the first known record of the disease of smallpox. It also records therapeutic techniques for dealing with a variety of acute medical conditions, including artificial respiration, bleeding stoppage, abdominocentesis, catheterization, clyster, intestinal anastomosis, débridement (sore cleaning), drainage, fracture treatment with superficial fixture, and disjointed articulation restituting. Remarkably, this work recorded an anti-malaria treatment using southernwood (Artemisia annua L.). In the 1970s, scientists extracted artemisinin from southernwood, which is a significant discovery in the history of antimalaria treatments from medicines of the quinoline category. Sun Simiao, a great Daoist doctor, summed up in the seventh century c.e. the prevention of struma by using animal thyroid and the prevention of nyctalopia by using animal livers. And the treatment of restituting mandible disjointing that Sun Simiao put forward is still in use in modern medicine. Jin Si Xuan Xuan (The incredible mysteries in the golden box), a Daoist text of parasitology written sometime between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries c.e., enumerated a "Catalogue of Nine Parasite Species" with illustrations of various kinds of parasites, as well as figures depicting their life cycles.

In seeking elixirs from the bodies of human beings themselves, Daoists made great strides in the field of biochemistry. Both Joseph Needham and Lu Gwei-Djen hold that the medicine named qiushi, which was made by medieval Daoists, is a relatively pure preparation of urinary steroid hormones. A similar medicine was made in the West by a German biochemist in the early twentieth century.

Daoists also acquired solid knowledge of certain chemical reaction processes. They accurately described the reversible reactions between mercury and thiosugar. Long Hu Huan Dan Jue (The oral formula for cyclically transformed elixir of dragon and tiger), written by Jin Ling Zi, an expert in alchemy in the Tang Dynasty (618–907), recorded precise methods of making arsenic-copper alloy and of extracting pure copper, methods developed by Daoists over many generations. Instead of conforming to an older Daoist tradition of keeping key links secret or of using obscure terminology, this text clearly and definitely states strict rules of operation that are similar to those of modern chemistry.

As the basic components of gunpowder in ancient China were niter, sulfur, and carbonaceous substances, all frequently used in Daoist alchemical experiments, the invention of gunpowder can be traced back to Daoist writings in the Han Dynasty (206 b.c.e.–220 c.e.). The formula included in Bao Pu Zi Nei Pian (The inner chapters of the Philosopher Master-Who-Embraces-Simplicity), written by Ge Hong in the fourth century c.e., already covered the basic composition of gunpowder. In the middle of the ninth century c.e., the Daoist scripture Zhen Yuan Miao Dao Yao Lue (Classified essentials of the mysterious Tao of the true origin of things) clearly recorded the precise composition of gunpowder. Obviously, the time of its invention was much earlier.

Many Daoists were also metallurgists. The hydrometallurgical technique of smelting copper from cupric sulfate liquor was first used in China in Daoist alchemic practices. It can be traced back to Huai Nan Zi (The book of Master Huainan), a Daoist text written in the early years of the first century c.e., it formally appeared in Daoist texts of the Tang Dynasty, and it became the prevailing technique of copper production during the Song Dynasty (960–1279). It was no later than the Song Dynasty that Daoists had identified the element arsenic and extracted pure samples of it. Around the year 550 c.e., a Daoist practitioner invented a technique of steel production called guan gang fa, by which pig iron and wrought iron were heated together to a certain temperature for higher quality steel. With its moderate carbon content, this kind of steel was ideal for making high-quality tools. This technique was widely used and refined in China during the succeeding one thousand years.

With seven kinds of materials, Daoist alchemists created the earliest fireproof sealing material called six-one mud. They made glass and preserved valuable technical data in their writings. They wrote works on casting techniques such as Shen Xian Lian Dan Dian Zhu San Yuan Bao Zhao Fa (Spot casting methods of bronze mirror of the three origins of things by the immortals), in which they recorded in detail the techniques of quality control in casting. Ever since Huai Nan Zi in the Han Dynasty, Daoists used mercury-tin alloy and later added lead amalgam to create an ideal media for bronze mirror polishing.

A technique involving the suspending of magnetized needles was used by Daoists to test the quality of lodestone, which was a major healing object in alchemy. Eventually, this technique led to the invention of the magnetic needle compass. In addition, modern scientists found that Wu Yue Zhen Xing Tu (Maps of the true topography of the five sacred mountains), drawn in the third or fourth centuries c.e. and treasured by Daoists over the last eighteen centuries, contains the earliest type of contour map. The maps roughly reflect the local terrain and routes of the mountains.

Precise clock devices are of great importance in Daoist practices. Throughout Chinese history, many Daoists participated in the invention and improvement of the water clock. The famous cheng lou, a scale-controlled water clock invented by a Daoist named Li Lan, was widely used in the 400 years between the fifth and eighth centuries c.e., and served as an important component of various types of compounded clock devices in China. It was also used in the medieval Islamic world; studies show that Muslims probably learned about such clocks from the Chinese. Daoists of the Quanzhen Sect even invented portable water clock devices. A scripture called Quanzhen Zuo Bo Jie Fa (Quanzhen Sect easy preparation for sitting quiet in meditation), written between the tenth and fourteenth centuries c.e., recorded the technical details of making, debugging, and controlling the clocks.

Zhang Zhihe, a Daoist who lived during the Tang Dynasty, expounded the phenomenon of duration of vision, as it was called in modern optics. Later, another Daoist, Tan Qiao, who lived during the Five Dynasties (907–960), discussed the phenomenon of reflection of plane mirrors. Zhao Youqin, a Daoist of the Quanzhen sect who wrote the famous scientific work Ge Xiang Xin Shu (New Book on the Investigation of Astronomical Phenomena ) in the Yuan Dynasty (1260–1368), conducted a series of large-scale experiments on geometric optical problems, such as rectilinear propagation of light, hole imaging, and intensity of illumination. He came to correct conclusions in these fields two centuries earlier than Galileo Galilei (1564–1642). His rough conclusion that "illumination intensifies as the intensity of light source enhances, but decreases as the image distance increases" appeared four hundred years earlier than Lambert's formula of qualitative illumination published in 1760, according to which "illumination is in reverse proportion to distance squared." In the early years of the nineteenth century, there were still Daoist believers in Guangzhou who studied with an open mind both the traditional Daoist theory of sphere-heavens and modern European astronomy.

In order to avoid losses in their alchemical experiments and for many other religious purposes, Daoists conducted weather observation and forecast. Their scripture Yu Yang Qi Hou Qin Ji (The near forcasting of the weather of rain or fine) analyzed scientifically the causes of wind and rain and recorded in terse but vivid verses their observations, which conform with modern meteorological science. They even provided various types of "cloud pictures" in the text.

Daoists not only explored but also wanted to navigate the heavens. The "flying vehicle made of jujube heart timber," recorded by Ge Hong in his Bao Pu Zi Nei Pian and regarded as the earliest design for a propeller aircraft, reveals the Daoist knowledge of the aerodynamic principles of flight. Modern scientists have recreated the vehicle according to Ge Hong's records and testified it to be technically reasonable. Ge Hong added that when rising to a height of forty li (about 12.44 miles) into the heavens, one can reach the outer space of taiqing (super clarity), where the air is powerful enough to support flying objects, helping them to fly naturally by inertia instead of motive forces. This is close to the law of First Cosmic Velocity in the modern science of astronautics. In the fourth century c.e., a hermit Daoist named Wang Jia wrote Shi Yi Ji (Record of gleaning), in which he claimed that once there had been a huge space aircraft named Cha ridden by the immortals. This aircraft used the sea as its base for launching and landing, and it continually navigated around the four seas, making a circuit every twelve years.

With the invention of gunpowder and the subsequent emergence of applied techniques for the control of its explosive power, the idea arose of using it as a rocket propellant. In the fifteenth century, an official of the Ming Dynasty named Wan Hoo conducted and died in the first attempt at manned rocket flight in human history—propelled by forty-seven gunpowder rockets. A Daoist biographical text formally printed in 1909 includes a description of a Daoist beauty who launched her aircraft into the heavens from a silo by means of a propellant compounded from cyprinoid fat.

Daoists were responsible for rich scientific achievements in many other fields, including cosmology, uranography, calendar making, geography, geology, mineralogy, botany, zoology, pharmaceutics, architecture, porcelain production, dye making, wine making, zymurgy, cerebral science, acoustics, wushu, sex hygiene, strategics, and psychology. Because the impetus for scientific exploration comes for Daoists from their religious belief in immortality, their science was inevitably bound by the ideas, purposes, and the historical development of Daoism. Therefore, it was impossible for science to gain an independent and deep development within the Daoist framework. Yet the remarkable achievements of Chinese science were also enabled and inspired by the Daoist interpretation of reality.

See also Dao

Bibliography

dao zang (the taoist canon). beijing: wenwu press, 1988.

holmes, welch. taoism: the parting of the way, rev. edition. boston: beacon press, 1957.

hua, tong-xu. zhong guo lou ke (water clock in china). hefei, china: anhui science and technology press, 1991.

jiang, sheng, and tong, waihop, eds. zhong guo dao jiao ke xue ji shu shi: han wei liang jin juan (a history of science and technology in taoism), vol. 1. beijing: science press, 2002.

jin, zheng-yao. taoism and science, trans. joe smith. new york: macmillan, 1991.

needham, joseph. science and civilization in china, vol. 2: history of scientific thought. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press, 1956.

needham, joseph. gunpowder as the fourth power, east and west. hong kong: hong kong university press, 1985.

sivin, nathan. medicine, philosophy, and religion in ancient china: researches and reflections. aldershot, uk, and brookfield, vt.: variorum, 1995.

sleewyk, andre wegener. "the celestial river: a reconstruction." technology and culture 19 (3) (1978): 423–449.

volkov, alexei. "science and daoism: an introduction." taiwanese journal for philosophy and history of science 5, no. 1 (1996): 1–58.

yoshinobu, sakade. chukoku shisou kenkyu: iyaku you- jou, kagaku shisou hen (a study of chinese thought: essays on traditional medicine, pharmacy, nourishing vitality, and science). osaka, japan: kansai university press, 1999.

zhao, kuanghua, and zhou, jiahua. a history of science and technology in china, vol.: chemistry. beijing: science press, 1999.

zhen-dou, wang. "the recreating of flying vehicle recorded in 'the inner chapters of the philosopher master-who-embraces-simplicity' by ge hong." magazine of chinese museum of history 6 (1984).

zhu, ya-ping. dao jia wen hua yu ke xue (taoism culture and science). hefei, china: university of science and technology of china press, 1995.

zim, herbert s. rockets and jets. new york: harcourt, 1945.

jiang sheng

Taoism

In Chinese, the term Tao, or Dao, which means "way," can refer to phenomena as disparate as the proper mode of conduct in society to an abstract, transcendent order to the universe. Similarly, the Western term Taoism (or Daoism ) refers to a number of distinct phenomena in China, all related in some sense to this concept of Tao. One of the more popular usages is as a reference to several philosophical works of the Warring States and early Han periods, especially the Zhuangzi (Chuang-tzu ) and Laozi (Lao-tzu, also known as the Daodejing (Tao-te ching ), or Classic of the Way and Its Power ). The Chuang-tzu welcomes death as merely one more stage in a process of ongoing transformation that affects all and is directed by the Tao. It speaks of death as a returning home that humankind resists out of ignorance and sees the individual living on after death dissolved in the many creatures of the earth. The famous parable of the author dreaming that he was a butterfly, then waking to wonder if he were now a butterfly dreaming of being a human, is a metaphor for this sense that temporal life is but an illusion and death an awakening.

The Laozi, on the other hand, speaks of death as an inauspicious event to be avoided and mentions self-cultivation techniques intended to prolong physical life. This viewpoint is much closer than the Zhuangzi (Chuang-tzu) to mainstream ancient Chinese thought on death. Life does go on in a shadowy, subterranean realm, but it is not joyful, and much effort was expended from an early period to forestall its arrival. By the third century b.c.e., there were programs of exercise, diet, sexual practices, and meditation intended to nourish the life force while alive as well as jade burial suits and tomb guardians intended to preserve the deceased in the other realm. Alchemy, the belief that the human form could be made eternal through the ingestion of various mineral-based elixirs, developed through the Warring States era, Han Dynasty, and about fifth century b.c.e. to sixth century c.e. Practitioners were initially adepts of the occult arts without a clear sectarian identity, but eventually these practices would make their way into the ritual canon of religious Daoism.

The Confucian view of death, by contrast, forsakes all hope for extraordinary longevity and focuses on the secure installation of the dead in the other world, where they would be administered by a bureaucracy that mirrored that of the living and supplied with the necessities of continued life through ancestral sacrifice. The dead were recalled and, some argue, kept alive by meditative visualizations in which the dead person was called into the consciousness as if still alive. The Confucians also promoted a metaphorical interpretation of sacrifice that elided the question of personal survival and the ethical implications of a transactional relationship with the sacred.

Religious Taoism arose in the second century c.e., proclaiming a new pantheon of pure deities and a new, morality-based set of practices. The early Taoist church foresaw an imminent apocalypse in which the evil would perish and the faithful "seed people" would survive to repopulate a utopian world of Great Peace. Until then, ordained Taoists received celestial ranks that carried over into the world of the dead, assuring them a favored position of power and responsibility in the other world. Their offices might be in the cavern-heavens hidden within the world's sacred mountains or in one of the many celestial heavens. Nonbelievers went to a profane world of the dead, where they were subject to a variety of dangers, including lawsuits from those they had wronged in either realm. Living Taoist priests could intervene on their behalf, using their authority as celestial officials to have suits dismissed and punishments curtailed.

Popular conceptions of the afterlife came to focus on existence in hells where retribution was exacted for sins during life. Taoists, like Buddhists, developed ritual methods to save the deceased from these torments, submitting written petitions to celestial officials but also employing ritualized violence to force their way into the hells in order to lead the deceased out. Major Taoist rituals of renewal (jiao ) typically end with a Rite of Universal Salvation intended to save the dispossessed souls.

Twenty-first-century priests of the Taoist church survive in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and diasporic Chinese communities and have been reestablished in China. There are some movements in the West that claim this mantle as well, but most do not maintain traditional ritual practice. The philosophical works of the Warring States era, on the other hand, enjoy a wide following in the West, though the disparity in the teachings of the Laozi and the Zhuangzi are seldom appreciated. The dominant Chinese approach to death remains that of Chinese popular religion, which eclectically mixes the beliefs of Buddhism and religious Taoism with traditional Chinese views of death, the afterlife, and the soul.

See also: Chinese Beliefs; Shinto

Bibliography

Kohn, Livia, ed. The Taoist Handbook. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2000.

Robinet, Isabelle. Taoism: Growth of a Religion. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1997.

TERRY F. KLEEMAN

Taoism or Daoism. Chinese religious and philosophical system, taking many different forms, and influencing other religions greatly, especially Buddhism. The two major forms of Taoism are philosophical, tao-chia (daojia), and religious, tao-chiao (daojiao); but both are intertwined (and not, as was once thought, incompatible alternatives).

Tao-chia goes back traditionally to Lao-tzu and Tao-te ching (Daode jing). Tao-te ching proposes a transformation of character within, from which good society and behaviour will flow. Where a Confucian asks, ‘What should I do?’, a Taoist asks, ‘What kind of person should I be?’ This involves discerning the Tao, the primordial source of order and the guarantor of the stability of all appearance. Tao is the unproduced Producer of all that is. Through the energetic initiative of creativity, i.e. through Te, the inner and inexpressible nature of Tao nevertheless appears in manifest forms. To live in accord with Tao is to realize this order and nature and stability in one's own life and society. Te is then the virtue of the person who achieves that goal, especially through wuwei.

The political philosophy of Taoism requires the ruler to be equally ‘invisible’. But since the ideal is never realized, the ruler has responsibility to enforce virtue; and this (especially Taote ching 6, 36, 65) has been criticized as encouraging despotism. This was reinforced indirectly by the second major figure/text of tao-chia, Chuang-tzu, where the pursuit of absolute self-command and of the ‘usefulness of the useless’ is taken even further. In contrast, neo-Taoism, e.g. Hsüan-hsüeh, rehabilitated Confucianism as an illustration of what wu-wei, properly understood, would mean in practice. By a different sort of contrast, the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove maintained that being in command of oneself and going with the grain of Tao allowed one to eat, drink, and be merry. The Seven Sages belonged to that part of the neo-Taoist revival known as Chʾing Tʾan, ‘The School of Pure Conversations’.

Tao-chiao has had a far more diverse history, with many schools and teachings, and constant interaction with popular Chinese religion. The unifying thread is the search for the Way (Tao) of Great Equilibrium and the quest for immortality, though this may be understood literally, metaphorically, or as a temporary (quest for longevity) postponement of death. Because all nature is united in Tao, immortality cannot be achieved by emancipating some aspect of nature (e.g. a soul or spirit) in order to escape from nature; rather, it must be sought in the proper directing of the forces of nature within one's own body. The major areas of concern, emphasized in different ways in the different schools, are (i) inner hygiene, attention, especially through diet and gymnastic exercises, to the conditions of life; in the Inner Deity Hygiene School, the endeavour is to visualize and work with the deities who control the functions of the body, by making offerings to them of appropriate food and behaviour; (ii) breathing, attention to ch'i (breath); (iii) circulation of the breath within the body, bringing its power deliberately to every part; (iv) sexuality, attention to the techniques leading to the retention of energy by retaining semen or controlling orgasm, and by sending this retained power through the body; (v) alchemy, see especially KO HUNG; (vi) behaviour, attention to the kinds of moral behaviour which will be in harmony with the Tao; (vii) the search for the Isles of the Blessed where the immortals (hsien) might be found who would reveal the secrets of their immortality.

While Tao-chiao rests on the same basic texts as Tao-chia, it rapidly produced many more (for the canon, see TAO-TSANG), and began to produce a proliferation of different schools. The first of these (in the sense that it produced deliberate organization and continuity) was Wu-tou-mi tao, of Chang Tao-ling and Chang Lu. A different note was introduced by Wei Hua-tsʾun (251–334): she had risen in the Celestial Master hierarchy, but then married and raised a family. After her family was grown up, she returned to her studies and received visions of the Immortals who entrusted to her the first sections of Shang chʾing, writings which were to become the scripture of the new movement. From the connection with Mount Mao, the movement is known as Mao-shan. Religious Taoism is made up of many schools or sects: at least eighty-six major movements have been listed. Among these many schools, of early importance were Ling-pao and Tʾai-ping Tao (an early example of the revolutionary and somewhat millennarian strand in religious Taoism, familiar in the Boxer rebellion). Later schools of importance include Cheng-i Tao and Chʾüan-chen Tao.

Taoism , refers both to a Chinese system of thought and to one of the four major religions of China (with Confucianism, Buddhism, and Chinese popular religion).

Philosophical Taoism

The philosophical system stems largely from the Tao-te-ching, a text traditionally ascribed to Lao Tzu but probably written in the mid-3d cent. BC The Tao, in the broadest sense, is the way the universe functions, the path [Chin. tao =path] taken by natural events. It is characterized by spontaneous creativity and by regular alternations of phenomena (such as day following night) that proceed without effort. Effortless action may be illustrated by the conduct of water, which unresistingly accepts the lowest level and yet wears away the hardest substance. Human beings, following the Tao, must abjure all striving. The ideal state of being, fully attainable only by mystical contemplation, is simplicity and freedom from desire, comparable to that of an infant or an "uncarved block."

Taoist political doctrines reflect this quietistic philosophy: the ruler's duty is to impose a minimum of government, while protecting his people from experiencing material wants or strong passions. The social virtues expounded by Confucius were condemned as symptoms of excessive government and disregard of effortless action. Second only to Lao Tzu as an exponent of philosophical Taoism was Chuang-tzu , who wrote brilliant satirical essays. Taoist ideals greatly influenced Chinese literature, painting, and calligraphy. Later Taoism emphasized the techniques [Chin. te =power] for realizing the effects flowing from the Tao, especially long life and physical immortality.

Religious Taoism

Religious Taoism appropriated earlier interest and belief in alchemy and the search for the elixir of life and the philosopher's stone. By the 5th cent. AD, Taoism was a fully developed religious system with many features adopted from Mahayana Buddhism , offering emotional religious satisfaction to those who found the largely ethical system of Confucianism inadequate. Taoism developed a large pantheon (probably incorporating many local gods), monastic orders, and lay masters. Heading the commonly worshiped deities is the Jade Emperor. Directly under him, ruling from Mt. Tai, is the Emperor of the Eastern Mountain, who weighs merits and faults and assigns reward and punishment in this and future existences. An ecclesiastical hierarchy was founded in the 8th cent., headed by the T'ien Shih [master of heaven]; he claimed succession from Chang Tao-lin, an alchemist of the 2d cent. who was reputed to have discovered the elixir of immortality after receiving magical power from Lao Tzu.

Throughout its history Taoism has provided the basis for many Chinese secret societies; in the 1950s, after the establishment of the Communist regime, Taoism was officially proscribed. Taoism is still practiced to some degree in modern China, as well as in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao and in communities of Chinese who have emigrated.

Bibliography

Taoist ideas have enjoyed wide circulation in the West in the late 20th cent. and have been the basis of popular books, such as F. Capra's Tao of Physics (1983). See also A. Waley, The Way and Its Power (1935); D. C. Lau, tr., Tao Te Ching (1963); B. Watson, tr., The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu (1968); M. Kalternmark, Lao Tzu and Taoism (1969); R. M. Smullyan, Tao Is Silent (1977); C.-Y. Chang, Creativity and Taoism (1963, repr. 1982); N. J. Girardot, Myth and Meaning in Early Taoism (1983); J. Lagerway, Taoist Ritual in Chinese Society and History (1987).

Taoism. One of the indigenous religions of China that played a role in the sinification of Buddhism after its transmission to China. The legendary founder of Taoism is the sage Lao-tsu (c.6th century bce), to whom is attributed the authorship of the classic work the Tao-te-ching (The Book of the Way and its Power), although this probably dates to the 4th-3rd centuries bce. The Tao or ‘Way’, is the all-embracing matrix of the patterns by which things happen in the world, and it is from this concept that the school derives its name. Taoists generally hold to the ideal of coming to a knowledge or vision of this matrix for a variety of purposes: to see the intricate interconnectedness of all things, to attain long life, to achieve spontaneity in thoughts and actions, to gain supernatural powers, and so on. Such achievements involve finding a balance between the two opposing energies of yin and yang, from whose interaction all phenomena and change arise. These are seen as two complementary facets of the infinite Tao, represented in the yin–yang symbol of a circle with two dots in each half, indicating that yin and yang both contain the seed of their opposite. All opposition and duality can be expressed in terms of yin and yang; for example, yin stands for what is feminine, soft, and receptive and yang for what is masculine, hard, and dynamic. Taoists seek to harmonize these cosmic energies within themselves by observing and emulating the rhythms of nature, and it is an existential as opposed to an intellectual understanding that they seek. One text in particular, the Chuang-tzu (c.4th to 2nd centuries bce), presents a thorough critique of language as a means of communicating truth and discursive thought as a mode of knowledge, and counsels direct observation of nature, both in the world and within oneself. This will lead to a calm acceptance of the circumstances of one's life and the inevitability of one's death, and a joyous spontaneity from day to day. Many scholars believe that this text was a formative influence in the genesis of Ch'an Buddhism. Much of the cross-fertilization of Taoism and Buddhism took place after the fall of the Han dynasty and the flight of many Chinese gentry and literati to the south, beginning in the 3rd century ce. The destabilization of the empire and the difficulties of life during this turbulent period led many to question the hegemony of a now-discredited Confucianism, and to look for other ways to think about the problems of life. Many took to a newly revitalized Taoism and its close relative, the so-called ‘Dark Learning’ (Chin., hsüan hsüeh), sometimes also called ‘Neo-Taoism’. Buddhism made its first inroads into the upper echelons of Chinese society at this time, and many scholars met to discuss and compare the ideas of these two religions.

Taoism Chinese philosophy and religion considered as being next to Confucianism in importance. Taoist philosophy is traced to a 6th-century bc classic of Lao Tzu, the Tao Te Ching. The recurrent theme of this work is the Tao (way or path). To follow the Tao is to follow the path leading to self-realization. Te (virtue) and ch'i (energy) represent the goal of effortless action. Taoist ethics emphasize patience, simplicity, and the harmony of nature, achieved through the proper balance of yin and yang (male and female principles). As a religion, Taoism dates from the time of Chang Tao-ling, who organized a group of followers in ad 142. See also Book of Changes; Tai Chi

Taoism a Chinese philosophy based on the writings of Lao-tzu, advocating humility and religious piety. The central concept and goal is the Tao, and its most important text is the Tao-te-Ching. Taoism has both a philosophical and a religious aspect. Philosophical Taoism emphasizes inner contemplation and mystical union with nature; wisdom, learning, and purposive action should be abandoned in favour of simplicity and wu-wei (non-action, or letting things take their natural course). The religious aspect of Taoism developed later, c.3rd century ad, incorporating certain Buddhist features and developing a monastic system.

Tao·ism / ˈdouˌizəm; ˈtou-/ • n. a Chinese philosophy based on the writings of Lao-tzu (fl. 6th century bc), advocating humility and religious piety. DERIVATIVES: Tao·ist n. & adj. Tao·is·tic / touˈistik/ adj.

Taoism

See Chinese Religions, Daoism and Science in China

Daoism

See Chinese Religions, Daoism and Science in China

Daoism: see TAOISM.

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