Taoism/Daoism Today

In China: Two major schools:

Celestial Masters School (Tianshi)
 In
Taiwan
 65th Celestial Master
 To types of Daoists:


red-head: therapeutically oriented, healing and exorcism
black-head: more scripturally oriented, used liturgies
 Focuses
on rituals of cosmic harmony, purification,
healing, and burial
 Complete
Perfection
School
(Quanzhen)
 In
Hong Kong
and China
 Monastic
 Promote selfcultivation,
Qigong health
practice
•Jingxiu (Karine
Martin, from
Montlucon, France
•Ph.D. in Medical
Science, University
of Paris
•Priestess of the
32nd generation of
Quanzhen Daoism
Expression/Social Functions of Daoism


Contemporary Daoism finds its expression in
rituals
Two categories



Rites of Purgation (Zhai)
Jiao-Offering Rites (Jiao)
Three major types of rites



Secret ceremonies
Semi-public ceremonies
Requiem service for the dead:


Funerary rite
Universal salvation rite (Pudu)
Qigong and Taiji quan

Qigong: (energy exercise)
practices divided into two groups:
 martial
 Healing


Qigong forms: based on the imitation of
certain animals
The Crane pattern
 The Five Animals Pattern,
 The Snake and Tortoise Pattern


Taiji quan:
Daoist Temple Baiyun
Guan (White Cloud
Monastery) in Beijing
Nomenclature

Common terms/
phrases
氣

Tao/Dao, Te/De,

Wu, you

Daoism/Taoism,
Daoist/Taoist,

Laozi/ Lao-tzu,
Zhuangzi/Chuang-tzu,

qi, yin-yang
氣



Confucius--/Kongzi-K’ung-tzu--Master Kong-Master K’ung
Confucian or
Confucianist
Confucianism
 Ren/Jen (Humanness,
humanity)
 Yi (I, Rightness,
Righteousness)
仁
義
wanwu (myriad things/creatures)
 tianxia (all-under-heaven)
 Inner alchemy, outer alchemy
 Ritual, self-cultivation, longevity techniques,
qigong, fengshui,
 Names of dynasties/periods:

 the
Zhou dynasty, the Warring State Period, the
Qin Dynasty, the Han Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty,
the Song Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty, the Qing
Dynasty

Daoist schools:
 Tianshi
(Zhengyi ), or Celestial Masters
 Quanzhen, or Complete Perfection
Taoism/Daoism in the US
Known because of many translations of the
Daode jing/Tao te ching.
 Became popular through the introduction of
Taiji quan in the 1950s and 1960s
 Organized Daoist communities appeared in
the 1980s
 Two camps in Asian communities:

Ritual lineages (based on the Celestial Masters,
Tianshi)
 Self-cultivation (based on the Complete
Perfection, Quanzhen)

A Long History of Taoism/Daoism
Taoism/Daoism has a long and highly
complex history that began from 5th century
BCE or earlier
 Developed and evolved throughout Chinese
history, with new elements added to
respond and react to social and political
changes and challenges
 Became an integral part of Chinese culture
and cannot be excluded from the discussion
of Chinese history, religion, philosophy

Tao-te ching/Daode Jing
(Lao-tzu), the text

Three extant texts (before
2009)

Received/standard text (3rd
century AD), often called
Wang Bi text
 81
chapters, with title the Laotzu/Laozi
 1-37 chapters—Tao/Dao
ching/jing
 38-81 chapters—Te/De
ching/jing
 Mawangdui
text, a
silk manuscripts (200
BCE, 1973)
 Does
not bear a title
 Dao jing and De jing
are in the reverse
order
 Contains a few
hundred more
characters than Wang
Bi’s text

Guodian text (ca. 4th BCE, 1993), in
inscribed bamboo strips
 2/5
of what was to become the Daodejing were
present
When and by whom the first Lao-tzu text
was written remain a mystery
 Beida Laozi text: (ca. late 1st century
BCE) .

Also in inscribed bamboo slips, but more
complete, more organized
 Two parts: Laozi Shangjing, Laozi Xiajing

Mawangdui Excavation
1972-1974, Hunan, Chansha
 Two saddle-shaped hills that contain tombs
belonging to the first Marquis of Dai and his
family members
 Many artifacts and three corpses were
discovered

Tomb no. 1: Lady Xinzhui 辛追
 Tomb no. 2: Marquis of Dai軑侯, Li Cang 利蒼
 Tomb no. 3: son of Li Cang and Xinzhui

A T-shaped silk banner
in tomb no.1
Modern
reconstruction of
Lady Xinzhui
Lady Xinzhui’s
Mummified body
Guodian Laozi
unearthed
In 1993
Three sets of bamboo
slips:
A-39, 1090 characters
B-18, 389 characters
C-14, 270 characters
The Pre-manuscript Tradition
 The
excavated manuscripts
support this theory:
The text called Lao-tzu (Laozi)
cannot and should not be ascribed
to a single, historically identifiable
author
 It is a collection of separate sayings,
transmitted orally before they were
written down
 The written text underwent a long
and complex editorial and
commentarial process


The Nature of those
sayings or verses
 Some
sound like oracles
 Some like riddles
 Some seem to be ritual
formulas
 Meant to be learned by
heart and transmitted orally
Scholars are still asking the
questions about author(s) and date
 Historical account says Laozi and
his writing of the text

Was
Laozi
the
author
?
 Biography
of Laozi in the The Grand
Scribe’s Record says:
A
meeting between Laozi and Confucius
took place
 Laozi was asked by the frontier guard to
write the text in 5000 characters to leave
behind his wisdom, when traveling
westwards
“Laozi
Riding
An Ox”,
Song
Dynasty
Silk
tapestry
Water color painting
By Fachang
Song Dynasty
 Meaning
Lexical
meaning
of
Tao/Dao
and
audience
of
the text
Etymological
 Tao/Dao
in the Tao-
te ching
 Tao/Dao and Wu
 Audience
 Political
leaders of
the Warring States
Period
An organic world/cosmic system

Dao can be understood in these senses




metaphysical
sociopolitical
individual cultivation
Analogy used to associate natural world and
human world


An organicism/organism (whether it is a
complete/perfect system or not)
Holographic universe

A prescriptive, advisory system
than a descriptive, explanatory
system
Focuses on result, effect, “how to”
rather than “truth” or “ultimate truth”
 Assumes that natural or cosmic
order and structure correspond to
that of human world
 Suggests that everything in the
world is utterly interrelated

Tao/Dao and Wu
 The
fundamentals of Daoism:
– You and wu
– Being and non-being
– Emptiness and fullness
– Presence and nonpresence
 Dao
and Wu
– cosmology and cosmogony
– productive force and source of all things
– the principle/function and the
phenomenon/state (of being or non-being)
Reappraisal of the TTC/DDJ
The TTC/DDJ continued to appeal
to the elite class throughout
Chinese history
 the TTC regained currency in the
Ming dynasty—a time when
syncretic religion became popular
 The brevity and ambiguity of the
text opens room for new
interpretations

Commentaries on the text accrued from
early China to the present time, with
Western scholars participating in the
effort
 Studies of newly unearthed Daoist texts
reshape our understanding of the
change and evolution of Daoism
 Scientists, e.g., Fritjof Capra and David
Bohm, are inspired by the DDJ’s notion
of interconnectedness of all things

Example of Differences in Exegeses
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
The ways that can be walked are not the constant Way;
The names that can be named are not the eternal name.
The nameless (wu-ming 無名)is the origin of the
myriad creatures;
The named (you-ming 有名) is the mother of the
myriad creatures.
Therefore,
 Always
 in
order to observe its wondrous subtleties
 Always
 so
be without desire (wuyu 無欲)
have desire (youyu有欲)
that you may observe its manifestations.

Both of these derive from the same source;

They have different names but the same
designation.

Mystery of mysteries

The gate of all wonders!
(TTC/DDJ, 45/1)
See an alternative
translation in the next
slide
The gist of this verse is: The Tao/Dao is
ineffable, undefinable, unexplainable
An Alternative Reading

the Dao is “Nonbeing,” “Nonentity” from which
“Being,” “Entity” emerges.

The ways that can be spoken of are not the constant Way;
The names that can be named are not the eternal name.
Wu （無), is what is used to name the origin of heaven
and earth (tiandi 天地)
You (有), is what is used to name the mother (formation)
of the myriad creatures



Therefore, always observe “Wu”
 To see the wondrous subtitles of the Way,
 In the meantime, observe “You”
 To see its manifestation
 Both “Wu” and “You” emerge from the same
source (Dao) but have different names
 Both are mysterious,
 [With Wu (nonbeing] being the most
mysterious
 [and You (being] the gate of all wonders

1st Paradox:
Define the Unnamable Tao/Dao
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
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There was something featureless
yet complete,
born before heaven and earth;
silent--amorphous-it stood alone and unchanging.
We may regard it as the mother
of heaven and earth.
Not knowing its name,
I styled it the “Way.”
 If forced to give it a name,
 I would call it “great.”
 Being great implies flowing ever onward,
 “Flowing ever onward” implies far-reaching,
 Far-reaching implies reversal

(TTC/DDJ, 69/25)
Describe the ineffable: The
Amorphous Tao/Dao
We look for it but do not see it;
we name it “subtle.” ( 微wéi )
We listen for it but do not hear it;
we name it “rare.” (希xī )
We grope for it but do not grasp it;
we name it “serene.” (夷yí )
These three cannot be fully fathomed,
Therefore, they are bound together to make
unity. (一yī )
Of unity,
its top is not distant,
(there is nothing more encompassing above it) 謬miù
its bottom is not blurred.
(and nothing smaller below it.) 物wù
Infinitely extended and unnamable,
It returns to nonentity.無wú 物wù
This is called
“the form of the formless,無wú 狀zhuàng 之zhī 狀zhuàng
“the image of nonentity.”
無wú 物wù 之zhī 象xiàng
This is called “the amorphous.”
Following behind it,
You cannot see its back;
Approaching it from the front,
You can not see its head.
Hold to the Way of today
To manage the actualities of today, 今jīn 之zhī 有yǒu
Thereby understanding the primeval beginning.
This is called “the thread of the Way”
道dào 紀jì