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Taoism at a Glance
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In the West, Taoism is known primarily through a few popular philosophical works written by its two chief proponents, Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu, as well as a number of health-related practices involving exercise, herbs, acupuncture, and martial arts, that draw on Taoist principles. The "other" Taoism, commonly called Religious Taoism, is practiced mainly by ethnic Chinese in Asia and the West, and has entered mainstream awareness to a far lesser extent, if at all -- as is also true of many ethnic Hindu and Buddhist practices. People who are not born into a particular religious tradition, whether in the East or the West, tend to be drawn to the most universal, least sectarian aspects of that tradition, rather than to those aspects that are more readily identifiable with how the religion is practiced on a folk or ethnic level. Non-Jews who study Kabbalah, for example, are unlikely to observe Jewish dietary restrictions or even common Jewish holidays. Many Western Sufis do not observe the Five Pillars of Islam, including the five times daily prayer known as salat. The fact that these practitioners would not be considered genuine Sufis or Jews by orthodox members of those religions is generally of little importance to the practitioners themselves.
Although Taoism is traditionally said to have sprung from the writings of the man called Lao-tzu (the name just means "Old Master"), it is almost certainly older than the 6th century BCE, when he is presumed to have lived. As Taoism is practiced today in China, where it has survived both the Communist and Cultural Revolutions, it is connected to the rhythms of nature and the earth as in many primal religions. In that sense, it harks back to a much earlier time when the roles of men and women are said to have been more equitable, and when spiritual practice centered around the birth of all creation from the Divine Mother. Lao-tzu wrote of an ancient time when the feminine principle was not yet dominated by the masculine:
There was something complete and nebulous
Which existed before Heaven and Earth,
Silent, invisible,
Unchanging, standing as One,
Unceasing, ever-revolving,
Able to be the Mother of the World.
I do not know its name and I call it Tao.
Tao Te Ching, 26
Taoism acknowledges that the cyclical changes in the human body and the changing aspects of nature are intimately related. Through careful observation of the natural world and insights gained in deep meditative trance, the early Chinese sages developed the concept of yin-yang, opposing forces that complement each other and, through their interaction, give rise to the rest of the phenomenal world, or what the ancients called "the ten thousand things." In this polarity, the male generative principle of yang is represented by the sun (day) and the heavens, and the female life-bearing powers of yin by the moon (night) and the earth. Their interplay creates the Five Elements (water, fire, wood, metal, earth), which are emblematic of the changing seasons, the four cardinal directions plus the center, the five senses, and much more. Likewise, Taoists relate the microcosm of the human body to the macrocosm of the world (earth, heavens, and underworld). Together, the opposing principles of yin-yang and the cyclical interplay of the five elements, along with the mirroring of the cosmos in the body, contain the essence of Chinese spirituality.
These basic principles, however, have manifested over many centuries in a bewildering array of Taoist schools and practices, and were further modified by contact with Buddhist missionaries from India. As a practice, Taoism became organized in the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE, based on the writings of two men. The Tao Te Ching is usually attributed to Lao-tzu, who is said to have been born around 600 BCE, but whose dates are uncertain and whose authorship of the book has been questioned. There is even a story, perhaps apocryphal, that Lao-tzu once met with Confucius, who lived between 551 and 479. Lao-tzu's work was commented on and expanded by Chuang-tzu (c. 369-286 BCE), who was also a critic of Confucius.
Taoists themselves insist that these principles derive from the oral teachings of sages as far back in history as 5000 years ago, which would make Taoism at least as old as Vedic Hinduism. Whether the early Taoists were influenced by migrating Indian sages or discovered similar insights in their own pursuit of meditative states is less important than understanding that Taoism developed along different lines from the Indian traditions. It has certain aspects in common with those traditions, yet is distinctively Chinese. In turn it exerted a major influence on Buddhism as that Indian-born religion passed through China on its way East.
The term Taoism is a convenient conglomerate used by outsiders to encompass two disparate traditions of Chinese wisdom, embracing both the Zen-like philosophy of Lao-tzu and a host of esoteric practices developed by hundreds of different adepts. Despite their differences, these traditions and practices share several traits: the philosophical underpinning of the Tao Te Ching; the search for immortality or at least great longevity; a varied pantheon of Taoist deities; and a certain rebelliousness against both the demands of society and the rigors of traditional Confucian morality and social codes. (For a better understanding of Confucius, consult that section of this site.)
The Chinese themselves use separate terms to distinguish between the two major currents within Taoism. Tao-chia, commonly translated as "Philosophical Taoism," consists of mystical teachings about the Tao -- roughly but inadequately translated as "Way" -- and the art of wu wei (non-doing, or letting things take their course) as defined by Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu. Through meditation, students of Tao-chia learn to let things proceed as they ought. Because it is philosophically oriented, Tao-chia was never institutionalized, passing from teacher to student without the mediation of an organized church.
Philosophical Taoism aims to reduce the friction inherent in most of life's actions and to conserve one's vital energy. As with Zen, the notion of making strenuous efforts to achieve this goal is antithetical to the earliest Taoist teachings. This version of Taoism has caught the fancy of Western seekers, producing a profusion of books that attempt to view action through the reductive lens of Taoism, such as, The Tao of Physics, The Tao of Golf, and The Tao of Sexual Massage (similar perspectives have been applied to Zen, as in Zen in the Art of Archery; Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and even A Zen Way of Baseball, by famed Japanese slugger Sadaharu Oh.)
Tao-chiao is generally called Religious Taoism or Church Taoism, which can refers to the institutional Taoist Church itself, but can also encompass a specific collection of body-mind techniques for extending life and preserving health and sexual vitality. The Church has a line of succession beginning with Chang Tao-ling, an official of the early Han Dynasty in the 2nd century, right down to the present day in Taiwan, a lineage that is sometimes compared to the Popes of the Roman Catholic Church. One of its functions has traditionally been to make the more obscure and difficult practices and rituals available to the masses. Made up of many different schools, Tao-chiao focuses more pragmatically than Tao-chia on ways to achieve longevity or even immortality through the augmentation and preservation of one's essential vitality, or ch'i (or qi, in the modernized spelling system known as Pinyin). These methods make up a kind of yoga that includes elaborate sexual techniques, the use of medicinal herbs, body movement, and alchemy.
Although these practices are all lumped under Tao-chiao, many unaffiliated shamans, alchemists, and small sects of believers follow some of the same practices that the Taoist Church has made available to the masses. Many Taoists not only embrace differing versions of Taoism, but also incorporate elements of Buddhism and Confucianism without any noticeable discomfort.
The historicity of Lao-tzu is unprovable; some place him in the 6th century BCE, casting further doubt on his connection with the Tao Te Ching. Now generally thought to have been finalized between the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE, with the earliest existing copy dated at around 200 BCE, the Tao Te Ching may be the work of one or more anonymous Taoists seeking to offset Confucianism and Legalism. Lao-tzu is said to have lived 160 years, and to have been the curator of the Imperial Library at K'au, leaving in his later years when he found the triviality of court and city life unnecessary to his inner existence. The story goes that as he was exiting the Empire on a buffalo, he was stopped at the frontier by the Keeper of the Pass and asked to record his wisdom for posterity. Lao then wrote out the 5,000 characters that became the "Book of the Way and its Power (or Manifestation)."
For Lao-tzu the entire universe was imbued with a mystical presence, an overarching eternal principle he referred to only as the Tao. The original pictogram of the Tao may be translated as "Way" or "Path," but can also mean "Teaching." The term was apparently already in use before the time of Confucius, who used it in the context of human activity or mores, and Lao-tzu, who may have been the first to give the word a purely mystical connotation. In the sense that the Tao is also the primordial Source of the universe, it resembles the Hindu Brahman, the impersonal Absolute. And like Brahman, the Tao is knowable only in the depths of the heart in silent meditations not unlike the trances of the rishis and Upanishadic seers.
Composed of 81 very brief chapters, the Tao Te Ching can easily be read in one sitting. Although much of it sounds vague and theoretical, it also conveys specific practical advice on the ruling of nations:
When a country is govered with tolerance,
The people are genuine and honest.
When a country is governed with repression,
The people are more deceitful and dishonest. (60)
Despite the minimalist feel of these instructions, history does record the results of the reign of one Taoist ruler who actively followed Lao-tzu's formulas for governing. Among other accomplishments, Emperor Han Wen Ti (179-157) did away with punishment by mutilation and with laws requiring the execution of an entire family because one member had committed a capital crime. Instead of warring on the northern barbarians, he approached them with presents and an exchange of trade. And he did all this while lowering taxes and cutting waste and corruption in the royal court. Chinese historians praised him because "the Empress's skirt did not touch the ground" -- cut short as an austerity measure.
For all that, the basic thrust of the Tao Te Ching is away from motivated activity, similar to the goal of nonattachment to the fruits of one's actions espoused by the Bhagavad-Gita. Lao-tzu's response to the chaos of his times can also be seen as an alternative to that developed by Confucius and his followers: if civilization is so unpredictably violent, venal, and cruel, why have anything to do with it at all? Much of the Tao Te Ching objects to the foolishness of purposeful action in a way that is coherent with Zen:
The more prohibitions you have,
the less virtuous people will be.
Chuang-tzu, who lived c. 389-286 BCE and grew up in the same part of China as Lao-tzu knowing the Tao Te Ching, expanded upon its short, pithy maxims in the Chuang-tzu (sometimes called The Divine Classic of Nan-hua). Although it is 33 chapters long, only the first seven, or Inner Chapters, are considered to be indisputably the work of the master, the rest presumably coming from his disciples and later commentators. Chuang's most famous story concerns his dream of being a butterfly. The dream felt so real, he said, that when he awoke, he couldn't be sure whether he was Chuang-tzu who had dreamed that he was a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming that he was Chuang-tzu. The authors of the Upanishads could hardly have stated the illusoriness of the phenomenal world any more deftly.
I Ching ("Book of Change")
The oldest and best known book of Chinese wisdom was composed primarily during the late second and early first millennium BCE, with later additions of mostly Confucian but some Taoist ideas. Primarily used for casting oracles, the I Ching is believed by many Taoist adepts to be a guide to the secrets of the "celestial mechanism," a tool for understanding and living in harmony with the flow of events in the universe. It is based on the opposing principles of light and dark, later referred to as yin and yang, whose interaction yields change. The Ching is made up of different arrangements of broken (- -) and unbroken (--) lines, which represent yin and yang, respectively. The lines are arranged in 8 groups of three lines, called trigrams, each of which has specific associations: heaven, earth, fire, water, thunder, mountain, lake, wind. The trigrams are combined into 64 different pairs of six lines each called hexagrams, originally obtained by throwing 50 yarrow stalks, later simplified to 3 coins.
Tao Te Ching ("Book of the Way and its Power, or Manifestation")
A work of seminal importance to Taoism and influential on Zen Buddhism, this work is elliptical and often mystifying, perhaps the inevitable result of trying to describe in words what the author insists is ineffable, unnameable, and unknowable. Although traditionally attributed to Lao-tzu, many scholars now believe the work was composed centuries after his death.
Chuang-tzu
Although only the first seven of this work's 33 chapters are accepted as the genuine work of the master, they contain more detail than the 81 wispy chapters of the Tao Te Ching. The extent to which Chuang expanded on that book has led one commentator to remark that he was to Lao-tzu what St. Paul was to Jesus Christ, and Plato to Socrates, exploring and developing his ideas with a combination of rigorous logic and sheer imagination.
Hua Hu Ching ("Classic on Converting the Barbarians")
An account of Lao-tzu's missionary travels, created c. 300 CE, to back up the theory that when Lao left China, he headed West to India where he converted the Buddha! This supposedly proved that Buddhism was an imperfectly understood spin-off of Taoism. Another version of the same concept was that Lao-tzu had somehow become the Buddha. The Buddhists countered by revising history to claim that Buddha was actually born in the 11th century BCE, thus obviating the possibility that Lao-tzu could have had any impact on him whatsoever.
Tao Tsang
A large body of Taoist writings, much of it esoteric, makes up the basis of Taoist doctrine. Almost 1,500 works, undated and anonymous, in nearly 5,500 volumes, including material as old as the 5th century CE, the Tao Tsang began to be compiled during the 8th century, was catalogued during the 10th, and was first printed in 1019. After further work, it was completed during the Ming Dynasty in essentially the same form in which it exists today.
T'ai Shang Kan Ying P'ien ("Tractate on Actions and Retributions")
Sung Dynasty text outlining the reporting of an individual's good and evil deeds by the Three Worms (San Ch'ung) and the God of the Stove, Tsao-chun (aka the Lord of Destiny), and the appropriate lengthening or shortening of his or her life. The penalties range from 100 days lopped off for a minor offense to 12 years for serious evil--whereas 300 good deeds will make one a terrestrial immortal, capable of healing and helping others, and 1,300 good deeds, a celestial immortal. Good deeds can be as simple as printing and distributing free copies of the Tractate or other shan-shu, folk manuals of religious ritual and devotion, or as elaborate as building hospitals and orphanages or other charitable works. Another popular symbol is the burning of paper money, created expressly for his purpose, in furnaces located just outside a temple. Following the Chinese metaphor of heavenly and underworld bureaucracy, the paper money is thought to be deposited in the underworld bank, where its interest can pay off corrupt officials and pay for atonement of wrongs in hell.
The punishable offenses include disobedience, contradiction of one's elders or superiors, boastfulness, bribery, fraud, stealing, lying, adultery, and the killing of animals. The faithful were also advised against urinating in a northerly direction (the realm of the spirits) or spitting at a falling star. Despite, or because of, its mundane nature, the Tractate is perhaps the most influential religious book among the Chinese masses to this day, whether in mainland or maritime China or the large overseas Chinese community.
T'ai I Chin Hua Tsung Chih ("The Secret of the Golden Flower")
Showing the influence of Taoist schools of alchemy and inner hygiene, as well as Ch'an Buddhism, it expounds the method for creating a sacred embryo within the adept's body as a way of achieving immortality. Attributed to Lu Tung-pin of the T'ang Dynasty, it is now believed to have been composed in the 17th or 18th century. Carl Jung, who wrote a lengthy commentary to the 1929 German translation, is responsible for introducing this work to the West.
The Four Books and The Five Classics
Together, the Four Books and Five Classics make up the basic texts of Confucianism. By no means were they all written by Confucius, although he did have a hand at least in editing a number of them. The Five Classics were all written by the second century BC: The I Ching, the Shih Ching (Book of Odes), the Shu Ching (Book of History), the Ch'un Ch'iu (Spring and Autumn Annals), and the Book of Rites. Sometime in the 12th century AD, two chapters were removed from the Book of Rites and made into two of the Four Books: Great Learning and Doctrine of the Mean. The Analects of Confucius and the Book of Mencius, by the great Confucian idealist, make up the rest of the Four Books.
Alchemy is an ancient art and science that has long been linked to the spiritual path. The earliest alchemists attempted to transmute base metals such as lead or iron into gold, and to find the elixir of life, a potion that when drunk bestows immortality. But alchemy also had an esoteric, mystical dimension in which the transmutation of base metals into gold serves as a metaphor for transforming one's preoccupations from the material to the spiritual -- a search for celestial rather than physical immortality.
Although often credited to the Egyptians, alchemy is now believed to have originated in China, and is usually traced to Tsou Yen, who flourished early in the 3rd century BCE, and whose followers were known as fang shih ("masters of prescriptions"). These early magicians and shamans from the northeast coast were masters of the secrets of vitality, sexual practice, and feng shui, the science of choosing auspicious sites and layouts for buildings, graves, or even the furniture in one's home. The fang shih claimed to have learned the secret of immortality from immortals, called hsien, who dwelt on distant mountain peaks, and insisted it all had to do with safeguarding one's ch'i.
Techniques for preserving ch'i included a form of breath control and energy recirculation called hsing-ch'i ("the microcosmic orbit" or "inner alchemy"), the use of medicinal herbs, alchemy, and tao-yin (combination breathing and stretching exercises based on the movements of cranes and tortoises, which were believed to lead long lives). In order to preserve and extend life, the adept must learn to achieve the appropriate balance of three essential factors, known as the Three Treasures:
Over time, Taoists learned to combine yogic and mystical practices with self-hypnosis, restrictive diets, and drugs, not only to induce transcendent states but also in the hope of achieving physical immortality. More and more, Taoism came to be associated with ways of prolonging life; fantastic stories about masters who lived very long lives, exercised magical powers, and ascended into Heaven in broad daylight became commonplace. The import of these elements have probably been exaggerated by Western popularizers, and do not make up a significant portion of current Taoist beliefs.
The fantastical tales of ancient alchemists seeking (and perhaps finding) immortality through the creation of magic potions, or discovering the secret of transforming lead into gold, may stem from the extraordinary exercises developed by Chinese adepts to prolong life and increase health. This system of enhancing life energy is sometimes called qigong (pronounced chee-GUNG), a word that means "working with life energy." Qi, or ch'i, is the Chinese eqivalent of prana, the Indian term for the vital energy that flows through the human body. According to the Chinese system, the life force is absorbed into our bodies through entry portals in the skin known as acupuncture points. The subtle energy of qi then circulates along 12 pairs of invisible pathways called meridians, linking the inner organs and other parts of the body and nervous system into a unified whole. Qi flows freely in healthy individuals; any blockage or imbalance in the flow of qi results in disease and debilitation.
The aim of qigong is to allow for the free flow of energy by eliminating any blockages or imbalances that may be obstructing that flow. Structured systems of movement, breathing, and meditation have been devised over centuries to maximize the flow of qi throughout the body. These systems are known by various names, including Taijiquan (t'ai chi chuan, in the old spelling), kung-fu, and medical qigong. Blockages can also be released by the insertion of needles into the skin at one or more of the approximately 365 acupuncture points located along the meridians.
Acupuncture, which is several thousand years old, fell out of favor in China in the late 19th century, but Mao Tse-tung returned it to prominence. In the 1970s, American journalists in China gave accounts of surgery being performed there for which the only anesthetic was acupuncture. With Richard Nixon's re-opening of ties with China, the knowledge began to flow more freely to the West., and major insurance companies such as Mutual of Omaha now accept acupuncture for pain management and other therapeutic uses.
The Chinese also developed treatments which use the application of heat to the acupuncture points to achieve similar results. In moxibustion, the heat comes from smoldering balls or sticks of compressed wormwood leaves, called moxa; in cupping, small heated jars are held in place over the acupuncture points through vacuum suction. And in acupressure, the acupuncture points are massaged by the practitioner's fingertips.