|
 "White House with Shadow of a Tree" Cao Liwei 1985 Oil on canvas 59" x 63" Cao Liwei was born in 1956 in Liaoning
province, and he has always been interested in landscape painting. From
1978 to 1982, he was a student at the Central Academy of Fine Arts,
Beijing, where he won first prize at his graduation exhibition. From
1981 to 1985, he traveled extensively throughout the Qinghai and Gansu
Provinces and into Tibet. In 1985, he was awarded the silver medal at
the National Exhibition of Fine Arts. His work has been shown in
Canada, France, Japan and the United States. He currently resides in
Southern California.
Inventory #: CC_0012 © The Hef ner Collection lisenced one time use only |
| THE HISTORY OF
TAOISM Russell Kirkland University of Georgia © 2002 The Lingpao Tradition Roots: 1."the Old Traditions of Chiangnan" 2. the Shang‑ch'ing revelations 3. Mahâyâna Buddhism Founder: Ko Ch'ao‑fu (fl. late 4th century) Primary Text: The (Lingpao) Tu‑jen ching ["Scripture for the Salvation of Humanity"] Doctrine and Praxis: A supreme deity (Yüan‑shih t'ien‑tsun) has existed since the beginning of the world, and constantly seeks to save humanity. He sends an emissary to reveal the Tu‑jen ching, which is an emanation of the Tao itself. The adept recites the text, re‑actualizing its primordial recitation by the deity and thus participating in its salvific efficacy. Some Lingpao writings display clear influence of Buddhist ideas, making it the only segment of medieval Taoism that was directly stimulated by Buddhism. “The Northern Celestial Masters” (4th—6th centuries) A term used by some scholars for the Taoist traditions of North China after the migration of the “Celestial Masters” in the early 4th century and the end of K’ou Ch’ienchih’s efforts in the mid 4th century. Foremost among those traditions was that based at the abbey called Loukuan (Louguan) southwest of the capital, Ch’angan. Since the abbey was built near where “Laotzu” was said to have “departed to the West,” many Loukuan texts feature teachings by and about “Lord Lao,” identified as a divine being who descends to earth from age to age in order to reveal salvific teachings. One such teaching is found in the Hsisheng ching (“Scripture of Western Ascension”). Loukuan masters also initiated northern rulers into holy orders; participated in imperially staged debates with Buddhists; and compiled a variety of texts, including catalogs and “Taoist encyclopedias” such as the Wushang piyao. G. Cosmological Alchemy (5th—8th centuries) Quite separate from the earlier waitan tradition called T’aich’ing was a tradition of symbolic alchemy based on an undated text of late antiquity, the Chou‑i ts'an‑t'ung ch'i (“Tally for Threefold Integration in terms of the I ching”). The I ching (Book of Change) originated during the early Chou dynasty (i.e., ca. 1000 BCE). It is essentially a textual oracle—a system that allows people to tap into the fundamental realities of life. One of its early commentaries (the Shuokua) states that the I ching was created by ancient sages who observed the processes that operate in the world and discovered underlying principles, by which one can understand why certain activities lead to success and others lead to failure. Though older than either Confucianism or Taoism, the validity and value of the I ching were accepted by most Confucians and Taoists throughout history, though few ever regarded it as central to their tradition. The main exception within Taoism was the Chou‑i ts'an‑t'ung ch'i, attributed to a legendary figure named Wei Poyang. Since the I ching allows us to peer into the processes that operate in the changing world, and to discover how to bring our activities into alignment with those processes, it is easy to see how it could inspire a systematic study and application of its principles. Texts like the Chou‑i ts'an‑t'ung ch'i were considered divine revelations which, when supplemented by proper oral instruction, provided the secret keys that allowed the practitioner to manipulate cosmic forces in such a way as to achieve a transcendent state, assimilated to eternal realities beyond the world of change. That process could be understood either as an external (wai), material process of compounding an ingestible "elixir," or as an inner (nei) process of spiritual transformation or “refinement.” Both those understandings are evidenced in texts from T’ang times; thereafter, “external alchemy” faded away, but its terminology provided symbolic concepts that endured in the “Inner Alchemy” traditions of Late-imperial Taoism. |
