|
 "The
Little Wood House"
Gao Lin 1987 Oil on canvas 20" x 25" Inventory #: CC_0223 Source: The Hefner Collection © The Hefner Collection liscenced one time use only |
| THE HISTORY OF
TAOISM Russell Kirkland University of Georgia © 2002 "LATER TAOISM" Taoism never became an “organized religion” in the sense of having any centralized authority that attempted to maintain orthodoxy or orthopraxy. It was always diverse and fluid, with no clear boundaries. New traditions constantly sprang up, and interwove themselves with older traditions. The following outline shows how scholars at the opening of the 21st-century conceptualize the phases and segments of Taoism, based on historical and textual research, and on categories sometimes used by Taoists themselves. "The
Early Taoist Movement"
Roots:
a.
prognostic and prophetic texts
(ch'en‑wei) created/circulated by court advisors called fang‑shih,
whose expertise involved matters beyond the pale of ordinary
civilian or technical officials
b. imperial divinization of Lao‑tzu as “Lord Lao” (Lao‑chün) Note: Many modern scholars assert that Taoism had roots in “shamanism,” uncritically misusing that term as though it meant “any plebian religious activity involving interactions with spiritual beings.” Actually, a “shaman” is nothing of the sort, and there is no trace of any shamanic practice in classical Taoist texts. Primary Text: The T'ai‑p'ing ching ["Scripture of Grand Tranquility"] (2nd-century CE with later additions). A compendium of religious ideas of diverse provenance, circulating at the Han court. Key teaching: Heaven is sending a "Celestial Master" (t'ien‑shih) to rectify the human world. Many elements of later Taoism (including meditational practices) are found in the T'ai‑p'ing ching to some degree. The
T'IEN-SHIH ("Celestial Master") Movement (2nd-7th centuries)
Founder: Chang Tao‑ling (origins unknown): claimed have received a Covenant (meng-wei) from Lao‑chün in 142; and claimed to be the "Celestial Master" promised in the T'ai‑p'ing ching. Focus: Liturgical; sacerdotal; ecclesiastical. The only segment of the Taoist tradition that functioned rather like a “church.” Ordained officials (male and female) supervised their plebian followers’ religious lives: they taught how to obtain relief from illness and absolution from inherited sins through confession and good works; they also conducted liturgical ceremonies in the form of official petitions to various unseen powers (generally understood as officials in the higher dimensions). The organization of the movement was very systematic and hierarchical, down to the laity: all members received graded "registers" (lu) associated with specific spiritual forces, and renounced the worship of any unapproved spirits. Sense of Identity: The movement conceived itself as a religious orthodoxy, with a leadership ordained by heavenly powers. It opposed all other religious activities in which commoners of those days engaged, stigmatzing them as “cults.” But other than claiming an authority from the Covenant from Lord Lao, it claimed no relationship to any of the pre-Han figures, texts, or ideas that we identify as “classical Taoism”; and did not conceive itself as opposed to Confucian traditions. Social Reality: The only Taoist tradition that was truly based among “the masses.” Social status was ignored: leaders came from among the common people (not the aristocracy), and the priesthood was open to women and non‑Chinese. The T’ien-shih movement neither opposed nor supported established government: its leaders regarded themselves as spiritual rulers with a mandate to lead society in place of the weakening Han emperors. The movement’s leadership was hereditary, but had little standing outside the movement. Teachings: Little intellectualization. Spiritual practice was understood in terms of moral rectification and establishment of a proper relationship with the ruling forces of the unseen world. Little trace of individual self elevation in other terms. History: In 215 CE the movement aligned itself with the government of new Wei dynasty; it remained aligned with the subsequent Chin rulers until North China fell to invaders in 316 CE. After the Chin rulers fled south, the T’ien-shih movement lost its social base in most regions. It endured only in vestigial forms: its ideas and practices were preserved in very limited circles in both north (see “Lou-kuan Taoism”) and south. Those ideas and practices served as a springboard for many of the new developments in Taoism until Sung times. However, the hereditary leadership within the Chang clan died out by the 7th century. By the 11th century, a family of the same name based on Mt. Lung-hu began posing as heirs and successors of the "Celestial Masters” described here; that claim was accepted by virtually everyone in later China, and by modern scholars, though research has shown it to be baseless, like the fictitious Lung-men lineage. |
