Taoism: A philosophy, a Religion, and a Way of

Life

By You-Sheng Li

(website: http://taoism21cen.com)

1. An Introduction to Taoism

As a philosophy of life, Lao Tzu (?604-484 BC) and Chuang Tzu (?

369-286 BC) were traditionally recognized as the founders. Its origin goes

back to the time when Chinese civilization began to emerge. Thus a sub-

school of Taoist philosophy takes the name Huang Lao referring to the

Yellow Emperor, the common ancestor to all Chinese, and Lao Tzu. After

Buddhism spread into China during the Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD),

Taoism developed into an organized religion.

Daoist culture has long permeated the everyday life of ordinary

Chinese people since it exerted great influences on social customs and

national consciousness. One of the greatest writer and thinker, Lu Xun

(1881-1936), once said, “China is totally rooted in Daoism.” As the result,

Taoism is the key to a better understanding of traditional Chinese culture.

Today, as a major religion in China, there are more than 1,600 temples and

more than 25,000 Daoist priests of the Quanzhen and the Zhengyi Sect,

though the number of ordinary believers is impossible to assess.

The highest ideal of a Taoist is to acquire immortality. To achieve this

goal, one must practice Taoism both inside and outside one's physical

existence. Inner practice involves physical and breathing exercises,

concentrated contemplation, and the taking of elixirs. Later, this type of

practice gradually came down to refining the interior elixirs ( neidan ). The

basic principle of this practice is still to cultivate the self both spiritually and

physically. External practice involves doing good deeds and helping others.

(1) The Concept of Tao

According to Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, and other authors, Tao has the

following features:

1) Tao created the world and everything in the world.

2) Tao is present in everything and it is the Tao that makes everything the

way it is. The functioning of the Tao in a particular existence is called the

virtue or the obtainment of Tao. Tao is immanent.

3). Tao is ineffable. Tao is also referred to as One, Non-Being since there is

really no name for Tao. Tao is beyond words. Words are part of our world

but Tao is not. We can intuit Tao but we cannot describe it. Tao is

transcendent.

4). Tao is also the law every existence has to follow. It is the underlying,

ordering, structuring force prevailing in everything and every space in the

universe. Man is the only known creature that can depart from Tao.

(2) Taoism as an Organized Religion inside China

Since some Taoists organized themselves into a religion in the second

century, Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism were the three main religions

in Chinese history. Chinese people usually visited their temples to worship

but did not officially join any of those religions. They could go to a Buddhist

temple one day, and a Taoist temple next day. Taoism as a religion showed

some striking features in Chinese history:

1. The fundamental belief of Taoist religion is that you do not have to

die physically, which is essentially what behind modern medicine and

science.
 2. Taoist religion is based on the ancient Taoist philosophy, which was

famous for its atheistic view against Mohism and Confucianism

during the Axial Age (770-221 BCE).

3. The birth of Taoist religion in the second and third centuries was

associated with a massive uprising of peasants.

4. One of the major parts of religious practice of Taoism is sex.

5. After Buddhism entered China, the hybridization of Buddhism and

Taoism produced a more secular and practical form of Buddhism,

Chan or Zen, which is well known in the West.

(3) The Taoist Deity

It is clear that the early Taoist philosophers such as Lao Tzu and

Chuang Tzu did not pay particular attention to any god except Tao. They

only used the word gods occasionally in a casual manner. Chuang Tzu says:

“In the ancient time, yin and yang were in harmony; gods and spirits were

quiet and did not interfere with people.” Such a description about gods fits

well with the primitive primary society and the Taoist philosophy.

The Taoist religion that developed later introduced a large number of

deities for worshippers, though some of those deities came from folk cults
and Chinese traditions. Those deities were organised in a way that reflected

the secular history of the Chinese empire.

The Book of Changes mentioned, “Observing that the four seasons

rotate in order, Sage used the religious gods to educate the people. All

people under heaven obeyed him willingly.” Thus Chinese rulers had long

known the effectiveness of religious gods as a means to control the thought

of the people. Unlike in the West, religion shared power with the monarchy,

Chinese rulers used religions to control their people. Chinese emperors had

the power to close down any religions and, in fact, both Buddhism and

Taoism were banned sometimes but released later. Christianity was

established in China during the Tang dynasty (618-907) but vanished later

because of an official ban from the empress.

Under such political circumstances it was understandable that the

Taoist religion introduced deities to attract believers and please the emperor.

Without those deities, Taoism as a religion might not have been able to

survive to today.

The first three Taoist deities are called the Three Pure Ones, and the

major deity is the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning. The next level

is the Jade Emperor. There are disagreements regarding the proper

composition of this pantheon. Popular Taoism typically presents the Jade

Emperor as the official head deity. Intellectual Taoists, such as the Celestial

Masters sect, usually present Lao Tzu and the Three Pure Ones at the top of

the pantheon of deities.

(4) Taoist Influence on Chinese Medicine

Chinese traditional medicine has been developed under the influence

of Taoist philosophy and this association of Taoist religion with medicine

has been regarded as its major attraction to the people. In Chinese history, a

popular folk saying goes, “Nine out of ten Taoists are physicians.” The

difference between Chinese and Western medicine is mainly the part that

grew out of Taoist philosophy.

Chinese medicine considers the patient as a whole while Western

medicine considers the disease only. A major treatment in Chinese medicine

is to help the patient’s adjustment and strengthen the patient’s defense

against the disease. Chinese medicine sees the lack of harmony with nature

as a major reason why disorders develop.

Chinese medicine advocates moderation when fulfilling one’s

physical desires. Excess pleasure will weaken or damage our health. The
Taoist theories of yin yang and the five elements are the fundamental

theories of Chinese medicine.

Taoist breathing practices and Chinese acupuncture share the same

theory: Energy circulates along more than a dozen routs inside the body.

Because of the Taoist pursuit of longevity and immortality, tonic medicine

and hygiene are a major part of Chinese medicine. In other words Chinese

medicine emphasizes prevention.

2. Taoism in the Modern Western Perspective

(1) Introduction: The West and the East

In the West, God, the world, and I are three entities. Therefore you have

a God to please, a world to conquer, and most of all you have many peers to

compete with through your whole life. Even your pets have to compete with

other pets once a year at dog shows or cat shows. If you find this tiring or

even depressing, then you may well try oriental philosophy for a change. In

the East, God, the world, and I are all rolled together into one --- the big

One. Taoism seems to be the only philosophy and religion that encourages

the believers to live a prolonged, healthy, and happy life. They stress the

present life rather than the next one. They emphasize human nature rather

than asceticism. In Chinese history it was not Confucianism but Taoism that

led the way for Chinese medicine and science.

If we consider God, the world, and I as religion, science, and

philosophy respectively, Chinese culture was inclined toward the

philosophical or I side, while Indian culture was inclined toward the

religious or God side. In the ideal realm or heaven after death, Taoists have

both their individual souls and bodies, Christians have souls but Hindu-
Buddhists have neither. Hindu-Buddhists lose their individual identities to

join the cosmic pool of soul. Chinese people worshiped their ancestors who

functioned as messengers or mediators between men and God. Since the

ancestors they worshiped included their dead parents or grandparents and

they had a strong emotional bond with them, their concept of God remained

more vague and remote. It is like church goers in the West who are totally

focused on pastors or angels but never care much about God himself.

Ancient Chinese philosophy developed in pursuit of an ideal way of

secular life. Ancient Indian philosophy developed in pursuit of an ideal way

of religious life. Ancient Greek philosophy developed as a way to deal with

both God and the world. The main origin of violence in history was also

different: Invasion from outside for India, expansion of the present powers

for the West, and uprising from within for China. The Chinese peasant

uprisings were common but only reached a large scale occasionally. Chinese

peasant uprisings often took Taoism for their aspiration. Taoism is a

secularized and philosophized religion.

(2) The Vinegar Tasters

 The three men are dipping
their fingers in a vat of vinegar and
tasting it; one man reacts with a sour
expression, another reacts with a
bitter expression, and the third reacts
with a sweet expression. The three
men are Confucius, Buddha, and Lao
Tzu, respectively. Each man's
expression represents the attitude of
his religion: Confucianism saw life
as sour, in need of rules to correct the
degeneration of people; Buddhism
saw life as bitter, dominated by pain
and suffering; and Taoism saw life as
fundamentally good in its natural
state. (from the wikipedia )

(3) Moses vs Pan-Geng and Their Different Social Environments

With a super state functioning like the United Nations in today’s

world, the ancient Chinese people still lived in the genetically coded primary

society while the West started with secondary society.(see below for more

explanation) Moses led the Israeli people moved out of Egypt in the

thirteenth and early part of the twelfth century, B. C. Around the same time,

King Pan-Geng of the Chinese Shang dynasty moved the capital including

its residents. Pan-Geng’s move was much simpler and easier than Moses’

move but both met similar resistance from their people.

 Pan-Geng did not punish anyone in the end. What happened to those

who resisted Moses' leadership? They were much less lucky than the ones

who resisted Pan-Geng, since they were in a secondary society where the

cohesive force was generated by reward and punishment expressed as divine

will. According to the Bible (Numbers 16:2, 20, 21, 32, 35), “Two hundred

and fifty men of the son of Israel, chieftains of the assembly, summoned

ones of the meeting, men of fame. So they congregated against Moses…

Jehovah now spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying ‘Separate yourselves from

the midst of the assembly, that I may exterminate them in an instant'…And

the earth proceeded to open its mouth and to swallow up them…And a fire

came out from Jehovah and proceeded to consume the two hundred and fifty

men offering the incense.”

3. Taoist Philosophy for the 21st Century
 Unlike the West, Chinese civilization started with a super state

functioning as police to keep peace in their isolated world just like the

United Nations in today’s world. If we divide all human societies into

two types: genetically coded primary society and man-made

secondary society, this relatively peaceful social environment allowed

the ancient Chinese people to still live in the primary society.

In primary society, human nature and instinct are enough to

keep the society harmonious and functional. Members are linked

together emotionally and psychologically, since their social interaction

was face to face. The ideal number of people in a primary society is

believed to be around 150. Bands and tribes are regarded as primary

societies. Bands or tribes were headed by headmen who had no

power to force their will on others. Their leadership was based on

persuasion and consensus.

 Secondary society is created by man, and so it has an ideology

and a corresponding social structure to support the ideology. As a

creation by man, it has limitless possible types with different value

systems, different directions, and different structures while primary

society, dictated by genetics, has only one type. Social stratification

and institutionalized violence such as police and army are often

necessary to keep a secondary society stable in its present type and

restrain its members from seeking other types of society.

(http://taoism21cen.com, You-Sheng Li: A New Interpretation of Chinese Taoist Philosophy, Taoist Recovery Centre,

2005)

William Eckhardt found a close correlation between war

measured in the frequency of battles, empire measured in the total

area of empires, and civilization measured in numbers of geniuses

whose superiority was established by the consensus of encyclopedia

and textbook authors. While the whole world tended to spiral upward,

as a general rule during the last 5,000 years of human civilization,

regional areas had their ups and downs, rises and falls. When

expenditures exceeded incomes in the evolutionary process, then

came the falls, which were characterized by decentralization,

feudalization, or foreign conquest. In all cases, the way up not only

increased the quantity of civilization, empire, and war, but also

changed the social structure to one of greater inequality, indicated by

slavery, caste, class, social stratification, and so forth. It is justified to

call our civilization the civilization of war.(William Eckhardt: A dialectical evolutionary theory of
civilizations, empires, and wars. In: Civilizations world systems studying world-historical change, ed by S. K. Sanderson. Walnut

Creek, USA: AltaMira Press. 1995, p75-108.)

It is more than obvious that Eckhardt’s theory of warrig

civilizations does not fit in today’s world after the United Nations was

set up. Nor does it apply to ancient Chinese history (2200-476 BC)

when human nature was highly respected and Taoist lifestyle was

popular. We have apparently entered a new era that humans have

never experienced before, and we need a new way of life. The

ancient wisdom of Chinese Taoist philosophy provides a good choice.

At least, it is worthwhile to learn a little bit more about this ancient

way of life. Taoist philosophy emphasizes the value of naturalness

and simplicity, which are well complementary to the Western

philosophy of materialism. Some emerging trends indicate that the

world is coming closer to Taoist ideology.

The Universal Evolutional Pathways

 The Universal Evolutional Pathways
Content 1. Physical World 2. Life 3. Culture 4. Conscious
Level 1 Non-being
Level 2 Being
Elementary
Level 3
particles
Atoms and
Level 4
electrons
Molecules and
DNA or
Level 5 the three phases of
deoxyribonucleic acids
matter
Level 6 Objects Cells
Level 7 Planets and stars Tissues
Organs or functional
Level 8 Galaxies
body parts
Level 9 Universe Individual organism
Level 10 Primary society Culture Unconscious
Level 11 Secondary society Civilization Conscious
Transcendence Rational thinking
Level 12
culture systems
Level 13 Spirituality