Holy Cross College

Sta. Rosa, Nueva Ecija

A.Y. 2019-2020

“The History Of Taoism”

In Partial Fulfillment for the subject requirement in

Religion I

Submitted By:

Ivan Aguilar

Richard Hementera

Lucky Pradez
 Arvic Austria

Marvie Corpuz

John Christian Flores

John Patrick Delcarmen

Submitted to:

Mr. Ferdinand Ilag

Professor

Introduction

Background of the Religion

The history of Taoism stretches throughout Chinese history. Originating in prehistoric

China, it has exerted a powerful influence over Chinese culture throughout the ages.
Taoism evolved in response to changing times, with its doctrine and associated
practices being revised and refined. The acceptance of Taoism by the ruling class has
waxed and waned, alternately enjoying periods of favor and rejection. Most recently,
Taoism has emerged from a period of suppression and is undergoing a revival in
China.Taoism first showed up in writing in China about 2000 years ago. People do not
always write about their religions at first, so this religion may be much older. Some
important people of the history of Taoism are:

Laozi, or Lao Tzu (老子). He is assumed to have written Dào Dé Jīng.

Zhuangzi, or Chuang Tzu (庄子). Like Lao Tzu, his sayings and stories are today put
together as a book, and translated into English and other languages.Huangdi (the

Yellow Emperor, 黄帝). He is assumed to have been the first Taoist, but nobody
knows for sure if he was a real person or not.

Laozi is traditionally regarded as the founder of Taoist religion and is closely

associated in this context with "original", or "primordial", Taoism. Whether he actually
existed is disputed, however, the work attributed to him - the Daodejing - is dated to the
4th or 3rd century BC. However, Taoism clearly predates Laozi (Lao Tzu) as he refers
to "The Tao masters of antiquity" in Chapter 15 of the Daodejing (Tao Te Ching).
Moreover, the Yellow Emperor, Huangdi (2697–2597 BCE) Is often associated with
origin of the Tao.
Some elements of Taoism may be traced to prehistoric folk religions in China that later
coalesced into a Taoist tradition.In particular, many Taoist practices drew from the
Warring-States-era phenomena of the Wu (shaman) (connected to the "shamanism" of
Southern China) and the Fangshi (which probably derived from the
"archivist-soothsayers of antiquity, one of whom supposedly was Laozi himself"), even
though later Taoists insisted that this was not the case.Both terms were used to
designate individuals dedicated to "... magic, medicine, divination,... methods of
longevity and to ecstatic wanderings" as well as exorcism; in the case of the wu,
"shamans" or "sorcerers" is often used as a translation. The fangshi were
philosophically close to the School of Yin-Yang, and relied much on astrological and
calendrical

speculations in their divinatory activities.From 1927-1944, the chief proponent of

Taoism in the West was Professor Henri Maspero in Paris. Michael Saso was the first
westerner to be initiated as a Taoist priest; he subsequently served also as co-editor of
Taoist Resources. Today, many Taoist organizations have been established in the West.
"Popular Western Taoism" is a term coined by Jonathan R. Herman in his 1998 review
of Ursula K. Le Guin's Daodejing "rendition", referring to the
abundance of new literature on Taoism by nonspecialists, including "translations" of
Taoist texts by authors who (sometimes boastfully) lack linguistic competence.
Scholars have been quick to reject such documents as ahistorical and inauthentic, and
many do indeed combine questionable scholarship with a promiscuous blend of
western individualism and new-age universalism. However, this popular western
Taoism is not exclusively or even primarily a scholarly phenomenon; rather, it is an
aesthetic, cultural, and religious phenomenon.
This review was largely positive with some criticisms and cautions. While Herman
states that the book "is not a useful text for informing students" about philosophical
thought during the Chinese Warring States period, Herman praised the book as a
"surprisingly interesting and scholastically responsible" example of western Daoist
thought and as "an intelligent example of the emerging western transformation of
Taoism, an area too often overlooked by sinologists." On the other hand, he criticized
that Le Guin "make[s] some claims—or rather, employs some language—that may
carry misleading implications", such as identifying Laozi "as a mystic and his
perceptions as mystical, without ever defining the terms or questioning what
generalizations can be drawn."
Herman subsequently described popular Western Taoism as the modern proliferation of
self-proclaimed Daoist journals, meditation centers, websites, and renderings of Daoist
texts by nonspecialists; and said, "not surprisingly, the sinological community (myself
included) has generally greeted this overall phenomenon – what I will from here on
label "popular Western Daoism" – with varying degrees of indifferences, amusement,
and derision."
In a 1998 article about teaching Daoism, Russell Kirkland urged colleagues not to
"Pooh-pooh Taoism" with "popular fluff" like Benjamin Hoff's coffee-table book The
Tao of Pooh, and characterized Stephen Mitchell and others as "self-indulgent
dilettantes who deceive the public by publishing pseudo-translations of the Tao-te
ching, without having actually read the text in its original language".Louis Komjathy
described modern "Western Daoism" or "American Daoism" in religious studies terms,
where "New Age discourse communities and advocates of Perennial Philosophy
identify and interpret Daoist texts as part of a 'universal wisdom tradition'." Komjathy
later elaborated on these spiritual hybrids that "domesticate, sterilize and misrepresent
Daoism", and may best be understood as part of a new religious movement labeled
"Popular Western Taoism (PWT), with 'Taoism' pronounced with a hard 't' sound."In
this construct, "'Daoism' becomes anything for anyone", and Popular Western Taoism
"has little to no connection with the Daoist religious tradition." Zhang Daoling became
the first Celestial Master and founder of the first organized Taoist school of thought.
This tradition continues to the present day, with the current Celestial Master living in
Taiwan. Early religious Taoism was rooted in the ideas of the Taoist thinkers, to which
were added local religious rituals and beliefs, both to provide examples of Taoist
philosophy, and integrate Taoism into the existing world views of all levels of the
Chinese people.
Taoism was first recognised as a religious system during the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE.
The publication of the Tao Te Ching and other works provided a focus for Taoist
thinking.Taoism became a semi-official Chinese religion during the Tang dynasty and
continued during the Song dynasty. As Confucianism gained popularity Taoism
gradually fell from favour, and changed from an official religion to a popular religious
tradition.
Marshall Wen, a Taoist god
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Taoism

Taoism Beliefs
Taoism — loosely based on the writings of a mythical figure named Laozi who lived
some 2,500 years ago — calls for an adherence to "the way", which practitioners have
long interpreted as a return to the natural world. The core of the basic belief and
doctrine of Taoism is that "Tao" is the origin and law of all things in the universe.
Taoists believes that people can become deities or live forever through practicing
certain rituals and austerities.

The focus of Taoism is the individual in nature rather than the individual in society. It
holds that the goal of life for each individual is to find one's own personal adjustment to
the rhythm of the natural (and supernatural) world and to follow the Way (dao) of the
universe. In many ways the opposite of rigid Confucian moralism, Taoism served many
of its adherents as a complement to their ordered daily lives. A scholar on duty as an
official would usually follow Confucian teachings but at leisure or in retirement might
seek harmony with nature as a Taoist recluse.

aoists stress the importance of harmonizing with nature by balancing yin and yang, and
developing chi through meditation and disengagement. The human body is regarded as
a source of chi-derived energy, which some people have the power to concentrate and
congeal into an essence. Chi (also spelled ch'i or qi) is variously known as the "breath of
heaven," “mystical breath," the "breath of nature" and the "quality of spirit"

In classic Taoist cosmology, matter and energy are thought to be governed by five
basic movements. The strength and influence of these movements wax and wane over
the course of a year; with wood peaking during spring, fire during summer, metal in
autumn and water in winter. The remaining movement, earth, asserts its presence most
powerfully during the periods before the start of each season.

http://factsanddetails.com/china/cat3/sub10/item91.html
Beliefs Of Taosim
People who follow this religion believe that doing something with words,
thoughts, symbolic actions, etc. can make things in the real world change. That idea is
hard to understand. Here is an example: There is an old story that says China was once

covered by a flood. The world was saved from the flood by 禹 Yǔ, who had only one
leg that worked. Yǔ went to different parts of China in a special order, and he dug
ditches to let the flood water go into the ocean. When something very bad happens in
the world, a Daoist priest can go to the Daoist temple and act out what Yǔ did, and just
doing that will make the world get fixed.

Daoist priests do many other things. For instance, they can use fire and noise to
scare demons away. They can do things to cure sickness. They can perform funerals
and help keep the new ghosts safe from harm.

In Taoism it is believed that opposites rely on each other to exist. For example, big and
small. Or, Light and dark.

https://simple.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taoism

Goal Of Taoism
the ultimate goal in Taoism is long living happy life ( this means live as nature
and you shall have extended life form and spiritual form and you will see how
it goes for as long as it could be and you will level up to next evolutionary level )

Taoism is pure and simple , not like others , Tao does not care about if you
believe it or not , and itself believe nothing but to understand the nature and
figure out law of nature and follow it ,respect it and work with it in order to
extend time of living form . Goal is about healthy happy long life living and in
order to upgrade our forms in to more higher level and understand more about
everything around earth and universe.

enlightenment is not really in the taoism theory , we more like think our
wisdom as it already there , just need to reopen the door and let it out .
actually , when we are growing up , we become more unwise than we are
young , the more we think we learn is actually not we need ,( most of our
knowledge provide for people to learn is production from people's creation ,
not form nature itself . how wisdom you think you can be ,if you only play the
game and know the rules in the game , but have no idea whats going on around
you . ) Taoism believe the knowledge should come from nature and knowledge
should do better work to make people having advanced life . so in Taoism
wisdom are step by step build up with noticed or not , it won't happen just like
a click of finger tip and enlightened . you will have to go through the process
then you will have the power to understand of everything about nature . its
practical in Taoism .

I myself believe Taoism as practical social life experiment results from ancient
time by human ancestor's legacy .we should honor it ,and harvest it .

think about now , we have been trying so hard to leave good things and
knowledges for our next few generations , what if they forgot us , what is they
don't trust us like we don't trust our ancestors , then we have to go over
everything again just make sure everything is right ? if we can not make our
children and kid believe the results all the time , then we are repeat doing the
same thing for longtime , no wonder why we are still here and why there are so
many old technology is advanced than modern technology , why ? simply we
are easy forget and faith crush been longtime .

I myself believe old knowledges are great wealth that have been left to us by
ancestors , we should build more upon that , not by pass or recreated
something else by wasting of time . there are so many proof about this type of
things , like chinese traditional medical treatment , many are believe it is
unproved by modern technology , but turns out , many of major break through
are from old ancient books and some people just name their name on it , says
they discovered it , how can you discover something is already there for
thousands years. if you did recover it , you should use their names not yours .
and it is public access , not owned by some pharmaceutical company .

Tuyoyo is a good example who recently earned nobel price .if you don't know ,
you can look it up .

so , the ultimate goal of taoism is , know the nature , follow the nature , respect
the nature , use the nature ,and you will have a nature long happy life while you
have all your nature desires .

https://www.quora.com/What-is-ultimate-goal-of-taoism

How Taoism believes in God

Westerners who study Taoism are sometimes surprised to discover that

Taoists venerate gods, as there doesn't seem to be a place for deities in
Taoist thinking.

Taoism does not have a God in the way that the Abrahamic religions do.
There is no omnipotent being beyond the cosmos, who created and controls
the universe. In Taoism the universe springs from the Tao, and the Tao
impersonally guides things on their way.
But the Tao itself is not God, nor is it a god, nor is it worshipped by Taoists.

This may seem surprising as Taoists do use 'God-talk' to refer to the Tao:

The Venerable Lord, the Tao, was at rest in open mystery, beyond silent desolation, in mysterious
emptiness... Say it/he is there and do not see a shape; say it/he is not there, yet all beings follow him
for life.
Taishang laojun kaitian jing, in Livia Kohn, The Taoist Experience: An Anthology, 1993
And they conventionally revere Lao Tsu both as the first god of Taoism and
as the personification of the Tao.

Nonetheless, Taoism has many gods, most of them borrowed from other
cultures. These deities are within this universe and are themselves subject
to the Tao.

Many of the deities are gods of a particular role, rather than a personal
divine being and have titles rather than names.

Books often describe the Taoist pantheon as a heavenly bureaucracy that

mimics the secular administrations of Imperial China. Some writers think
that this is the wrong way round and that the secular administrations took
their cue from the structure of the heavens. Since the Imperial
administrations and the religious culture of the time were closely intertwined
this would not be surprising.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/taoism/beliefs/gods.shtml

Religious life in China is very multifaceted. This is due to the fact that over the
centuries Chinese religion has come to be defined as a mixture of various belief systems
and spiritual constructions. Out of the many religious aspects of China two often stand
out as major portions of what it means to practice Chinese religion. These two are
Taoism and Confucianism. While both of these religious systems are to be considered
part of Chinese religion, they serve different purposes, which leads to one often
seeming more important than the other.

Taoism is more of the spiritual side of Chinese religious practices. Taoism is believed
to have been founded in the 6th century BCE by the legendary philosopher Lao-Tzu,
also known as Laozi. The exact details about this man's life are still unclear to many
historians. What is accredited to him is the writing of a spiritual work known as the Tao
Te Ching. This work is the foundation for modern day Taoism which focuses primarily
on spiritual growth and understanding. The Tao Te Ching itself is the best example of
this focus on the spiritual. It is not written like other religious texts such as the Bible,
Torah, or Koran. It consists of short chapters meant to instigate deeper philosophical
thought in its readers and subsequent practitioners of Taoism. Taoism focuses on
spiritual growth and the following of a proper spiritual way or path. This fact can make
it more difficult for those outside of the Chinese religious framework to understand it
and therefore it might get overshadowed by other aspects of the religious system.

Confucianism on the other hand is a structured set of philosophical beliefs. After it was
founded by the scholar Kongfuzi or Confucius, it was soon co-opted by the government
as a way to help the political system function. In order to participate in the government
at an official level one would have to pass exams. These exams were based upon the
teachings of Confucianism. These teachings focused on loyalty, filial piety, and
knowing one's place within society. Through the exams as well as the proper
relationships described by Confucianism, the government of China structured itself
based heavily on Confucianism. Due to this fact the nation of China was often thought
of as a Confucian nation and therefore the other aspects of the Chinese religious
identity such as Taoism were overshadowed. To properly understand Chinese religion
it is necessary to understand it as a mixture of various aspects of different practices and
not just one of these systems on its own.

https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-importance-taois
m-china-confucianism-589131
Taoism or Daoism is a type of belief, or a way of thinking about life. It is at least 2,500
years old and it comes from China. Taoism is now said to be a philosophy. Tao (or Dao,

道) is the name of the force or the "Way" that Taoists believe makes everything in the
world. Taoists think that words cannot be used to correctly describe Tao. The very first

line of the Dào Dé Jīng (道德经), the most important text in Taoism, says "the Way
that can be explained in words is not the true Way." There are many other sacred
writings by the teachers of Taoism.
Instead of spending a lot of time trying to explain what the Tao is, Taoists focus on
living a simple and balanced life in harmony with nature. This is one of the most
important principles in Taoism. Taoists also believe that conflict is not good and that if
you have a problem with something, it is better to find a way around it.

https://simple.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taoism

Concept Found in Taoism

Tao
Tao (Pinyin Dào ) is a metaphysical concept found in Taoism, Confucianism, and more
often in ancient Chinese philosophy. The Chinese character translates as "way," "path,"
or "route,". In Taoism, the Tao was the origin of the whole universe. Taoists believe
that the "myriad things", or everything in the universe from animals to materials to
ideas, originally came from the Tao, and when something disappears, it's energy (or qi)
goes back to the Tao to be absorbed and re-birthed in a different form.The Tao is a
cosmic force that can't be named or described, which is the natural harmony between all
living things, and the way they all move together. Taoists thought that if someone
"forgot themselves", and let go of intentions, they would be able to "move effortlessly"
(wu wei, or "non-action"), and be in harmony with the Tao, like the animals, plants, and
everything else. This harmony is the ultimate goal of Taoism.

https://simple.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao
 CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE