“The doctrine of the way”

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The word 道 dào is usually translated as the “way“ or “path“, sometimes also “principle”. The concept itself is beyond description.

“The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.”

In the Daoist theory “dao” is understood as the origin of the universe and the basis of all existing things. It is the law governing their development and change. It is also described as the way of the nature, the way of social order and change, the way of self-cultivation and the way of governing a country as well as managing family life.

A well-known Daoist symbol is the “ying-yang” emblem that symbolises the duality of all things.

阳 yáng: bright, active masculine.

阴 yīn: dark, quiet, feminine.

Just as there can’t be light without darkness, hot does not exist without its counterpart cold. “Yin” and “yang” are not opposites. They always complement each as parts of a whole.

Daoism is the oldest indigenous Chinese spiritual belief system or wisdom tradition that has been institutionalized. It is based on many practices from ancient shamanistic and other folk religious systems. Daoist rituals have traditionally mostly been conducted by so called 散居 道士 sǎnjū dàoshi, spiritual specialists living in their own homes instead of monasteries.

Daoism is one of the 5 officially sanctioned religions or belief systems in the People’s Republic of China today.

Many, but not all, scholars make a difference between Philosophical Daoism and Religious Daoism.

Philosophical Daoism

Philosophical Daoism emphasizes the way of the nature as the ideal way for a human society as well. The concept of wú wéi 无为 “non-action” or “do nothing and all is done” is essential in Daoist thinking. One could say that it is the only dogma in Philosophical Daoism.

As the nature functions best, if not manipulated by the human hand so society also functions best, if a ruler does not interfere in its workings. A good ruler should forget about his own desires, lean back and let things take their course. Just as a river finds its way back to the river bed after a flood so does a society find its way back to the state of balance after political turbulences.

Philosophical Daoists believed in observing the ways of the nature like a child: learning from them and living according to them. Theoretical thinking and formal learning areactually considered harmful as they divert a person’s attention away from the real world. The general opinion seems to be that too much thinking leads to greed, which is the root of all evil.

Furthermore, philosophical Daoists basically accepts death as part of life. Striving for longevity and the wish to defeat death have always been present especially in the southern traditions. However, such wishes became central only with the development of Religious Daoism.

Religious or Institutionalized Daoism

Daoism began to develop institutional structures during the 6. – 5. centuries BC when China was going through huge social changes and was in a constant state of war. There was a need for clear instructions on how to regain social order. Various social and political thinkers began to offer their services as counselors to rulers and to write down their insights.

These thinkers put together all they knew about the central ideas of good governance that had been handed down orally or found in written records from earlier times. The result was a large treasure of philosophical and pragmatically oriented text collections.

Put in a written form, certain practices with the aim of influencing things on earth by trying to influence the divine beings in heaven, who were held responsible for everything that happened on earth, became ritualized. This gave rise to a class of ritual specialists, who explained the meanings of the rituals to groups of disciples that began to gather around them. With time a class of spiritual specialists or priests developed. These acted as mediators between the living and the spirit world. In this way Daoism (as well as other belief systems) became institutionalized.

The early philosophical works were compiled by many different authors and only later credited to real or legendary personalities such as 老子 Lǎozǐ and 空子 Kǒngzǐ (Confucius). There is no historical evidence that a person fitting any of the descriptions of an ancient sage known as Laotzi actually existed. Legends make him a contemporary of Confucius (around 600 BC). The Daoist teachings, however, were probably put in written form during the 4. and 3. century BC in books like the 道德经 Dào Dé Jīng, the 庄子Zhuāngzǐ and the 易经 I Ching or Yì Jīng, the “Book of Changes

The Dào Dé Jīng is a collection of aphorisms about all aspects of life. The 庄子Zhuāngzǐ contains long philosophical essays rather than short aphorisms.

The I Ching is a book about an ancient divination method. It is a collection of linear signs, so called trigrams, consisting of three either whole or broken linear lines. It includes 64 possible pairs of trigrams, called hexagrams, and a commentary on them. If you want to know, how to use the I Ching just watch this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMj-wgSrJAY .

The I Ching is not only part of the Daoist Canon. It is also one of the Confucian Classics.

The four most important schools of Religious Daoism

1. The 天师道 Tiān Shī Dào, “Way of the Celestial Masters“ actually began as a political movement. It was the first really organized group of Daoists believers. The group was structured and governed like an ideal state. In politically rough times the Celestial Masters offered people a safe haven with support for the weakest. The school still exists in small groups today.

The Celestial Masters lived in the present day province of Sichuan. They did not form an elite group, but welcomed women as well as ethnic minorities.

An important aspect of the Celestial Masters was anew understanding of the causes of illness. Illness was considered to be a punishment for wrongful behavior causing the life energy 气 qì to leave the body.

2. The 茅山 Máoshān also called the上清 Shàngqīng, the “Utmost Purity” School of Daoism developed in southern China. It was a combination of local cults as well as certain aspects from  Celestial Masters. It was also somewhat influenced by Buddhist ideas.

The Maoshan introduced new deities and new holy mountains, where spirits and gods dwelled. Ancestor spirits played a very important role as they were believed to actively interfere in the daily life of the living on earth.

In pursue of immortality the Maoshan made use of alchemy and drugs. They contributed much to the development of the science of chemistry. Intensive meditation and visualizations formed an important part of the individual practice.

3. The 灵宝 Língbǎo, “School of Numinous Treasure” was influenced by the Celestial Masters and the Maoshan school as well as Confucianism and Buddhism.

In this school common rituals were generally considered more important than individual meditation. Those seeking to gain enlightenment individually lived in monasteries, where they practiced intensive meditation.

The Lingbao School introduced the concepts of hell and rebirth based on Buddhist texts. These were translated and reinterpreted to fit the Chinese context.

Many present day Daoist rituals are based on Lingbao rituals^.

4. The 全真 Quánzhēn, “Complete Truth” was founded in the 12th century AD. Today Quanzhen is the main official branch of Daoism in the PRC. The Quanzhen beliefs and practices do not radically differ from those of other Daoist Schools.

Quanzhen has always enjoyed official protection, because its celibate and communal mode of life has been fairly easy to control. In this position Quanzhen has played an important role in transmitting Daoist texts and practices, especially through the persecutions of the twentieth century.

The Daoist pantheon

The Daoist heaven is inhabited by ancestors, immortals and various kinds of deities. By the 3. century BC there were already many quite differentiated images of immortals.

Immortals are thought to be human beings, who became immortal through self-cultivation. Their place is between human beings and deities and their task is to act as mediators between the earth and the heaven. The so called Eight Immortals serve as models for achieving immortality through leading a morally faultless life.

In some old texts Laotzi is presented as an immortal. In later texts he is often regarded as a Messiah figure, who in troubled times appears on earth to help the living. Many daoist schools worship Laotzi as a god.

The highest ranking deities, beside Laozi himself, are (from the left) the Supreme Way Heavenly Worthy, the Primordial Heavenly Worthy and the Spiritual Treasure Heavenly Worthy. These three are regarded as emanations of “dao”, omnipotent and supreme.

One of the oldest known deities of China is 西王母 Xīwángmǔ, the Queen Mother of the Western Mountains. The first mentions of the Queen Mother date back to oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty (1766-1122 BC). She is believed to live in the Kunlun Mountains in the far west at the margin of heaven and earth. Her magic peach tree is a cosmic axis that connects heaven and earth.

An 18th-century woodcut depicts the goddess in her old shamanic form, with tiger’s teeth and bamboo staff, sitting on a mountaintop with various chimeric animals.[1]