Taoism is a native Chinese religion with large population of followers throughout the entire history. Its rich content has produced far-reaching effects in both ancient China and many Asian countries. The large volumes of classics are important part of cultural heritage of China. Historians and the Taoist community generally think that Daoism came into existence in the time of Emperor Shundi of the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 126 - 144), about 1,800 years of history.

 

Daoism can be traced back to more than 2000 years ago if we consider “Fang Xian Dao”---the practices of immortality, and “Huanglao Dao” -- the practice of longevity under the name of Yellow Emperor and Lao Zi, as parts of the formal history. For a long time people have become accustomed to religious concept and practices of Daoism, that is why it is still yielding great influences over the entire culture.

 

Section One:  The Origin and Formation of Daoism

Taoism took its shape from China's native religious and philosophical traditions. Its ideological origins can be traced back to the Ghosts worship of pre-Qin era and the beliefs of immortals under Huanglao doctrine during Han Dynasty. Its fundamental characteristics are the respecting and worshipping of Yellow Emperor and Lao Zi, as well as their teachings.

 

In China, spirit worshipping practices originated far back in great ancient times when the society was still in its primitive states. Our ancestors deemed gods ruled all things and all natural phenomena such as the moon, the stars, lightning storms, beautiful mountain and rivers etc; and the sense of awe drove them to the worship of all that is mighty. From Yin Zhou dynasties onwards, there had been the view that the Heavenly Emperor (or Di, God) was the highest ruler of natural world and human society. In addition, people also believed that the soul of the dead is still alive; it either becomes a god or a ghost. Ghosts can hurt people from their unknown world; they can also help and shelter people if they choose to. Closely related to the concepts of Heavenly Emperor and ghosts, witchcrafts were also popular in ancient China. Wuzhou—those who perform spiritual rituals became the channels to get answers to everything from God. The original worship of spirits developed into patriarchal relations with the combination of ancestor worship. Such ancestor worship activities were held regularly. Wu Shi, the people who performed such worship activities, was seen as the channels between the Heavenly Emperor, the ghosts and man. They can predict the future, and decide the fortune or misfortune of an event. By the time of the Zhou Dynasty, a set of spirits systems took shape on heavenly gods, human ghosts, and earthly immortals. It subsequently followed by the practices of Taoism. This is one source for the god worship tradition of Daoism.
 

During the Warring States Period, there emerged a group of people who practiced longevity and immortality, they had being called Immortals. Later in the period of Qin and Han Dynasties, these groups of people were known as Fangshi. Famous people such as Xu Shi, Han Dang, Hou Gong, Shi Sheng, Lu Sheng of the rein of Qin Shihuang Emperor, Li Shaojun, Luan Dajie of Emperor Han Wudi, all had claimed that in the Bohai Bay, there exists three islands called Penglai, Fangzhang and Yingzhou; on them lives godly immortals such as Xian Men, Gao Shi, An Qisheng. The saying went as these worlds of immortals are not far away from our world, and there were people who had actually been there. Legends go that all the animals on the islands are white in color, the palaces and pavilions were built with pure gold and silver blocks. Seeing from far away, the islands look like clouds, once arrived at them one can see they are actually under the water; and the wind will blow the ships away so people will not be able to set foot on these islands. In short, the islands of gods are not easily accessible. It was further believed there are immortal medicines on the islands and anyone who takes these medicines will instantly become immortal and flying far away to above clouds. Fang Shi – those immortals also said that if one listen to them and practice their methods diligently, he can reach the high immortal status as well and then all pleasures will be available. Qin Emperor, Han Emperor as well as their cabinet members were all fans of these stories. This type of culture is another source of Taoist’s belief and practice in immortals and immortality

In the early Western Han Dynasty, the rulers governed the society using the concept of “Non-doing’ by Yellow Emperor and Lao Zi. Such teachings gained great popularity during the period, and the teachings contained mystical elements as such used by Fang Shi, but in a more religious way. The practice caused the merging of Huang-Lao’s teaching of with the teachings and practices of immortality; the outcome was the religious theory “Huang-Lao Daoism” as called by some scholars. It is believed to be the predecessor of Taoism.

 

Taoist thinking is derived from the above-mentioned three sources. During the time of Emperor Chengdi of the Western Han Dynasty, Gan Zhong of Qi State wrote "Taiping Jing (the Script of Great Peace)” of twelve volumes. Gan Zhong claimed that he was taught by immortal Chi Jing Zi, who showed him the way to a peaceful world. The Script spread secretly among the public. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there appeared two other books, one called “Taiping Qingling” of 144 volumes by Ganji or Yuji, another called ‘Taiping Dong Ji Jing "consists of 144 volumes by Zhang Ling. In fact, "Taiping Jing" was not the product of any one single person during a single period of time. The content is very cumbersome, covering heaven and earth, yin and yang, the five elements, Ganzhi, Catastrophist, ghosts, prevailing social conditions, the advancement of religion and the feudal ethical concepts and etc. For example, the book suggested the rise and fall of heaven and earth is a cycle of alternating movement, and when the big fall comes, all humans and animals would die. Only those benevolent will survive to lead the continuation of life. The so-called benevolent are saints and immortals alike. The book added the myth of the birth of Shangqing Daojun, saying that “the mother dreamt of being enshrined by clouds, and the lights of sun and moon, being charged by great power of the 6 elements of nature”, then she gave birth to a “real man”—a man of heavenly immortality. Since the birth place was called Li valley, Li was therefore used as the family name of Hou Sheng Daojun.

 

During the late Eastern Han Dynasty, despotic landowners grabbed land from farmers; the eunuch and the privileged few controlled the power of the nation; political corruption began to cause great difficulties in the lives of farmers and a large number of them became homeless. A person named Zhang Jiao created “Taiping Dao” using the "Taiping Qingling Script”. He secretly organized the farmers and planned to overthrow the ruling classes. The official history of Hou Han Dynasty cited: “Zhang Jiao claimed to be the ‘virtuous master’, following the Dao of yellow Emperor and Lao Zi. He accepted disciples with Guibai (kowtou) ceremony, curing diseases with blessed water. After around 10 years of development, thousands of people followed him from all over eight states, forming a massive civil religious group with broad impact”.

 

The ruling authority of that time was extremely corrupted, the majority of the people bore very heavy burden. So Zhang Jiao selected the lunar date and year of Jiazi, which was March 5 of the first year of the Emperor Hanlingdi (AD 184), as the date for uprising. The uprising announced that the "blue heaven is dead, yellow heaven is ruling, the time is in the age of Jiazi, and the world is full of peace and luck". Each of the followers wore yellow turban over their head, so it was called yellow Turban Uprising--Huangjin Uprising in Chinese. The uprising dealt a heavy blow to the Eastern Han dynasty, the corrupted ruling could no longer continue afterwards. The uprising army killed officials in various localities, burned their offices and residences, and attacked landowners with huge momentum. The entire capital was shaking, later the uprising was suppressed. After the fall of the Yellow Turban Uprising, the rulers began to forbid Taiping Dao—the Dao of Great Peace. Some of the followers of TaiPing Dao went to join the ‘five bucket rice’ Daoism and continued the spread of the Way of Great Peace in secret.

 

And at the same time of the Taiping Dao, Zhang Ling (Zhang Daoling as referred to by his followers) from Fengyi of Pei State (today Jiangsu Fengxian), went to Sichuan with many of his followers and lived in Hemingshan Mountain. He liked the beautiful mountains and felt the customs there were genuinely pure, and local people were easy to educate. So he spent many years practicing Dao and produced 24 books teaching the way of Dao. Zhang claimed to be appointed by Heavenly God as a Celestial Master and was awarded with books of authority and magic power, such as "San Tian Zheng Fa". Zhang Ling used Hemingshan as the base and established 24 teaching centers. He used “Dao De Jing” from Lao Zi and “Taiping Jing” to establish Daoism organization in Sichuan. As all followers were required to pay five buckets of rice to join in, the organization was therefore called “Five-bucket-rice Dao (Wu Dou Mi Daoism)”. Zhang annotated Lao Zi’s “Dao De Jing” and made his transformation of Lao Zi’s Dao to theology of his own. The thoughts on health and longevity were changed into mystic practices for immortality. The Five-bucket-rice Dao took its origin from TaiPing Dao—the Dao of great peace, they had almost same the rules and rituals. The two all treated Lao Zi as the founder of the Daoism, called Lao Zi with the title “Tai Shang Lao Jun”. Both organizations deemed the 5000 words “Dao De Jing” as their major classics. Since the followers of Zhang Ling called him Celestial Master, his Five-bucket-rice Dao was also known as Celestial Master Daoism.

 

When creating the Five-bucket-rice Daoism, the main religious activities of the organization were: (1) learning Dao De Jing; (2) repent; (c) Fushui treatment (blessed water treatment), and (4) communicate with spirits and gods via incantation and talisman. As the Great Peace Dao and the Five-bucket-rice Dao were related with the farmers uprising or farmer’s organization, their doctrines reflected and represented to some extent the rights and thinking of the common people. At this stage, theories, rituals, organizations were not fully developed as that of a formal religions; they were therefore called the early Daoism. The early Five-bucket-rice Daoism and the Great Peace Daoism marked the beginning of Daoism as a religion.