When did Taoism begin?

There are three major religions in China: Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, among which only Taoism is indigenous and originated in the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Where there is suffering, it is easy to produce religion. After the mid-Eastern Han Dynasty, the rule became increasingly decadent and dark, with social unrest, frequent natural disasters and depressed people's livelihood. Taoism was born under such social and historical conditions.

The emergence of Taoism is closely related to the origin of its thoughts and methods, mainly in the following aspects:

1. Immortal thoughts and magic. The immortal alchemist who advocated immortality appeared in Yanqi area, and explained alchemy with Yan's theory of Yin-Yang and Five Elements in the Warring States Period, thus forming the so-called immortal home, namely Fang.

2. Ancient religious thoughts and witchcraft. In ancient society, people worshipped the sun, moon, stars, rivers, mountains and ancestors as gods, and gradually formed a system of god, earth, man and ghost. Taoism believes that many of them are part of Taoist gods. In Shang Dynasty, people believed that divination could definitely doubt and break good and bad luck, wizards could connect ghosts and gods, and relying on witchcraft could pray for people to avoid disaster. Taoism absorbed and inherited this witchcraft.

3. Huang Lao thought. According to legend, Huangdi and Laozi were the founders of Taoism. Huang Lao's thought contains many mysterious factors. Many immortal alchemists combined Huang Lao's knowledge with immortal magic. By the Eastern Han Dynasty, they further mystified the Yellow Emperor and Lao Zi, instead of focusing on respecting the Yellow Emperor, they worshipped the mythical Lao Zi, and gradually formed the Huangdao Road with Lao Zi as the god, and gradually merged with Fang Xiandao, the predecessor of early Taoism.

4. Secular legends. With the development of Taoism, all kinds of immortals in folklore have been integrated into Taoism. For example, "Eight Immortals", such as Rebecca and eighteen layers of hell, the Jade Emperor and so on, so Taoism is completely the secular religion of the Chinese nation.

5. Uygur theology. ""is a religious prophecy; Weft is relative to Confucian Classics, that is, combining Zou Yan's thought of Yin-Yang and Five Elements, it explains Confucian Classics from a graphic point of view and deduces disasters. This kind of scenery was initiated by Dong Zhongshu, a Confucian scholar in the Western Han Dynasty, and later formed the latitude study, which led to the religionization of Confucian classics. From the end of the Western Han Dynasty to the beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty, due to the advocacy of the rulers, the study of latitude prevailed, and Confucian scholars and alchemists gradually merged, resulting in a very strong religious atmosphere, which greatly promoted the formation and emergence of Taoism.

Taoism and Taoism

The words "Tao" and "Tao" are often misused. Historically, these two words refer to many different contents and have been confused; Others advocate equating the two. However, if Taoism is understood as a school of philosophical thoughts initiated by Laozi and Zhuangzi and recreated in Wei and Jin Dynasties, and as a religion gradually formed and further developed in Han Dynasty, then, although Taoism has absorbed a lot of Taoist thoughts in theory, even taking Laozi as the leader, the two cannot be confused, nor can it be said that Taoist theory is Taoist thought. As a religion, Taoism has its immortal worship and belief, its followers and organizations, a series of religious ceremonies and activities, and the inheritance of its main factions is generally clear. As a school of philosophical thought, Taoism's ideological evolution and representative figures should be the most important contents in its interpretation; The inheritance and evolution of Taoist thought after Wei and Jin Dynasties is still vague and difficult to explain, but its influence on literati in past dynasties is still discernible. From this point of view, it can also be said that the narrow sense of "Tao" refers to the philosophical school represented by Laozi and Zhuangzi in the pre-Qin period.

The similarities and differences between Taoist theology and Taoist thought are really a long story. Let me give you an example: Taoism says immortality, immortality and spirituality, which is not mentioned by Laozi and Zhuangzi, nor can it be regarded as a reasonable extension of Laozi and Zhuangzi's thought. It can even be said that there is no contradiction with the way of nature.

Taoism was one of the most important schools in hundred schools of thought during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period in China. Taoism originated very early. According to legend, Xuanyuan Huangdi had the idea of harmony between man and nature. Generally speaking, it is recognized that Laozi was the first person to establish Taoism in the Spring and Autumn Period, and Laozi elaborated it in detail in his book Laozi (Tao Te Ching). Other representatives of Taoism include Zhuang Zhou, Li Yukou, Hui Shi and others in the Warring States Period. Taoism advocates the natural world outlook and methodology, and respects Huangdi and Laozi as founders, which is called Huang Lao.

The core of Taoist thought is "Tao", which is regarded as the origin of the universe and the law governing all movements of the universe. Laozi once said in his works: "Things are born in harmony, and they are born naturally. Little ha! How rare! Independent and unchanging, it can be the mother of heaven and earth. I don't know its name, but it is a strong name "(Chapter 25 of Laozi).

In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, Emperor Wen of Han and Emperor Jing of Han ruled the country with Taoist thoughts, so that the people could recuperate from the tyranny of the Qin Dynasty. History calls it the rule of cultural scene. Later, Confucian scholar Dong Zhongshu advocated the policy of "ousting a hundred schools of thought and respecting Confucianism alone" to Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, which was adopted by later emperors. Taoism has since become a non-mainstream thought. Although Taoism has not been officially adopted, it continues to play an important role in the development of China's ancient thoughts. Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties was developed on the basis of integrating Taoist thoughts.

Taoism was later absorbed by Zhang Lu's Five Mi Dou Daoism and other religions, and evolved into one of the important religions in China-Taoism. Romantic in Wei and Jin Dynasties paid more attention to alchemy when talking about metaphysics. So Taoism and Taoism are often confused.

Taoism is a polytheistic religion formed and spread in China, and its influence in ancient China is second only to Buddhism. Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism are considered as the three pillars of traditional culture in China. Taoism is named after the pursuit of Tao. Taoism was formed on the basis of China's ancient Taoist thoughts and theories, absorbing fairy witchcraft, folk worship of ghosts and gods and witchcraft activities. It advocates the immortality and immortality of quietism.

origin

Although Taoism takes Laozi as its ancestor, its thought is not completely consistent with Laozi's thought, and it is more due to the fact that Huang used Laozi's famous words to cultivate health in the early Han Dynasty. Another source of Taoism is Fang Xiandao, which began in the Warring States and flourished in Qin and Han Dynasties. In addition, you can pursue the worship of ghosts and gods in Shang Dynasty.

In the process of its gradual formation, the interaction between Taoism and Buddhism (the influence of Buddhism on Taoism and the influence of Taoism on Buddhist China) was also worthy of attention.

Development history

The development of Taoism can be roughly divided into four periods: the origin of Han, Wei and Jin Dynasties, the prosperity of Tang and Song Dynasties, the emergence of Quanzhen religion in Yuan and Ming Dynasties and the decline after Qing Dynasty.

The formation of Taoism is a slow development process. As two landmark events in the final formation of Taoism, one is the spread of Taiping Jing, and the other is Zhang Daoling's Five Mi Dou Roads. During the Shundi period of the Eastern Han Dynasty (126-144), Taiping Jing was published and widely circulated. When he arrived at the Lingdi of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Jiao preached in Taiping Qingling, nicknamed Taipingdao, calling himself the teacher of Dade, and his followers were all over Kyushu, which was already quite influential. Later, the Yellow turban insurrectionary failed, and Taiping Road gradually declined. It was also in the Eastern Han Dynasty, when Emperor Shun Di of the Eastern Han Dynasty, that Zhang Ling returned to Mingshan in Shu County to learn Taoism and recruit disciples to preach, so the believers gave him five measures of rice, so he called it five measures of rice. His grandson, Zhang Lu, stayed in Hanzhong for many years, and later cooperated with the supreme ruling authorities to spread the influence of Wudou Mi Dao from the southwest corner to the sea and become an authentic Taoism.

During the Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, with the prevalence of alchemy and the deepening of related theories, Taoism gained great development. At the same time, Taoism also absorbed the popular metaphysics at that time and enriched its own theory. In the first year of Jianwu in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Ge Hong systematically expounded the theory of immortals since the Warring States Period and wrote Bao Puzi, which was the first systematization of Taoist theory and enriched the ideological content of Taoism. In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, with the support of Taizu of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Kou established the "North" Road and Lu established the "South" Road.

During the Tang and Song Dynasties, Tang Gaozu Li Yuan recognized Laozi Li Er as his ancestor, and Song Zhenzong and Song Huizong also believed in Taoism, so Taoism was highly respected and became the state religion. At this time, Maoshan, Gezhi and other factions appeared, and Shi Tiandao also re-emerged. In theory, Chen Tuan and Zhang Boduan's "Inner Dan Theory" is very popular.

During the Jin Dynasty, Quanzhen Taoism advocated by Wang Zhongyang appeared in the north. Later, Wang Zhongyang's disciple Qiu Chuji preached for Genghis Khan in Mongolia, was trusted, and was granted the power to take charge of Taoism in the world by the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty. At the same time, in order to cope with the rapid rise of Quanzhen religion, the original Shi Tian Taoism in Longhushan, the Shangqing School in Maoshan and the Lingbao School in Gezaoshan were merged into one, and Zhang Tianshi was regarded as the founder of the orthodox school, thus formally forming the Taoist pattern of Quanzhen religion in the north and orthodox school or two schools in the south.

Judy, the Yongle Emperor of Ming Dynasty, claimed to be the embodiment of Zhenwu Emperor, and gave great support to Zhang Sanfeng and Wu Tang who sacrificed Zhenwu. At this time, Taoism is still dominant in various religions in China.

Since the Qing Dynasty, Manchu rulers believed in Tibetan Buddhism and suppressed Taoism, which was dominated by Han people. Taoism has since declined.