What are the ideological origins of Taoism?

The ideological origin of Taoism mainly comes from two parts:

First, there are three basic cultural sources: "Wicca religion of ghosts and gods, fairy belief, and Taoism";

Second, "Confucianism, Mohism, Yi, Yin and Yang" are four important cultural origins.

For systematic explanation, the following excerpt is taken from China's first panoramic biography of Taoist history-Preface: Cultural Essence Closely Related to the History of China. The original text was published in Baidu reading page link.

First, there are three basic cultural origins, namely, "witchcraft and ghost worship, fairy belief and Taoism".

As the only primitive religion that originated in China, Taoism is closely related to many fields of traditional culture in China.

In ancient times, people regarded the sun, moon, stars, rivers, mountains and ancestors as gods, offering sacrifices, praying and worshipping based on the primitive belief of human instinct. Among them, as early as the Yellow Emperor's period, the ancients in China had offered sacrifices to the Heavenly Emperor, including "paying homage to heaven by combining Zen", "offering sacrifices to gods in the suburbs" and "connecting all souls with the Ming court". Since then, this kind of worship of ghosts and gods has a long history, and in the Zhou Dynasty, it has formed a spiritual system composed of gods, earth, people and ghosts and a belief tradition of respecting heaven as the ancestor.

At the same time, witchcraft belief closely related to ghost worship has a long history. The ancients believed that divination could determine doubts and break good or bad luck; Witches can communicate with ghosts and gods and tell god's will; Witchcraft can pray for people and cure diseases. Therefore, Taoism not only inherited the idea of ghost worship, but also incorporated the witchcraft belief in ancient times into its own theological system.

During the Spring and Autumn Period, there appeared immortal alchemists in Yanqi in the north and Jingchu in the south who directly inherited the witchcraft worship of ancient ghosts and gods and preached immortality, forming a "fairy house (also known as Fang)" where a hundred schools of thought contend. At that time, they preached the belief of immortality, and regarded Huangdi and Laozi as models of immortality and ancestors of immortals. Put forward the idea of seeking the fairy world, the fairy and the fairy medicine, and practice the cultivation techniques such as offering sacrifices to the gods, moving qi through the valley, guiding qi and breathing in the shrine; Especially advocating alchemy, taking Dan medicine as the way to become immortal.

Different from the atomism in ancient western countries, the theory of vitality prevailed in ancient China. According to this theory, everything in the universe is composed of vitality or essence and is tangible; You can't see it when it's scattered. Huang Lao-dao first put forward two concepts of vitality and essence, and discussed them in many aspects. In addition, Huang Laotao inherited Laozi's view that the Lord of all things is the empty and quiet way, and it is precisely because the Tao is empty and quiet that it becomes the Lord of all things because it conforms to all things.

During the Warring States period, social competition intensified. In order to cope with this situation, Huang first put forward the concepts of law, technique, potential, benefit and strength, and the pre-Qin academic got rid of idealism and began to embark on the road of realism. On this basis, Huang Laotao put forward the Taoist thought, which not only solved the legitimacy of the law itself, but also opened the way for Taoism to govern the world. In addition, the Huang family also put forward a series of political opinions, such as "Heaven", "Keeping women for men", "Being lenient and obedient to ministers", "quietism", "Simple folk customs", "Rest and recuperation", "Ruling the country according to law", combining punishment with morality, etc., which embodied the essence of ancient social politics in China. In addition, Huang Laotao also put forward the idea that the world is for the public and the monarchy is subject to the legal system, which reflects the reflection and criticism of authoritarian politics to some extent.

In addition, Taoism is not only directly related to the three basic cultural origins of "witchcraft and ghost worship, fairy belief and Taoist theory of Huang Lao", but also has deep roots with doctors, military strategists, legalists and strategists. The founder of Guiguzi, a strategist (400~320 BC, Wang, also known as Wang Li, was named Xuanweizi. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, he was a patriotic Song, and now he was from Qixian County, Hebi City, Henan Province. It is said that it is called Guiguzi because there are four meat moles on his forehead. ) "was regarded as an ancient true fairy by Taoism. * * As a theoretical theory and a method of practicing belief, together with Confucianism and Buddhism, it has occupied a dominant position in China's traditional culture, and has been called a magician since the pre-Qin period. In ancient times, people believed in divination theory, worshipped ghosts and gods, and claimed that they could visit immortals and live forever. During the Zhou Dynasty, he was given an official position of the same name and was also in charge of the prison. Taoism has played an important role in ancient astronomy, geophysics, meteorology, history of traditional Chinese medicine, applied chemistry, psychology, prediction, mathematics and other scientific and technological history, as well as the history of martial arts, calligraphy and painting, and music art, and has also been actively developed in today's era.

"Confucianism, Mohism, Yi, Yin and Yang" are four important cultural origins.

In addition to the three basic cultural sources of "witchcraft and ghost worship, fairy belief and Taoism's theory of Huang Lao", there are four important cultural sources of "Confucianism, Mohism, Yi and Yin Yang Theory", all of which have had a far-reaching impact on the birth of Taoism.

Confucianism. Taoism, after absorbing Confucius and Mencius' thought of "loyalty, filial piety, benevolence and righteousness", constitutes the main body of religious morality, and combines this ethics with the immortal thought to drive people to practice with the authority of immortals. In this regard, after putting forward the ethical system of "heaven and earth monarch, father and teacher", Taiping Jing continued to develop into a far-reaching secular ethical norm of "heaven and earth monarch and teacher", and then put forward the goal of "peaceful world" with "kindness and charity" At the same time, after Dong Zhongshu preached the theology of worshipping heaven and man, the disaster of Yin and Yang, and the unity of heaven and man, Taoism absorbed it with the divination theology that later preached astrology, learned from the scriptures, and recruited gods to disintegrate ghosts and gods.

Mohist thought. Because Mozi once advocated respecting ghosts as the morning, he reiterated the will of the highest god, the god of heaven, and the highest authority to reward good and punish evil, in order to promote the idea of universal love and heaven not attacking; At the same time, he also expanded the scope of "ghosts" from "people die as ghosts" to "ghosts of heaven and earth", which also provided a basis for offering sacrifices to the undead of heaven and earth; Not only that, at that time, Mozi stood on the position of small producers and advocated self-reliance and mutual benefit, which was also inherited and developed by Taiping Jing; Moreover, Mohism attaches importance to the spirit of science and technology and is also inherited by Taoism.

On the theory of yi-ology. Fu He's interpretation of Zhouyi is not only the first of the Five Classics of Confucianism, but also one of Taoism. Therefore, in the process that the Book of Changes has gradually formed an independent learning (the Book of Changes) from ancient times to the present, Taoism has also extensively discussed, explained and applied the Book of Changes as a basic classic. When Wei Boyang (AD 100~ 170. Huang was a native of Shangyu, Zhejiang Province, an alchemist and theorist in the Eastern Han Dynasty. The word ao, the word Bo Yang,No. Yunyazi. Although he is not a Taoist, his Zhouyi Shentongqi laid the theoretical foundation of Dante's Taoist theory and is known as the "King of Immortal Classics". Later generations regarded him as a fairy. In the mid-Eastern Han Dynasty, taking Zhouyi as an example, he discussed the method of alchemy and cultivation of immortals, and combined "righteousness", "Huang Lao" and "fire" to make an alchemy for previous health preservation. In this regard, Taoism, after absorbing the Book of Changes as the content and form of religious views, took the supreme "heaven" in the Book of Changes as a model, and shaped the supreme god "Tianzun", and put the metaphysical alchemy, Taoism and other theories and practices throughout the whole development process of "Yi Jie Tao".

Yin-yang theory. Its related concepts are discussed in Zhouyi and Laozi. Yin and yang are the attributes of "playing" and have the power to transform everything; The five-element concept that "golden wood, fire, water and earth" are five substances and five attributes can be seen in Shangshu? Hong Fan's record. Therefore, as early as the Warring States period, Zou Yan combined the Yin and Yang elements and established the theory of Yin and Yang elements (that is, Yin and Yang School) to explain "Taoist Heaven" and "Confucian Humanism" and endowed the five elements with social attributes to explain the reasons and trends of regime change. After Zou Yan's thought was absorbed by alchemists, as the theoretical basis of immortal alchemy, the mysterious Yin-Yang and Five Elements became an important source of Taoist alchemy theory.