Chapter 6 Section 5 The Birth of Taoism and Ancient Chinese Culture

On the whole, Taoism in the late Eastern Han Dynasty has several characteristics: first, it does not have a unified classic and unified teachings; second, several Taoist forces rose up almost at the same time, and there is no affiliation relationship between them, and they were not founded by the same leader. The third is that the upper-level Taoist thinkers always want to get closer to the ruling class, serve them, and govern the country to achieve peace, while the lower-level Taoist forces finally move towards armed rebellion and want to overthrow the Han Dynasty. In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the rule of the Liu Dynasty was in serious crisis.Officials were corrupt, they plundered the people excessively, the emperor was incompetent, eunuchs and relatives of the emperor formed their own cliques, and fought endlessly. Coupled with the continuous earthquakes and natural disasters and plagues, the people were miserable and it was hard to survive.The severe real suffering provided suitable social conditions for the birth of Taoism, which also determined that the Taoist movement in this period had a strong political color.

From the perspective of ideological and cultural content, Taoism in the initial period has mixed and absorbed various ancient beliefs and popular ideas in the Qin and Han Dynasties.Specifically, it roughly has the following contents: (1) Primitive religious beliefs and witchcraft All kinds of nature worship and ghost worship prevailed in ancient China.The ancients believed that mountains, rivers, valleys, hills, etc., can make clouds and mines, wind and rain, and all kinds of strange spirits can be called gods.In the Qin and Han Dynasties, the imperial court worshiped countless gods of heaven, earth, sun, moon, stars, mountains and rivers every year.Wu Dou Mi Dao believes in the so-called three official gods.Heaven, earth, and water are regarded as gods in nature, which originated from the concept of "animism" in the primitive society of human beings, which belongs to primitive nature worship; at the same time, it is also the inheritance and absorption of the popular ghost worship thought at that time.The ancients revereed and worshiped ghosts and gods, and always hoped that the gods would bless the weather and harvest, and hope that the gods would bless and eliminate disasters.So some people claim to be able to "talk" to the gods, know their thoughts, and have ways to make them work for people, such as driving away those evil spirits that harm people and so on.In ancient times, these people were called "witches".The so-called witchcraft refers to the set of things they engage in to ask gods to drive out ghosts.The five-dou rice road and the Taiping road make patients repent to the gods, kowtow and blame themselves, and call gods and exorcise ghosts for the patients with talisman water and chanting mantras.The worship of nature and ghosts and gods is not only the breeding ground of Taoism, but also has been an important content of Taoism.Especially among the masses, Taoism is the most accepted.

(2) Taoism Taoism was originally one of the academic schools. They explain the origin of the universe, the generation of all things, the ups and downs of social operations, and the good and evil of human nature. They all have their own unique set of theories. When the "Taiping Jing" deals with these issues, many sayings are directly "borrowed" from Taoism.The Han Dynasty worshiped the Yellow Emperor and Lao Tzu very much.The Yellow Emperor is a legendary figure, many years earlier than Lao Tzu.During the pre-Qin period, the two were gradually brought together, and later called "Huang Lao" together.At the beginning of the founding of the Western Han Dynasty, Huang Lao's thoughts of tranquility and inaction were used to guide the founding of the country.In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the "Huang-Lao Way", that is, the so-called Taoism with the signatures of Huangdi and Laozi, was gradually mystified and developed into the Huang-Lao Way with the nature of belief and worship.Zhang Jiao, the leader of Taiping Dao, believed in it, and Wu Dou Mi Dao took "Lao Tzu" as a classic in the teaching.

"Wei Shu Shi Lao Zhi" said: "The origin of Taoism comes from Lao Tzu." The "Taoism" mentioned here refers to Taoism alongside Buddhism.It uses Taoism's own theory, saying that Taoism was founded by Laozi, and that Laozi was born from heaven and earth, and that he is the suzerain and leader of the world of gods and so on.After the Wei and Jin Dynasties, many people called Laozi and Zhuangzi together "Lao Zhuang" or "Zhuang Lao", and called them Taoism.And like "Wei Shu · Shi Laozhi", there have always been many people in history who confuse Taoism and Taoism without distinguishing them.

(3) Confucianism and Divinity Theology of the Han Dynasty The Confucian school likes to discuss the principles of governing the country and the world, preaching a set of moral principles that people should abide by, asking people to play their part, the emperor should be like the emperor, the officials should be like the officials, the wife should be like a wife, and the husband should be like a Husband wait. The "Taiping Jing" talks about saving the world and governing the country. It also "borrows" a lot of ideas from Confucianism when discussing many issues of politics, economy, and ethnic minority relations.It also talks about the monarch, ministers, and people fulfilling their responsibilities and working together to make the world peaceful.Confucianism gradually became religious mystification in the Han Dynasty and became a set of prophecy theology.Prophecy was originally a kind of mysterious prophecy.Wei, here refers to the books written to explain the Confucian classics under the pretense of God's will, that is, Weishu, because Confucian works are called Jingshu.The emperors of the Han Dynasty used the theology of prophecy to deify themselves in order to consolidate feudal rule.In order to seize the supreme ruling power, some political careerists often used the superstitious and backward thinking of the masses at that time to create public opinion.The specific content is such as the interaction between heaven and man, the astrology in the sky indicates good and bad luck, and so on. There are many such thoughts in "Taiping Jing" and "Laozi Xianger Notes".The Taipingdao Uprising wore yellow scarves, and the uprising slogans all came from the theological thought of Chenwei.

(4) Ancient medicine, health preservation theory The "Taiping Jing" compares the society at that time to a seriously ill human body, and many of its specific governance propositions are based on the way doctors treat patients.In addition, in addition to witchcraft and healing, the book also contains a lot of specific medical knowledge about health preservation.There are medical formulas such as "Plant Formulas of Plants and Trees", "Bio Formulas", "Moxibustion Formulas", etc. in the book. (5) Belief in alchemy of immortals The "Taiping Jing" does not talk much about how to make people immortal, nor does it talk about immortal alchemy such as alchemy.But "Laozi Xianger Notes" has been more concerned about the issue of cultivating Taoism and becoming immortal.During the Wei and Jin dynasties, immortal alchemists who specialized in cultivating immortality entered Taoism, and the belief of attaining Taoism and becoming immortal gradually became the main belief of Taoism.

The belief in immortals was most popular during the Warring States period, while Taoism appeared in the Eastern Han Dynasty, with a gap of several hundred years.But because attaining Taoism and becoming immortal later became the central belief of Taoism, it gives people the illusion that Taoism is a melon that grows from the vine of Immortal Alchemy (or Immortal Dao or something). It can be seen from the above that Taoism has formed an indissoluble bond with all aspects of ancient Chinese culture since its formation.