When it comes to the history of Taoism, the academic and religious circles have very different judgments on the origin. The general view of the academic community is that Taoism, as a form of religion, is based on the three foundations of the leader, the classics and the religious organization. Under this theory, the formal formation of Taoism is attributed to the event of the founding of the 24 rulers by the founder of the Heavenly Master in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. However, within Taoism, it is believed that the teachings of Taoism have been passed down since the Taoist ancestor left five thousand articles and first proposed the concept of “Taoism”. If we trace it back further, although Taoism is nameless, it is constantly evolving, so the origin of Taoism can be traced back to Huang Lao. Under the influence of these two different views, people naturally treat the “Taoism” of philosophical thought schools and the “Taoism” of religious organizations that advocate benefiting the world and people differently.
Like other schools of thought, Taoism emphasizes the thinking of the relationship between heaven, earth and the universe; Taoism, like other religions, focuses on the personal cultivation of believers and their participation in social life. But in the Chinese system, “religion” is not a conjunction. “Shuowen Jiezi” mentioned: “Zong means to honor the ancestral temple… Shi means that the sky shows good and bad luck to people… Observe the astronomy to observe the changes of time and show the divine things.” Jiao means education and enlightenment, which has the meaning of leading by example. Therefore, Chinese religion emphasizes observing the way of heaven and learning the deeds of saints and ancestors, rather than simply forming a religious school based on the three basic points of the leader, classics and organization. This also determines that the role of education transcends the scope of specific religious organizations, and any kind of thought and doctrine has a great relationship with religion. From the perspective of the education of ancestors, the fundamental purpose of Taoism and Taoism is the same, and there is an inseparable cultural inheritance between the two. This inheritance can be simply summarized into three aspects: 1. Taoism, represented by Tianshi Dao, directly and systematically inherited the Taoist doctrines of Laozi and Zhuangzi, and also developed it into a religious form. When Tianshi Dao was first established, it respected Laozi as the leader and respected the “Tao Te Ching” as the supreme classic. This shows that Taoist philosophy is the fundamental source of Taoist religious thought and cultivation theory. The Tao mentioned by Laozi gave the concept of “Tao” a transcendent philosophical attribute for the first time. It is the origin of the universe (time and space), which is unrecognizable but omnipresent. It is the ultimate basis and universal law for the existence and change of all things, and it is an innate existence. Zhuangzi further promoted the “Tao” expressed by Laozi in philosophy, and proposed that people can realize the wonderful use of Tao through a series of ways and methods, and then achieve the state of longevity and long-term vision after practicing such as fasting and forgetting, and rise to become gods, supreme people, and saints. Starting from Nanhua Zhenren, “Tao” has been philosophically attached with the meaning of mysticism, which has become the origin of Taoist belief in gods and immortals.
The Taoist thought absorbed by Taoism is a religious transformation based on the premise of “I need”. Taoism has given “Tao” the attribute of “mysterious things, spiritual and trustworthy”, and combined with the theory of primordial qi, it puts forward the view that “primordial qi practices Taoism to give birth to all things”. On this basis, Taoism highly praised Laozi, the originator of the theory of Tao and the author of the Tao Te Ching, and regarded Laozi as the incarnation of Tao. For example, the “Laozi Shengmu Stele” produced during the reign of Emperor Ming and Emperor Zhang of the Eastern Han Dynasty wrote: “Laozi is Tao. He was born before the invisible, rose before the beginning, walked in the origin of Taisu, floated in the six voids, entered and exited the netherworld, observed the mixture before it was separated, and looked at the turbidity before it was separated.” This is to combine Laozi and Tao into one. After a certain period of social and cultural sedimentation, this kind of thought gradually gave rise to two more religious statements: “Laozi is the great saint who has obtained Tao, and is the teacher of both the visible and the invisible” in the “Taiping Jing” and “One is Tao… One disperses into Qi, and gathers into Taishang Laojun” in the “Laozi Xianger Notes”. Seeing Laozi as a manifestation of Tao Qi is the process of Taoists gradually recognizing the true nature of their faith. The theological basis of Taoism is “One Qi transforms the Three Pure Ones”. This theory of the transformation of heaven and earth and all things is derived from the interpretation of “born without possession, acting without reliance, growing without ruling” in the Tao Te Ching. Taoism directly inherits the Taoist interpretation of the nature of the world, life and the universe, but Taoism has developed Taoist thought in a religious, theological and secular way, thus producing a religion with unique Chinese philosophical thinking characteristics.
2. Taoism also inherits the health-preserving thought in Taoist philosophy, and associates religious mysticism with transcendental philosophical expressions, producing a unique theory of cultivating immortals. The ultimate goal of Taoist practice is to obtain the Tao and become an immortal. This ideal is directly derived from the health-preserving concept in Laozi and Zhuangzi’s thoughts. Laozi mentioned “longevity”, “immortality of the valley spirit” and “longevity of those who die but do not die” in his five thousand articles. Although he did not explicitly point out that this is a set of health-preserving and immortal cultivation theories, it does not prevent Taoism from absorbing and transforming them for its own use. In order to prove that these goals are achievable, Laozi proposed practical methods such as quietness and inaction, simplicity and femaleness, concentration on qi and gentleness, and quiet observation and observation, emphasizing that following these methods can lead to the realm of Tao. Taoism uses this method as the program for its followers to practice, and has developed very specific and diverse practice rules and ways to become immortals, giving a new height to the theories of Laozi and the Tao Te Ching. Compared with Laozi, Zhuangzi’s health-preserving ideas in his words are more clear, and are directly reflected in his chapters such as “The Master of Health Preservation” and “The Great Master”. In Zhuangzi’s ideal, the real person who breathes with his heels and the gods of Mount Guye are both typical representatives of Taoism. In order to reach the realm of immortals, he also proposed the methods of “guiding” and “sitting and forgetting”, which provide guidance on practicing Taoism from the two aspects of physical training and inner harmony. After these ideas were absorbed by Taoism and interpreted from a religious perspective, they evolved into a specific and feasible theory of cultivating immortals. 3. After Laozi and Zhuangzi, Huang-Lao Taoism combined Taoist thought and theory with specific social and political life for the first time. It promoted the goal of governing the body and the country with the heart of a saint, which had the most direct impact on the emergence of Taoist religious organizations. Huang-Lao Taoism is also known as the new Taoism, which is the Taoism mentioned by Sima Tan in “On the Essentials of the Six Schools” that “makes people concentrate their minds… less work and more achievements”. Its “few things” lies in maintaining a non-action mind; its “more achievements” lies in combining the cultivation of spirit and body with the governance of the country and the world, becoming a typical representative of “non-action and all-action”.
In the early Western Han Dynasty, under the influence of Huang-Lao Taoism, the country’s economic strength recovered rapidly and realized the picture of political clarity. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, society paid more attention to the concept of health preservation and cultivation of immortals in Huang-Lao Taoism, hoping to “seek longevity and happiness” from it. The Book of the Later Han records that “During the reign of Emperor Huan, Emperor Huan worshipped the Huang-Lao Dao and destroyed all the ancestral sacrifices”, “Zhang Jue called himself ‘the great and virtuous teacher’ and worshipped the Huang-Lao Dao”. The Huang-Lao school, which aimed at pursuing immortality and was marked by the worship of Laozi, was generally recognized by rulers and the lower classes. The original ideology and doctrine centered on governing the country and the body was gradually endowed with a strong religious practice meaning. It can be said that the believers of the Huang-Lao Dao were the predecessors and foundations of the Taoist organization. It was not an accidental or random choice that Taoism worshipped Laozi as its leader and named its religion after “Tao”. Only by combining the pre-Qin Taoist philosophy and the peaceful political thought of the Huang-Lao Dao with the religious theological belief established by the founder of the Tianshi Dao, and supplemented by specific and practical practice techniques, did the three formally form a religion with Chinese local characteristics. Historically, people were accustomed to calling Taoism directly Taoism. Not only are the two inseparable, but there is also an inherent connection between them. Treating Taoism and Taoism separately may seem like a more scientific way of understanding history, but it also artificially severing Taoism’s direct inheritance relationship with Taoist thought. Such a historical attitude is the most arbitrary conclusion that is inconsistent with scientific cognition.
