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CHAPTER 6

Later Developments Toward Health and Long Life

What is preached should be put into practice—

only then is it called speech and action without defect.

—P. Chang 1987, 188

The Taoist philosophy of Lao-tzu, Chuang-tzu, Lieh-tzu, and the Neo-Taoists is but one aspect of the larger body of Taoism that is practiced as a religion for both spiritual fulfillment and physical well-being. Taoist religions are a complex, vast collection of customs, rituals, and beliefs that have never been organized into one single, consistent set of doctrines. Rural areas were the stronghold of Taoist religions, surviving for more than two millennia in the hearts and minds of the people.

Empress Chang Blessed by Taoist Deities

TAOIST RELIGION EMERGES

Religious Taoism began in separate groups that traced their inspiration back to Lao-tzu and concepts within the Tao Te Ching. Historians believe that Taoist religion is very old, incorporating primitive Chinese shamanic religions. Bronze and gold objects representing Taoist immortals have been found in tombs, dating early Taoist worship back to the third century B.C. (Schipper 1982, 6).

References to Taoist religion can be found in the writings of philosophical Taoists, especially Chuang-tzu and Lieh-tzu. Both refer to faraway places where divine beings lived free of all worldly limitations, capable of great powers. Lieh-tzu spoke of men who could walk through walls, implying that nothing in this world could stop them. Chuang-tzu described these godlike people in the very first book of his writings:

On the distant mountain of Ku-yeh live divine beings. . . . They mount clouds of ch’i and ride winged dragons to wander beyond the Four Seas.... By concentrating their minds, they can protect all beings from plague and ripen the crops. . . . These men! What power (te)! They embrace the Ten Thousand Beings, making them into a single one.” (Schipper 1982, 7)

Religious Taoism was implied in the early philosophical Taoist writers, but religious interpretations were made explicit by the beginning of the Christian era. The image and meaning of Lao-tzu transformed, much like Buddha’s metamorphosis, from being thought of as a man of great insight to becoming a deity. Taoism merged with earlier mythologies and occult sciences. One such combination put Lao-tzu with Huang-ti, a mythological inventor who was worshiped by craftsmen and artisans. This unity was called Huang-Lao Chih Tao, the Way of the Yellow Emperor and the Old Master. Lao-tzu was worshiped and revered, now that he had risen to the status of a deity.

During the second Han dynasty, Lao-tzu’s writings were believed to contain secret practices to prolong life using special forms of meditation. For example, certain passages from the Tao Te Ching refer to “nurturing the life principle” (Kaltenmark 1969, 111). Such passages inspired Taoists to search for methods that would extend life and find immortality.

FOUNDING OF THE TAOIST CHURCH