This is the introduction to Taoism that I rarely get to see presented in English, and yet it is the introduction to Taoism most representative, I think, to the native's lived experience and cultural understanding. Tao, meaning the path or the way, a journey resulting in change, and historically, it It was used to indicate any ideological path or process connecting two disparate points, bridging a gap between polarities, tempering yin-yang, yin, and yang. The definitive line statement, that which is yin and that which is yang in interaction is the Dao, originates from the Zhou Dynasty. I studied the context clues around how the Dao is used in the Book of Songs, circa 1046 BC to 600 BC, one of the five classics, the Book of Changes or the I Ching, also from the Zhou Dynasty, the Book of Documents on Political Philosophy, the Book of Zhou, which, look, full disclosure, might not have been written until after the first century, describing Taoism as a central point between Confucianism and Buddhism. Jing Fang's commentaries on the I Ching, circa 57-37 BC, this guy, by the way, is super important with respect to I Ching study and interpretation.
and the Zhao clan's Forest of Changes, circa 206-9 BC, a book of divination based on the I Ching. Syncretizing usage of the Dao in these texts, the Dao means yi ying yi yang zhi wei dao, an encounter between yin and yang is the Dao. You could also phrase that as a transaction of yin and yang is the Dao. Within that axiom is the judgment that that all that is the I Ching 64 hexagrams is the Tao.
The source of this axiom? It's the Ten Wings Commentaries appended to the I Ching Book of Change. That line statement and commentaries about it is also found in a Confucian text, Shuo Yuan, Garden of Persuasions, attributed to Liu Shang, an imperial court scholar and himself a royal, further explained in that Jingfang Book I mentioned Commentaries on the I Ching. And also this text, Bai Hu Tong, circa 25-220 AD, Eastern Han, a compilation of political and philosophical discourse. And then, basically repeated ad nauseum for millennia thereafter, the oft-cited commentaries on this statement defying Taoism is sourced from Zheng Yi and Zhu Xi, philosopher names you're probably familiar with if you've read my book, I Ching the Oracle.
The Tao signified an essence, not a defined, definite construct. And so every emanation and iteration of a step-by-step pathway to reconcile and bring to harmony opposing forces bridging heaven and earth was the Tao. Because that was the path, the ultimate great purpose.
When Buddhism entered China, its middle path philosophy and value of overcoming self-interested attachment and desire to the worldly fit the that definition of the way, the Tao. And so historically, Buddhism was referred to as the Tao in pre-Qin classical texts that's prior to 200 BC. But the Tao was also used to describe methods of petitioning and venerating spirits and shamanic witchcraft and all that today you might call superstitious magical thinking.
So the Tao is also a cult practice. I mean, yin yang shu, that basically means occult practice. According to Li, Taoism as we are familiar with it today wasn't established until the Eastern Han Dynasty, around 126 to 144 AD.
Prior to the Eastern Han, that term, Dao Zhao, Taoism, was used by many different schools of thought and even different really diverse branches of study. So methods relating to witchcraft and Wu shamanism were called Dao Zhao. Specific teachings or methods of traditional Chinese medicine were called Dao Zhao. A system of political philosophy was called Dao Zhao. A system of metaphysics was called Dao Zhao.
A philosophical school of metaphysical naturalism that arose during the Warring States period 470 BC to 220 BC, called the Yin and Yang School of Thought, Yin Yang Zha, was also integrated into Daoism. In fact, the cosmological theory of the binary code, yin and yang, and five alchemical phases of change became foundational tenets of the Tao. And that was pulled from the yin-yang school of thought. And when Buddhism entered China, the teachings of the Buddha were characterized as the Tao, even after the Han Dynasty, esoteric Buddhist practice continued to be referred to as the Tao. Rationalist and naturalist philosophy were the Dao, as was collectivist and libertarian political ideology.
That too was the Dao. Martial arts and the cultivation of qi necessary for martial arts, qigong, were characterized as the Dao. Study of internal medicine was the Dao.
In Chinese translations of the Christian Bible, Logos, or the Word of God, is translated as the Dao. This historically documented lumping of everything and the kitchen sink into Daoism helps to explain why today it can be so difficult to define or put parameters around Daoism. It isn't until the Eastern Han, the 1st century AD, 6 centuries give or take after Lao Tzu, that Daoism gets institutionalized, in a manner of speaking, and retroactively, certain doctrines are designated as Taoist.
First, the Four Corners of Taoist Belief. The doctrines of Wu Wei and Ziran, or basically, let it be and it is what it is. The belief in true names and true forms, or naming the forms, meaning every aspect of reality, everything in this universe has a true name and a true form, but that true name cannot be spoken, and that true form is not an immutable physical form, even though the true form itself is immutable.
Third is basic Taoist cosmology. Summarized in this famous line from Chapter 42 of the Tao Te Jing, the Tao gave rise to the One, the One gave rise to the Two, the Two gave rise to the Three, the Three gives rise to the myriad beings. And finally, Xuande, path for transcendence to thereby attain divine knowledge. The Hidden Code is a set of beliefs about heaven and earth. the above and the below, that guide you along the path of attaining knowledge and understanding of the mysteries.
The term Daoshi, meaning a priest or priestess who follows the way, has been around since the reign of King Mu of the Zhou Dynasty, circa 950s BC, indicating those who follow the Huanglao path, which we'll get into later in this discussion. A Daoshi is one who passes on the teachings of Taoist principles. And then there are the four cornerstones of Taoist practice.
1. Invoking spirits, whereby the Magist or Taoist Methods Master serves as a mediator between the physical world and the spirit world. 2. Divination, whereby the Methods Master serves as an interpreter of the mysteries. 3. Ceremonial rites, whereby the Methods Master is a custodian of cultural traditions, a guardian who maintains cohesion between the spiritual and physical. And 4. wu zhu, shamanic witchcraft, whereby the methods master is a creator, a healer, channeling the powers of a demiurge, the creative force and agency to shape and to reorganize the natural world.
The term fang shi is indicative of a methods master, meaning someone who is an expert in one of the fields of Taoist practice, be that a ceremonial magician, a diviner, or shamanic spirit medium. It's also a reference to one who is an alchemist. The contemporary and 20th century Taoist scholar Li Yangzheng framed Taoism as the indigenous Chinese tradition premised on three fundamental assumptions.
Gui Shen Chong Bai One, working with spirit entities such as ghosts and gods. The implication there is utilizing rites and rituals to placate spirits because you believe that spirit activity has a direct causal connection to what's happening in the physical world. But there's a secular, rational-based explanation here too.
Spirits, shun, meaning aspects of your thought process, consciousness. Everything that's happening on a conscious, self-aware level is influenced by something happening on a subconscious or unconscious, unaware level. So it's this idea of intentional rites or personal ritual to utilize that will help you gain control of the subconscious, unconscious levels of influence, to gain control and mastery over the unseen influences within. Whether this aspect of Taoism is taken to literally mean gods and spirits external to your being or figuratively as inner aspects of you that you need to learn how to reign in, well, that's the beauty of Taoism.
It's your own truth. There will be a future deep dive into all of these classes of spirit entities per Taoist beliefs, but for now, suffice it to say that Gui tends to imply spirits that are more Yin in their energy composition, whereas Shen are predominantly Yang in their energy composition and are a class in association with immortals, Shen which gets further subdivided into five classifications. This draft slide is incomplete, and you can see me struggling with the right translations because I don't know how to find the right English equivalent for these terms.
Oh, and Guishan, which for now, let's just crudely call the undead, isn't exactly yang energy. It's considered corrupted yang energy. But again, future video.
That concept of immortals brings us to our second fundamental assumption forming the basis of indigenous Taoism. 2. Studying cultivation methods for achieving immortality or spiritual transcendence. This is often subdivided into two binary categories of practice, inner alchemy and outer alchemy . Inner alchemy is treating the human body as its own cosmos, a cauldron of jing, qi, and shen that you strive to bring into balance.
If you can bring the Three into a harmonious state of checks and balances internally, you can, in metaphysical theory, live forever or become immortal. Outer alchemy is what we might call the predecessor of chemistry, and it is also methods of sorcery, ritual magic, and seeking to attain the power to control the state of Jing, Qi, and Shen in the universe. The whole universe is like a cauldron of yin and yang.
Jing, Qi, Shen. Fun little tidbit in occult principles. Dan means alchemy, but it also means red cinnabar, mercury, vermilion, alchemy being a reference to the Great Work.
In short summary, inner alchemy is the control of or mastery over you, your Jing Qi Shen. Outer alchemy is the control of the world around you, and also using the world around you as a resource for increasing your personal power. As Li notes, between 472 BC and 221 BC, the Warring States period, Shenqianfangshu was widely practiced and, more importantly for us, widely documented. Shenqianfangshu is a term for one of the five mystical arts, wushu, which are, found in Chapter 6, page 239, Table 6.8 in my book Yi Qing, The Oracle. shunxian fangshu means spiritual cultivation methods for attaining immortality be that meditation martial arts qigong diet reciting sutras or spellcrafting that third one study of appearances is face reading palmistry it's the study of physical forms what does the form tell you about the spirit The I Ching would be categorized under Divinatory Arts, whereas Ba Zi, Four Pillars of Destiny calculations and Astrological Birth Chart readings would be categorized as the Study of Fate.
In totality, these five mystical arts represent the body of spiritual and psychic knowledge, skills, and experiences to be attained that cultivate a refined state of being in attunement with the Supreme State of Being. This checklist right here is how you walk the Huang Lao path that is the Taoist path, which brings us to the third of the three fundamental assumptions of indigenous Taoism. That's the occult or arcane doctrine of Huang Lao, the combined teachings of Huang Di, the Yellow Emperor, and Lao Zi, as in the Tao Te Ching. The Huang is an attribution to the Yellow Emperor. Huangdi, who, assuming he's a real guy, probably lived sometime around 2600 BC.
He was deified in Han Dynasty texts as Huangshen, and is associated with the Big Dipper in the north. The Lao is an attribution to Laozi. Laozi, or maybe often spelled Lao Tzu in English, is a name you're familiar with, I'm assuming.
Let's learn some vocabulary. That term means the arcane, the mysteries with a capital M, the occult, and that's descriptive of the doctrine of Huang Lao or Huang Lao Tao. Taiwanese scholar Fu Peirong noted that Shenmijuyi should be translated to occultism, Miqijuyi, because the principal concept is the esoteric experience or Miqijinyan.
If you're able to read traditional Chinese and you're interested in I Ching Taoist and Confucianist scholarship, I highly recommend the works of Fu Peirong. I myself am greatly indebted to Professor Fu's work. If you're familiar with Professor Fu, then you'll probably have noticed that my own work is very much influenced by his. 灵魂与一个至高的精神实体相契合的精神经验。
That is how Li Yangzheng describes the Taoist doctrine of Huang Lao. It is refinement of the huán or yang aspect of your soul in huán puó soul dualism by having your spiritual or psychic body undergo spiritual experiences, gain in knowledge attained, and cultivating of skills that attune you to oneness with the supreme spiritual state or supreme consciousness. There are two key binary yin and yang concepts to the doctrine of Huanglao that seems contradictory, so you'll have to hear me through. The first is the Taoist mystical philosophy of affirmative social advocacy.
Heaven bears resources and powers, and it is heaven's natural inclination to share, which it shares with earth, and earth bears resources and powers that it has a natural inclination to share. Our sovereigns and state, the nations of this world, leaders and influencers, possess the resources and powers that they have a natural inclination to share, that is their divine purpose, which they share with the people, for it is their natural inclination and divine purpose to exist in benefit of the people. This spiritual and philosophical belief gave rise to the political doctrine of Li Ming, meaning for the greater good and benefit of the people.
That philosophy, which governs the divine purpose of cultivating Taoist occult powers and abilities, which in turn is our guiding light for how to govern people, how to navigate life decisions, is connected to the Taoist doctrine of wu-wei. Since there's already a video dedicated to the concept of wu-wei, I won't get into it again in this video. Just know that this principle of wu-wei is one of the two halves that make up the Taoist doctrine of wang-lao. Under the Huanglao doctrine, the third of the three prongs to providing us with a framework for Taoism is governed by the binary code of Li Ming, for the greater good of the people, and Wu Wei. These two tenets are considered the highest priority of the Taoist.
The term Huanglao itself is first found in the Shi Ji, or better known in English as the Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian and his father. The term Huanglao appears at least 16 times throughout the Shiji, in reference to a method of sorcery or magic, Fa Shu, traced back to the Huanglao tradition. That idea of methods of sorcery and magic traced to the Huanglao tradition was then integrated into the school of Taoism. And yet, per context clues, the methods and ways of Huanglao also seems to be indicative of a form of martial arts, or a particular philosophical approach to martial arts. Huanglao also implies a political philosophy.
On screen, I'm just showing a couple more places in the records of the grand historians circa 2nd century BC where the doctrine of Huanglao gets referenced. The way of Huanglao, or what per historical records seems to get referenced as within the scope of the way of Huanglao, can best be described as syncretic, meaning it seems to take a bit from everything. Borrowing from indigenous longstanding traditions, Confucianist thought, yin and yang theory, and mojia mo thought, a Chinese school of philosophy that emphasized agape love, altruism for the greater good, rational thought, and non-discrimination when it comes to governance and social justice. The Huangdi Neijing, or Inner Canons of the Yellow Emperor, is considered a seminal text on the way of the Huanglao, just to give you a sense for the scope of this Taoist doctrine. We made reference to this text in a previous video on the Yuanqian Gong, or Inner Palace and the Akashic Records.
The 4 in multiplication with the sacred trinity, the 3, produces an array of 12, the mathematical designation of space-time. That is the circular, cyclical expression of the Tao as nature and cosmos. That's 12 for the 30-degree segments of a 360-degree circle or cycle.
that represent planetary paths, the solar path, the lunar path, as we observe them from a geocentric model. Yeah, let's get a PowerPoint slide up to help us diagram this. We noted that modalities of soul healing, such as exorcisms and soul retrieval, are one category of Taoist practice, and then there's ritual and third, meditation. The four cornerstones of Taoist beliefs are understood in threes, the three pure ones, the three powers, the three realms.
4 times 3 is 12. That's the 12 resonant with the zodiac, the planetary paths and markers of time, resonant with the 24 seasonal increments, which all factors into the cycle of change. Markers of space. The Tao.
A full circle. Which is to say, in Taoist metaphysics, numbers are the foundation for almost all metaphysical concepts and operations. So there is this compelling question of whether or not you can separate Taoism and the I Ching. Especially in light of the non-linearity of the I Ching. Let's take a look at how this word, the Tao, is used in the I Ching Book of Changes.
In English, it gets translated to the way or the path, but to fully convey the meaning intended, we really do need to simply say the Tao. Return to the Tao. Stay true to the Tao.
Because it doesn't just mean literally a path or a route. It conveys the sense of a step. step by step journey, a methodology, an intangible, intellectual step by step route, like the scientific method. So it means methods and principles, teachings, doctrine.
Return to the Tao. Return to the initial methodology. Stay true to the Tao. Stay true to the pathway you've defined for yourself, your doctrine and values. Preach in, and that reference is something we addressed in the previous video.
Taoism was one of the 100 schools of thought. The 100 schools of thought, Zhu Zi Bai Jia, was a consortium of schools of philosophy recognized during the period of 500 BC to 200 BC. Confucianism, Daoism, Legalism, and the Yin-Yang school are three of the most well-known traditions listed in that consortium.
These four points you see on screen right now are four factors or elements we consider to be attributes of a school of philosophy. Now, let's consider how Taoism as a discipline investigates and addresses these four fundamental questions. Taoism is a school of thought, one with an unbroken historical tradition that spans millennia, that inquires and organizes experiences and knowledge by way of systematic analysis, on the premise that intuition and logic are two sides of the same coin, that truth is arrived when heart and mind reckons.
Historically, Taoist thought has driven Chinese advancement in math and science, conveys principles in psychology, political theory, and perhaps most notably metaphysics. It provides a framework for ethical thought and conduct. Taoist ethics focuses on the principle of non-action, nameless simplicity, balancing the opposites, and also harmony of heaven, earth, and humanity, reflecting on the many meanings of to be like water.
And the aspiration of immortality is about as speculative as one can get, I dare say. Taoist philosophy is fundamentally about speculations on the concept of change, yi, as in the yi qing. As to that last point, constant control of change, it's that Taoist paradox of letting go, of not forcing control, that is the key to constant control. The long-established practice of bifurcating the academic study of Taoism into philosophical Taoism and religious Taoism can be helpful, especially for Westerners who are used to a dividing line that separates philosophy and religion because ideologically, they're mutually exclusive, or that's the perspective.
An indigenous Taoist perspective might not draw the dividing line there, however, and instead view it as Taoist beliefs. covering both philosophical and religious principles, and Taoist practice, be that ethical conduct with no sense of religiosity, or observed through religious and faith-based practices. And so, yi yin yi yang zhi wei dao, the Tao is any and every encounter between yin and yang. Taoism is active engagement to reconcile yin and yang.
As we enter the eras and millennia of imperial China, our understanding of the Dao, defined as the interaction, exchange, or journey of change between yin and yang, evolves with our advances in science, mathematics, and medicine. Magnetism, leading to the invention of the compass during the Han dynasty, the electrical charge between two opposite parts. poles and magnetic fields generated by electrical charges in movement is based on the principles of the Tao.
The abacus, structured as a string of five for the wuxing along the lower level and a binary two along the upper level, double-stacked, is a calculation device based on the Luo Shu magic square. Which, you know, isn't just magic woo-woo, although it is that too, but it's just math. So that's the Tao. But what about Taoism? The first to use the term Taoism was Confucius, or to be more accurate, Confucianist scholars writing texts that they then credit and attribute to Confucius, quoted from texts dating back to 490 BC.
According to these Confucian scholars, Confucius said that everything you need to know about the Tao can be learned from the stories of the six ancestral sage kings. The ways of these six ancestral sage kings embody the way of the Tao. Originally, my idea was to deep dive into each of the six ancient legendary sage kings and give my thoughts on how each one embodies or might teach us a key aspect to Dao Zhao, Daoism, but that segment alone ended up being really long for a tangent, so I've decided to make that topic its own standalone future video. So stay tuned. Tao De I'm guessing you're most familiar with this term in the context of the Daodejing, a foundational authoritative text on Daoism as a school of philosophical thought.
Daode Tianzun is the earliest supreme god worshipped in Daoism. Temples with pagodas venerating Daode Tianzun date back to the Eastern Han. This supreme god was born from the numinous void and originates before the beginning of time.
The supreme god is also a triple god, the three pure ones, San Qing. The content of the Daodejing tends to be conceptual. The book sets forth the philosophical principles of the Dao and the ethical principles or code of virtuous conduct called De.
Beginning with the Daoist god Daode Tianzun, we see personifications of the key concepts from the Tao Te Ching, expressed as gods and goddesses. Taoist belief encapsulates both the abstract philosophical concepts and the religious personifications of those philosophical concepts. The thing to bear in mind is, from a Taoist perspective, they're one and the same. It's two different filters for examining the same thing.
So, to recap, In the Eastern Han Dynasty, 1st century AD, we started to see definitions for Daoist beliefs on one side and Daoist practice on the other. But we have this reality of practitioners who engage in Daoist practice by those definitions, but apply a Buddhist framework of religious beliefs to Daoist practice. That's still the Dao.
Or vice versa. There are traditions, lineages of Daoist practice subscribing to classically attributed Daoist beliefs, but implementing Daoist beliefs Buddhist practices as the means for achieving or materializing their Taoist beliefs. That, too, is still the Tao. Or maybe it's like an a la carte menu and you pick and choose your own adventure but still abiding within the framework of Taoism.
Syncretism, historically, is about as Taoist as you can get. And then there's the question of, well, which pantheon? And pantheon of spirits to invoke per the traditions of which region.
and the traditions of which region during which dynasty. The Taoist pantheon was never static. Where do you draw the line between Taoism and folk religions? And it's not just Buddhism.
There's quite the quantum entanglement with Confucianism and the I Ching as well. But by the time a Taoist framework is defined during the Han Dynasty, the pre-Qin intuitive, instinctive knowledge of the Tao has already embedded itself deep into the soul DNA of, well, people like me. It becomes ethnic, genetic, not just religious, not just a school of philosophy, but cultural knowledge rooted in the collective unconscious.
The Tao becomes the source of cultural continuity across the millennia of generations of Yellow River peoples. The Tao is why the Chinese are arguably the oldest continuing world civilization. To summarize, The Taoism that has not yet been named Taoism is as old as the historical shamanic traditions of the Yellow River civilizations.
Traced back to the Yellow Emperor, the sole DNA of Taoism is in everyone whose ancestry descends from the Yellow River cradle of civilization. In Records of the Grand Historian around the 2nd century BC, Sima Qian says this about Taoism. parameters for defining this school of thought that has endured to this day. The school of thought called Taoism cultivates a focused mind, the powers to control the unseen world, and to enrich, to support, to stabilize any and all things.
That, in a nutshell, is the objective for studying Taoism.