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 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 Tao, originates from the Zhou dynasty. I studied the context clues around how the Tao 道 is used in the Book of Songs 詩經, circa 1046 BC to 600 BC, one of the Five Classics, the Book of Changes or the I Ching 易經, also from the Zhou dynasty, the Book of Documents 尚書, on political philosophy, the Book of Zhou 周書, which, look, full disclosure, might not have been written until after the 1st century, describing Taoism as a central point between Confucianism and Buddhism, Jing Fang 京房’s Commentaries on the I Ching 京氏易傳, circa 57 to 37 BC, this guy, by the way, is super important with respect to I Ching study and interpretation, and the Jiao Clan’s Forest of Changes 焦氏易林, circa 206 to 9 BC, a book of divination based on the I Ching, Syncretizing usage of the “Tao” in these texts, the “Tao” means: Yī yīn yī yang zhī wèi Dào. 一阴一阳之谓道。 An encounter between yin and yang is the Tao. You could also phrase that as: A transaction of yin and yang is the Tao. Within that axiom is the judgment 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 Shuō Yuàn 说苑, Garden of Persuasions attributed to Liú Xiàng 劉向, an imperial court scholar and himself a royal, further explained in that Jīng Fáng 京房 book I mentioned, Commentaries on the I Ching, and also this text, Bái Hǔ Tōng circa 25 to 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 defining Taoism is sourced from Chéng Yí and Zhū Xī, 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 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 occult practice. I mean, yin-yang shu, that basically means occult practices. According to Lǐ, Taoism as we are familiar with it today wasn’t established until the Eastern Han dynasty. That’s around 126 to 144 AD. Prior to the Eastern Han, the term Dào jiào 道教 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 Dào jiào. Specific teachings or methods in Traditional Chinese Medicine were called Dào jiào. A system of political philosophy was called Dào jiào. A system of metaphysics was called Dào jiào. 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 陰陽家 was also integrated into Taoism. 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 Tao,” as was collectivist-libertarian political ideology. That, too, was “the Tao.” Martial arts, and the cultivation of qi necessary for martial arts, qi gong, were characterized as the Tao. Study of internal medicine was “the Tao.” In Chinese translations of the Christian Bible, Logos or “the Word of God” is translated as the Tao. This historically documented lumping of everything and the kitchen sink into “Taoism” helps to explain why, today, it can be so difficult to define or put parameters around Taoism. It isn’t until the Eastern Han, the 1st century AD, six centuries give or take, after Laozi, that Taoism gets “institutionalized” (in a manner of speaking…) and retroactively certain doctrines are designated as Taoist. First, the four cornerstones of Taoist belief: The doctrines of Wu Wei & 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 Ching: 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, Xuan De: 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 Dàoshì, meaning a priest or priestess who follows The Way, has been around since the reign of King Mu 周穆王 of the Zhou dynasty, circa 950s BC, indicating those who follow the Huang-Lao Path, which we’ll get into later in this discussion. A Dàoshì is one who passes on the teachings of Taoist principles. And then there are the four cornerstones of Taoist practice. One, Invoking Spirits, whereby the magus or Taoist methods master serves as a mediator between the physical world and the spirit world. Two, Divination, whereby the methods master serves as an interpreter of the Mysteries. Three, Ceremonial Rites, whereby the methods master is a custodian of cultural traditions, a guardian who maintains cohesion between the spiritual and physical. And four, Wū zhù, 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 re-organize the natural world. The term Fāngshì 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 Lǐ Yǎng Zhèng 李養正 framed Taoism as the indigenous Chinese tradition premised on three fundamental assumptions: Guǐ shén chóng bài 鬼神崇拜. 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 – shen - 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 rituals 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 rein 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 Guǐ 鬼 tends to imply spirits that are more yin in their energy composition, whereas Shén 神 are predominantly yang in their energy composition, and are a class in association with Immortals, xiān, which gets further subdivided into five classifications. This draft slide is incomplete and you can see me struggling with the right translations, because… I dunno how to find the right English equivalent for these terms. Oh, and Guǐ Xiān, 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. Shén xiān xìn yǎng yǔ fāng shù. Two. Studying cultivation methods for achieving immortality or spiritual transcendence. This is often subdivided into two binary categories of practice: Inner Alchemy, nèi dān shù 內丹術, and Outer alchemy, wài dān shù 外丹術. 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: Dān 丹 means alchemy. But it also means red cinnabar. Mercury. Vermillion. 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, shén xiān fāng shù 神仙方术 was widely practiced, and more importantly for us, widely documented. Shén xiān fāng shù 神仙方术 is a term for one of the five mystical arts (wǔ shù. 五术), which are found in Chapter 6, page 239, Table 6.8 in my book I Ching, The Oracle. Shén xiān fāng shù 神仙方術 means spiritual cultivation methods for attaining immortality, be that meditation, martial arts, qi gong, diet, reciting sutras, or spell-crafting. That third one, Study of the 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. Huáng Lǎo xué shuō zhōng de shén mì zhǔ yì chéng fèn. That’s the occult or arcane doctrine of Huang Lao. That’s the combined teachings of Huang Di the Yellow Emperor and Lao Zi, as in the Tao Te Ching. The Huang 黃 is an attribution to the Yellow Emperor (Huángdì 黃帝), who, assuming he’s a real guy, probably lived some time around 2600 BC. He was deified in Han dynasty texts as Huángshén 黃神 and is associated with the Big Dipper in the north. The Lao 老 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. Shén mì zhǔ yì 神秘主義. That term means the arcane, the Mysteries with a capital M, the occult. And that’s descriptive of the doctrine of Huáng Lǎo, or Huáng Lǎo Dào 黃老道. Taiwanese scholar Fu Peirong 傅佩榮 noted that shén mì zhǔ yì 神秘主義 should be translated to occultism, mì qì zhǔ yì 密契主義 because the principle concept is the esoteric experience, or mì qì jīng yàn 密契經驗. 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 傅佩榮. 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. Líng hún yǔ yī gè zhì gāo de jīng shén shí tǐ xiāng qì hé de jīng shén jīng yàn. That is how Lǐ Yǎng Zhèng describes the Taoist doctrine of Huang Lao: It is refinement of the hún, or yang aspect of your soul in hun po 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 Huang Lao that seem 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 Lì Mín 利民, 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 wú wéi. Since there’s already a video dedicated to the concept of wú wéi, I won’t get into it again in this video. Just know that this principle of wú wéi is one of two halves that make up the Taoist doctrine of Huáng Lǎo. Under the Huang Lao doctrine, the third of three prongs to providing us with a framework for Taoism, is governed by the binary code of Lì Mín 利民, for the greater good of the people, and wú wéi 無為. These two tenets are considered the highest priority of the Taoist. The term “Huang Lao 黄老” itself is first found in the Shiji 史記 or better known in English as the Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian and his father. The term Huang Lao 黄老 appears at least 16 times throughout the Shiji, in reference to a method of sorcery or magic, Fa Shu 法術, traced back to the Huang Lao tradition. That idea of methods of sorcery and magic traced to the Huang Lao tradition was then integrated into the school of Taoism. And yet per context clues, the methods and Ways of Huang Lao also seems to be indicative of a form of martial arts, or a particular philosophical approach to martial arts. Huang Lao also implies a political philosophy. On screen I’m just showing a couple more places in the Records of the Grand Historian, circa 2nd century BC, where the doctrine of Huang Lao gets referenced. The Way of Huang Lao, or what per historical records seems to get referenced as within the scope of the Way of Huang Lao 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 Mo Jia 墨家, 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 Huang Lao, 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 Yuán Chén Gōng 元辰宮, or Inner Palace and the Akashic Records. The four in multiplication with the sacred trinity, the three, produces an array of twelve, the mathematical designation of space-time. That is the circular, cyclical expression of the Tao as nature and cosmos. That’s twelve for the 30-degree segments of the 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 x 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 in to 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 nonlinearity 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-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. Pre-Qin (and that reference is something we addressed in the previous video), Taoism was one of the One Hundred Schools of Thought. The One Hundred Schools of Thought (諸子百家, zhū zǐ bǎi jiā) were a consortium of schools of philosophy recognized during the period of 500 BC to 200 BC. Confucianism, Taoism, 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 reconcile. 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 I Ching. 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: yī yīn yī yang zhī wèi Dào. 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 Tao, 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 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 Wu Xing, along the lower level, and a binary two along the upper level, double-stacked, is a calculation device based on the Lo Shu magic square, which you know, isn’t just magic woo-woo, although it is that, too, but it’s just math. When you read the Tao Te Ching, or even consider how hexagrams are constructed in the I Ching, you see how it’s premised on rationalist philosophy – step by step logical argumentations that build on top of each other to reach deductions, the importance of analysis, and the idea that what is “the Tao” must be, necessarily, a universal principle. If it does not hold true across all domains, then it is not true. 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 Jiao, Taoism. 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. Dào Dé. I’m guessing you’re most familiar with this term in the context of the Tao Te Ching, a foundational authoritative text on Taoism as a school of philosophical thought. Dào Dé Tiān Zūn 道德天尊 is the earliest supreme god worshipped in Taoism. Temples with pagodas venerating Dao De Tian Zun 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, Sān Qīng. The content of the Tao Te Ching tends to be conceptual. The book sets forth the philosophical principles of the Tao and the ethical principles or code of virtuous conduct called De. Beginning with the Taoist god Dào Dé Tiān Zūn, 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 start to see definitions for Taoist beliefs on one side and Taoist practice on the other. But we have this reality of practitioners who engage in Taoist practice by those definitions, but apply a Buddhist framework of religious beliefs to Taoist practice. That’s still the Tao. Or vice versa. There are traditions, lineages of Taoist practice subscribing to classically attributed Taoist beliefs, but implementing 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 soul 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.