There are two aspects of Taoism. The first one is the original genuine Taoism which is purely a philosophy spelt out in the five-thousand-word Dao De Jin written by the philosopher Lao Zi (老子) about 2,500 years ago and he was a contemporary of Confucius. It is even believed that they had once met to discuss philosophy. He did not practice any ritual and he did not talk about the gods and praying to them plus the afterlife and preparing for it. Laozis Tao is about a way of life that advocates the respect for nature and to accept the natural tendencies of all the forces in the universe as well as in the human world. Lao Zis Taoism is certainly not a religion but pure philosophy. Traditionally, only learned men, notably those scholars who were marginalized by society due to their failing to pass official exams, studied his philosophy. The masses were indifferent to it. Taoism was made prominent by Zhuang Zi(庄子）, a scholar who was born about 120 years after Lao Zi, He studied Dao De Jin. He declared that he was the disciple of Lao Zi and was/is accepted as such. This is why The Way of the Tao is often called Laozhuang phylosophy (老庄哲学） The Second Aspect of Taoism This is the one that commonplace Chinese and non Chinese are familiar with. It is a home-grown Chinese non theistic pagan religion which devotees pray to a multitude of gods and goddesses. It incorporates certain aspects of Laozi Tao philosophy into its beliefs and therefore it is called the Taoist religion. Taoism has a few major gods. The supreme god being the fictitious Yuhuangdadi(玉皇大帝The Jade Emperor). The other popular gods are, for instance, 1. Guan Gong (关公，the figurine wearing green garb holding a big knife), a general that lived about 1,800 years ago who was made into a deity by adorers of his virtues. 2. The Monkey God (孙悟空，which was made famous by the epic Monkey Goes West) adapted from the Hindu god Hanuman. 3. Tian Hou（天后）who was a fishermans daughter in Fujian province that lived about 1,000 years ago that sacrificed her life to save some fishermen and thus ordained as a goddess by fishermen. This goddess is very big in southern China and Taiwan in particular. In Malaysia, a huge Tian Hou temple was built by the Hainanese at Taman Seputih. There are Taoist priests that go into trances to solve problems especially those considered arcane in nature. They also do prayers at funeral wakes. Taoists believes in the afterlife. The concept of Hades and rebirth was basically adapted from Buddhism (which was taken from Hinduism). It is not strictly a religious belief in the divine - it is said that the dead will be made to cross a bridge. At the end of the bridge, a ghostly woman called Mengpo(孟婆) awaits. He will be forced to drink a bowl of soup which ensures that he forgets everything about his past life when he is reborn as a different person in his next life. If the dead person was an irredeemable sinner, he shall not be reborn but burn in eternal hell, and the punishment is rather standard derivative of human imagination which is the same sort of knife-piercing-perpetual-immolation scenario described in theistic religions.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 16:31:03 +0000
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