The origins of Taoism
The Chinese religions that are popular in the world are Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. These three teachings complement each other, and have been used as guidelines in the daily lives of Chinese people.
If Confucianism emphasizes the ethical values of life, Buddhism emphasizes life after death, then Taoism emphasizes the harmony of human relations with nature. These three teachings are very influential in the daily life and religion of the Chinese people, so it is difficult for us to separate which of these Chinese religious practices truly originate from Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. And in this paper we will explain more about what the Taoism religion is, its teachings, and its worship practices.
Get to know the teachings of Taoism
Taoism (Chinese: 道教 or 道家) also known as Daoism, was initiated by Laozi (老子: pinyin:Lǎozǐ) since the end of the Chunqiu Period who lived in 604-517 BC or the 6th century BC. Taoism is Laozi's teachings based on the Daode Jing (道德經, piyin: Dàodé Jīng). The famous follower of Laozi was Zhuangzi (莊子) who was the author of the book entitled Zhuangzi.
Taoism is a philosophical school that originates from China. Taoism is thousands of years old, and the roots of its thought predate Confucius. This can be called the initial stage of Taoism. A more systematic form of Taoism and a philosophical school emerged around the 3rd century BC.
Apart from philosophical schools, Taoism also appeared in the form of a folk religion which began to develop 2 centuries after the development of Taoist philosophy. Taoism is also often called Tao. Tao is the main force in the universe which is found in all things, is at the core of all things in heaven and on earth, is eternal and cannot change. The name Tao is taken from the Chinese character which means path. Based on written sources, it is generally believed that the Taoist religion originated from the Yellow Emperor (Wang-di).
The founder of Taoism was a famous Chinese thinker with the name "Lao Tse" (old teacher) who was thought to have been born in 600 BC to coincide with the 3rd year of King King Ting of the Kau dynasty. He served as Supervisor of Archive Affairs at the Imperial Library. Lao Tse diligently studied ancient books and then formed his own opinions about religion and philosophy which in later times really attracted the attention of those who studied them.
When he was 90 years old, he decided to leave his job as a royal archivist and travel throughout the country to avoid the actions of the king, whom he considered unjust and cruel.
The Holy Book of Taoist Teachings
The Tao Te Ching is a holy book in the Taoist religion, considered the thinnest holy book among all the holy books of various religions in the world. Consisting of 81 short poems, accompanied by short prose. Consisting of 25 pages which were then commented on by various philosophers, it became a very thick book.
Even though the Tao Te Ching is thin, its contents cover almost all aspects of life. Even though the words used are simple, their meaning contains many paradoxes. The tipi book is truly a challenge for anyone to understand its deeper meaning.
This book was written by Lao Tse in the 6th century BC. It is very difficult for lay people to understand the book because it is very poetic and presented in a straightforward manner. The most important content of the Tao Te Ching is the teachings about Wu-wei. Wu-wei is a famous commandment for Taoist adherents which is used as guidelines and ethics in maintaining one's life and provides an example of the "way" to become a wise person.
Wu-wei is a life lived without tension. It is the pure embodiment of gentleness, simplicity, and freedom. The book holds a magical (mysterious) meaning, which is implied in the word "TAO". This word makes it difficult for many scholars to define it. The teachings of Taoism tend to bring ancient Chinese traditions into religious and philosophical forms.
In this way, Lao Tse made Taoism into an ideology that could balance Kungfucianism, which was known as an ancient ideology and which tried to maintain Chinese traditions in a new form, but was on the same path as Taoism.
Besides the Tao Te Ching, there are other books which are considered by experts to be the second greatest work of Taoist philosophy, namely the Chuang-Tzu book which contains the thoughts of teacher Zhuang and his students and the Leizi book which contains collections of stories and entertainment. in philosophy.
Teachings and Worship Practices of Taoism
Taoism has four teachings, namely:
1. Dao
Dao is the core of the teachings of Taoism, which means it is formless, invisible, but is the process of occurrence of all living things and all objects that exist in the universe. Dao, which is manifested in the form of living objects and other material things, is De. The combination of Dao with De is known as Taoism which is the basis of naturalness. Human immortality is realized when someone reaches Dao realization, and that person will become a god. Taoist adherents practice the Dao to attain Dao consciousness, and become a god.
2. Yin and Yang
Dao give birth to something, which is called Yin (Positive) and Yang (Negative), Yin and Yang complement each other to produce energy or strength. This power comes from millions of objects in the world. Every object in the universe, whether animate or inanimate, contains Yin and Yang which complement each other to achieve balance.
Yin and Yang symbol
- Yin: darkness, evil, passivity, women, etc.
- Yang: bright light, active kindness, positive, male, etc.
3. Views about Humans:
Humans who are arrogant and do things beyond their abilities will one day face reproach that can make them grieve or suffer. Therefore, a wise person who knows the Dao and the laws of nature will choose to resign and reject all honors given to him.
He chose not to highlight himself. However, Taoism does not teach that one must get rid of all possessions to achieve inner peace. The thing that needs to be thrown away is the feeling of attachment to these possessions.
4. Ethics
In living the existing life, humans lead a natural life without any interference. This natural life is a basic virtue that triggers the emergence of three other virtues that guide humans in their lives, namely gentleness, humility and self-denial.
Gentleness is the friend of life, conversely, hardness and rigidity are the friends of death. Humility is an attitude of being able to limit oneself by doing only what is necessary. In the Daode Ching it says, “There is no greater curse than being dissatisfied. There is no greater sin than always wanting to have. Then denying oneself is the attitude of considering oneself and human life as merely a loan from the universe to humans. Therefore, a wise human being who wants to live a calm and peaceful life will entrust his entire life to Dao or the universe.
Development of Taoist Teachings
The further development of Lao Tse's teachings lay in the hands of his students, the famous one of whom was Chuang Tse. The philosopher Lao Tse left a small book, the Tao Te Ching, containing 5,000 Chinese sayings, which Chuang Tse then commented on into 52 tomes (only 33 of which still exist).
Chuang Tse's book became popular in China and was admired by many people there. However, it is a shame that Chuang Tse's writings do not describe Lao Tse's pure teachings, because here and there they are full of his own views that deviate from his teacher's teachings.
After Chuang Tse died, many writers continued the teachings of Taoism in religious form. Then, after Taoism was seen as a religion, this ideology experienced a decline due to the inclusion of magic, superstition, and the deification of natural forces. Even Lao Tse himself was deified by people.
When Buddhism entered China, Taoism borrowed from it the concept of "Reincarnation" (reincarnation of the spirit) so that Lao Tse was considered the incarnation of the Buddhist god. After that, many temples were built throughout China, ceremonies and sacrifices and so on were also created to worship Lao Tse and spirits.
For almost 1000 years, Taoism developed along with Kunfucianism and spread throughout China, giving it a broad influence on all aspects of culture. Finally, there was a split in Taoism, namely the emergence of pure philosophical Taoism and religious Taoism (which was religious in nature).
Philosophical Taoism is based on the philosophy of naturalism which teaches that everything has a core, for example simplicity is the key to knowledge, patience is the key to understanding, compassion and kindness are the key to friendship, while calm is the key to a good life.
Furthermore, Taoism led to an understanding of magic and superstitious practices. His followers worshiped nature gods, worshiped Lao Tse himself as a god, and gods originating from Buddhism were also worshipped.
So in the end, there was a confusion between Taoism and Buddhism, which then made it difficult to differentiate between the two, especially in worship ceremonies and other religious ceremonies. It became even more difficult after Kunfucianism mixed with these two ideologies.
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