This is a survey of the history of Taoism from approximately the
third century B.C. to the fourteenth century A.D. For many years,
it was customary to divide Taoism into "philosophical Taoism" and
"religious Taoism." The author has long argued that this is a false
division and that "religious" Taoism is simply the practice of
"philosophical" Taoism. She sees Taoism as foremost a religion, and
the present work traces the development of Taoism up to the point
it reached its mature form (which remains intact today, albeit with
modern innovations).
The main aim of this history of Taoism is to trace the major lines
of its doctrinal evolution, showing the coherence of its
development, the wide varieties of factors that came into play over
a long period of disconnected eras, the constant absorptions of
outside contributions, and the progress that integrates them. The
author shows how certain recurrent themes are treated in different
ways in different eras and different sects. Among these themes are
the Ultimate Truth, immortality, the Sage, the genesis and the end
of the world, retribution for good and evil acts, representations
of heavens and hells, and the connections between life and the
spirit, between life and death, between man and society, and
between mystical experience and the social form of religion.
The plan of the book is chronological, but the chronology is
somewhat fluid given the way Taoism evolved; as it assimilated new
features in the course of its growth, it never ceased to continue
to develop the old ones. Thus the Celestial Masters sect, which is
chronologically the first to attain a structure, is treated at the
outset of the book though it exists down to our day, and the
Shangqing tradition took shape in the fourth century though its
glory years were under the Tang (618-907).
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