In the Material World

Trey Smith

As Baroness Radon and I have continued this discussion regarding whether or not there is a distinction between a philosophical and religious form of Taoism, I have found an ally from a surprising source: Eva Wong! Chapter 3 of her book, The Shambhala Guide to Taoism, is entitled, The Transformation of Taoism from a Philosophy into Organized Religion (20 BCE - 600 BCE).

This is NOT to suggest that, before becoming an organized religion, there were not any religious elements in the Taoist philosophic belief system. However, as I pointed out in the post, Whaddya Mean?, the crux of these elements turns on how a person defines the word, religion.

For my purposes, however, allow me to quote from Wong's book.

Although it is often said that Chang Tao-ling singlehandedly [sic] changed Taoism from philosophy to religion in the Eastern Han dynasty (25 -219 CE), this statement is exaggerated. Had the historical conditions that facilitated the transformation of Taoism from philosophy to religion not been in place, Chang Tao-ling's efforts would not have succeeded.

It would seem that Wong -- who defines herself as a religious Taoist -- accepts the notion that Taoism once was predominantly a philosophic system that later evolved into an institutionalized religion. I don't know how else to interpret this paragraph.

And what are the historical conditions that Wong cites?

They certainly are not in the mold of the Abrahamic religions! Wong does not argue that the deity or an immortal shared the secrets of the divine with a mere earthling who then imparted this knowledge to the world. No, the conditions she proffers are bound up IN this material world.

During the Warring States Period, there were a multitude of rulers and dukes fighting great wars amongst themselves. Each one was trying to gobble up as much territory as possible, many with the ultimate aim of unifying China. It was during this period that numerous philosophic schools of thought sprung up. Two notable ones were Confucianism and Taoism.

As these feudal lords jockeyed for position, itinerant philosophers from these various schools traveled about trying to convince these rulers to adopt their philosophy as a way to lead the people. So long as China remained in this state of constant turmoil, the itinerant philosopher had the potential for a job. If rejected by one lord, the philosopher could continue down the road to the next fiefdom.

As Eva Wong tells it,

The unification of China by the Ch'in dynasty brought an end to the demand for mercenary statesman and itinerant political advisers.

In other words, the disciples from these numerous philosophic schools of thought found themselves out of a job! Since everybody needs to eat, they needed to develop a mechanism to insure employment. The mechanism they created was to turn philosophy into religion!

Of course, there are more variables involved -- few things happen in history for one and only one reason -- but this happenstance served as the linchpin. It was the unification of China that changed the landscape that the philosophic "advisers" found themselves in and, as with most things in life, if you don't find a way to adapt, you die.

It should also be noted that one of the elements that exerted a lot of influence on the development of Taoism from philosophy to religion was Buddhism. The latter was taking hold in China and, in order not to be left behind in the dustbin of history, religious Taoism borrowed more than a few ideas from Buddhism.