What is Taoist Doctrine? 道教的教义

The written provisions defining the basic religious beliefs of Taoism are referred to as its doctrinal teachings, while the theoretical system expounding these teachings is known as its theological tenets.

Religion is an ancient and universal social and cultural phenomenon in human history, as well as a form of ultimate spiritual concern for life. It encompasses core elements such as fundamental religious concepts, the religious experiences of believers, stylized religious rituals, and religious organizations and institutions. In terms of religious concepts, it includes theories of creation, views on the soul, life and death, deities and divine nature, ethical values, religious ideals, and teachings of encouraging benevolence. In terms of religious experience, it covers religious emotions, core spiritual experiences and the means to attain them. In terms of religious activities, it consists of prayer, sacrifice and basic religious rites; in terms of religious organizations and institutions, it includes clerical ranks, religious positions, monastic rules and various precepts.

What is Taoist Doctrine?

The doctrinal teachings and theological tenets of Taoism took shape gradually over a long historical process. They not only share the general characteristics of other religions worldwide but also embody the ethnic traits of traditional Chinese culture. For historical reasons, during its formation, Taoism extensively absorbed elements of religious belief and ethical concepts from various schools of thought in China—including Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism—and folk legends. It had no time for unified collation and assimilation, nor a single religious leader to conduct systematic founding activities, which inevitably resulted in some disorganized and superficial content within its doctrines.

For instance, it incorporated into its teachings Buddhist theories of kalpas, samsara in hell and the multilayered heavenly realms, diverse folk systems of gods and ghosts, Confucian ethical values, Buddhist monastic rules, and folk ghost worship rituals, witchcraft and taboos. These shallow religious elements were introduced by vulgar Taoist Priest who plagiarized Buddhist teachings and compiled spurious Taoist scriptures during the historical competition between Buddhism and Taoism. However, having been passed down for a long time and integrated into traditional Taoist doctrinal teachings and tenets, such content cannot be sorted out without a major religious reform initiated by highly enlightened Taoist masters.

Despite this, the doctrinal teachings and theological tenets of Taoism still contain profound ideological essences that align with the spirit of the times. For example, Taoism established the Supreme Deity Yuanshi Tianzun, who transcends national and ethnic boundaries; its belief in the pantheistic The Dao, which is equivalent to the innate nature of all things, is comparable to the Buddha-nature in Mahayana Buddhism. The Taoist values of doing good and helping others, forbearance and non-contention, contempt for power and wealth, and detachment from the secular world, as well as the ideas of loving peace, cherishing life, returning to nature, and attaining purity and non-action, still hold social significance in rectifying contemporary social ills and enlightening the human mind.

As a life practice model, Taoist Internal Alchemy enables people to discover themselves and realize the value of life in modern society. Taoism respects the innate nature of humans, develops human potential, protects the natural ecological environment, opposes the alienation of human society, and advocates virtues such as compassion, frugality, forbearance, simplicity, love, honesty, trustworthiness, righteousness, sincerity, purity, emptiness and tranquility, pursuing an artistic realm of free and untrammeled life. All these form the foundation for Taoism to gradually reform into a modern world religion.

The doctrinal teachings and theological tenets of Taoism first appeared in the Scripture of Great Peace, an early Taoist text. In the late Han Dynasty, the leaders of early Taoism founded the religion based on the tenets in the Scripture of Great Peace—including relieving the poor and the destitute, curing illnesses and dispelling disasters, eliminating injustice and seeking universal peace. Though relatively primitive, the doctrinal teachings and tenets in the Scripture of Great Peace were systematic and distinctive of traditional Chinese culture, thus playing an important historical role in initiating the religious reforms of the Taiping Dao and Celestial Master Daoism.

From the very beginning, Taoism took the Huang-Lao school of Daoist thought—including the theories of Yin and Yang and Five Elements and the theory of interaction between heaven and humanity—as its theoretical pillar, and it is itself the religious and esoteric transformation of Huang-Lao thought. During the Wei and Jin dynasties, Taoist doctrines incorporated Confucian ethical content, with loyal ministers, filial sons, chaste women and virtuous widows becoming models for Taoists to advocate benevolence. Meanwhile, with the popularity of Immortal Taoism, the pursuit of cultivating immortality and living a long life, alongside the pursuit of accumulating virtue, encouraging benevolence, and warding off disasters, formed different levels of Taoist doctrinal teachings.

After the Northern and Southern Dynasties, institutional temple-based Taoism took shape, and Taoist scriptures laid down numerous written provisions on Taoist deities, precepts, ritual procedures and monastic rules, marking the maturity of Taoist doctrinal teachings. Eminent Taoist masters such as Kou Qianzhi, Lu Xiujing, Tao Hongjing, Sima Chengzhen and Du Guangting made profound expositions on Taoist theological tenets. However, since Taoism had no universally recognized religious leader to exercise unified authority, its affairs were intervened by Taoist officials under the rule of feudal dynasties. Furthermore, unlike Christianity with the Bible and Islam with the Quran, Taoism had no sacred canonical texts; instead, philosophical works such as the Dao De Jing served as its religious scriptures.

Consequently, the theological writings of these eminent masters were not recognized as authoritative doctrinal teachings in Taoism, while some vulgar Taoist priests boldly compiled spurious Taoist scriptures claiming divine revelation, which circulated widely in Taoism and introduced numerous disorganized systems of deities, creation myths, theories of karma and retribution, and tales of heaven and hell into Taoist doctrinal teachings and tenets. During the Song Dynasty, Liao, Jin and Yuan Dynasty, Taoist schools such as The Quanzhen Dao, Zhengyi Dao, Zhenda Dao, Jingming Dao and Taiyi Dao were successively founded by eminent Taoist masters, each with its own distinctive theological tenets and doctrinal teachings.

Imbued with the spirit of their times and resonating with the people, these doctrines all flourished for a time. Since the Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty, Taoist doctrinal teachings and theological tenets have merely followed established traditions. The leaders of Zhengyi Dao and Quanzhen Dao achieved little in doctrinal innovation, leading to the gradual decline of Taoism. Especially in modern times, no highly enlightened Taoist masters have initiated religious reforms or founded nationwide Taoist schools. Some Taoist doctrinal teachings bearing the marks of feudal patriarchal society have become increasingly outdated and lacking in the spirit of the times, creating obstacles for Taoism to evolve into a modern world religion.

In the history of Taoism, every period of religious reform and the founding of new Taoist schools has witnessed corresponding development in its doctrinal teachings and theological tenets, and such development has mostly taken the path of integrating Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. For example, the doctrinal teachings of The Quanzhen Dao take Daoism as its foundation while absorbing elements of Confucianism and Buddhism; Jingming Dao and Zhenda Dao integrate Confucianism into Taoism; some new Taoist schools founded in modern Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas Chinese communities have even incorporated elements of Christian and Islamic teachings into Taoism.

It seems that taking Daoism as the core and integrating the essences of other heterogeneous religious elements is probably the inevitable path for Taoism to evolve into a modern world religion. The basic doctrinal teachings and theological tenets of Taoism generally include the belief in deities such as Yuanshi Tianzun, the Jade Emperor and Lord Laozi, the theory of The Dao and the cosmic view that "The Dao begets the One, the One begets the Two, the Two begets the Three, and the Three begets all things", the theory of Qi, Taoist ethical values and teachings of encouraging benevolence, the practice model and experiences of Internal Alchemy cultivation, and the theories of Taoist laws, precepts and rituals.

Accumulating virtue and encouraging benevolence, preserving health and warding off disasters, living a long life, and cultivating the Dao to attain immortality have always been the core of Taoist doctrinal teachings. The ultimate goal of Taoism is to pursue the ideal realm of natural non-action, transcendence and freedom, unification with The Dao, and harmony with the innate simple nature of the universe.