Daoism: The Oral Tradition

[YMWong]

Daoism: The Oral Tradition by Dr. Michael Saso

 

Dr. Michael Saso

 

In this article I would like to explore the differences in what Western scholars perceive, and practicing Daoist masters[1] in China, take Daoism to be. To this end, I would like also to show that Daoism, as it is understood in the West, is a basically agnostic system, created by cognitive and conceptual differences which occur in westerners' translations of esoteric texts, which cannot be understood or properly translated apart from a lineage derived "koujue"[2] tradition. Put in more specific terms, texts found in the mid 15th century Ming Dynasty Zhengtong Canon, and more recent sources, are like prompt books which derive from a basically oral, not a written tradition. Both the tradition and the texts can only be understood or translated through access to a Daoist master, who knows the koujue lineage tradition.

 

According to this hypothesis, the interpreters of Daoism in the West, who do not have access to the koujue[3] interpretations of a lineage master, are like men and women who set out to explain how to fly an airplane, without ever having experienced flight, or the physical experience of taking off and landing one's own aircraft. They can also be compared to computer hackers trying to enter an encrypted website without the proper code. The message of the Daoist masters is encrypted in a highly specialized language used in the printed canon, and a specific kind of hand written materials called "Mijue" which accompany the oral Koujue. Mijue are handed down by a variety of Daoist schools and their lineage masters. Like flying an airplane or driving a car, Koujue Daoism is learned from a licensed lineage master.

 

I would like to propose, therefore, that only through field-based evidence and lineage master guided observation, can an adequate grasp of the meaning of Daoist texts, as well as ritual, and meditative practice, be obtained as a true "science".[4] This form of knowledge requires the presence of the scholar, fulfilling the role of disciple, to record the teachings of a Daoist master. The scholar of Daoism acts as a transmitter of oral evidence, as well as explicator of performance- based liturgical and meditative texts. This tradition of oral teachings, called "koujue,"[5] is an essential factor in understanding Chinese Daoism, analogous to the learning of its closely related sister-system, Tantric Buddhism. In both systems, written texts require the oral explanations of an initiated, knowledgeable, practicing master, who can explicate the full textual meaning.

 

Put in another way, just as the controlled experiment in the scientist's laboratory can yield valid scientific evidence, so too the oral proof found in properly conducted field work, in which the teachings of a master are given to the scholar who has assumed the role of disciple, or by some other analogy, a person to whom oral evidence is transmitted, is essential, and an absolute pre-requisite to understand, through a truly science based methodology, the meaning of esoteric, performance based[6] Daoist texts.

 

Rephrased in even more explicit terms, without written or visually recorded evidence derived from the laboratory or "real experience" of Daoist prayer, ritual, music, or visualization taught by a lineage master, the Western or other agnostic scholarly discussion of Daoism cannot transcend the purely academic realm.

 

Valid scholarly study of Daoism, therefore, must be aware of the "lu" register of Daoist lineage initiation, and the jie or strictly observed regulations of monastic or fireside-dwelling[7] Daoist life. Learned articles based on printed, non-visual or field derived observation only, are neither scientific nor scholarly accurate representations of the Daoist koujue or mijue[8] tradition.

 

I distinguish here the term "scientific," whereby I mean controlled experiential evidence, from academic scholarship, by which is meant evidence based on written texts, in lectures or publications given with or without valid field research, i.e., without an adequate grasp of the orally transmitted tradition. It is important to make this distinction, because of the immense amount of "scholarly" resources, which try to define or elucidate the Daoist tradition of China, vs. the relatively limited amount of evidence for the specialized oral tradition itself, which for various reasons, is not found in the majority of Western and other Asian scholarly sources.

 

There are many reasons for this lack of knowledge concerning the actual content of the Chinese language -- based Daoist tradition, a tradition which relies on more than one lineage, more than a single Daoshi[9] and his or her koujue oral teachings as transmitted in the various Daoist lineages. Daoists themselves, one notes from extended field observation, try to find a master in more than one tradition, and include the teachings received from these masters in signing their official titles to liturgical and ritual documents. Daoism becomes a life-long study, a mutual learning from Daoists and other men and women on a spiritual path, whom one meets along the "way." To be accurate, and to provide a valid study of the Koujue Daoist system, field evidence must contain: 1) mijue manuals; 2) jie observed regulations; 3) lu registers; and 4) signatures affixed to documents used in liturgical performances. There are two major reasons for the lack of scholarly knowledge concerning the four basic elements of the koujue tradition: 1) the Daoist master is forbidden to teach the oral tradition to anyone who has not first proved him or herself in the crucible of the "jie" rules and prescriptions for transmission; and 2) the very nature of the Western text-based scholarly tradition is exclusive rather than inclusive in its scope of scholarly resources, and acceptance or acknowledgment of other than printed sources. Let me explain these limitations separately, before discussing the Daoist oral tradition.

 

First, Daoism as an esoteric, i.e., orally and physically learned system, requires of its students many years of dedicated physical and mental discipline and study. The common phrase told to the disciple by the master, "Jinshi san nian, Daoshi shi nian"[10], is one of the first phrases the disciple or scholar hears from his/her master. The Daoist student must learn to play the drum[11], sing, meditate, perform the "Gold Register"[12] rites of renewal, and help bury and pray for the dead in the "Yellow Register"[13] rites of burial, before receiving koujue oral teachings. Further, the Daoist master is told in his/her own koujue or mijue prompt book[14], not to give the secrets of the "Lu" register, the various kinds of esoteric visualizations or meditations such as the Pole Star, Thunder rites, and interior meditations of apophatic emptying to anyone who is not a man or woman of dedicated virtue. Displays of anger, lewd or immoral activities, criticism of colleagues, and a proud, self-aggrandizing attitude are specifically named as reasons why one should not receive the book of lineage ordination[15], or other esoteric manuals, e.g., Pole Star and Vajra traditions.

 

The majority of scholars from the West, the Religious Affairs Bureau in China, and all who do not actually practice Daoism as a belief in the multitude of spirits summoned for ritual, the Daochang or Daoist ritual mandala, are simply not told about the koujue manuals or their contents. Daoist masters are especially amused by the obvious attempts of Westerners, scholars and entrepreneurs alike, to make of religious or ritual Daoism[16], a secularized system; for learned tenurial treatises, or worse, as a license for licentious freedom[17] or "sexual hygiene" based systems. In this last case, as with the Masters of Tibetan Buddhism, Asians and Westerners alike who come seeking the secrets of "The Dao of Sex" are simply steered away from the purity of the Daoist religious and meditative systems, by the discerning master of ritual meditation and apophatic prayer practice.

 

The great difference between the "hard" sciences and the misuse of that term in literary scholarship in the West, accounts for a second serious reason why Daoists do not reveal their oral tradition and its secrets to many Western scholars. Daoism is not exclusive, does not condemn or speak against others, and in fact accepts and respects the Buddhist, Confucian, Christian, and Islamic ways as paths leading to the Dao. By creating "schools" and spheres of academic or political influence in the Western world of scholarship and religion, speaking against or criticizing other schools and scholars, and condemning those who do not agree with their own "findings in the field"[18], Western scholars alienate themselves from the very philosophical "way" they attempt to define and teach. Daoism is not meant to be a way to gain tenure, fame, financial success, or academic power. It is a way of spiritual and contemplative prayer, which invariably includes the envisioning, summoning, and exteriorizing of spirits and their images, in both liturgical and private prayer of contemplation. Healing, acceptance of the cripple, lame, deviant, and non-conformist are signposts in Daoist recognition, contradicted by "Confucian" and "Legalist" ways favored in Eastern and Western academic and political fields.

 

Agnosticism or denial of Daoism as a "faith" has no place in the actual teachings of the Daoist master. Though faith[19] in the Chinese sense does not have the same connotation of "faith" in western religions[20], the Chinese sense of "faith"[21] in fact is inclusive. In contrast to Western religions, Daoism is all-inclusive[22], rather than exclusive of other faiths and belief systems. Thus, it allows belief in the Confucian, Buddhist, and per force Christian or Islamic systems, while offering modes and methods of prayer not incompatible with these systems. Daoism has had a profound influence on Sufism, Tantric Buddhism, and similar to Zen in the West, has begun to influence Christianity.

 

To this effect I would like to propose that "Daoism" in the modern Western use of the term refers not to what the Chinese call "Daojiao," a faith based ritual and meditative way, but to an agnostic, highly specialized field of study based on printed texts rather than on living practice.[23] Western agnostic Daoism that gives credit and preference to Western language images of what Caucasian and non-Chinese or non-practicing scholars define Daoism to be, remains unaware of the basically esoteric, orally taught traditions, and uses instead translated texts which derive from non-Chinese or non-canonical sources. In this sense, literary scholarship is not a "science", i.e., it is not based on observed field evidence, but on texts which are open to Derridean interpretation, themselves incomplete unless attended by the koujue teaching system. Even with the use of koujue, Daoist texts are, as are all texts, Derrida assures us, open to infinite interpretation, a fact acceptable to the traditional Daoist Koujue system.

 

I would further like to show that some Western concepts of Daoism are derived from and limited to specific dynastic periods, in the long history of Daoist thought in China. To illustrate this theory, Daoism can be compared to a great river flowing through Chinese history. Various streams feed into the great Daoist river, and may or may not belong to the oral Daoist tradition. These tributary sources include the Laozi, Zhuangzi, Yin Yang Five Element Cosmos, liturgical "rites of passage," interior meditation[24], and various monastic practices. Other rivulets once fed into the main stream, but later dried up, such as chemical alchemy, and to some extent the combat-focused or competitive practice of martial arts. As an example, some Daoist centers still practice healing forms of martial arts, but for the most part, Daoist martial techniques are used in ritual, rather than in actual combat, in most Daoist practice today.[25] Other systems, such as martial combat, spirit-posdsession[26] cult-oriented forms of qigong exercises, and Sexual Hygiene, are not a part of Dao's great river.

 

To demonstrate the various dynastic origins of what is called "Daoism" today, I would first like to present to the reader a brief historic schemata of important events in the history of Daoism in China.

 

 

lThe 1st Millennium, 1200 BC to 220 BC, Spring of Daoism in China

 

After the Yin-shang[27], and the early Zhou Dynasties, the Warring States period[28] generated at least six schools[29] or separate "ways of thinking" about society and nature, in early China. Three became "Confucian," and three "Daoist" after 220 BC: 1) Confucian or Rujia, and the related Legalist[30] and Logicians[31]; 2) Daoist[32], and the related Yin Yang Five Phase cosmology and Moist[33].

 

"Daojia" means literally "school" Daoism, whereas after 200 AD "Daojiao" meant the unification of all the items in the boxes below, into a single system.[34] These distinct origins of Daoism, for a millennium, were like a series of rivers flowing separately into a great ocean, which became "Daojiao"[35] during the Han period:

 

 

Laozi & Zhaungzi

 

 

Yin Yang & Five Phases

 

 

Neidan[36]

 

Li Ju, Yue Ling ch., rites of passage

 

Fangshi healing

 

 

Wushu[37]

 

Yijing [38]

 

 

lThe 2nd millennium, 200 BC to 900 CE. Han to Tang Dynasties, Daoist Summer in China

 

Daoism[39] was formulated between 140 to 500 CE, combining elements from all of the boxes shown in the above illustrations, into literary[40] and martial[41] movements. The Han Dynasty Confucian based historical chronicles[42], record that there were two kinds or lineages of Daoism during the second half of the Han Dynasty, i.e., from about 145 CE until 220 CE. These were the Celestial Master literary Daoists of West China, and the "Great Peace"[43] martial Daoists of East China. The Daoists of West China organized themselves into 24 "Sees"[44] with a wine libationer as head, while East China formed 36 "Commanderies"[45]. Daoism from its very beginnings as a "jiao"[46] became a system of summoning spirits from the Three Cosmic Realms[47], heaven, earth, and underworld, and found these cosmic systems reflected in the very inner structure of the microcosmic human body. The spiritual energies of the heavens were seen to be in the head, the earth energies in the chest, and the water or underworld energies in the lower body.

 

 

 

1.Daojiao, Daoism during the later Han: 145-220

 

Zhengyi Mengwei Daoism in West China, a "wen" literate movement, based on the Yueling chapters of the Book of Rites, & YY5E, neidan, healing, & Yijing; a parent-to-child lineage; apophatic, "black/emptying" system.

 

Taiping Daoism in East China, based on wushu[48] , meditation in "Pure Rooms," and a fraternity of sworn brothers, a Kataphatic, "red," spirit summoning lineages.

 

 

 

2.Daoism during the Three Kingdoms and North-South Periods, 220-580

 

1) The Sandong[49] or "Three Mt. Caves Alliances of Daoism"

 

Zhengyi Celestial master[50] lineage based in Lunghu Shan, Jiangxi

 

Lingbao Five Talisman Daoism, lineage, Gozaoshan, Jiangxi

 

Shangqing Lineage, Centering meditation, Maoshan, Jiangsu

 

 

Zhengyi Tianshi Daoism[51], the earliest form of Daojiao, was formulated by Zhang Daoling between 145-165, and flourished in the area of Sichuan, bordering on the Kham areas of eastern Tibet. The 24 dioceses or "Sees"[52] of the original Celestial Masters still exist. Zhang passed on his teachings to his son and grandson. Zhang Lu, the grandson, won official state approval for Zhengyi Daoism, an approval that also exists today. Zhengyi Daoists meditate on the Laozi and Zhuangzi, do rituals based on sending off memorials to the rulers of the three spiritual realms[53] of heaven, earth, and underworld, and an adapted version of the "Monthly Commands" chapter of the Book of Rites, in which five talismans are planted into five bushels of rice[54], to harmonize the five elements, five seasons, five directions, and five internal organs of the human body. These practices are the basis for all subsequent forms of Daojiao Daoism in China. The Zhengyi Daoist lineage became headquartered at Longhu Shan in Southeast China.

 

Lingbao Daoism is named after the Lingbao Wufu[55], and Lingbao Wuzhenwen[56], also essential elements in the practice of Daojiao today. Ge Hong, in an early 4th century work, Bao Puzi[57], describes them, and gives a list of books used by Daoists in his day, some in the modern Daoist Canon. Lingbao Daoism derives from the mid Han Dynasty "Apocrypha" texts[58], which are considered "taboo" and forbidden by the Confucian tradition.[59]

 

"Lingbao" means literally "heavenly" ling, blessing-filled spirit, discovered as a precious treasure[60] planted by the Dao in the five sacred mountains of the earth, and within the five organs of the human body. The ritual document in which the Lingbao true writs and five sacred talismans are planted in the earth and in the human body is called "suqi"[61] because it is usually performed between 11:00 PM and 1:00 AM. The ritual harmonizes the work of yin yang and the five elements in the macro and microcosm, outer nature and inner body.

 

Shangqing Maoshan Lineage Daoism[62] was founded by a woman Daoist of the ZhengyiSchool, Wei Huacun, about 330, but credit for the founding was given to her sons and their male friend, Yang Xi, who established the Shangqing School with the two Xu's, father and son[63], ca. 366-370. Shangqing Daoism uses the Yellow Court Canon[64] as a kind of ritual meditation.[65] It also promotes the meditations mentioned in the 4th chapter of the Zhuangzi, called "Xinzhai," "Zuowang," and "Yu Dao Heyi."[66] The mind is called the "upper cinnabar field", the seat of concept-and-image based thought. The heart is called the "center cinnabar field", seat of the will and of selfish attached love. The belly, the lower cinnabar field, is the seat of wisdom, i.e., intuitive awareness of Dao presence. By emptying mind and heart of images and desires, one can be aware[67] Dao presence inwardly[68] and outwardly[69]. Thus, Shangqing Daoism is also based on Laozi and Zhuangzi, and on Inner Alchemy[70].

 

It must be noted that Chinese popular religion and culture developed in a very special way during this period, a way which still dominates the concept and practice of being Chinese today. Confucianism provided not only access to civil service through imperial examinations, it also acted as a value system informing the relationships between humans in society. Filial piety[71], reciprocal friendship[72], benevolence in thought and action[73], loyalty to state and culture[74] and mutual respect[75] still dominate ethical & social relationships in China. Buddhism came to China during the late Han and North-South dynasties period, and provided rites of burial, merit, and the value of human compassion. Daoism as practiced in the village temples and by the fireside provided rites of passage for all of life's needs, and directed the relationships of humans with nature. The Chinese, from then to now, call this "sanjiao gueiyi" - "three religious teachings, one culture." Daoism thus cannot be understood apart from the other two great religious-ethical systems which inform Chinese culture.

 

 

3.Daoism during the Sui-Tang Period, 581-906

 

The oral tradition tells us that two other Daoist meditative methods became lineages or "schools" during the Sui-Tang period. These are the Beiji Pole Star[76]lineage, and the Qingwei Five Vajra[77] lineage, heavily influenced by, and mutually influencing Tantric Buddhism in Tibet and China. The Thunder or Vajra methods of meditative ritual, and to a somewhat lesser extent the Beiji Pole Star ritual meditations, are highly esoteric, and not usually taught by Daoist masters to anyone, especially western scholars, who has not received a Daoist ritual initiation, i.e., a "lu" or register. There are very few books in English or other Western book markets which treat of these systems. N.b., they are outlined, and can be found in the recent 2nd edition of Taoist Master Chuang.[78]

 

This field of Koujue Daoist studies is youthful and open, welcoming young scholars into the sacred mountains and hills of China, to study with the unassuming and secluded Daoist lineage masters. Men and women are considered equal in Daoism, and may equally be accepted as students and disciples. Kindness and unassuming listening skills are requisites for this study.

 

lThe 3rd Millennium: From the Song Dynasty onward, 960-1900, Autumn

 

The 3rd millennium of Daoism in China began with a truly widespread and positive sort of religious reformation, during the Song dynasty, 960-1280. China's reformation occurred some five centuries before the reformation in Europe, and was far more wide reaching and positive. The laity of China[79] became the focus of ritual and liturgical reform. Lay people, who were always a part of the traditional "Rites of Passage"[80], now took on much more important roles in the rites of burial, and "gongde" chants for merit and repentance. The folk religion of China[81], literally the "faith and beliefs of the ordinary people" became a dominant cultural force throughout China.

 

For a deeper understanding of the annual cycle of festivals and the life cycle of ritual used in the family household, see Blue Dragon White Tiger[82]. Daoist schools and popular sects multiplied from this period until the present day in China. Among the schools that survived until the present are: the Shenxiao Spirit Heaven, Lushan, Sannaimedium practitioners, popular Maoshan, the more traditional Yujing, Yufu, and so forth. These schools are defined in a widely circulated manual called "Daojiao Yuanliu"[83] given by the Daoist master to his or her initiated disciple.

 

Other movements, such as "fangzhongshu"[84], the popular possessed mediums[85], and secular qigong or wushu schools, are not to be confused with, or even associated with Daoism, except in the popular paperback book markets of the West. In the words of the Daoist masters, this modern Western trend to popularize such disciplined and time-honored religious systems of Asia, may perhaps best be classified as "Dao for Dollars", a part of marketing expertise, which need not reflect the reality or practical authenticity of the product being advertised.

 

One of the most important Daoist movements of the Song and Yuan[86] period, was the founding of the Quanzhen monastic order of Daoists. Quanzhen Daoism is a truly "ecumenical" or all-enfolding school of practice, as its name implies. "Quanzhen" means in a literal sense "all truth" or "all that is true" as a basis of practice. Thus, Quanzhen promotes Buddhist Chan-style meditation and chants for merit and repentance, Confucian social and family virtues, and Daoist rites of passage. Quanzhen Daoism is the most powerful school in China today, officially approved by the State through the Religious Affairs Bureau of the State Government, and the United Front Association of the Communist Party in China, Professors Kubo Noritada and Yoshioka Yoshitoyo of Japan pioneered in the study of the Quanzhen School.

 

Much work remains to be done in the vast and rich field of Daoist studies, now beginning its 4th millennium. Not the least of the new trends in Daoism, is a deep and penetrating study of Quanzhen and Zhengyi related Daoism today, as they exist in Hong Kong, Kowloon, modern China, and the new government sponsored Daoist school in Baiyun Guan[87], Beijing. For the first time since 1949, Chinese scholars now represent the front line of modern research in religious Daoism. Essential tools for all scholars to use in understanding the richness and complexity of the living Daojiao tradition are:

 

1)the signatures affixed by lineage masters to their ritual documents;

 

2)an oral description of the Lu registers used by the Daoist masters in liturgy and meditation;

 

3)the 40 character poem which identifies the lineage of the master given at the time of receiving his Lu register and initiation; some poems have only 20 characters, and others, especially from the Quanzhen tradition, may have as many as 100.

 

4)the use of shouyin mudra, Siddham Sanskrit mantra, and Daoist mandala visualization during ritual meditation; and

 

5)the special teachings of the Beiji Pole Star and Lei Fa Vajra traditions in Daoist practice.

 

Most Western scholars of Daoism, on the other hand, affirm the agnostic, non-religious aspects of Daoism, concepts which dominate the prevalent post-modern Caucasian mind. This extreme form of spiritual denial, which has dominated Western thinking since the time of the French enlightenment, the industrial revolution of the 19th century, and the "Prophets of Extremity"[88] of the 20th century, are exemplified in the works of Nietzsche, Heidegger, Foucault, and Derrida, who, indeed, defined and predicted the dominance of modern Western agnostic hermeneutics. All that is spiritual in Daoism, whether in its kataphatic "image filled" folk-religion aspects, or the apophatic, emptying, non-conceptual or concept emptying practices of the Shangqing, Quanzhen, and other monastic orders, are missing from the majority of modern Western studies. One need only refer to modern bookstores for popular studies of Daoism, to see that combative martial arts, translated and illustrated copies of the Laozi and Zhuangzi, sexual hygiene[89], and denials in conference papers by leading modern Western scholars that Daoism is a "faith" system, do not do justice to, indeed disregard the oral, canonical and folk traditions of Daoism in Asia.

 

 

 

lThe Arrival of Daoism in the Agnostic West

 

The arrival of Daoism in the West, as with Buddhism, presents a great change in content and practice. Daoism of Western scholars and new Caucasian "believers" witnesses fundamental change, from an inclusive, "Three teachings, one culture" focus to a new combative, exclusive, critical, and protestant like assessment of all "non-believers" or "other school" scholars, judged against a newly conceived notion of agnostic orthodoxy. Daoist masters of China would not recognize, but by the same token, would not outwardly condemn Daoism as it is practiced and taught in the West. The tradition as it is in China, must not be judged or evaluated by its western proponents.

 

[1] It is called "Daoshi" in Chinese.

[2] oral tradition

[3] oral

[4] i.e., physically present, bodily experienced observation

[5] or "mijue" in its written form

[6] liturgical, meditative, or healing

[7] married

[8] oral and hand-written

[9] Daoist master. It is pronounced "Daoshi" in Chinese.

[10] It means three years to make a licensed Confucian scholar, ten to make a Daoist.

[11] symbol of Dao's pulse in the universe

[12] Jinlu

[13] Huanglu

[14] a hand written esoteric manual

[15] Jiluyi, ritual for receiving the registers, see item No. 1 in the appendix, folio page 39b.

[16] Daojiao

[17] mis-interpretation of the Laozi and Zhuangzi

[18] Daoists are literate, and read what their scholar-visitors say about them and about Daoism in general.

[19] xin or belief

[20] Please note that Judaism, Islam, and Christianity all require belief in a revealed written book/word to "belong to" one or another system.

[21] xin

[22] Quanzhen

[23] For more ideas of this topic, please see "On 'Daojia' and 'Daoism'", Prof. Dr. Hengyucius, World Hongming Philosophical Quarterly Vol. March 2001. Internet URL: www.whpq.org/whpq/200103/200103/001-1.htm. Also see "Review of the Mind Nature Theories in Daojia and Daojiao", Prof. Dr. Hengyucius, World Hongming Philosophical Quarterly Vol. September 2001. Internet URL: www.whpq.org/whpq/200109/200109/002-1.htm.

[24] It is also called "Inner Alchemy".

[25] Modern Mount Wudang is an exception, where martial arts are taught to students at the foot of the mountain, due to the popularity of wushu or martial arts as depicted in Hong Kong and other Chinese and movies today.

[26] chenneling

[27] 1100 BC

[28] 480-220 BC

[29] It is called "jia" in Chinese.

[30] It is called "Fajia" in Chinese.

[31] It is called "Mingjia" in Chinese.

[32] It is called "Daojia" in Chinese.

[33] It is called "Mojia" in Chinese.

[34] For more ideas of this topic, please see "On 'Daojia' and 'Daoism'", Prof. Dr. Hengyucius, World Hongming Philosophical Quarterly Vol. March 2001. Internet URL: www.whpq.org/whpq/200103/200103/001-1.htm. Also see "Review of the Mind Nature Theories in Daojia and Daojiao", Prof. Dr. Hengyucius, World Hongming Philosophical Quarterly Vol. September 2001. Internet URL: www.whpq.org/whpq/200109/200109/002-1.htm.

[35] systematized Daoist teachings

[36] Inner Alchemy or meditation

[37] martial arts

[38] Book of Changes

[39] It is called "Daojiao" in Chinese.

[40] It is called "wen" in Chinese.

[41] It is called "wu" in Chinese.

[42] Hanshu and Hou Hanshu, from the 24 Dynasty Histories, is collections of documents collected by Confucian scholars in Han and the succeeding dynasties.

[43] It is called "Taiping" in Chinese.

[44] It is called "Zhi" in Chinese.

[45] It is called "Fang" in Chinese.

[46] Daojiao

[47] It is called "Sanguan" or "Sanyuan" in Chinese.

[48] martial arts

[49] Tong

[50] It is called "Tianshi" in Chinese.

[51] It is also called "Celestial Master Daoism" in English.

[52] It is called "Zhi" in Chinese.

[53] It is called "Sanguan" in Chinese.

[54] representing the imperial sacrifices on the five sacred peaks

[55] Lingbao five sacred talismans

[56] Ling Bao Five True Writs, the same used by Zhengyi Daoists.

[57] The Master who Embraced Simplicity

[58] gu weishu

[59] Please note that scholars ascribe the origin of Lingbao Daoism to Ge Chaofu.

[60] It is called "bao" in Chinese.

[61] night announcement

[62] it means Highest Pure Daoism.

[63] now of Maoshan

[64] Huangting Jing

[65] See M. Saso, Gold Pavilion, Boston: Tuttle, 1995.

[66] They respectively mean to fast in the heart/will, sit in mindful forgetfulness, and be one with the Dao in the lower belly -- the lower dantian.

[67] Feel / experience

[68] It is called "wuwei" in Chinese.

[69] It is called "youwei" in Chinese.

[70] It is called "neidan" in Chinese.

[71] It is called "xiao" in Chinese.

[72] It is called "yi" in Chinese.

[73] It is called "ren" in Chinese.

[74] It is called "zhong" in Chinese.

[75] It is called "li" in Chinese.

[76] wushu, Daoist healing martial arts

[77] thunder

[78] by M. Saso, Sacred Mountain Press: 2000.

[79] lay men and women

[80] birthing, puberty, marriage, and ancestor ritual

[81] It is called "minjian xinyang" in Chinese.

[82] M. Saso, Honolulu: Univ. of Hawaii, 1990.

[83] The Origins and Developments of Daoist Religious Teachings

[84] It means Sexual Hygiene. See the works of Mantak Chia.

[85] Wu or Dang-gi

[86] Mongol

[87] White Cloud Monastery

[88] See Megill, Allan, Berkeley: 1985.

[89] It is forbidden in the monastic and ritual Daoist tradition

[SiliconValley]

Thanks ... found it useful....in spite of the length

[Ken]

Very nice article. I was actually going to write a short article on some of the things he presented here. He saved me some work.

Edited September 27, 2008 by Ken

[metzu]

Daoism: The Oral Tradition by Dr. Michael Saso

 

Dr. Michael Saso

 

In this article I would like to explore the differences in what Western scholars perceive, and practicing Daoist masters[1] in China, take Daoism to be. To this end, I would like also to show that Daoism, as it is understood in the West, is a basically agnostic system, created by cognitive and conceptual differences which occur in westerners' translations of esoteric texts, which cannot be understood or properly translated apart from a lineage derived "koujue"[2] tradition. Put in more specific terms, texts found in the mid 15th century Ming Dynasty Zhengtong Canon, and more recent sources, are like prompt books which derive from a basically oral, not a written tradition. Both the tradition and the texts can only be understood or translated through access to a Daoist master, who knows the koujue lineage tradition.

 

According to this hypothesis, the interpreters of Daoism in the West, who do not have access to the koujue[3] interpretations of a lineage master, are like men and women who set out to explain how to fly an airplane, without ever having experienced flight, or the physical experience of taking off and landing one's own aircraft. They can also be compared to computer hackers trying to enter an encrypted website without the proper code. The message of the Daoist masters is encrypted in a highly specialized language used in the printed canon, and a specific kind of hand written materials called "Mijue" which accompany the oral Koujue. Mijue are handed down by a variety of Daoist schools and their lineage masters. Like flying an airplane or driving a car, Koujue Daoism is learned from a licensed lineage master.

 

I would like to propose, therefore, that only through field-based evidence and lineage master guided observation, can an adequate grasp of the meaning of Daoist texts, as well as ritual, and meditative practice, be obtained as a true "science".[4] This form of knowledge requires the presence of the scholar, fulfilling the role of disciple, to record the teachings of a Daoist master. The scholar of Daoism acts as a transmitter of oral evidence, as well as explicator of performance- based liturgical and meditative texts. This tradition of oral teachings, called "koujue,"[5] is an essential factor in understanding Chinese Daoism, analogous to the learning of its closely related sister-system, Tantric Buddhism. In both systems, written texts require the oral explanations of an initiated, knowledgeable, practicing master, who can explicate the full textual meaning.

 

Put in another way, just as the controlled experiment in the scientist's laboratory can yield valid scientific evidence, so too the oral proof found in properly conducted field work, in which the teachings of a master are given to the scholar who has assumed the role of disciple, or by some other analogy, a person to whom oral evidence is transmitted, is essential, and an absolute pre-requisite to understand, through a truly science based methodology, the meaning of esoteric, performance based[6] Daoist texts.

 

Rephrased in even more explicit terms, without written or visually recorded evidence derived from the laboratory or "real experience" of Daoist prayer, ritual, music, or visualization taught by a lineage master, the Western or other agnostic scholarly discussion of Daoism cannot transcend the purely academic realm.

 

Valid scholarly study of Daoism, therefore, must be aware of the "lu" register of Daoist lineage initiation, and the jie or strictly observed regulations of monastic or fireside-dwelling[7] Daoist life. Learned articles based on printed, non-visual or field derived observation only, are neither scientific nor scholarly accurate representations of the Daoist koujue or mijue[8] tradition.

 

I distinguish here the term "scientific," whereby I mean controlled experiential evidence, from academic scholarship, by which is meant evidence based on written texts, in lectures or publications given with or without valid field research, i.e., without an adequate grasp of the orally transmitted tradition. It is important to make this distinction, because of the immense amount of "scholarly" resources, which try to define or elucidate the Daoist tradition of China, vs. the relatively limited amount of evidence for the specialized oral tradition itself, which for various reasons, is not found in the majority of Western and other Asian scholarly sources.

 

There are many reasons for this lack of knowledge concerning the actual content of the Chinese language -- based Daoist tradition, a tradition which relies on more than one lineage, more than a single Daoshi[9] and his or her koujue oral teachings as transmitted in the various Daoist lineages. Daoists themselves, one notes from extended field observation, try to find a master in more than one tradition, and include the teachings received from these masters in signing their official titles to liturgical and ritual documents. Daoism becomes a life-long study, a mutual learning from Daoists and other men and women on a spiritual path, whom one meets along the "way." To be accurate, and to provide a valid study of the Koujue Daoist system, field evidence must contain: 1) mijue manuals; 2) jie observed regulations; 3) lu registers; and 4) signatures affixed to documents used in liturgical performances. There are two major reasons for the lack of scholarly knowledge concerning the four basic elements of the koujue tradition: 1) the Daoist master is forbidden to teach the oral tradition to anyone who has not first proved him or herself in the crucible of the "jie" rules and prescriptions for transmission; and 2) the very nature of the Western text-based scholarly tradition is exclusive rather than inclusive in its scope of scholarly resources, and acceptance or acknowledgment of other than printed sources. Let me explain these limitations separately, before discussing the Daoist oral tradition.

 

First, Daoism as an esoteric, i.e., orally and physically learned system, requires of its students many years of dedicated physical and mental discipline and study. The common phrase told to the disciple by the master, "Jinshi san nian, Daoshi shi nian"[10], is one of the first phrases the disciple or scholar hears from his/her master. The Daoist student must learn to play the drum[11], sing, meditate, perform the "Gold Register"[12] rites of renewal, and help bury and pray for the dead in the "Yellow Register"[13] rites of burial, before receiving koujue oral teachings. Further, the Daoist master is told in his/her own koujue or mijue prompt book[14], not to give the secrets of the "Lu" register, the various kinds of esoteric visualizations or meditations such as the Pole Star, Thunder rites, and interior meditations of apophatic emptying to anyone who is not a man or woman of dedicated virtue. Displays of anger, lewd or immoral activities, criticism of colleagues, and a proud, self-aggrandizing attitude are specifically named as reasons why one should not receive the book of lineage ordination[15], or other esoteric manuals, e.g., Pole Star and Vajra traditions.

 

The majority of scholars from the West, the Religious Affairs Bureau in China, and all who do not actually practice Daoism as a belief in the multitude of spirits summoned for ritual, the Daochang or Daoist ritual mandala, are simply not told about the koujue manuals or their contents. Daoist masters are especially amused by the obvious attempts of Westerners, scholars and entrepreneurs alike, to make of religious or ritual Daoism[16], a secularized system; for learned tenurial treatises, or worse, as a license for licentious freedom[17] or "sexual hygiene" based systems. In this last case, as with the Masters of Tibetan Buddhism, Asians and Westerners alike who come seeking the secrets of "The Dao of Sex" are simply steered away from the purity of the Daoist religious and meditative systems, by the discerning master of ritual meditation and apophatic prayer practice.

 

The great difference between the "hard" sciences and the misuse of that term in literary scholarship in the West, accounts for a second serious reason why Daoists do not reveal their oral tradition and its secrets to many Western scholars. Daoism is not exclusive, does not condemn or speak against others, and in fact accepts and respects the Buddhist, Confucian, Christian, and Islamic ways as paths leading to the Dao. By creating "schools" and spheres of academic or political influence in the Western world of scholarship and religion, speaking against or criticizing other schools and scholars, and condemning those who do not agree with their own "findings in the field"[18], Western scholars alienate themselves from the very philosophical "way" they attempt to define and teach. Daoism is not meant to be a way to gain tenure, fame, financial success, or academic power. It is a way of spiritual and contemplative prayer, which invariably includes the envisioning, summoning, and exteriorizing of spirits and their images, in both liturgical and private prayer of contemplation. Healing, acceptance of the cripple, lame, deviant, and non-conformist are signposts in Daoist recognition, contradicted by "Confucian" and "Legalist" ways favored in Eastern and Western academic and political fields.

 

Agnosticism or denial of Daoism as a "faith" has no place in the actual teachings of the Daoist master. Though faith[19] in the Chinese sense does not have the same connotation of "faith" in western religions[20], the Chinese sense of "faith"[21] in fact is inclusive. In contrast to Western religions, Daoism is all-inclusive[22], rather than exclusive of other faiths and belief systems. Thus, it allows belief in the Confucian, Buddhist, and per force Christian or Islamic systems, while offering modes and methods of prayer not incompatible with these systems. Daoism has had a profound influence on Sufism, Tantric Buddhism, and similar to Zen in the West, has begun to influence Christianity.

 

To this effect I would like to propose that "Daoism" in the modern Western use of the term refers not to what the Chinese call "Daojiao," a faith based ritual and meditative way, but to an agnostic, highly specialized field of study based on printed texts rather than on living practice.[23] Western agnostic Daoism that gives credit and preference to Western language images of what Caucasian and non-Chinese or non-practicing scholars define Daoism to be, remains unaware of the basically esoteric, orally taught traditions, and uses instead translated texts which derive from non-Chinese or non-canonical sources. In this sense, literary scholarship is not a "science", i.e., it is not based on observed field evidence, but on texts which are open to Derridean interpretation, themselves incomplete unless attended by the koujue teaching system. Even with the use of koujue, Daoist texts are, as are all texts, Derrida assures us, open to infinite interpretation, a fact acceptable to the traditional Daoist Koujue system.

 

I would further like to show that some Western concepts of Daoism are derived from and limited to specific dynastic periods, in the long history of Daoist thought in China. To illustrate this theory, Daoism can be compared to a great river flowing through Chinese history. Various streams feed into the great Daoist river, and may or may not belong to the oral Daoist tradition. These tributary sources include the Laozi, Zhuangzi, Yin Yang Five Element Cosmos, liturgical "rites of passage," interior meditation[24], and various monastic practices. Other rivulets once fed into the main stream, but later dried up, such as chemical alchemy, and to some extent the combat-focused or competitive practice of martial arts. As an example, some Daoist centers still practice healing forms of martial arts, but for the most part, Daoist martial techniques are used in ritual, rather than in actual combat, in most Daoist practice today.[25] Other systems, such as martial combat, spirit-posdsession[26] cult-oriented forms of qigong exercises, and Sexual Hygiene, are not a part of Dao's great river.

 

To demonstrate the various dynastic origins of what is called "Daoism" today, I would first like to present to the reader a brief historic schemata of important events in the history of Daoism in China.

lThe 1st Millennium, 1200 BC to 220 BC, Spring of Daoism in China

 

After the Yin-shang[27], and the early Zhou Dynasties, the Warring States period[28] generated at least six schools[29] or separate "ways of thinking" about society and nature, in early China. Three became "Confucian," and three "Daoist" after 220 BC: 1) Confucian or Rujia, and the related Legalist[30] and Logicians[31]; 2) Daoist[32], and the related Yin Yang Five Phase cosmology and Moist[33].

 

"Daojia" means literally "school" Daoism, whereas after 200 AD "Daojiao" meant the unification of all the items in the boxes below, into a single system.[34] These distinct origins of Daoism, for a millennium, were like a series of rivers flowing separately into a great ocean, which became "Daojiao"[35] during the Han period:

Laozi & Zhaungzi

Yin Yang & Five Phases

Neidan[36]

 

Li Ju, Yue Ling ch., rites of passage

 

Fangshi healing

Wushu[37]

 

Yijing [38]

lThe 2nd millennium, 200 BC to 900 CE. Han to Tang Dynasties, Daoist Summer in China

 

Daoism[39] was formulated between 140 to 500 CE, combining elements from all of the boxes shown in the above illustrations, into literary[40] and martial[41] movements. The Han Dynasty Confucian based historical chronicles[42], record that there were two kinds or lineages of Daoism during the second half of the Han Dynasty, i.e., from about 145 CE until 220 CE. These were the Celestial Master literary Daoists of West China, and the "Great Peace"[43] martial Daoists of East China. The Daoists of West China organized themselves into 24 "Sees"[44] with a wine libationer as head, while East China formed 36 "Commanderies"[45]. Daoism from its very beginnings as a "jiao"[46] became a system of summoning spirits from the Three Cosmic Realms[47], heaven, earth, and underworld, and found these cosmic systems reflected in the very inner structure of the microcosmic human body. The spiritual energies of the heavens were seen to be in the head, the earth energies in the chest, and the water or underworld energies in the lower body.

1.Daojiao, Daoism during the later Han: 145-220

 

Zhengyi Mengwei Daoism in West China, a "wen" literate movement, based on the Yueling chapters of the Book of Rites, & YY5E, neidan, healing, & Yijing; a parent-to-child lineage; apophatic, "black/emptying" system.

 

Taiping Daoism in East China, based on wushu[48] , meditation in "Pure Rooms," and a fraternity of sworn brothers, a Kataphatic, "red," spirit summoning lineages.

2.Daoism during the Three Kingdoms and North-South Periods, 220-580

 

1) The Sandong[49] or "Three Mt. Caves Alliances of Daoism"

 

Zhengyi Celestial master[50] lineage based in Lunghu Shan, Jiangxi

 

Lingbao Five Talisman Daoism, lineage, Gozaoshan, Jiangxi

 

Shangqing Lineage, Centering meditation, Maoshan, Jiangsu

Zhengyi Tianshi Daoism[51], the earliest form of Daojiao, was formulated by Zhang Daoling between 145-165, and flourished in the area of Sichuan, bordering on the Kham areas of eastern Tibet. The 24 dioceses or "Sees"[52] of the original Celestial Masters still exist. Zhang passed on his teachings to his son and grandson. Zhang Lu, the grandson, won official state approval for Zhengyi Daoism, an approval that also exists today. Zhengyi Daoists meditate on the Laozi and Zhuangzi, do rituals based on sending off memorials to the rulers of the three spiritual realms[53] of heaven, earth, and underworld, and an adapted version of the "Monthly Commands" chapter of the Book of Rites, in which five talismans are planted into five bushels of rice[54], to harmonize the five elements, five seasons, five directions, and five internal organs of the human body. These practices are the basis for all subsequent forms of Daojiao Daoism in China. The Zhengyi Daoist lineage became headquartered at Longhu Shan in Southeast China.

 

Lingbao Daoism is named after the Lingbao Wufu[55], and Lingbao Wuzhenwen[56], also essential elements in the practice of Daojiao today. Ge Hong, in an early 4th century work, Bao Puzi[57], describes them, and gives a list of books used by Daoists in his day, some in the modern Daoist Canon. Lingbao Daoism derives from the mid Han Dynasty "Apocrypha" texts[58], which are considered "taboo" and forbidden by the Confucian tradition.[59]

 

"Lingbao" means literally "heavenly" ling, blessing-filled spirit, discovered as a precious treasure[60] planted by the Dao in the five sacred mountains of the earth, and within the five organs of the human body. The ritual document in which the Lingbao true writs and five sacred talismans are planted in the earth and in the human body is called "suqi"[61] because it is usually performed between 11:00 PM and 1:00 AM. The ritual harmonizes the work of yin yang and the five elements in the macro and microcosm, outer nature and inner body.

 

Shangqing Maoshan Lineage Daoism[62] was founded by a woman Daoist of the ZhengyiSchool, Wei Huacun, about 330, but credit for the founding was given to her sons and their male friend, Yang Xi, who established the Shangqing School with the two Xu's, father and son[63], ca. 366-370. Shangqing Daoism uses the Yellow Court Canon[64] as a kind of ritual meditation.[65] It also promotes the meditations mentioned in the 4th chapter of the Zhuangzi, called "Xinzhai," "Zuowang," and "Yu Dao Heyi."[66] The mind is called the "upper cinnabar field", the seat of concept-and-image based thought. The heart is called the "center cinnabar field", seat of the will and of selfish attached love. The belly, the lower cinnabar field, is the seat of wisdom, i.e., intuitive awareness of Dao presence. By emptying mind and heart of images and desires, one can be aware[67] Dao presence inwardly[68] and outwardly[69]. Thus, Shangqing Daoism is also based on Laozi and Zhuangzi, and on Inner Alchemy[70].

 

It must be noted that Chinese popular religion and culture developed in a very special way during this period, a way which still dominates the concept and practice of being Chinese today. Confucianism provided not only access to civil service through imperial examinations, it also acted as a value system informing the relationships between humans in society. Filial piety[71], reciprocal friendship[72], benevolence in thought and action[73], loyalty to state and culture[74] and mutual respect[75] still dominate ethical & social relationships in China. Buddhism came to China during the late Han and North-South dynasties period, and provided rites of burial, merit, and the value of human compassion. Daoism as practiced in the village temples and by the fireside provided rites of passage for all of life's needs, and directed the relationships of humans with nature. The Chinese, from then to now, call this "sanjiao gueiyi" - "three religious teachings, one culture." Daoism thus cannot be understood apart from the other two great religious-ethical systems which inform Chinese culture.

3.Daoism during the Sui-Tang Period, 581-906

 

The oral tradition tells us that two other Daoist meditative methods became lineages or "schools" during the Sui-Tang period. These are the Beiji Pole Star[76]lineage, and the Qingwei Five Vajra[77] lineage, heavily influenced by, and mutually influencing Tantric Buddhism in Tibet and China. The Thunder or Vajra methods of meditative ritual, and to a somewhat lesser extent the Beiji Pole Star ritual meditations, are highly esoteric, and not usually taught by Daoist masters to anyone, especially western scholars, who has not received a Daoist ritual initiation, i.e., a "lu" or register. There are very few books in English or other Western book markets which treat of these systems. N.b., they are outlined, and can be found in the recent 2nd edition of Taoist Master Chuang.[78]

 

This field of Koujue Daoist studies is youthful and open, welcoming young scholars into the sacred mountains and hills of China, to study with the unassuming and secluded Daoist lineage masters. Men and women are considered equal in Daoism, and may equally be accepted as students and disciples. Kindness and unassuming listening skills are requisites for this study.

 

lThe 3rd Millennium: From the Song Dynasty onward, 960-1900, Autumn

 

The 3rd millennium of Daoism in China began with a truly widespread and positive sort of religious reformation, during the Song dynasty, 960-1280. China's reformation occurred some five centuries before the reformation in Europe, and was far more wide reaching and positive. The laity of China[79] became the focus of ritual and liturgical reform. Lay people, who were always a part of the traditional "Rites of Passage"[80], now took on much more important roles in the rites of burial, and "gongde" chants for merit and repentance. The folk religion of China[81], literally the "faith and beliefs of the ordinary people" became a dominant cultural force throughout China.

 

For a deeper understanding of the annual cycle of festivals and the life cycle of ritual used in the family household, see Blue Dragon White Tiger[82]. Daoist schools and popular sects multiplied from this period until the present day in China. Among the schools that survived until the present are: the Shenxiao Spirit Heaven, Lushan, Sannaimedium practitioners, popular Maoshan, the more traditional Yujing, Yufu, and so forth. These schools are defined in a widely circulated manual called "Daojiao Yuanliu"[83] given by the Daoist master to his or her initiated disciple.

 

Other movements, such as "fangzhongshu"[84], the popular possessed mediums[85], and secular qigong or wushu schools, are not to be confused with, or even associated with Daoism, except in the popular paperback book markets of the West. In the words of the Daoist masters, this modern Western trend to popularize such disciplined and time-honored religious systems of Asia, may perhaps best be classified as "Dao for Dollars", a part of marketing expertise, which need not reflect the reality or practical authenticity of the product being advertised.

 

One of the most important Daoist movements of the Song and Yuan[86] period, was the founding of the Quanzhen monastic order of Daoists. Quanzhen Daoism is a truly "ecumenical" or all-enfolding school of practice, as its name implies. "Quanzhen" means in a literal sense "all truth" or "all that is true" as a basis of practice. Thus, Quanzhen promotes Buddhist Chan-style meditation and chants for merit and repentance, Confucian social and family virtues, and Daoist rites of passage. Quanzhen Daoism is the most powerful school in China today, officially approved by the State through the Religious Affairs Bureau of the State Government, and the United Front Association of the Communist Party in China, Professors Kubo Noritada and Yoshioka Yoshitoyo of Japan pioneered in the study of the Quanzhen School.

 

Much work remains to be done in the vast and rich field of Daoist studies, now beginning its 4th millennium. Not the least of the new trends in Daoism, is a deep and penetrating study of Quanzhen and Zhengyi related Daoism today, as they exist in Hong Kong, Kowloon, modern China, and the new government sponsored Daoist school in Baiyun Guan[87], Beijing. For the first time since 1949, Chinese scholars now represent the front line of modern research in religious Daoism. Essential tools for all scholars to use in understanding the richness and complexity of the living Daojiao tradition are:

 

1)the signatures affixed by lineage masters to their ritual documents;

 

2)an oral description of the Lu registers used by the Daoist masters in liturgy and meditation;

 

3)the 40 character poem which identifies the lineage of the master given at the time of receiving his Lu register and initiation; some poems have only 20 characters, and others, especially from the Quanzhen tradition, may have as many as 100.

 

4)the use of shouyin mudra, Siddham Sanskrit mantra, and Daoist mandala visualization during ritual meditation; and

 

5)the special teachings of the Beiji Pole Star and Lei Fa Vajra traditions in Daoist practice.

 

Most Western scholars of Daoism, on the other hand, affirm the agnostic, non-religious aspects of Daoism, concepts which dominate the prevalent post-modern Caucasian mind. This extreme form of spiritual denial, which has dominated Western thinking since the time of the French enlightenment, the industrial revolution of the 19th century, and the "Prophets of Extremity"[88] of the 20th century, are exemplified in the works of Nietzsche, Heidegger, Foucault, and Derrida, who, indeed, defined and predicted the dominance of modern Western agnostic hermeneutics. All that is spiritual in Daoism, whether in its kataphatic "image filled" folk-religion aspects, or the apophatic, emptying, non-conceptual or concept emptying practices of the Shangqing, Quanzhen, and other monastic orders, are missing from the majority of modern Western studies. One need only refer to modern bookstores for popular studies of Daoism, to see that combative martial arts, translated and illustrated copies of the Laozi and Zhuangzi, sexual hygiene[89], and denials in conference papers by leading modern Western scholars that Daoism is a "faith" system, do not do justice to, indeed disregard the oral, canonical and folk traditions of Daoism in Asia.

lThe Arrival of Daoism in the Agnostic West

 

The arrival of Daoism in the West, as with Buddhism, presents a great change in content and practice. Daoism of Western scholars and new Caucasian "believers" witnesses fundamental change, from an inclusive, "Three teachings, one culture" focus to a new combative, exclusive, critical, and protestant like assessment of all "non-believers" or "other school" scholars, judged against a newly conceived notion of agnostic orthodoxy. Daoist masters of China would not recognize, but by the same token, would not outwardly condemn Daoism as it is practiced and taught in the West. The tradition as it is in China, must not be judged or evaluated by its western proponents.

 

[1] It is called "Daoshi" in Chinese.

[2] oral tradition

[3] oral

[4] i.e., physically present, bodily experienced observation

[5] or "mijue" in its written form

[6] liturgical, meditative, or healing

[7] married

[8] oral and hand-written

[9] Daoist master. It is pronounced "Daoshi" in Chinese.

[10] It means three years to make a licensed Confucian scholar, ten to make a Daoist.

[11] symbol of Dao's pulse in the universe

[12] Jinlu

[13] Huanglu

[14] a hand written esoteric manual

[15] Jiluyi, ritual for receiving the registers, see item No. 1 in the appendix, folio page 39b.

[16] Daojiao

[17] mis-interpretation of the Laozi and Zhuangzi

[18] Daoists are literate, and read what their scholar-visitors say about them and about Daoism in general.

[19] xin or belief

[20] Please note that Judaism, Islam, and Christianity all require belief in a revealed written book/word to "belong to" one or another system.

[21] xin

[22] Quanzhen

[23] For more ideas of this topic, please see "On 'Daojia' and 'Daoism'", Prof. Dr. Hengyucius, World Hongming Philosophical Quarterly Vol. March 2001. Internet URL: www.whpq.org/whpq/200103/200103/001-1.htm. Also see "Review of the Mind Nature Theories in Daojia and Daojiao", Prof. Dr. Hengyucius, World Hongming Philosophical Quarterly Vol. September 2001. Internet URL: www.whpq.org/whpq/200109/200109/002-1.htm.

[24] It is also called "Inner Alchemy".

[25] Modern Mount Wudang is an exception, where martial arts are taught to students at the foot of the mountain, due to the popularity of wushu or martial arts as depicted in Hong Kong and other Chinese and movies today.

[26] chenneling

[27] 1100 BC

[28] 480-220 BC

[29] It is called "jia" in Chinese.

[30] It is called "Fajia" in Chinese.

[31] It is called "Mingjia" in Chinese.

[32] It is called "Daojia" in Chinese.

[33] It is called "Mojia" in Chinese.

[34] For more ideas of this topic, please see "On 'Daojia' and 'Daoism'", Prof. Dr. Hengyucius, World Hongming Philosophical Quarterly Vol. March 2001. Internet URL: www.whpq.org/whpq/200103/200103/001-1.htm. Also see "Review of the Mind Nature Theories in Daojia and Daojiao", Prof. Dr. Hengyucius, World Hongming Philosophical Quarterly Vol. September 2001. Internet URL: www.whpq.org/whpq/200109/200109/002-1.htm.

[35] systematized Daoist teachings

[36] Inner Alchemy or meditation

[37] martial arts

[38] Book of Changes

[39] It is called "Daojiao" in Chinese.

[40] It is called "wen" in Chinese.

[41] It is called "wu" in Chinese.

[42] Hanshu and Hou Hanshu, from the 24 Dynasty Histories, is collections of documents collected by Confucian scholars in Han and the succeeding dynasties.

[43] It is called "Taiping" in Chinese.

[44] It is called "Zhi" in Chinese.

[45] It is called "Fang" in Chinese.

[46] Daojiao

[47] It is called "Sanguan" or "Sanyuan" in Chinese.

[48] martial arts

[49] Tong

[50] It is called "Tianshi" in Chinese.

[51] It is also called "Celestial Master Daoism" in English.

[52] It is called "Zhi" in Chinese.

[53] It is called "Sanguan" in Chinese.

[54] representing the imperial sacrifices on the five sacred peaks

[55] Lingbao five sacred talismans

[56] Ling Bao Five True Writs, the same used by Zhengyi Daoists.

[57] The Master who Embraced Simplicity

[58] gu weishu

[59] Please note that scholars ascribe the origin of Lingbao Daoism to Ge Chaofu.

[60] It is called "bao" in Chinese.

[61] night announcement

[62] it means Highest Pure Daoism.

[63] now of Maoshan

[64] Huangting Jing

[65] See M. Saso, Gold Pavilion, Boston: Tuttle, 1995.

[66] They respectively mean to fast in the heart/will, sit in mindful forgetfulness, and be one with the Dao in the lower belly -- the lower dantian.

[67] Feel / experience

[68] It is called "wuwei" in Chinese.

[69] It is called "youwei" in Chinese.

[70] It is called "neidan" in Chinese.

[71] It is called "xiao" in Chinese.

[72] It is called "yi" in Chinese.

[73] It is called "ren" in Chinese.

[74] It is called "zhong" in Chinese.

[75] It is called "li" in Chinese.

[76] wushu, Daoist healing martial arts

[77] thunder

[78] by M. Saso, Sacred Mountain Press: 2000.

[79] lay men and women

[80] birthing, puberty, marriage, and ancestor ritual

[81] It is called "minjian xinyang" in Chinese.

[82] M. Saso, Honolulu: Univ. of Hawaii, 1990.

[83] The Origins and Developments of Daoist Religious Teachings

[84] It means Sexual Hygiene. See the works of Mantak Chia.

[85] Wu or Dang-gi

[86] Mongol

[87] White Cloud Monastery

[88] See Megill, Allan, Berkeley: 1985.

[89] It is forbidden in the monastic and ritual Daoist tradition

It is in this mingling of cultures,and philosophical ideas that we truly attempt to learn about one another ,any construed inadequacies in interpretations can only come from they who are attempting to set things correctly as they see it.

That was a very impressive array of knowledge, even so it is the words that cause the confusion...too many words, to much studying not enough living, too much practicing too much meditation, again not enough living. Too many scholars ,too many interpretations, too many opinions. To be lost in the words only seperates us more from that which we say and think we are seeking. It is in letting go of what we think we know each day that we will come to our destination. Minding our own business, living life at peace with our own self.

Scholars, masters,teachers,gurus,jesuses,buddhas,just can't help but try to alter natures course, thinking they surely know the better way and want to make it happen in their own way in their own time, and their followers are all in a hurry to get there so they can do as their teachers taught them.

All this pretense where does it come from?

So what pretences still remain in me?

[Walker]

Essential tools for all scholars to use in understanding the richness and complexity of the living Daojiao tradition are:

 

...

 

4)the use of shouyin mudra, Siddham Sanskrit mantra, and Daoist mandala visualization during ritual meditation

 

Should one equate Siddham Sanskrit mantra with Buddhist mantra in this context?

[autopoetic]

Other systems, such as martial combat, spirit-posdsession[26] cult-oriented forms of qigong exercises, and Sexual Hygiene, are not a part of Dao's great river.

 

I thought about this for a while... if the whole point of his article is that Daoism is partly composed of a rich and often secret oral tradition, how can this guy claim to know what isn't part of that tradition? Has he met every daoist master through history? Has he been initiated into every school? Claims like the one quoted above reek of hubris to me.

[Taiji Bum]

So is Saso back in the Jesuits or back married?

[YMWong]

So is Saso back in the Jesuits or back married?

 

Nariko, Saso's wife, passed away a few years ago.

 

Prof. Saso has been re-integrated in the church upon request for quite a while already.

 

YM