Lao Tzu's Taoism is so broad and profound that it will not suddenly arise, and it must have its ideological precursors and cultural origins. We have argued that the cultural origins of Taoism are the primitive religion of female worship in matriarchal clan societies. The precursors of his thinking are, first, the political experience of tribal chiefs in primitive society and the way of standing and doing things passed down from generation to generation; the second is the experience and technique of wushi in primitive religious activities.
01
"Zhuangzi Tianxia" Yun: "Take the essence as the essence, take the things as the coarse, take the accumulation as the deficiency, and live alone with the gods." The ancient Tao Technique has its own, and Guan Yin and Lao Nie are pleased to hear it. "Guan Yin, Old Man Hu, Gu Zhi Bo Da Zhenren Ya!" It can be seen that Lao Tzu's sayings are passed down from the "ancient Taoism", and he is a great philosopher who is proficient in ancient books and historical events. The book "Lao Tzu" quotes many sentences from predecessors and reveals that his learning originated from the ancient "saints". Looking at the eighty-one chapters of Lao Tzu, there are twenty-one chapters and twenty-six sentences mentioning the ancient "saints." These "saints" are "sheji lords" with experience in governing the country, "kings of the world", that is, tribal chiefs of ancient clan societies, and then there are famous witch histories with monastic experience.
The Tianzi or princes of the Xia, Shang, and Three Dynasties were actually hereditary tribal chiefs, and Tianzi was the leader of these chiefs. We go back three generations of ancient emperors, the atmosphere of primitive Taoist culture is getting stronger and stronger, and the era of the legendary Fuxi, Shennong, and Yellow Emperor is the era of the foundation of the original Taoist cultural tradition. Lao Tzu also pointed out that the Taoist tradition is very ancient, saying: "The way of adhering to the ancients, with the existence of the imperial present, and being able to know the beginning of the past, is called the Taoist discipline." (Chapter 14) The so-called "ancient beginning", that is, the beginning of ancient Chinese civilization and the beginning of Chinese type of society, this is the primitive religion of the Nüwa and Fuxi eras.
This primitive religion at the beginning of the formation of human society continues the tradition of formation for tens of thousands of years, and has been preserved in the ideological historical materials of three generations. The ideological historical materials of the Zhou Dynasty Shouzang Room were far richer than those known now, and the old man, who was the history of the Zhou Shouzang Room, was in charge of the management of the library for generations. Reading more ancient books, Ming history, and passing on the practice experience of witch history, these ancient primitive Taoist ideas and experiences are also reasonable in the Tao Te Ching.
The Book of Han and Yiwenzhi, in front of the Book of Laozi, contains the books of Yi Yin, Taigong, Xin Jia, and Zi Zi, which are used as precursors to Taoist thought. As early as the beginning of the Western Zhou Dynasty, King Wu of Zhou took Lü Shang as his teacher and Zhou Gongdan as a supplement, and Taigong Wang Lü Shang and Zhou Gongdan were both famous politicians in history, but they represented the two tendencies of primitive religion.
Lü Shang was the leader of the clan surnamed Jiang, and the Jiang clan and the Zhou clan (surnamed Ji) were married. Taigong Jiang first became King Zuowen and then the Master of Wu, who pacified the world and was enfeoffed to Qi for his merits. "The Taigong went to the country to repair the government, because of its customs, its simplicity, its trade and industry, and the profits of fishing and salt, and the people returned to Qi, and Qi was a great power." ("History of the Qi Taigong Family") Jiang Taigong's simple administration and customs, focusing on utilitarianism and efficiency, respecting the political line of merit and merit, and conforming to the religious policies of folk witchcraft, laid the seeds for the later Generations of Taoist Huang Laozhi and the Immortal Alchemists to be active in the State of Qi.
Zhou Gongdan's son, Bo Yan Zhilu, implemented a political line characterized by maintaining patriarchal patriarchy and blood ties, and adopted a religious policy of "changing their customs and changing their funeral rites". He carried out the patriarchal rituals and teachings formulated by Zhou Gongdan in the state of Lu, and after three years of mourning, strict order from top to bottom, he established a political system that regarded the family as the country and adhered to bureaucratic procedures.
The two political lines of Taigong Wangzhiqi and Bo yanzhilu influenced the characteristics of the two main streams of Taoism and Confucianism in the traditional culture of the Chinese nation for more than three thousand years. The Hanshu Yiwenzhi states that the Taoists placed Jiang Taigong's book before Lao Tzu, apparently seeing Jiang Taigong as a precursor to Taoist thought.
02
Examining the formation of Chinese philosophical thought and its way of thinking, there is a cultural background of the worship of women and then the worship of fertility between men and women. In recent years, Chinese archaeological discoveries, excavated cultural relics and decorations, rock paintings and even ancient gossip and river diagrams have revealed the information of the ancient man's and woman fertility worship culture.
Ji
Professor Ji Xianlin quoted a passage from Engels's "The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State" in the "Introduction to the Culture of Fertility Cult": "According to the materialist point of view, the decisive factor in history is, in the final analysis, the production and reproduction of direct life. But there are two kinds of production itself. On the one hand, the production of the means of subsistence, namely food, clothing, housing and the tools necessary for this purpose; On the other hand is the production of human beings themselves, that is, the reproduction of seeds. Professor Ji Xianlin said with emotion: "Of the two kinds of production proposed by Engels, we are only allowed to talk about the first kind, and the second kind of production about human beings themselves has become Tabu, and the color of the talk has changed, and no one dares to try." This can be said to be a tragedy in the history of scholarship. ”
In recent years, the Taoist method of maintaining health in the room and the method of double cultivation of men and women have also been classified as forbidden areas by some pseudo-scientists under the guise of "anti-pseudoscience" relying on their power, and they are only allowed to learn from the dead dogmas sold from the former Soviet Union, and they are not allowed to talk about China's own sexual science and reproductive cultural heritage. Professor Ji Xianlin explained the relationship between "food" and "color", "diet" and "men and women": "Without food, individuals cannot survive, let alone talk about reproduction; Without color, the individual can only survive for one generation, and he will have to cut off his children and grandchildren. The two complement each other and constitute a world of flowers and flowers in which people and animals and plants coexist. (ibid.)
Mr. Zhao Guohua said in the book "On the Culture of Fertility Worship": "Zhou Yutong had already demonstrated as early as 1927 that Confucian philosophy is a philosophy of fertility worship, and the fundamental idea of Confucianism originated from the cult of fertility. ("The Cult of Filial Piety and Fertility") Its depth is the emphasis on the male root. We would also like to briefly point out that the fundamental ideas of Taoism also occur in the cult of fertility. Its deep layer is the weight of the female vagina. Lao Tzu Yun: "The Gate of Xuanmu is the Root of Heaven and Earth". Youyun: 'Mu often wins over Mu with stillness, and takes stillness as the bottom.' The old man obviously derived the origin of heaven and earth from the fertility function of the pigmented female vulva, and from the process of male and female intercourse, he deduced the inaction and softness of life thought. This also shows that the yin-yang dualism and taiji monism in traditional Chinese philosophy actually stem from the cult of fertility.
Taoism and Confucianism are the two pillars of traditional Chinese culture, but both are derived from the cultural tradition of fertility worship of the ancient ancestors of primitive society. When the Chinese ancestors first understood the world, they began to think philosophically abstractly after discovering that everything on the earth has a yin and yang, and that there are men and women who have human beings, which is the basic fact of nature and society.
"Food, color, sex also." Confucius also said: "Diet, men and women, people's great desires are preserved." (Li Ji Li Yun) shows that the ancient sages of Confucianism also put material production and human production on an equal footing, and regarded the affairs of men and women as the basic needs of human beings second only to food and clothing.
"Yi Zhi Ci" Yun: "Qian Dao becomes a man, Kun Dao becomes a woman", "One yin and one yang is the Tao", "Heaven and earth are full of alcohol, and all things are alcohol." Male and female essences, all things metamorphosed. Yi Preface also says: "There is heaven and earth and then there are all things, there are all things and then there are men and women, there are men and women and then there are couples, there are couples and then there are kings and subjects, there are kings and subjects and then there are up and down, there are up and down and then there are mistakes in etiquette and righteousness." Obviously, the Confucian way of father and son and the way of kings and subjects is derived from the way of male and female husband and wife.
03
The true essence of Taoist culture is the way of yin and yang, and this Daoist realm of kung fu was later hidden in Neidanology as a secret transmission of the Dharma. In the minds of ancient ancestors, the female female yin fish water and blood menstruation, the official frog (toad) moon, are some symbols of the connection relationship, they can also be found in Lao Tzu's "Tao Te Ching". Lu Demingyun: "Lao Tzu was educated in Rongcheng", Mawangdui Han Tomb Bamboo Jian ji has Rongcheng Gongxue, which is the art of yin and yang in the intercourse room. In his "Ten Questions" Bamboo Jane, the Yellow Emperor asked Yu Rongcheng about the matter, saying that "the essence of heaven and earth is born without signs, grows up in the invisible, and becomes in the bodyless"; "Therefore, those who are good at controlling qi and holding the essence take no signs as accumulation", "it is a deep breath for life", "deep breath is long, so that the ears will not hear", etc., can be cross-referenced with the relevant chapters of Lao Tzu and Zhuangzi.
The title of the book in the room contained in the bamboo book of mawangdui Han tomb is "Talking about the Tao of the World", indicating that the Rongcheng vagina of the pre-Qin secret tradition was once regarded as the highest way in the world, that is, the way of Laozi. The Biography of the Immortals says that Rong Chenggong "can make up for the things that are good at guiding things, and take the essence of Xuanmu, the main thing is: Ceres does not die, and those who keep life and nourish qi are also." The hair is whiter and darker, and the teeth are more vigorous. Same with Lao Tzu. Yiyun Lao Zi Shi also. It is also said that "Lao Tzu is good at cultivating the essence, but he does not give it", which is consistent with the words in the Tao Te Ching, such as "dedication to softness", "holding one", "spirit", "Xuanmu Gate", "Ceres immortality", "eternal life and long-term vision" and so on. "Baopuzi Yiwen" contains "Rong Chengjing", "Hanshu Yiwenzhi" contains "Rong Chengzi" and "Rong Cheng Vagina", and Yu Yuyun: "This is Lao Tzu's teacher." ("Zhuangzi Renming Examination")
Professor Jao Zongyi, a master of traditional Chinese studies
Professor Jao Chung-yi of the University of Chinese in Hong Kong has recently studied the "study of the first old", and wrote "Rong Cheng's Testament hook sinking", and Yun "passed on Rong Chenggong as Lao Tzu's teacher - and the saying is not completely nonsense. In fact, these mysteries in Lao Zhuang's study have been revealed in the commentaries on the "Tao Te Ching" of the later Neidan family, and it seems that it is indispensable to clarify the understanding of Neidan's study of Taoism and even the Taoist classics. "Professor Rao Zongyi started from the study of evidence to reveal the mysteries of the Dan family's inheritance, opening up a new way for deciphering the Taoist classics.
The Taoist school, through the Lao, Guan Yin, Yang Zhu, Lie Yukou, Zhuang Zhou, and Jixia Huang Lao schools, was late to the advent of "Lü's Spring and Autumn" and "Huainanzi", which can be said to be a brilliant period in the academic history of Taoism. During this period, the Taoist sons had different ideological tendencies. But it is generally not far from the Taoist will. In particular, in the early days of the Han Dynasty, Cao Shan, Emperor Wen of Han, and others also had a period of political practice of ruling the country with the art of Huang Laozhi, which historians called "the rule of Wenjing", which shows that Taoism is not only the political experience of primitive society, but also feasible in class society as the art of the south of the king.
Taoism is a comprehensive philosophy, society, nature, life and other fields of university questions, can be poor reason, can be experienced, can be born, can be cultivated, it from the beginning of its formation contains the two major functions of governing the country and self-cultivation, the famous "rule of Wenjing" and "rule of Zhenguan" in Chinese history, most of them are rulers advocating the Taoist Huang Laozhi technique to govern the country model, and the Han and Tang dynasties in the world are also quite a big country in the dynasty.
China's ancient psychosomatic medicine and all kinds of health care techniques are based on Taoist learning, and many health care practitioners have successively engaged in the practice of monasticism in successive dynasties, and the scientific achievements of Taoist health care are also well known to the world. However, since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's "Confucianism alone", the political function of the Taoist Huang Laozhixue has gradually shrunk, the grandeur of embracing the Tao and the positive and enterprising spirit of the strong have been castrated, the cultivators have been regarded by the world as weak people who have escaped from the world, and the Taoist learning has gradually been distorted into a negative hermit philosophy.
When Liu Zhuang, the Ming Emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, was crown prince, he saw that Emperor Guangwu was "industrious and unslack, and he said: 'Your Majesty has the wisdom of Yu Tang, and the blessing of the old man who has lost his yellow nature, is willing to love the spirit and travel to self-tranquility'. (Later Han Shu: Records of emperor Guangwu) This shows that the early Eastern Han Daoist Huang Laozhi has been characterized by health cultivation, and is no longer regarded as "the art of the south of the king".
04
By the time of the Wei and Jin dynasties, Taoism was further castrated as a hermit philosophy, forming a pattern of "Confucian complementarity" under the pressure of imperial power. Liu Zi JiuLiu Yun: "The Taoist xuanhua is the foundation, and the Confucian virtue is the sect; Among the nine streams, the two become the most. Fu Dao incarnates the world with nothingness, Confucianism uses the six arts to help the customs; wuwei takes the innocence as the heart, and the six arts take etiquette as the training. "The wise men who rule the world today should put etiquette first; those who are in the midst of the past should do nothing; then they will be able to do both their work and their names will be complete." This shows that from the Han Dynasty to the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the nine streams were represented by the two Schools of Confucianism and Taoism, and in the minds of the Wei and Jin people, the Taoists have become the hermit philosophy of "Jiayun Shi", and the situation of complementarity between Confucianism and Taoism has been formed.
At that time, Buddhism also took root in China, and from the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty, the three religions of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism were established. The so-called three religions of Confucianism and Taoism are complementary to secular culture and religious culture. In Confucian culture, Renxue is its academic content, and etiquette is its religious belief of respecting heaven and respecting ancestors, and the two are immediately separated; Renxue focuses on social ethics and indoctrination, and etiquette focuses on the sacrifice of heaven and earth. Taoism and Taoism have been formed in succession, the two have the same cultural origin and both take "Tao" as the theoretical foundation, Taoism is the philosophical pillar of Taoism, Taoism is the religious form of Taoism, Buddhism and Buddhism are symbiotic and linked, but in fact, it is also a dual cultural system of learning and teaching.
Since the Tang Dynasty, feudal monarchs have used Confucian scholarship to open up disciplines and scholars, and Tu Dafu has advanced with Confucianism and used Taoism to make a whole body; to seek officials with Confucianism, and to get rid of the world with Taoism. As for Buddhism, which came from India and gradually became Sinicized, it can only serve as a foil for Confucians to often indoctrinate with ethical principles in order to dispel people's grievances and persuade the good to convert to Buddhism. Successive rulers have used Confucianism to observe the norm, Taoism to change, and Buddha to rule the heart, forming an ideology of the confluence of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism.
After the rise of Taoism at the end of the Han Dynasty, the study of Taoism was mixed into Taoism, and it was very rare among scholars and masters to truly obtain the true meaning of the learning of the old Zhuang Daoists. Although there were many scholars after the Wei and Jin dynasties who liked Lao Zhuang, and the commentaries on the Tao Te Ching and Zhuangzi abounded, they despised Taoism and did not read the Dan Jing, and only interpreted the Taoism from a Confucian point of view, and few people could really read it. No wonder Zhu Xi said: "There are so many commentators on the Zhuang and Lao Ershu that none of them can say that he meant it." Just by his imagination. (Zhu Zi Yu Class, vol. 7) To this day, the Old and Zhuang Commentaries are also expected to be literary and righteous works, and foreign scholars follow the clouds, and few people can reveal the realm of Daoist cultivation in the Old Zhuang Books.
Because the study of Chinese philosophy in the past was bound by the anti-religious and anti-traditional ideological trends in the former Soviet Union, some scholars believed that Taoism was a "backward agricultural civilization" and Taoism was "spiritual garbage that preached feudal superstition", and only acknowledged that Taoism had a little "spontaneous materialism" and "simple dialectics", which was a misinterpretation of Laozi's Tao Te Ching. What is surprising is that after the Han Dynasty, it was some famous Daoists, especially the Neidanians since the late Tang Dynasty; since the Han Dynasty Yan Zun (Junping) wrote "The True Sutra of Tao Te Ching", Taoist studies have been forced to achieve their own inner transcendence from the life experience of the human body, and Neidanology and Waidan Huangbaishu have become the most enthusiastic learning of Daoists in Taoist culture, they are essentially simulating the process of the universe returning to the Dao (nothingness) in the human body or alchemy furnace, and the so-called Jindan is a condensed state." Dao", alchemy is nothing more than a human body cultivation or experimental operation to verify the doctrine of the Tao Te Ching.
In the final analysis, Taoism is regarded as a philosophy of the weak who passively avoids the world, which is the result of the misinterpretation of Daoist doctrine after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty in the context of Confucian cultural absolutism of supremacy over monarchy, and the essence of the ideas in Taoist and Taoist texts has not yet been discovered, which needs to be explored and studied by a new generation of scholars across the centuries.
(Excerpt from: Hu Fuchen's General Theory of Taoism: Taoists. Taoism. Dan Dao, pp. 28-35. ）
About author:Professor Hu Fuchen Hu Fuchen, male, born in December 1945 in Wuqiao County, Hebei Province. Researcher of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. His main academic specialty is Taoism and Taoist culture, and he is currently engaged in the study of Chinese philosophy.
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