China's native religious tradition, centred on the Tao, the Way behind all things, as taught in the Daodejing ascribed to Laozi. Its organised religion began with the Celestial Masters in the 2nd century and grew into orders of priests and monks, temples and sacred mountains across China and its diaspora.
Every path it took: 16 places reached, 15 still held; faint where it has gone
FaithMain faithFootholdArrival
Symbol meaning
Taijitu
The taijitu, the diagram of the supreme ultimate, shows yin and yang, the dark and the light, each holding a seed of the other and turning into it. It stands for the balance and constant change of all things within the Tao, and is shared by Chinese thought as a whole.
Timeline
16 places in order of arrival: when the first believers came, from where and how; when it became the main faith there, and when it faded.
c. 142 CE · Mount Heming
Zhang Daoling said that Laozi appeared to him on Mount Heming in 142 and made him the first Celestial Master, founding a community of parishes, priests and written petitions to the gods.
191 CE · Hanzhong
Zhang Lu, grandson of Zhang Daoling, ran Hanzhong as a Celestial Master state from 191 until he surrendered to Cao Cao in 215, who resettled his followers in the north.
from Mount Heming · by conquest · Way of the Celestial Masters (Zhengyi)
c. 200 CE · Jiaozhi (Luy Lâu)
Mouzi, writing in Jiaozhi around 200, tells of adepts of Taoist longevity arts there; Taoism later blended with Vietnamese spirit cults, and Lý kings examined officials on the three teachings.
by migration
215 CE, main faith from 625 CE · Chang'an
Cao Cao moved Celestial Master families north after 215, many to the Chang'an region; the Tang emperors, who claimed descent from Laozi, ranked Taoism first of the three teachings in 625.
from Hanzhong · by migration
317 CE · Jiankang
Northern families of the Celestial Master faith fled south with the Jin court to Jiankang after 317; among them was the Wang clan of the calligrapher Wang Xizhi.
from Chang'an · by migration
c. 330 CE · Mount Luofu
Ge Hong, author of the Baopuzi on elixirs and immortality, withdrew to Mount Luofu near Guangzhou around 330 and practised alchemy there until his death.
from Jiankang · by migration
364 CE · Mount Mao
Between 364 and 370 the medium Yang Xi received the Shangqing scriptures for the Xu family on Mount Mao; Tao Hongjing settled there in 492 and made it the school's centre.
from Jiankang · with its founder · Shangqing
624 CE, until 1592 · Korea (Pyongyang)
In 624 the Tang emperor Gaozu sent a Taoist priest with an image of the Celestial Worthy and the Daodejing to Goguryeo; in 643 Yeon Gaesomun asked for more priests and gave them Buddhist temples.
from Chang'an · by mission
c. 630 CE · Mount Wudang
Taoist hermits lived on Mount Wudang and Tang Taizong built a Five Dragons shrine there; the Yongle emperor raised a great complex for the god Zhenwu from 1412.
from Chang'an · by mission
739 CE · White Cloud Temple
Tang Xuanzong founded the Tianchang abbey here in 739; Qiu Chuji of the Quanzhen order made it his seat in 1224, and as the White Cloud Temple it is still Quanzhen's head temple.
from Chang'an · by mission
c. 750 CE · Mount Longhu
The Zhang family, claiming descent from Zhang Daoling, kept the line of Celestial Masters on Mount Longhu from the Tang; in 1304 the Yuan made them heads of all Zhengyi Taoism.
from Mount Heming · by migration · Way of the Celestial Masters (Zhengyi)
c. 1000 · Quanzhou
Song carvers cut a great stone Laozi on Mount Qingyuan above Quanzhou; Hokkien sailors and settlers from this coast later carried Mazu and other Taoist gods overseas.
from Mount Longhu · by mission
1645 · Malacca
Kapitan Lee Wei King founded the Cheng Hoon Teng temple in 1645 for Malacca's Chinese, joining Taoist, Buddhist and Confucian worship; it is Malaysia's oldest working Chinese temple.
from Quanzhou · by migration
1661 · Taiwan (Tainan)
Hokkien settlers who came with Koxinga's Zheng regime from 1661, and in great numbers under the Qing after 1683, built temples to Zhenwu, Mazu and the Jade Emperor in Tainan.
from Quanzhou · by migration
c. 1821 · Singapore
Hokkien sailors set up a shrine to Mazu on the Telok Ayer shore around 1821; it grew into the Thian Hock Keng temple, built from 1839 to 1842.
from Quanzhou · by migration
1852 · San Francisco
Cantonese migrants of the gold rush founded the Tin How temple to Mazu in 1852, one of the oldest Chinese temples in the United States.
from Mount Luofu · by migration
Symbol meaning
Taijitu
The taijitu, the diagram of the supreme ultimate, shows yin and yang, the dark and the light, each holding a seed of the other and turning into it. It stands for the balance and constant change of all things within the Tao, and is shared by Chinese thought as a whole.
Timeline
16 places in order of arrival: when the first believers came, from where and how; when it became the main faith there, and when it faded.
c. 142 CE · Mount Heming
Zhang Daoling said that Laozi appeared to him on Mount Heming in 142 and made him the first Celestial Master, founding a community of parishes, priests and written petitions to the gods.
191 CE · Hanzhong
Zhang Lu, grandson of Zhang Daoling, ran Hanzhong as a Celestial Master state from 191 until he surrendered to Cao Cao in 215, who resettled his followers in the north.
from Mount Heming · by conquest · Way of the Celestial Masters (Zhengyi)
c. 200 CE · Jiaozhi (Luy Lâu)
Mouzi, writing in Jiaozhi around 200, tells of adepts of Taoist longevity arts there; Taoism later blended with Vietnamese spirit cults, and Lý kings examined officials on the three teachings.
by migration
215 CE, main faith from 625 CE · Chang'an
Cao Cao moved Celestial Master families north after 215, many to the Chang'an region; the Tang emperors, who claimed descent from Laozi, ranked Taoism first of the three teachings in 625.
from Hanzhong · by migration
317 CE · Jiankang
Northern families of the Celestial Master faith fled south with the Jin court to Jiankang after 317; among them was the Wang clan of the calligrapher Wang Xizhi.
from Chang'an · by migration
c. 330 CE · Mount Luofu
Ge Hong, author of the Baopuzi on elixirs and immortality, withdrew to Mount Luofu near Guangzhou around 330 and practised alchemy there until his death.
from Jiankang · by migration
364 CE · Mount Mao
Between 364 and 370 the medium Yang Xi received the Shangqing scriptures for the Xu family on Mount Mao; Tao Hongjing settled there in 492 and made it the school's centre.
from Jiankang · with its founder · Shangqing
624 CE, until 1592 · Korea (Pyongyang)
In 624 the Tang emperor Gaozu sent a Taoist priest with an image of the Celestial Worthy and the Daodejing to Goguryeo; in 643 Yeon Gaesomun asked for more priests and gave them Buddhist temples.
from Chang'an · by mission
c. 630 CE · Mount Wudang
Taoist hermits lived on Mount Wudang and Tang Taizong built a Five Dragons shrine there; the Yongle emperor raised a great complex for the god Zhenwu from 1412.
from Chang'an · by mission
739 CE · White Cloud Temple
Tang Xuanzong founded the Tianchang abbey here in 739; Qiu Chuji of the Quanzhen order made it his seat in 1224, and as the White Cloud Temple it is still Quanzhen's head temple.
from Chang'an · by mission
c. 750 CE · Mount Longhu
The Zhang family, claiming descent from Zhang Daoling, kept the line of Celestial Masters on Mount Longhu from the Tang; in 1304 the Yuan made them heads of all Zhengyi Taoism.
from Mount Heming · by migration · Way of the Celestial Masters (Zhengyi)
c. 1000 · Quanzhou
Song carvers cut a great stone Laozi on Mount Qingyuan above Quanzhou; Hokkien sailors and settlers from this coast later carried Mazu and other Taoist gods overseas.
from Mount Longhu · by mission
1645 · Malacca
Kapitan Lee Wei King founded the Cheng Hoon Teng temple in 1645 for Malacca's Chinese, joining Taoist, Buddhist and Confucian worship; it is Malaysia's oldest working Chinese temple.
from Quanzhou · by migration
1661 · Taiwan (Tainan)
Hokkien settlers who came with Koxinga's Zheng regime from 1661, and in great numbers under the Qing after 1683, built temples to Zhenwu, Mazu and the Jade Emperor in Tainan.
from Quanzhou · by migration
c. 1821 · Singapore
Hokkien sailors set up a shrine to Mazu on the Telok Ayer shore around 1821; it grew into the Thian Hock Keng temple, built from 1839 to 1842.
from Quanzhou · by migration
1852 · San Francisco
Cantonese migrants of the gold rush founded the Tin How temple to Mazu in 1852, one of the oldest Chinese temples in the United States.
from Mount Luofu · by migration
Taoism or Daoism is a philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao (道). With a range of meanings and interpretations in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', 'path', or 'technique', all dependent on intention as the Chinese language is polysemic in design, but generally understood in the Taoist sense as an enigmatic process of transformation ultimately underlying what is understood as reality. Taoist thought has informed the development of various practices within the Chinese societal history, including traditional medicine, meditation, astrology, qigong, feng shui, and internal alchemy. A common goal of Taoist practice is self-cultivation, to understand and embody a deeper appreciation and connection to the concept of the Tao, and self understanding by living a more harmonious existence and experience with nature as its expression. Taoist ethics generally emphasize as a foundation the embodiment of the three treasures that include compassion, humility and frugality, the virtues of effortless action (Wu wei), naturalness, simplicity, (Wuji) that then naturally aligns with the virtues of the five phases (Wuxing).
In religious Taoism it is treated as a distinct tradition with its own scriptures, priestly monastic lineages, rites and ritual systems, it has long been closely intertwined with the local Chinese folk religion of the people or laity, making the boundary often blurred in societal practice.
The core of Taoist thought crystallized during the early Warring States period (c. 450 – c. 300 BCE), during which the epigrammatic Tao Te Ching and the anecdotal Zhuangzi—widely regarded as the fundamental texts of Taoist philosophy—were largely compiled. They form the core of a body of Taoist writings accrued over the following centuries, which were assembled by monks into the Daozang canon starting in the 5th century CE. Early Taoism drew upon diverse influences, including the Shang and Zhou state religions, Naturalism, Mohism, Confucianism, various Legalist theories, as well as the I Ching and Spring and Autumn Annals.
Taoism is frequently discussed in comparison with Confucianism since both traditions profoundly influenced Chinese thought. They later combined with Buddhism upon its introduction to China, with long-running discourses, commentaries and developments shared between Taoists and Buddhists eventually evolving into what scholars now call indigenous Chinese Buddhism. This mutual coexistence led to the emergence of the Three Teachings discourse by the 6th century CE, which examined how the three traditions could be integrated harmoniously in Chinese society.
Many Taoist denominations recognize deities, often ones shared with other traditions, which are venerated as superhuman figures exemplifying Taoist virtues. They can be roughly divided into two categories of "gods" and xian ("immortals"). Xian were immortal beings with vast supernatural powers, also describing a principled, moral person. Since Taoist thought is syncretic and deeply rooted in Chinese culture for millennia, it is often unclear which denominations should be considered "Taoist".
The title daoshi ("Taoist master") is traditionally reserved for ordained clergy within Taoist organizations, who distinguish their formal traditions from those of Chinese folk religion. Though generally lacking motivation for strong hierarchies, Taoist philosophy has often served as a theoretical foundation for politics, warfare, and Taoist organizations. Taoist secret societies precipitated the Yellow Turban Rebellion during the late Han dynasty, attempting to create what has been characterized as a Taoist theocracy.
Today, Taoism is one of five religious doctrines officially recognized by the Chinese government, also having official status in Hong Kong and Macau. It is considered a major religion in Taiwan, and also has significant populations of adherents throughout the Sinosphere and Southeast Asia. In the West, Taoism has taken on various forms, both those keeping to historical practice, as well as highly synthesized practices variously characterized as new religious movements.
Linguistic aspects
Pronunciation and etymology
"Tao" and "Dao" are different romanized spellings of the same Chinese word: 道.
"Tao" is the romanized spelling in the Wade–Giles system, which was predominant in English-speaking countries until the late 20th century, and remains in use for certain terms with strongly established spellings.
"Dao" is the romanized spelling in the Hanyu Pinyin system, officially adopted in China in the 1950s and the Library of Congress in 2000, which has largely replaced Wade–Giles romanization in academic sources.
The Standard Chinese pronunciation of 道 is /tau̯˥˨/. Neither an English pronunciation like /daʊ/ (an English pronunciation of "Dao") nor an English pronunciation like /tʰaʊ/ (an English pronunciation of "Tao") is the same as the Standard Chinese pronunciation of 道, whose initial consonant is neither voiced nor aspirated.
One authority calls the pronunciation with a ⟨t⟩ as in "tie" (with a /tʰ/) to be a "mispronunciation" originally caused by the "clumsy Wade–Giles system", which misled most readers. Standard Chinese phonology does not have the same sound inventory as English phonology; the Wade–Giles romanization system provides spellings in the Latin alphabet, but they are not meant to indicate an exact English pronunciation in the same way as though they were English words.
Classification as philosophy and religion
The English word Taoism is often used to translate two distinct terms in Chinese:
Daojia (道家; dàojiā; “School/Tradition of the Dao”) is a Han-dynasty label used to classify teachings and texts associated with the dao ("the Way"). The expression daojia is traced to the early Han historian Sima Tan (d. 110 BCE), where it appears as part of a scheme for organizing “six schools”: Yin-Yang, Confucian, Mohist, Legalist, School of Names, and Taoist. The term is commonly applied, particularly in Western scholarship, with reference to the early Chinese philosophical texts Tao Te Ching (also called the Laozi) and the Zhuangzi, as well as later related philosophical developments such as Xuanxue ("Neo-Daoism").
Daojiao (道教; dàojiào; “Teachings of the Dao,” often rendered “Taoism” or "Daoism" in the sense of an organized religion). The term was coined by Lu Xiujing (406–477), a key figure in the early Lingbao movement and architect of the early Taoist tradition, in order to distinguish Taoism from Buddhism. In scholarship, it is often interpreted as the Taoist "religion proper", referring to later organized Taoist schools, institutional structures (such as temples and priesthoods), and religious practices and rituals. The first instance of Taoism as a proper religious community is generally traced back to the Way of the Celestial Masters tradition founded in 142 CE.
Early scholarship on Taoism classified these terms as Philosophical Taoism and Religious Taoism, respectively. This distinction, traced to the Protestant missionary James Legge (1815-1897), remains present in many non-specialist texts such as world religion textbooks. However, Taoist scholars themselves have increasingly moved away from this classification, with Komjathy calling it "wholly inaccurate and untenable." Komjathy notes even early "classical Taoism" already consisted of several characteristic features of religion, such as a cosmology centered on the Dao, specific practices like meditation, and aims of a mystical union. Philosopher Chung-ying Cheng likewise views Taoism as a religion embedded into Chinese history and tradition, while also assuming many different "forms of philosophy and practical wisdom". Chung-ying Cheng also noted that the Taoist view of 'heaven' mainly from "observation and meditation, [though] the teaching of [the Tao] can also include the way of heaven independently of human nature". Sinologists such as Isabelle Robinet and Livia Kohn state that "Taoism has never been a unified religion, and has constantly consisted of a combination of teachings based on a variety of original revelations." The distinction is fraught with hermeneutic difficulties when attempting to categorize different schools, sects, and movements.
Adherents
Traditionally, the Chinese language does not have terms defining lay people adhering to the doctrines or the practices of Taoism, who fall instead within the field of folk religion. Taoist, in Western sinology, is traditionally used to translate daoshi (道士; 'master of the Tao'), thus strictly defining the priests of Taoism, ordained clergymen of a Taoist institution who "represent Taoist culture on a professional basis", are experts of Taoist liturgy, and therefore can employ this knowledge and ritual skill for the benefit of a community.
This role of Taoist priests reflects the definition of Taoism as a "liturgical framework for the development of local cults", in other words a scheme or structure for Chinese religion, proposed first by the scholar and Taoist initiate Kristofer Schipper in The Taoist Body (1986). Taoshi are comparable to the non-Taoist ritual masters (法師) of vernacular traditions (the so-called faism) within Chinese religion.
The term dàojiàotú (道教徒; 'follower of Dao'), with the meaning of "Taoist" as "lay member or believer of Taoism", is a modern invention that goes back to the introduction of the Western category of "organized religion" in China in the 20th century, but it has no significance for most of Chinese society in which Taoism continues to be an "order" of the larger body of Chinese religion.
History
Classical Taoism and its sources
Scholars like Harold Roth argue that early Taoism was a series of "inner-cultivation lineages" of master-disciple communities, emphasizing a contentless and nonconceptual apophatic meditation as a way of achieving union with the Tao. According to Louis Komjathy, their worldview "emphasized the Dao as sacred, and the universe and each individual being as a manifestation of the Dao". These communities were also closely related to and intermixed with the fangshi (method master) communities. Other scholars, like Russell Kirkland, argue that before the Han dynasty, there were no real "Taoists" or "Taoism". Instead, there were various sets of behaviors, practices, and interpretative frameworks (like the ideas of the I Ching, School of Naturalists, as well as Mohist, "Legalist", and "Confucian" ideas), which were eventually synthesized into the first organized forms of "Taoism".
The main early Taoist sources include the Neiye, the Zhuangzi, and the Tao Te Ching. The Tao Te Ching, attributed to Laozi, was composed between the 4th and 6th century BCE. A common tradition holds that Laozi founded Taoism. Laozi's historicity is disputed, with many scholars seeing him as a legendary founding figure.
While Taoism is often regarded in the West as arising from Laozi, many Chinese Taoists claim that the Yellow Emperor formulated many of their precepts, including the quest for "long life". Traditionally, the Yellow Emperor's founding of Taoism was said to have been because he "dreamed of an ideal kingdom whose tranquil inhabitants lived in harmonious accord with the natural law and possessed virtues remarkably like those espoused by early Taoism. On waking from his dream, Huangdi sought to" bring about "these virtues in his own kingdom, to ensure order and prosperity among the inhabitants".
Afterwards, Taoism developed and grew into two sects; One is Zhengyi Taoism, which mainly focuses on spells, and the other is Quanzhen Taoism, which mainly focuses on practicing inner alchemy. Overall, traditional Taoist thought, content, and sects are varied, reflecting the ideal of "absorbing everything inside and mixing everything outside".
Meanwhile, Isabelle Robinet identifies four components in the emergence of Taoism: the teachings found in the Tao Te Ching and Zhuangzi, techniques for achieving ecstasy, practices for achieving longevity and becoming an immortal (xian), and practices for exorcism. Robinet states that some elements of Taoism may be traced to prehistoric folk religions in China. In particular, many Taoist practices drew from the Warring States era phenomena of the wu (Chinese shamans) and the fangshi ("method masters", which probably derived from the "archivist-soothsayers of antiquity").
Both terms were used to designate individuals dedicated to "magic, medicine, divination, ... methods of longevity and to ecstatic wanderings" as well as exorcism. The fangshi were philosophically close to the School of Naturalists and relied greatly on astrological and calendrical speculations in their divinatory activities. Female shamans played an important role in the early Taoist tradition, which was particularly strong in the southern state of Chu. Early Taoist movements developed their own tradition in contrast to shamanism while also absorbing shamanic elements.
During the early period, some Taoists lived as hermits or recluses who did not participate in political life, while others sought to establish a harmonious society based on Taoist principles. Zhuang Zhou (c. 370–290 BCE) was the most influential of the Taoist hermits. Some scholars hold that since he lived in the south, he may have been influenced by Chinese shamanism. Zhuang Zhou and his followers insisted they were the heirs of ancient traditions and the ways of life of by-then legendary kingdoms. Pre-Taoist philosophers and mystics whose activities may have influenced Taoism included shamans, naturalists skilled in understanding the properties of plants and geology, diviners, early environmentalists, tribal chieftains, court scribes and commoner members of governments, members of the nobility in Chinese states, and the descendants of refugee communities.
Significant movements in early Taoism disregarded the existence of gods, and many who believed in gods thought they were subject to the natural law of the Tao, in a similar nature to all other life. Roughly contemporaneously to the Tao Te Ching, some believed the Tao was a force that was the "basis of all existence" and more powerful than the gods, while being a god-like being that was an ancestor and a mother goddess.
Early Taoists studied the natural world in attempts to find what they thought were supernatural laws that governed existence. Taoists created scientific principles that were the first of their kind in China, and the belief system has been known to merge scientific, philosophical, and religious conceits from close to its beginning.
Early organized Taoism
By the Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE), the various sources of Taoism had coalesced into a coherent tradition of ritualists in the state of Shu (modern Sichuan). One of the earliest forms of Taoism was the Han era (2nd century BCE) Huang–Lao movement, which was an influential school of thought at this time. The Huainanzi and the Taipingjing are important sources from this period. An unorganized form of Taoism was popular in the Han dynasty that syncretized many preexisting forms in multiple ways for different groups existed during a rough span of time throughout the 2nd century BCE. Also during the Han, the earliest extant commentaries on the Tao Te Ching were written: the Heshang Gong commentary and the Xiang'er commentary.