From Mystery to History: Taoist Shamanic Tradition
When humans finally stepped onto the ground and gazed out over the sea,
They saw the edge of a sacred circle in the distance, where Heaven above met Earth below. They found a few things as they moved around the circle:
Wherever they went, they were still in the middle, between Heaven and Earth.
It was the same for each one, but different for each one.
The sun still rose from one point in the circle and set in another, and Heaven darkened until it was illuminated by stars or an erratic moon.
During the day, the sun rotated through Heaven, but at night, Heaven revolved around one fixed and steady star.
It was the same for each of them, and it was the same for everyone, no matter where humans went on the planet.
As a result, ancient humans found that each of us is the center of our own world, while Heaven even has a center. They saw Heaven's influence, seeing how the fire warms and illuminates Earth, how water falls from Heaven to Earth, how lightning breaks Heaven and hits Earth as Heaven rumbles, and how wind flows through Heaven and Earth. Heaven is in charge of the Earth. As a result, whoever has Heaven's mandate reigns supreme on Earth.
The shaman kings started as leaders who conversed with God. According to one legend, a group of Aryans shipwrecked on the Chinese coast thousands of years ago did not die or have children, and were dubbed the Shining Ones.
The protection circle, naming the elements, ecstatic journeying and flight, power animals, and tutelary deities or guides were among the shamanic rituals they learned.
Shamans followed the bear, wearing bearskin robes in ritual, from Yu, the mythical son of the bear—shape-shifter, sky-dancer, and traveler in the underworld—all the way down to the Western Chou Dynasty (1122–770 BCE). Their influence waned over time; by the end of the Eastern Chou (221 BCE), when warring states were united under the Ch'in, many shamanic practices had been merged into Taoist schools (fig. 1.1). Shamanism was forced underground as the Ch'in dynasty chose Confucianism over Taoism.
Under the Western Han (206 BCE–8 CE), shamanic authority was revived at court as religious and magical Taoism, especially of the Fang Shih, who developed Inner Alchemy and Feng Shui. The Eastern Han (25–220 CE) dynasty, on the other hand, saw the last of the court shamans replaced by scholars and civil servants. By the second millennium, the basic doctrine, or Tao Chia, expounded by Lao-tzu in the Tao Te Ching around 600 BCE had evolved into Tao Chiao, philosophical dogma. Taoism's "do-it-yourself" ideals were pitted against Confucianism's reassuringly rigid rules of conduct in all contexts. However, in rural villages, the "old ways" and their followers continued to hold sway, turning Taoism into a folk religion of mystery and secrecy, along with ceremonies, rituals, and initiations. Shamanic Taoism was practiced as a tribal cult by families and priests, the origins of the great schools of Taoism with their ideological and geographical variations.
Chang Tao-ling (34–156 CE), a Fang Shih, travelled to western China (now Sichuan/Yunnan), where shamanism was still commonly practiced. Chang founded the school Seven Bushels of Rice, which later became the Celestial Masters, after being influenced by Tibetan Tantric traditions. Their fortunes grew and fell over the centuries as dynasties changed and disputes between Taoist, Confucian, and Buddhist doctrines arose.
Seven states fought for dominance in China during the Warring States period, which lasted from 475 to 221 BCE.
Lady Wei, daughter of a Celestial Masters' priest and herself a priestess, created the Shang ch'ing school of Taoists in 265 CE, under the Eastern Ch'in, to restore and perpetuate the shamanic rites of ecstatic flight and journeying. Tao Hung-ching, a former Court librarian, gathered and compiled Shang ch'ing scripts, including the I Ching, wrote and studied Inner Alchemy, and founded the monastery on Mount Maoshan, which is still standing today.
K'ou Ch'ien-chih established a branch of the Celestial Masters influenced by puritanical Buddhist ideas of celibacy during the Northern Wei Dynasty (386–534 CE). He introduced laws and legislation against shamanic and sexual rituals with reforming zeal. In 420 CE, his version of the Celestial Masters' Taoism was made the state religion in the north, and shamans were persecuted as a result. As a result, the shamans' sought-after sanctuary turned into a hostile environment. They continued their rituals, however, in secret, without the use of pipes, rattles, masks, or other artefacts to distinguish them. “You can't tell a sage by his clothes,” as the saying goes. They were often referred to as sorcerers, witches, and magicians.
Taoism has deteriorated from a state religion to a fragmented religion through the years.
Many writings on sexual acts reappeared as the puritan reformation faded. In the political instability, intellectuals and officials fell in and out of favor as the structured religious element of the country crumbled. Many of them were hermits, combining their Confucian beliefs with Lao-naturalistic tzu's Taoism. During the Buddhist persecutions, a note saying “There is an altar in this house” was a symbol of a safe harbor for the wandering Taoist. The practice of displaying the site of a Taoist household or temple has continued to this day.
Owing to the political and religious climate of the day, various scriptures were written, compiled, rewritten, destroyed, concealed, stolen, or burnt. During the Song time, the Complete Clarity School attempted to return to the initial practice's simplicity. The Celestial Masters were then chosen to lead the official state religion, which included magic and sorcery, by the first Ming emperor, who had overthrown the Yuan or Mongol dynasty in the fourteenth century with the aid of the sorcerer Liu Po-hun. The sixty-third Celestial Master of the immediate lineage remains in Taiwan in the twenty-first century.
You may also want to read more about Shamanism here.
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