Bill Princivalli, age 17, of Lynn, mass., for his question:
WHEN DID THE TAOISM RELIGION START?
Taoism is the name of a religion that began in China in about the second century before Christ. It is also the name of a philosophy that also began in China, probably during the fourth century B.C. Today the religion has about 31.5 million followers.
Through the centuries, Taoism has influenced artists and writers in both the East and the West.
The beliefs of Taoism were partly a reaction against Confucianism, a philosophy that developed in China beginning in about 500 B.C. According to Confucianism, people can live a good life only in a well disciplined society that stresses attention to ceremony, duty and public service.
The Taoist ideal, on the other hand, is a person who avoids conventional social obligations and leads a simple, spontaneous and meditative life close to nature.
Taoist philosophy had a great influence on Chinese literature and art.
Taoism as a religion was influenced by Chinese folk religion. In folk religion, most gods are human beings who displayed exceptional powers during their lives.
Taoism has a hereditary priesthood. The priests conduct public rituals, during which they submit the people's prayers to the gods of folk religion. The chief priest, who is in a trance, prays to other divinities on behalf of the worshippers. These divinities are not former human beings but represent aspects of the Tao, or "the way."
The members of some Taoist groups have sought immortality through magic, meditation, special diets, breath control or the recitation of scriptures. The Taoist search for knowledge of nature has led many believers to pursue various sciences, such as alchemy, astronomy and medicine.
The beliefs of Taoism appear in two books, the "Lao Tzu" and the "Chuang Tzu."
The word "tao" originally meant "road" or "way." The Tao (or Way) represents the characteristics, or behavior, that make each thing in the universe what it is. The word is also used to mean reality as a whole, which consists of all the individual "ways."
The book "Lao Tzu," which was later renamed the "Tao Te Ching: The Classic of the Way and the Virture," is a collection from several sources and its authors and editors are unknown. The ideas were partly a reaction against Confucianism.
The book teaches that, because yielding eventually overcomes force, a wise man desires nothing. He never interferes with what happens naturally in the world or in himself.
One passage says: "The highest good is like water. Water excels in giving benefits to all creatures, but never competes. It abides in places that most men despise, and so comes closest to the Tao."
The book also teaches that simplicity and moving with the flow of events are the keys to wise government.