This course provides an introduction to the study of the history, major teachings, and practices of the major Chinese religions and spiritual practices and is deigned to give conceptual tools to appreciate diverse religious practice in East. It covers the development of Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism and wide range of popular and local religions. From historical perspective we will also explore the development of key theological, religious and philosophical doctrines as well as associated practices. An effort will be made to spend time on each tradition according to its importance to Asia as a whole. We will explore the role of religions in politics and social relations in East and South, South East Asia and China in particular, and will analyze the origins, central teachings, divisions and branches, rituals and practices, influences on culture, and responses to modern challenges for each tradition. The emphasis throughout the course is on the hermeneutic difficulties attendant upon the study of religion in general, and Asian religions in particular. We will explore new Asian religions as dynamic, ongoing forces in the lives of individuals and in the collective experience of modern societies.
Before Taoism: Early Cults
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Из курса от партнера National Research University Higher School of Economics
Religions and Society in China
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Taosim in China
This module's content describes what is Taoism, relates its history and defines its sources, shows the main paths of genesis for the Taoist cults.
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Aleksey A. MaslovHead
School of Asian Studies
[MUSIC]
Right now, we'll continue to discuss the so-called pre-Taoist cults.
So it's the first or
archaic religious cults that emerged in the very early period of China.
Usually this very early period covers at least three so
called dynasties, Xia, Shang and Zhou.
Why it's so-called dynasties?
First of all, Xia dynasty, which emerged according
to the official verses at the third millennium BC and
up to the second millennium BC.
Actually we think today that it was not a classical dynasty,
so it was not just one royal family and maybe not even one clan.
At that time it was just a corporation and
coordination of different clans and families.
That ruled in China in the territory of the modern day China.
The second so
called dynasty which was a more classical dynasty with one royal house.
Was a Shang dynasty or so called the [FOREIGN].
That's a really existing dynasty, and sometimes we call the Shang period.
Because we have some emerging of different kind of powers of that period.
But anyway, for us, it's very important that it was the time of the emerging of
the bronze cult and different kind of bronze vessels.
And these were called the bronze complex.
Which used different kinds of ideas and inscriptions about the ancestors and
about the highest God or highest lord.
Another point which was very important also for us.
It was the period of the development of the new forms of social and
administrative power.
So all these new forms also affected the development of the new religious ideas.
So the Shang period was a period of different kinds of
shamanistic cults, shamans in different parts of China.
And the so-called Shang dynasty occurred not just in modern day China,
the territory of the modern day China.
But first of all, the central part.
And around the modern day, Hainan province.
Finally it's the third biggest period or dynasty in China, the so
called Zhou dynasty.
That's once again, it's real period, and
it's a period of the emerging of the main philosophical and religious schools.
Including the Confucianism and Taoism and many other schools.
And this period, Zhou dynasty, could be divided into two main periods.
The Western Zhou also called the early Zhou and
then Eastern Zhou or the late Zhou.
Because the capital moved from the western part to the eastern part.
So these three dynasties, Xia, Shang, and Zhou represent
the ancient period of development of these Chinese religious ideas.
Okay, let's speak,
what were the most characteristic moments of these early religions of China?
Once again, it's a pre-Taoist period, so
no one at that time spoke about the Taoists.
First of all we can find two main complex or two main parts.
Which could be regarded as the sources of the religions of the Shang dynasty.
First of all, it's a different kind of inscriptions,
for example, on the ox scapula.
Or of the tartar plaster, which you can see right now, right here.
And another one, it's inscription inside and outside,
different kind of growth vessels.
So this is actually the first characters,
which are very similar to the modern day Chinese characters.
And in some extension we can even understand some ideas or
some parts of these inscriptions.
These inscriptions had a very sacral nature.
It means these inscriptions, officially they were done not by the human being.
But it was transmitted from the heaven to the Earth by
this means of such kind of so called tartar plaster.
Usually these kinds of different inscriptions represent the same idea.
First of all it's a communication with spirits and of the ancestors.
In these two inscriptions we can find also an idea of the highest god which we
translated today.
Highest god, which is Shangdi, the highest rule of law.
And we'll speak about it later.
One of the most interesting moments about these kind of different inscriptions,
which are very numerous in China.
And we can find almost in all central parts of China that
this is a kind of communication with other worlds.
For example, if you can see in this bronze vessel.
And the inscription is put inside this bronze vessel, not just outside.
It means when you pour out or when you fill by the water or
the wine this vessel, it means that you wash out this inscription.
Then you drink this this wine, or this elixir,
it means that you put inside the main idea or main sacrilege of this inscription.
You put inside yourself.
So it means the interiorization of the sacral meaning of different kinds of
inscriptions.
So once again,
besides some administrative ideas that we can also find in these inscriptions.
We can find a lot about the rituals and communication with the ancient spirits.
In this kind of bronze vessels, we also can find some mask or
image or face of some very strange being.
Some experts, some scholars think that it's a representation of the bat,
especially in this central picture.
Some suggest, some argue, some schools argue that it's just
a representation of something completely mythological.
Being that we cannot find any similarities in the real beings.
Something that is just a crocodile, or maybe some dragon or part dragon.
Anyway, it's a very strange creature.
We can find this picture almost everywhere, almost in all vessels.
It could be a kind of just a very abstract design, or
very streaked picture like on the vessel on the right side.
We can see right now on this, for example, vessel we can find two big eyes,
and some shape of the face on the central part.
It looks like a bat as well as on the picture on the left.
Today, we don't know even what this creature, how it was called.
The medieval name of this creature is Taotie, but it's just the medieval name.
Once again, we don't know how do they call it and
how do they use these creatures?
Maybe it's representation of the monotheistic god or one god or
one spirit, which was the highest spirit in ancient China.
Or maybe it's just a generalization of different kinds of spirits in this mask.
Another idea is just a mask of the shaman.
Even today, we can find this same idea, for example, in Tibet.
A Tibetan dance, when shamans or
the people who are involved in the ritual
put a big mask on it and danced with this mask.
So it means the kind of the transformation from a human being,
from being in this world, to the being in the other world, in another world.
So it's just a combination of different kind of human and
nonhuman beings inside one creature.
It's another explanation for what it means.
Anyway, we can find it everywhere.
Even today, in some modern Chinese design,
we also can find these same masks or same ideas.
But without any strict understanding of the original meaning of this creature.
So anyway, Taotie was some kind of god or high spirit in ancient China.
Another point, another god which is described everywhere is called Shangdi.
Shangdi means is highest god, or highest lord.
When Chinese, in the contemporary history
had to translate the Bible into Chinese language.
For translation of the notion God, they use Shangdi.
So for example, in modern China, Shangdi is so-called the Christian God.
But anyway in ancient China it was one highest god or
maybe the complex of highest gods.
Because once again, we cannot right now understand whether it was
a multiplicity of gods or spirits that existed in ancient China.
Or if it was just one god venerated by several tribes.
Anyway, Shangdi first of all was a God of one central or group of central tribes.
That inhabited the central part of China, especially in the Hunan province.
Then these gods were approved by different tribes.
And one of the ideas that the unification of ancient China,
unification of different tribes and small kingdoms,
started from the approval of this one god, Shangdi.
Even today, Di, in the medieval China,
was understood as an emperor or ruler.
For example, [FOREIGN] or [FOREIGN] it means
the emperor, who embodied the idea of god.
So it means the son of heaven.
So emperor, when we call emperor son of heaven, Tianzhu.
It means that this Shangdi or
di, was reborn inside his body.
So anyway, several kinds of divinations and
sacrificial rituals were closely connected with the Shangdi.
It was dancing or even chanting.
And in some pictures, some representations in bronze vessels,
we can find even today mainly dancing.
And finally, last but not least, one of the God or
maybe the highest creature for ancient China was heaven.
Heaven not like heaven today.
So for example when you look to the modern day dictionary of
Chinese language, Tian means heaven.
But in ancient China,
if you look back to the initial meaning of this heaven character.
We can find some picture of some man, or maybe shaman, with a big head.
Maybe dancing or just staying, so
anyway one who is involved in some kind of ritual.
So according to one of the versions, heaven in ancient China
was a representation of the same Shangdi, which we just spoke about.
Or maybe it was a representation of this shaman,
once again with a mask on his head, also performing some dancing.
And later, especially with Confucianism,
Heaven became one of the sacral ideas and
lost its anthropological meaning.
So for example, in Confucianism, even in Taoism,
heaven already is just a kind of sacral idea, but not a God, not just one spirit.
We just discussed the so-called prerequisites of the Taoism.
First of all, the idea of the five elements, and yin and yang and
right now also called the archaic cults.
All these archaic cults finally became a part of the Taoism.
And we'll speak about Taoism right now.
[SOUND]
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