Confucianism and Buddhism

Confucianism is concerned with human society and the social responsibilities of its members; Taoism emphasizes nature and what is natural and spontaneous in the human experience. The two traditions, “within society” and “beyond society,” balance and complement each other. This classic definition is generally correct concerning orthodox Han Confucianism; it neglects some aspects of Confucian thought, such as the speculations on the I Ching, that are considered to be among the Confucian Classics and the prophetic occult (chanwei) commentaries to the classics. As far as Taoism is concerned, this definition neglects the social thought of the Taoist philosophers and the political aspects of Taoist religion. Chinese Buddhism has been viewed not as a Sinicized Indian religion but as flowers on the tree of Chinese religions that blossomed under Indian stimulus and that basically maintained their Chinese character.

The first mention of Buddhism in China (65 ce) occurs in a Taoist context, at the court of a member of the imperial family known for his devotion to the doctrines of Huang-Lao. The Indian religion was at first regarded as a foreign variety of Taoism; the particular Buddhist texts chosen to be translated during the Han period reveal the Taoist preoccupation of the earliest converts with rules of conduct and techniques of meditation. Early translators employed Taoist expressions as equivalents for Buddhist technical terms. Thus, the Buddha, in achieving enlightenment (bodhi), was described as having “obtained the Tao”; the Buddhist saints (arhat) become perfected Immortals (zhenren); and “non-action” (wuwei) was used to render nirvana (the Buddhist state of bliss). A joint sacrifice to Laozi and the Buddha was performed by the Han emperor in 166 ce. During this period occurred the first reference to the notion that Laozi, after vanishing into the west, became the Buddha. This theory enjoyed a long and varied history. It claimed that Buddhism was a debased form of Taoism, designed by Laozi as a curb on the violent natures and vicious habits of the “western barbarians,” and as such was entirely unsuitable for Chinese consumption. A variant theory even suggested that, by imposing celibacy on Buddhist monks, Laozi intended the foreigners’ extinction. In approximately 300 ce, the Taoist scholar Wang Fou composed a “Classic of the Conversion of the Barbarians” (Huahujing), which was altered and expanded in subsequent centuries to encompass new developments in the continuing debate. Although there is no evidence that the earliest Taoist organization, literature, or ceremonies were in any way indebted to Buddhism, by the 4th century there was a distinct Buddhist influence upon the literary form of Taoist scriptures and the philosophical expression of the most eminent Taoist masters.

The process of interaction, however, was a mutual one, Taoism participating in the widening of thought because of the influence of a foreign religion and Buddhism undergoing a partial “Taoicization” as part of its adaptation to Chinese conditions. The Buddhist contribution is particularly noticeable in the developing conceptions of the afterlife; Buddhist ideas of purgatory had a most striking effect not only on Taoism but especially on Chinese popular religion. On a more profound level the ultimate synthesis of Taoism and Buddhism was realized in the Chan tradition (from the 7th century on), into which the paradoxes of the ancient Taoist mystics were integrated. Likewise, the goal of illumination in a single lifetime, rather than at the end of an indefinite succession of future existences, was analogous to the religious Taoist’s objective of immortality as the culmination of his present life.

Chan Buddhism deeply influenced Neo-Confucianism, the renaissance of Confucian philosophy in Song times (960–1279), which in Chinese is called “Learning of the Way” (taoxue). In this movement Confucianism acquired a universal dimension beyond a concern for society. Neo-Confucian thought often seems as Taoist as the so-called Neo-Taoist philosophy and literature seem Confucian.

As early as the Tang dynasty, there are traces of the syncretism of the “Three Religions” (sanjiao), which became a popular movement in Song and Ming China. A mixture of Confucian ethics, the Taoist system of merits, and the Buddhist concept of reincarnation produced such “books on goodness” (shanshu) as the Ganyingpian (“Tract on Actions and Retributions”). The school of the “Three Religions” was rejected by most Confucians and Buddhists but received wide support in Taoist circles. Many Taoist masters of those periods transmitted neidan and other techniques of inner cultivation to their disciples while at the same time preaching the moralism of the “Three Religions” to outsiders.

Other Asian religions

The affinities of Taoism with other Asian religions are numerous. If one distinguishes between universal religions of salvation, such as Buddhism and Islam, and the older, more culture-bound religions, such as Japanese Shintō and Hinduism, Taoism undoubtedly belongs to the second category.

The fact that no record of Shintō antedates the introduction of Chinese script makes it difficult to distinguish between Taoist affinities and influences on Shintō features—such as the cult of holy mountains, the representation of the human soul as a bird, bird dances, the representation of the world of the dead as a paradisiac country of immortality—and the concept of the vital force (tama, in objects as well as in man). Like Taoism, Shintō is the religion of the village community.

There was never an attempt to implant a Taoist religion officially in Japan, but a random choice of Taoist beliefs and customs have, at various ages, been adopted and transformed at the Japanese court, in the temples, and among the people. Records from the early 7th century contain traces of Taoism, which was appreciated chiefly for its magical claims. The “masters of yin and yang” (ommyō-ji), a caste of diviners learned in the I Ching, Chinese astrology, and occult sciences who assumed importance at court in the Heian period (8th–12th century), probably were responsible for the introduction of Taoist practices, such as the Keng-shen (Japanese Kōshin) vigil and the observance of directional taboos (katatagae). In the 8th century, disputations were held at court over Buddhism and the philosophy of Laozi and Zhuang Zhou. The Baopuzi was known, and Kōbō Daishi, the founder of Shingon Buddhism (a branch of Vajrayana Buddhism), reported (in 797) on Taoist physiological practices and beliefs in Immortals. Buddhist (Shingon and Tendai) ascetics, wandering healers, and mountain hermits known as yamabushi probably came closest to Taoism in their techniques for prolonging life (abstinence from grains, etc.) and their magical arts (exorcisms, sword dance) and objects (mirrors, charms), which must have reached them through the Tantric elements in Shingon. Taoist mysticism lives on in that it has influenced the two Chinese Zen schools of Linji (Rinzai) and Zaodong (Sōtō), introduced in the 12th and 13th centuries and still active in Japan. Popular Taoist moral tracts were printed and widely diffused in the Tokugawa period. Modern Japanese scholarship on Taoism (Dōkyō) ranks very high in the world.