Prosperity and messianic theologies derived from the classical Taoist texts would seem unlikely as they all warn of the perils of wealth and greed and advise humility and non-intervention in political affairs. In an article from 1925, the sinologist Gilbert P. Reid asserts that Taoism does not teach revolution, because it does not condone use of force or arms and because the true Taoist is a quiet man of peace, who follows the Tao. (Reid, Gilbert, Revolution as Taught by Taoism. International Journal of Ethics Vol. 35/3, Apr. 1925, pp. 289-295.) Yet, the Book Of Great Peace (Taiping Jing, 太平經), one of the earliest religious sect texts with roots in Taoism, does both, foment rebellion and promise prosperity. The Taiping movement and scripture are behind two of the largest rebellions in China’s history: the Yellow Turban Rebellion in 187 CE and the Taiping Rebellion of 1850 (in the latter alone, over 20 million dead) and have inspired many more, including the Communist Revolution of the 20th century. (Hendrischke, Barbara, The Scripture On Great Peace, p. 16-31; Spence, Jonathan, God’s Chinese Son, New York: W.W. Norton Co., c. 1996, pp. 17.)
The 3 texts of classical Taoism all advocate the quiet, mystical life of a sage (sheng or 聖) humble and ordinary, away from the glare of fame and fortune, which can harm the inborn nature of one’s Te. (See, e.g., TTC ch. 57, Lau, D.C., Tao Te Ching, New York: Penguin Books, c. 1968: “I prefer stillness and the people are rectified of themselves”; Watson Burton, The Complete Works Of Chuang Tzu, New York: Columbia Univ. Press, c. 1968, p. 127: “men of no benevolence tear apart the original form of their inborn nature in their greed for eminence and wealth”; Graham, Angus, The Book Of Lieh Tzu, New York: Columbia Univ. Press, c. 1990, p. 78: “How can I claim to be a sage? I am merely a man who has studied Widely and remembered much”.) When able to assist, the sage is a modest, occassionally reluctant, messiah. In the TaoTeChing, the sage “always excels in saving people, and so abandons no one; Always excels in saving things, and so abandons nothing”. (TTC ch. 27. Lau, D.C., Tao Te Ching.) Yet, in the ChuangTzu, the sage “just lets things be the way they are and doesn’t try to help life along.” (Watson, The Complete Works Of Chuang Tzu, p. 76.) In the LiehTzu, the sage “knows everything”, but is “not capable of everything”, but some things are “beyond the sage’s understanding”. (Graham, The Book Of Lieh Tzu, pp. 19, 54, 102.) In any case, the sage of classical Taoism is not the emperor, existing only outside the empire. (Graham, The Book Of Lieh Tzu, p. 11.)
The codified (assembled from oral traditions) TaoTeChing and ChuangTzu are from China’s chaotic Warring States period (475 BCE to 221 BCE). By the turn of the millennium, the once prosperous rule of the reigning Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE) falls into disrepute, mired in government and palace intrigue and the country besotted with famines, floods and epidemics. (See, e.g., Yellow Turban Rebellion at Wikipedia.com and Lewis, Mark, The Early Chinese Empires: Qin and Han, pp. 25-30.) From this period, the Book Of Great Peace documents a confluence of classical Taoism with folk religion and Confucianism that spawns a divergent stream of religious sect Taoism: Great Peace Taoism or Taiping Tao (太平道), the first of China’s great institutional religions. (Liu, Heterodoxy In Late Imperial China, pp. 47-48.)
The Book Of Great Peace, Taiping Tao’s main scripture, is a manual of rigid morality, a code of commandments and sins, transmitted by a celestial master (tianshi or 天師), to help bring the world into alignment with the cosmos for the purposes of restoring harmony and prosperity, and averting apocalypse. (Lagerway, John, [ed.] Religion And Chinese Society, Hong Kong: Chinese Univ. Press, c. 2004, Vol. 1, pp. 265-70: “Nobody whether old or young will ever again know how to do evil”.) Perhaps less capable than the Sage of classical Taoism, the Celestial Master of the Taiping Jing, a prince of Heaven, is not a true messiah either, but is there to present scripture and answer questions. (Liu, Heterodoxy In Late Imperial China, p. 39.) However, the TPJ does attract messianic personalities. The first version of the text appears at the beginning of the 1st century CE and over the centuries inspires at least two large-scale rebellions: Yellow Turban Rebellion (184 CE) and Taiping Rebellion (1850), all directed by charismatic leaders, Taoist messiahs.
The concept of a Great Peace utopia originates in Confucian thought and predates the Han Dynasty. It paints a world of cosmic harmony, one without famine, floods, epidemics or other natural disasters, where everyone lives a long and secure life. (See Taiping at BookRags.com.) Chapter 13 of the Chuang Tzu gives a description of a society of Great Peace:
-
He who speaks of Tao without mentioning its ordering does not follow Tao in its real sense; how can such a person attain Tao?
Therefore, those in ancient times who understood Tao tried to understand the natural course of events first, Tao and virtue next. They tried to understand humaneness and righteousness first, personal duties next. They tried to understand personal duties first, forms and names next…, they made appointments according to qualifications…, they tried to distinguish between right and wrong…they tried to deal out rewards and punishments… the wise and foolish would take their proper places, the high and the low would remain in their proper positions…. It was necessary to distinguish their capabilities and to observe them according to their names and positions. This was the way to serve the king, to rule over the people, to govern the world and to cultivate themselves. Since they did not resort to intrigues and schemes, it was only natural that they would return to nature. This was called “great peace”, the perfection of government.
-
ChuangTzu ch 13. Wang, Rongpei, Zhuangzi, Hunan: Hunan People’s Publishing House, c. 1999, pp. 209-11.
The language of the ChuangTzu describes a hierarchical pattern of harmony in a Great Peace utopia, spontaneously formed, not rigidly defined or enforced. Elsewhere, the Chuang Tzu teaches that the best government is one which doesn’t govern (“I have heard of letting the world be and letting the world alone, but I have never heard of governing the world”, ChuangTzu ch. 11, Wang, Zhuangzi, p. 153); that systems of rewards and punishments are inadequate to motivate and deter (“although the whole world joins in rewarding good men, there will never be enough reward; though the whole world joins in punishing evil men, there will never be enough punishment” (ChuangTzu ch. 11, Watson, The Complete Works Of Chuang Tzu, p. 114); and disinterest in government posts (“I have no use for rulership of the world!” (ChuangTzu ch. 1, Watson, The Complete Works Of Chuang Tzu, p. 33).
Nevertheless, the Great Peace model of the universe has some resemblance to classical Taoist theories of celestial mechanics, such as the Principle of Microcosm-Follows-Macrocosm (the universe as a living body – TTC ch. 40), with much less emphasis on spontaneity and a narrower range of motion for for human wu-wei. Implicit in this schematic of the universe is the chain of responsibility for the welfare of the people and the nation, the key link being the emperor, who must look to heaven and earth for portents of the “true dao” and conform government to match, with virtuous and humane conduct and observing directives from the Book Of Great Peace itself. (Hendrischke, The Scripture On Great Peace, pp. 70-1.) Like the Mandate of Heaven doctrine, which legitimized dynasties based on the favor of the gods, the attainment of Great Peace meant that all was well in the universe, because government moved harmoniously with the universe. If the emperor and/or the administration fell into corruption and disharmony, then the dynastic rule could be overthrown:
-
[A]nyone could theoretically become king, provided he earned the Mandate of Heaven through exemplary virtue; falling into corruption, however, he could also lose the mandate as well. Virtue became fundamental to political legitimacy, bringing heavenly blessings and earthy order and prosperity…. the Zhou introduced the notion of a universal polity, “all under Heaven,” under the centralized rule of a single emperor who enjoyed exclusive access to Heaven on the basis of his own virtue.
-
Palmer, David, Chinese Religious Life, p. 158
-
The proof that government has managed to establish great peace is that the population responds to this by feeling secure and cheerful. Confucius said: “Cultivate yourself, and you will make the population feel secure. Even Yao and Shun found this difficult.” That the people feel secure is proof of great peace. When someone rules over others, men must be his starting point. When the people feel secure, Yin and Yang are in harmony. When they are in harmony, the ten thousand beings and plants are being nourished.
-
Wang Chong quoted in Hendrischke, The Scripture On Great Peace, p. 7.
Taiping science regards the operation of body of the universe as similar to the human body, with its own energy flows and signs of illness. Civil unrest, economic malaise and catastrophes are evidence of unbalance, that the universe is sick. If the sickness isn’t treated, it’s a harbinger of apocalypse. In the TPJ passage below, the urgency of the situation and the need for immediate treatment fuel the call for a doctor.
-
If severe illness is not cured in time, one will die. If astronomical happenings are not rectified, disaster will ensue. The 4 seasons will lose their atmosphere, and the Five Operating Phases will be tangled up. The Three Lights [sun, moon, and stars] will lose their proper brightness and paths and then be destroyed. The people will be in turmoil, losing their abodes. The old and weak will be carried away from home and half of the people will die young. The state will suffer misgovernment, in chaotic delusion; the great Dao and the good De will be separated…. Is this not severe illness? Therefore, one must do one’s utmost to cure it.
-
Liu, Heterodoxy In Late Imperial China, p. 44, quoting Wang Ming Taiping Jing, p. 188.
In the Taiping’s astrological version of Taoist cosmology, the polar fields of great Yang (Heaven) and great Yin (Earth) continuously generate the matrix of creation, but a third force, Man – embodied by a true King, can harmonize them. (See Hendrischke, The Scripture On Great Peace, p. 83 and Taoist Creation Theory for other triad configurations.) Nominally, the emperor is the true King, but if the emperor and government could not cure the disease, then the doctor would have to come from outside:
-
When the world is at Great Peace (taiping), he rules with bright potency and makes a triad (can) with Heaven and Earth that is able simultaneously to cover and to uphold. Without entertaining private bias, he is therefore able to rule the world as a true king. The Dao of he who rules the world as a true King has Heaven in it, has Earth in it and has the Human in it. Because he participates with them and uses them equally, he rules as a true king and possesses the world.
-
Michael, Thomas, The Pristine Dao: Metaphysics In Early Daoist Discourse, Albany: SUNY Press, c. 2005, p. 51, quoting book 2 (The Sixteen Classics) of the The Four Books Of The Yellow Emperor (黄帝四经 or Huangdi Sijing ) in Yates, Robin, Five Lost Classics, New York: Ballantine Books, c. 1997.
If the emperor is not the true king, then someone else must be found, because by the 2nd century CE, the kingdom had fallen into grave disharmony. The deification of Lao Tzu along with the TPJ help pave the way for the establishment of religious sect Taoism. (Hendrischke, The Scripture On Great Peace, pp. 28-30.) The messianic fervor in recruitment notices of dissident groups including the Great Peace movement appeals to the desperate with promises of salvation from suffering and apocalypse:
-
[T]he idea of a “Way of Great Peace” – a “Taiping Tao” – had begun to take hold, along with a “Way of the Celestial Masters.” These movements had messianic elements, in that they looked to a supreme deliverer who would force the human race from the miseries of the its current state, and end history as it had been known by instituting the period of Great Peace. “Come quickly, join with me!” ran one of those second-century texts. “My followers are numerous…I will not suddenly abandon you…. I myself will change destiny. In this present age, I will choose the good people. You must not select yourself; by [your] upright behavior and self control, I will recognize you.”
-
Spence, God’s Chinese Son, p. xxiii.
Instead of installing a new messiah, the solution in Classical Taoism is to teach the emperor how to become a true king. All three of the classic texts address the sovereign with advice, but the LiehTzu flies the sovereign to mystical heights for transformation. In the story of the Yellow Emperor, the mismanagement of government has stupified his dulled senses. Living in seclusion and meditating for 3 months, he falls asleep in the daytime and wanders into a wu-wei country called Hua-hsu, named after the mother of great mythical first emperor, Fu-hsi:
-
It is a place you cannot reach by boat or by carriage or on foot, only a journey of the spirit. In this country, there are no teachers and leaders; all things follow their natural course. The people have no cravings and lust…. [B]eauty and ugliness do not disturb their hearts, mountains and valleys do not trip their feet – for they only make journeys of spirit.
When the emperor awoke, he was delighted to have found himself…. After another 28 years when the Empire was almost as well governed as the country of Hua-hsu, the Emperor rose into the sky.
-
LiehTzu ch. 2. Graham, The Book Of Lieh Tzu, pp. 33-5.
Nor are classical Taoist philosophers silent in the midst of that crisis. They argue for balance in the interpretation of astrological and socio-economic signs. The rational Taoist philosopher Wang Chong (王充, 27–100 CE) counsels that a worthy government might not experience prosperity, even if it attained Great Peace:
-
Wang Chong…argued that a state of great peace had been reached when the government was stable and the population content, and that this had certainly been achieved in recent times and was actually the case in his own lifetime. Certain cosmic manifestations might or might not accompany this situation; they were not crucial to it. There was no need for the Yellow River and the Luo to bring for celestial charts and texts to announce the advent of great peace or for the phoenix or the unicorn to be sighted. Universal peace could take place without such signs….. This judgement reflected Wang Chong’s fairly narrow understanding of the notion of great peace, for which, in his view good harvests and general bliss were not essential. Instead, he stressed that the people at present remained calm and honest even when harvest failures had made them destitute, and that this signified great peace.
-
Hendrischke, The Scripture On Great Peace, p. 10.
Because the Taipings view national prosperity and security of the people as signs that the universe is healthy, a large section of the Book Of Great Peace talks about the connection between cosmology and wealth. Poverty of the people foreshadows apocalypse. Therefore, there can never be too much wealth. However, the wealth cannot be accumulated in individuals; it must be shared wealth. There is no poverty in a Great Peace society, because everything is shared – an early form of religious communism.
-
Individual wealth is said to be a fake; only a self-sufficient community can be called wealthy. In line with the Laozi’s image of ideal communal life, wealth is seen as created exclusively by agricultural production. The possession of valuables becomes relevant only when basic necessities are in short supply. The prevention of poverty and the achievement of wealth, then, are the same thing, and both are said to result from proper political action.
-
Hendrischke, The Scripture On Great Peace, p. 10.
In Taiping cosmology, poverty and wealth indicate cosmic well-being. The Taiping Jing compares the pro-creative polar fields of Great Yin and Great Yang to a biological mother and father, which give birth to a third field, Harmony, that stabilizes Creation (see Taoist Creation Theory). Thus, the child influences the parents, and an emperor or king or messiah can serve as a harmonizer for the universe. Children also depend on their parents, so if the cosmos becomes ill, then the things inside the cosmos will not thrive either:
-
Children come to life through their father and mother, their mandate (ming 命) is derived from their father, their dispensation is derived from above, and they are entrusted with life (sheng 生) by their mother. So when grieved they turn to their lord, their father…. Harmony (zhonghe 中和) must prevail between Yin and Yang. It makes the ten thousand plants and beings grow. When the people live in harmony and concord (he tiao 和調), the king’s rule is in great peace…. The harmony between [Yin and Yang] gives accord to the reign of emperors and kings. With mutual agreement (tiao 調) between the ten thousand beings, each will be well governed.
-
Hendrischke, The Scripture On Great Peace, p. 82.
The classical Taoism of the ChuangTzu similarly employs a cosmic parent-child analogy to teach its philosophy of wealth and poverty. It sees cycles of prosperity as the dealings of fate. Wealth and poverty have no blame, because, as parents, Heaven and Earth are impartial. There is nothing to cure, because fate cannot be changed (see The Tao, Destiny, Karma And Divination). Without a preference for one or the other, there can be no suffering:
-
When he arrived at Zisang’s gate, he heard some sounds like singing or weeping, to the accompaniment of a lute:
“Father? Mother? Heaven? Man?
The voice was very weak and the words were hurried forth. Ziyu entered and asked, “Why does your verse sound like this?”
Zisang said, “I’m trying to find out who has made me so poor, but I failed. Do my father and mother want me to be so poor? The heaven has no bias against anyone it covers; the earth has no bias against anyone it supports. How could they have bias against me and make me poor? I have not found out who has done it. It must have been fate that has brought me to this extreme poverty.
-
ChuangTzu ch. 6. Wang, Zhuangzi, p. 113.
-
The two gentlemen thereupon went north as far as Mount Shou-yang, where they eventually died of starvation.
Men such as Po Yi and Shu Ch’i will have nothing to do with wealth and eminence if they can possibly avoid it. To be lofty in principle and meticulous in conduct, delighting in one’s will alone without stooping to serve the world-such was the ideal of these two gentlemen.
-
ChuangTzu ch. 28. Watson, The Complete Works Of Chuang Tzu, p. 322.
Classical Taoism does not chase wealth or flee from poverty. The real problem is attachment. The dogged pursuit of wealth or the endless fretting about poverty can disrupt one’s inner self and damage one’s center of Te:
-
Nowadays the benevolent men of the age lift up weary eyes, worrying over the ills of the world, while the men of no benevolence tear apart the original form of their inborn nature in their greed for eminence and wealth. Therefore I wonder if benevolence and righteousness are really part of man’s true form? From the Three Dynasties on down, what a lot of fuss and hubbub they have made in the world!
-
ChuangTzu ch. 6. Watson, The Complete Works Of Chuang Tzu, p. 100.
The idealized Taiping Jing world contains thousands of countries, sized and placed according to the morality of their governments, perhaps in a concentric arrangement with the most virtuous at the center. (Hendrischke, The Scripture On Great Peace, pp. 86-7.) The communal networking within and between countries facilitate the sharing of material wealth, knowledge and skills. (Hendrischke, The Scripture On Great Peace, p. 3.)
In the TaoTeChing, Lao Tzu envisions a utopia of “one small country” with “fewer people”. Since wealth and poverty are regarded as one, there are no commandments to share property, although there is advice that sharing may avoid contention.
-
A small country has fewer people.
Though there are machines that can work ten to a hundred times faster than man, they are not needed.
The people take death seriously and do not travel far.
Though they have boats and carriages, no one uses them.
Though they have armor and weapons, no one displays them.
…
Though they live within sight of their neighbors,
And crowing cocks and barking dogs are heard across the way,
Yet they leave each other in peace while they grow old and die.
-
TTC ch. 80. Feng, Gia-Fu, Tao Te Ching, New York: Vintage Books, c. 1989, p. 82.
-
The sage never tries to store things up.
The more he does for others, the more he has.
The more he gives to others, the greater his abundance.
The Tao of heaven is pointed but does no harm.
The Tao of the sage is work without effort.
-
TTC ch. 81. Feng, Gia-Fu, Tao Te Ching, p. 83.
-
“The man of Virtue rests without thought, moves without plan. He has no use for right and wrong, beautiful and ugly. To share profit with all things within the four seas is his happiness, to look after their needs is his peace.”
-
Watson, The Complete Works Of Chuang Tzu, c. 1968, p. 137.
However, in the LiehTzu, sharing of material possessions ranks second after sharing of moral possessions. Moreover, the LiehTzu Sages don’t always share. For example, those with the ability to influence transformation (all things exist in a process of transformation between life and death) hide their gifts, so as to pass for ordinary people, and keep their arts safe.
-
The highest sage shares his moral possessions with others.
The next in wisdom shares his material possessions with others.
-
LiehTzu ch. 6. Graham, The Book Of Lieh Tzu, p. 126.
-
Lao-ch’eng-tzu went home to practice Master Yin Wen’s teaching, and after pondering deeply for 3 months, was able to appear and disappear at will, turn round and exchange the four seasons, call up thunder in winter…. He never disclosed his arts all his life, so that no one handed them down to later generations.
Lieh Tzu said: ‘As for those sages who had the art of transforming the Empire, their Way was employed in secret, their outward achievements no different than other men’s.’
- LiehTzu ch. 3. Graham, The Book Of Lieh Tzu, pp. 65-6.