![]() ![]() The artists-commissioned professionals, but also leading Daoist masters, adepts, scholar-amateurs, and even emperors-working in written, painted, sewn, sculpted, or modeled media, created an astonishingly eclectic body of works ranging from sublime evocations of cosmic principles to elaborate visions of immortal realms and paradises as well as visualizations of the Daoist pantheon, medicinal charts, and ritual implements. Daoist art reflects the broad time span and the diverse regions, constituencies, and practices of its creators. Indeed, from that time forward, the pantheons of these doctrines often overlapped, and their rituals, architecture, and art appeared similar, often as a consequence of commissioning the same artisans to create images and edifices. Although the attainment of immortality appears to be a rather esoteric and challenging objective, Daoism, with its popular and cultic elements, continues to provide practical guidance through codes of behavior and physical regimens, as well as talismans and ritual services that help regulate the everyday life of its many followers.īy the twelfth century, Daoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism-known as the three doctrines-were seen as mutually complementary, although at times they competed for influence at court. Along with Buddhism, Daoism today is one of the two dominant religions in the Chinese-speaking world. At times, some of these schools were also politically active. Over time, Daoism developed into an organized religion-largely in response to the institutional structure of Buddhism-with an ever-growing canon of texts and pantheon of gods, and a significant number of schools with often distinctly different ideas and approaches. Yin, associated with shade, water, west, and the tiger, and yang, associated with light, fire, east, and the dragon, are the two alternating phases of cosmic energy their dynamic balance brings cosmic harmony. But Dao, as something ineffable, shapeless, and conceived of as an infinite void, may also be understood as the unfathomable origin of the world and as the progenitor of the dualistic forces yin and yang. ![]() Dao, usually translated as the Way, may be understood as the path to achieving a state of enlightenment resulting in longevity or even immortality. It stresses the concept of nonaction or noninterference with the natural order of things. The Laozi-also called the Daodejing, or The Way and Its Power-has been understood as a set of instructions for virtuous rulership or for self-cultivation. ![]() Two core texts form the basis of Daoism: the Laozi and the Zhuangzi, attributed to the two eponymous masters, whose historical identity, like the circumstances surrounding the compilation of their texts, remains uncertain. Indigenous to China, Daoism arose as a secular school of thought with a strong metaphysical foundation around 500 B.C., during a time when fundamental spiritual ideas were emerging in both the East and the West. ![]()
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