. The mythology of all races. his influence to the establishment of Taoism as areligion on the same basis as the flourishing Buddhistic religionin whose mysteries he was also a profound believer. Accord-ing to Fen Yen Chien Wen Chiy Tai Tsung claimed Lao Tzuas the progenitor of his branch of the Li family. As a religion Taoism was founded in the seventh century ,and in its religious aspects is an imitation of Buddhism. Itadopted the Buddhistic custom of building temples in whichgroups of ascetics were collected for the purpose of performingreligious rites and of propagating doctrine. Early
. The mythology of all races. his influence to the establishment of Taoism as areligion on the same basis as the flourishing Buddhistic religionin whose mysteries he was also a profound believer. Accord-ing to Fen Yen Chien Wen Chiy Tai Tsung claimed Lao Tzuas the progenitor of his branch of the Li family. As a religion Taoism was founded in the seventh century ,and in its religious aspects is an imitation of Buddhism. Itadopted the Buddhistic custom of building temples in whichgroups of ascetics were collected for the purpose of performingreligious rites and of propagating doctrine. Early Chinese his-tory was searched for personages who could be matched withthose from India introduced into China by Buddhism. Lao Tzutook the place of Sakyamunij the Four Heavenly Kings (SsuTien Wang) that of the Four Lokopolasj the Three Pure Ones(San Ching) that of the Three Precious Ones (San Pao), was little attempt on the part of this new Taoist religionto refute any of the doctrines of Indian Buddhism, although a. )D u o i6 CHINESE MYTHOLOGY close analysis of the doctrines of these two sects would showthat they are not in harmony on fundamental questions. Bud-dhism aims at exterminating both soul and body, while Taoismstrives to etherealize the body until it reaches a state of im-mortality. The radical difference in doctrinal teachings wasglossed over in the zeal of the Tang Emperor to transpose thepopular belief in Buddhism into nationalistic lines. Every-thing in Taoism is of purely Chinese origin, and however muchits form may have been influenced by the importation of Bud-dhism, the entire body of the Taoist doctrine springs fromnational sources. Taoism is a revolt against Buddhism becauseof its foreign origin, while at the same time it did not hesitateto copy slavishly its whole system of organization. The influence of the ethical philosophy of Lao Tzu in theorganized development of Taoism was largely overshadowedby the magical arts of Chang Tao-ling, who rever
Size: 1150px × 2173px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthor, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectmythology
