Fulu is a term for Taoist practitioners in the past who could draw and write supernatural talismans, ''Fu'' , ''Shenfu'' which they believed functioned as summons or instructions to deities, spirits, or as tools of exorcism, as for ailments. It is believed by Taoists that in the past the ability to write Shenfu had been once decreed by their deities to authorized priests or ''daoshi''. Lu is a register and compilation of the membership of the daoshi as well as the skills they were able to use. These practitioners are also called ''Fulu Pai'' or the ''Fulu Sect'' made up of daoshi from different schools or offshoots of Taojia.
One of the earliest classical scripture referring to Fu was the Huangdi Yinfujing although it does not contain specific instructions to write any talisman. In a Taoist guidance book called ''Tiantang Yiuji'' it was described by ''Lingbao Tianjun'' in chapter six how mortals were once able to perform special feats such as the Disha 72 ways, in which the ability to write and draw Shenfu was skill No.67.
The second chapter of each of the three grottoes in the Daozang is a record of the history and feats of the Fulu Sect.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Five Supremes
Five Supremes, the ''Five Elders'' or the ''Five Olds'' were five beings transformed or transmogrified from the Xuanxuan Shangren made up of ''Chi Jingzi'' , ''Shui Jingzi'' , ''Mu Gong'' , ''Jing Mu'' , ''Huang Lao'' , at the center and four cardinal points of the compass.
Jing Mu and 'Mu Gong were responsible for the creation of all lives by breathing qi into an incubator ''ding''. A male and female child were born from this breath of life. The excess qi escaped and became other forms of lives on earth.
The Five Supremes also correspond to the Wu xing or the Five Elements in Taoism, and had once reincarnated as the heads of the five religions on earth in a bid to reclaim yuanling, the original beings from the realm of the living back to heaven.
Jing Mu and 'Mu Gong were responsible for the creation of all lives by breathing qi into an incubator ''ding''. A male and female child were born from this breath of life. The excess qi escaped and became other forms of lives on earth.
The Five Supremes also correspond to the Wu xing or the Five Elements in Taoism, and had once reincarnated as the heads of the five religions on earth in a bid to reclaim yuanling, the original beings from the realm of the living back to heaven.
Dragon Gate Taoism
The Dragon Gate Taoism is a sect of the Complete Reality school of Taoism, which integrated Buddhism and Confucianism into a comprehensive new form of Taoism. Complete Reality Taoism eventually spread all over China during the Middle Ages, and still continues in existence today. Numerous classics and texts of this school have been translated into English over the last ten years. Complete Reality Taoism is generally divided into two main traditions, Southern and Northern.
The Dragon Gate sect of Taoism is an offshoot of the Northern school. Its spiritual descent is traced to the thirteenth-century master, who was one of the great disciples of Wang Chongyang. Chang-chun means the "Eternal Spring". The master of Eternal Spring was one of the sages who advised Genghis Khan to preserve the ancient civilization of China after the Mongolian conquest, over eight hundred years ago. Genghis Khan appointed Chang-chun overseer of religions in China, and the Dragon Gate sect thus played a critical role in the conservation of Chinese culture.
The Dragon Gate sect of Taoism is an offshoot of the Northern school. Its spiritual descent is traced to the thirteenth-century master, who was one of the great disciples of Wang Chongyang. Chang-chun means the "Eternal Spring". The master of Eternal Spring was one of the sages who advised Genghis Khan to preserve the ancient civilization of China after the Mongolian conquest, over eight hundred years ago. Genghis Khan appointed Chang-chun overseer of religions in China, and the Dragon Gate sect thus played a critical role in the conservation of Chinese culture.
Diyu
Diyu is the realm of the dead or "hell" in Chinese mythology. It is very loosely based upon the concept of combined with traditional Chinese afterlife beliefs and a variety of popular expansions and re-interpretations of these two traditions.
Ruled by , the King of Hell, Diyu is a maze of underground levels and chambers where souls are taken to atone for their earthly sins.
Incorporating ideas from Taoism and Buddhism as well as traditional Chinese folk religion, Diyu is a kind of purgatory place which serves not only to punish but also to renew spirits ready for their next incarnation. There are many deities associated with the place, whose names and purposes are the subject of much conflicting information.
The exact number of levels in Chinese Hell - and their associated deities - differs according to the Buddhist or Taoist perception. Some speak of three to four 'Courts', other as many as ten. The ten judges are also known as the 10 Kings of . Each Court deals with a different aspect of atonement. For example, murder is punished in one Court, adultery in another. According to some Chinese legends, there are eighteen levels in Hell. Punishment also varies according to belief, but most legends speak of highly imaginative chambers where wrong-doers are sawn in half, beheaded, thrown into pits of filth or forced to climb trees adorned with sharp blades.
However, most legends agree that once a soul has atoned for their deeds and repented, he or she is given the Drink of Forgetfulness by Meng Po and sent back into the world to be reborn, possibly as an animal or a poor or sick person, for further punishment. One description of Diyu can be found in the Jade Record.
In Taoist and Buddhist mythology, hell is made up of ten courts, each ruled by one of the 10 Kings and 18 levels in which wrongdoers are punished.
In some literatures, there are references to 18 types or subtypes of hells, or 18 hells for each type of punishment, rather than just 18 levels of hell. In some literatures, there are different types of punishment on each level.
The concept of '18 levels of hell' started in the Tang Dynasty. The Buddhist text ''Jian Di Yu Jing'' mentioned 134 worlds of hell, but was simplified to 18 levels of hell for convenience.
#Chamber of Wind and Thunder – People who kill and commit heinous crimes out of greed are sent here for punishment.
#Chamber of Grinding – Wealthy men who do no good and waste food are ground into powder in this chamber.
#Chamber of Flames – People who steal, plunder, rob and cheat are sent here to be burnt.
#Chamber of Ice – Children who ill-treat their parents and elders are sent here to be frozen in ice.
#Chamber of Oil Cauldrons – Sex offenders such as rapists, lechers, adulterers are fried in oil in this chamber.
#Chamber of Dismemberment by Sawing – Kidnappers and people who force good women into prostitution suffer the fate of being sawn in this chamber.
#Chamber of Dismemberment by Chariot – Corrupt officials and landlords who oppress and exploit the people are dismembered by a chariot in this chamber.
#Chamber of Mountain of Knives – People who cheat customers by earning more than they should, profiteers who jack up prices and cheat on the quality of goods are made to shed blood by climbing the mountain of knives.
#Chamber of Tongue Ripping – Gossips who stir trouble and liars suffer the fate of having their tongues ripped out in this chamber.
#Chamber of Pounding – Cold-blooded murderers are pounded in this chamber.
#Chamber of Torso-severing – Scheming and ungrateful men have their torsos severed in this chamber.
#Chamber of Scales – Crooks who oppress the innocent, people who cheat on the quality of goods and daughters-in-law who ill-treat their in-laws have hooks pierced into their body and hung upside down.
#Chamber of Eye-gouging – Peeping toms who go around peeking and leering have their eyeballs gouged out in this chamber.
#Chamber of Heart-digging – People with evil hearts have theirs dug out in this chamber.
#Chamber of Disembowelment – Instigators, hypocrites and tomb-robbers have their bowels dug out in this chamber.
#Chamber of Blood – Blasphemous crooks who show no respect to the gods suffer the fate of being skinned in this chamber.
#Chamber of Maggots – Crooks who use loopholes in the law to cheat and engage in malpractice are being eaten alive by maggots in this chamber.
#Chamber of Avici – Crooks who have committed heinous crimes, brought misery to the people and betrayed the ruler are placed on a platform above an inferno. The unlucky ones fall off the platform into the inferno and burn while the lucky ones remain on the platform. These spirits are never to be reincarnated.
Among the more common names for the Underworld are :
*地獄 - dìyù the underworld prison
*地府 - dìf? the underworld mansion
*黃泉 - huángquán the yellow spring
*陰間 - yīnjiān the shady space
*陰府 - yīnf? the shady mansion
*陰司 - yīnsī the shady office
*森羅殿 - shēnluó diàn the court of Sinluo
*閻羅殿 - yánluó diàn the court of
*九泉 - ji?quán the nine springs
*重泉 - chóngquán the repeating spring
*泉路 - quánlù the spring road
*幽冥 - yūmíng the serene darkness
*幽壤 - yūr?ng the serene land
*火炕 - hu?kàng the fire pit
*九幽 - ji?yū the nine serenities
*九原 - ji?yuán the nine origins
*冥府 – míngf? the dark mansion
*阿鼻 - ābí , a Buddhist term, from Sanskrit , the hell of uninterrupted torture, last and deepest of eight hot hells
*足跟 - zúgēn the heel of the foot, also means hells
*酆都城 - Chéng, name of a city imagined to contain an entrance to Diyu
And terminologies related to hell:
*奈何橋 - the bridge of helplessness
*望鄉臺 - the home viewing pavilion
*油鍋 - the deep frying wok, one of the tortures in hell.
*三塗 - the three tortures, burn by fire , chop by knife , torn apart by beasts .
Ruled by , the King of Hell, Diyu is a maze of underground levels and chambers where souls are taken to atone for their earthly sins.
Incorporating ideas from Taoism and Buddhism as well as traditional Chinese folk religion, Diyu is a kind of purgatory place which serves not only to punish but also to renew spirits ready for their next incarnation. There are many deities associated with the place, whose names and purposes are the subject of much conflicting information.
The exact number of levels in Chinese Hell - and their associated deities - differs according to the Buddhist or Taoist perception. Some speak of three to four 'Courts', other as many as ten. The ten judges are also known as the 10 Kings of . Each Court deals with a different aspect of atonement. For example, murder is punished in one Court, adultery in another. According to some Chinese legends, there are eighteen levels in Hell. Punishment also varies according to belief, but most legends speak of highly imaginative chambers where wrong-doers are sawn in half, beheaded, thrown into pits of filth or forced to climb trees adorned with sharp blades.
However, most legends agree that once a soul has atoned for their deeds and repented, he or she is given the Drink of Forgetfulness by Meng Po and sent back into the world to be reborn, possibly as an animal or a poor or sick person, for further punishment. One description of Diyu can be found in the Jade Record.
Eighteen levels of Hell
In Taoist and Buddhist mythology, hell is made up of ten courts, each ruled by one of the 10 Kings and 18 levels in which wrongdoers are punished.
In some literatures, there are references to 18 types or subtypes of hells, or 18 hells for each type of punishment, rather than just 18 levels of hell. In some literatures, there are different types of punishment on each level.
The concept of '18 levels of hell' started in the Tang Dynasty. The Buddhist text ''Jian Di Yu Jing'' mentioned 134 worlds of hell, but was simplified to 18 levels of hell for convenience.
#Chamber of Wind and Thunder – People who kill and commit heinous crimes out of greed are sent here for punishment.
#Chamber of Grinding – Wealthy men who do no good and waste food are ground into powder in this chamber.
#Chamber of Flames – People who steal, plunder, rob and cheat are sent here to be burnt.
#Chamber of Ice – Children who ill-treat their parents and elders are sent here to be frozen in ice.
#Chamber of Oil Cauldrons – Sex offenders such as rapists, lechers, adulterers are fried in oil in this chamber.
#Chamber of Dismemberment by Sawing – Kidnappers and people who force good women into prostitution suffer the fate of being sawn in this chamber.
#Chamber of Dismemberment by Chariot – Corrupt officials and landlords who oppress and exploit the people are dismembered by a chariot in this chamber.
#Chamber of Mountain of Knives – People who cheat customers by earning more than they should, profiteers who jack up prices and cheat on the quality of goods are made to shed blood by climbing the mountain of knives.
#Chamber of Tongue Ripping – Gossips who stir trouble and liars suffer the fate of having their tongues ripped out in this chamber.
#Chamber of Pounding – Cold-blooded murderers are pounded in this chamber.
#Chamber of Torso-severing – Scheming and ungrateful men have their torsos severed in this chamber.
#Chamber of Scales – Crooks who oppress the innocent, people who cheat on the quality of goods and daughters-in-law who ill-treat their in-laws have hooks pierced into their body and hung upside down.
#Chamber of Eye-gouging – Peeping toms who go around peeking and leering have their eyeballs gouged out in this chamber.
#Chamber of Heart-digging – People with evil hearts have theirs dug out in this chamber.
#Chamber of Disembowelment – Instigators, hypocrites and tomb-robbers have their bowels dug out in this chamber.
#Chamber of Blood – Blasphemous crooks who show no respect to the gods suffer the fate of being skinned in this chamber.
#Chamber of Maggots – Crooks who use loopholes in the law to cheat and engage in malpractice are being eaten alive by maggots in this chamber.
#Chamber of Avici – Crooks who have committed heinous crimes, brought misery to the people and betrayed the ruler are placed on a platform above an inferno. The unlucky ones fall off the platform into the inferno and burn while the lucky ones remain on the platform. These spirits are never to be reincarnated.
Alternate names in Chinese language
Among the more common names for the Underworld are :
*地獄 - dìyù the underworld prison
*地府 - dìf? the underworld mansion
*黃泉 - huángquán the yellow spring
*陰間 - yīnjiān the shady space
*陰府 - yīnf? the shady mansion
*陰司 - yīnsī the shady office
*森羅殿 - shēnluó diàn the court of Sinluo
*閻羅殿 - yánluó diàn the court of
*九泉 - ji?quán the nine springs
*重泉 - chóngquán the repeating spring
*泉路 - quánlù the spring road
*幽冥 - yūmíng the serene darkness
*幽壤 - yūr?ng the serene land
*火炕 - hu?kàng the fire pit
*九幽 - ji?yū the nine serenities
*九原 - ji?yuán the nine origins
*冥府 – míngf? the dark mansion
*阿鼻 - ābí , a Buddhist term, from Sanskrit , the hell of uninterrupted torture, last and deepest of eight hot hells
*足跟 - zúgēn the heel of the foot, also means hells
*酆都城 - Chéng, name of a city imagined to contain an entrance to Diyu
And terminologies related to hell:
*奈何橋 - the bridge of helplessness
*望鄉臺 - the home viewing pavilion
*油鍋 - the deep frying wok, one of the tortures in hell.
*三塗 - the three tortures, burn by fire , chop by knife , torn apart by beasts .
Daozang
Daozang , meaning "Treasury of Dao" or " Canon", consists of almost 5000 individual texts that were collected circa C.E. 400 . They were collected by Daoist monks of the period in an attempt to bring together all of the teachings of Daoism, including all the commentaries and expositions of the various masters from the original teachings found in the Dao De Jing and Zhuang Zi. It was split into Three Grottoes, which mirrors the Tripitaka division. These three divisions were based on the main focus of Daoism in Southern China during the time it was made, namely; meditation, ritual, and exorcism.
These Three Grottoes were used as levels for the initiation of Daoist masters, from lowest to highest .
As well as the Three Grottoes there were Four Supplements that were added to the Canon circa C.E. 500. These were mainly taken from older core Daoist texts apart from one which was taken from an already established and separate philosophy known as Tianshi Dao .
Although the above can give the appearance that the Canon is highly organised this is far from the truth. Although the present-day Canon does preserve the core divisions there are substantial forks in the arrangement due to the later addition of commentaries, revelations and texts elaborating upon the core divisions.
#The First Daozang
#*This was the first time an attempt was made to bring together all the teachings and texts from across China and occurred circa C.E. 400 and consisted of roughly 1,200 scrolls
#The Second Daozang
#*In C.E. 748 the Tang emperor Tang Xuan-Zong , sent monks to collect further teachings to add to the Canon.
#The Third Daozang
#*Around C.E. 1016 of the Song dynasty, the Daozang was revised and many texts collected during the Tang dynasty were removed. This third Daozang consisted of approximately 4500 scrolls.
#The Fourth Daozang
#*In C.E. 1444 of the Ming dynasty, a final version was produced consisting of approximately 5300 scrolls.
#Authenticity Grotto 洞真部: Texts of Supreme Purity tradition
#*This grotto is concerned mainly with meditation and is the highest phase of initiation for a Daoist master.
#Mystery Grotto 洞玄部: Texts of Sacred Treasure tradition
#*This grotto is concerned mainly with rituals and is the middle phase of initiation for a Daoist master.
#Spirit Grotto 洞神部: Texts of Three Sovereigns tradition
#*This grotto is concerned mainly with exorcisms and is the lowest phase of initiation for a Daoist master.
#Main texts 本文類
#s 神符類
#Commentaries 玉訣類
#Diagrams and illustrations 靈圖類
#Histories and genealogies 譜錄類
#Precepts 戒律類
#Ceremonies 威儀類
#Rituals 方法類
#Practices 像術類
#Biographies 記傳類
#Hymns 讚頌類
#Memorials 表奏類
#Great Mystery 太玄部: Based on the Dao De Jing
#Great Peace 太平部: Based on the Taiping Jing
#Great Purity 太清部: Based on the Taiqing Jing and other texts
#Orthodox One 正一部: Based on the Way of the Celestial Masters tradition.
These Three Grottoes were used as levels for the initiation of Daoist masters, from lowest to highest .
As well as the Three Grottoes there were Four Supplements that were added to the Canon circa C.E. 500. These were mainly taken from older core Daoist texts apart from one which was taken from an already established and separate philosophy known as Tianshi Dao .
Although the above can give the appearance that the Canon is highly organised this is far from the truth. Although the present-day Canon does preserve the core divisions there are substantial forks in the arrangement due to the later addition of commentaries, revelations and texts elaborating upon the core divisions.
Timeline
#The First Daozang
#*This was the first time an attempt was made to bring together all the teachings and texts from across China and occurred circa C.E. 400 and consisted of roughly 1,200 scrolls
#The Second Daozang
#*In C.E. 748 the Tang emperor Tang Xuan-Zong , sent monks to collect further teachings to add to the Canon.
#The Third Daozang
#*Around C.E. 1016 of the Song dynasty, the Daozang was revised and many texts collected during the Tang dynasty were removed. This third Daozang consisted of approximately 4500 scrolls.
#The Fourth Daozang
#*In C.E. 1444 of the Ming dynasty, a final version was produced consisting of approximately 5300 scrolls.
Constituent Parts
Three Grottoes 三洞 C.E. 400
#Authenticity Grotto 洞真部: Texts of Supreme Purity tradition
#*This grotto is concerned mainly with meditation and is the highest phase of initiation for a Daoist master.
#Mystery Grotto 洞玄部: Texts of Sacred Treasure tradition
#*This grotto is concerned mainly with rituals and is the middle phase of initiation for a Daoist master.
#Spirit Grotto 洞神部: Texts of Three Sovereigns tradition
#*This grotto is concerned mainly with exorcisms and is the lowest phase of initiation for a Daoist master.
Each of the above Three Grottoes then has the following 12 chapters
#Main texts 本文類
#s 神符類
#Commentaries 玉訣類
#Diagrams and illustrations 靈圖類
#Histories and genealogies 譜錄類
#Precepts 戒律類
#Ceremonies 威儀類
#Rituals 方法類
#Practices 像術類
#Biographies 記傳類
#Hymns 讚頌類
#Memorials 表奏類
Four Supplements C.E. 500
#Great Mystery 太玄部: Based on the Dao De Jing
#Great Peace 太平部: Based on the Taiping Jing
#Great Purity 太清部: Based on the Taiqing Jing and other texts
#Orthodox One 正一部: Based on the Way of the Celestial Masters tradition.
Daoism-Taoism romanization issue
In English, the words Daoism and Taoism are the subject of an ongoing controversy over the preferred romanization for naming this native Chinese philosophy and Chinese religion. The root word "way, path" is romanized ''tao'' in the older Wade-Giles system and '''' in the modern Pinyin system. The sometimes heated arguments over ''Taoism'' vs. ''Daoism'' involve sinology, phonemes, loanwords, and politics – not to mention whether ''Taoism'' should be or .
First, some linguistic terminology and notations need to be introduced. Phonetic transcription is shown with the enclosed in square brackets , and phonemic transcription is enclosed within virgules or forward slashes / /. In articulatory phonetics, "" is an articulation that involves an audible release of breath. For example, the /t/ in ''tore'' is "aspirated" with a noticeable puff of breath, but the /t/ in ''store'' is "unaspirated." The IPA diacritic for aspiration is a superscript "h", , and normal unaspirated consonants are not explicitly marked. "" or "voicing" distinguishes whether a particular sound is either "voiced" or "unvoiced" . Examples of IPA phonation diacritics include voiceless , voiced , breathy voiced , and creaky voiced .
Disregarding tone, , in Mandarin, is pronounced . This pronunciation cannot be accurately reproduced in English by an untrained speaker. The argument between the proponents of ''Dao'' and ''Tao'' hinges on not which of the two is correct, but which of the two spellings read outloud will better approximate the original Chinese.
The initial Chinese sound, a represented by the IPA symbol , exists in English -- but never as an initial. You can find it instead in words such as "stop" or "pat". An initial ''t'', as in "tap", is in English pronounced as -- that is, an aspirated version of ? , its . The natural English pronunciation of the word spelled ''Tao'' is therefore . In standard , however, and are not allophonic, but represent two distinct . In fact, does not merely sound wrong, it sounds like a different word -- "peach", or "cover" .
The alternative English spelling, ''Dao'', results in another mispronunciation, . The initial consonant is , a . However, is not a phoneme in Mandarin, which has no voiced plosives, therefore the initial voicing of is not significant to the Chinese listener. What ''is'' significant is that, unlike the English , is ''not'' aspirated in word-initial position. Therefore the English-speaker's seems more similar to the desired Chinese than the alternative , even though both are technically equally incorrect, one because of voicing, the other because of aspiration. Only the aspiration error is phonemically important to the Chinese listener.
The linguist Michael Carr explains:
The provenance of the pronunciation with of ''Taoism'' is a gap in the English phonemic paradigm for the unvoiced unaspirated in ''dào'' 'way'. This Chinese phoneme is nearer to the pronunciation of English voiced unaspirated in ''Dow'' than the voiceless aspirated in ''Taos'', but it is neither. The Chinese aspirated vs. non-aspirated phonemic contrast is almost the opposite of the English voiced vs. unvoiced contrast. In certain positions, English non-aspirated consonants can occur as variants of aspirated ones. Stops after initials in English *e.g., ''spy'', ''sty'', ''sky'') are unvoiced unaspirated and close to the phoneme in 'way', but these are not highly voiced, and the English distinction can be analyzed as one of aspiration, with voicing redundant and predictable.
The history of transcribing spoken Chinese is lengthy and inconsistent. Sinologist Paul Kratochvil describes how Westerners predictably misheard Chinese unvoiced consonants, such as the unvoiced unaspirated in 道 .
Since the great majority of people who first attempted to transcribe Chinese were not linguists , their endeavour was marred by a lack of systematic approach and many contemporary European misconceptions about language. Even more than two hundred years later, during the last century, when Western specialists in Chinese, who had by that time created the discipline known as sinology, designed the early forms of numerous transcriptions used today, the first mistakes of enthusiastic missionaries, envoys and business men were not fully eliminated. In fact their traces can be seen even today.
There are numerous rival systems for the Romanization of Chinese for Standard Mandarin pronunciation. Compare these transcriptions of Chinese 道 : Wade-Giles ''tao'' or ''tao''4 , Legge romanization ''t?o'', Latinxua Sin Wenz ''dau'', Yale Romanization ''dàu'', Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II ''dau'', Hanyu Pinyin ''dào'', Tongyong Pinyin ''daˋo'', Gwoyeu Romatzyh or National Romanization ''daw'', Zhuyin fuhao ㄉㄠ, and Cyrillic ''дао''.
Romanization systems use one of two arbitrary ways to represent the Chinese phonemic opposition between aspirated and unaspirated consonants. Take for example, Chinese unaspirated "way" and aspirated "peach". Some systems, like Wade-Giles ''tao'' 道 and ''t'ao'' 桃, introduce a special symbol for aspiration; others, like Pinyin ''dao'' 道 and ''tao'' 桃, use "d" and "t". In English and other languages, "d" and "t" indicate a voiced and unvoiced distinction, which is not phonemic in Chinese.
From a theoretical perspective, both ''tao'' and ''dao'' transliterations if pronounced according to English spelling conventions are equally close to, or far from, the Standard Mandarin pronunciation of 道 . However in practice, most English speakers think the Chinese pronunciation sounds more like an English initial than an English initial because the Chinese pronunciation is unaspirated. Therefore, some argue that ''Dao'' is in that sense more "accurate" than ''Tao''.
An inherent problem with the arcane Wade-Giles use of apostrophes to differentiate aspiration is that many English readers do not understand it, which has resulted in the frequent mispronunciation of ''Taoism'' as instead of . Alan Watts explains using Wade-Giles "in spite of its defects" but writes: "No uninitiated English-speaking person could guess how to pronounce it, and I have even thought, in a jocularly malicious state of mind, that Professors Wade and Giles invented it so as to erect a barrier between profane and illiterate people and true scholars."
In loanword terminology, English ''Taoism/Daoism'' is a "calque," "loan-rendering", or "hybrid" that blends a borrowed word with a native element, for example, '''') blends Chinese Pidgin English ''chop'' with English ''stick''. ''Taoism/Daoism'' is one of a few Chinese ''-ism'' borrowings, along with ''Confucianism'', ''Mohism'', and ''Maoism''.
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' , the first recorded occurrences of the relevant words were ''Tao'' 1736, ''Tau'' 1747, ''Taouism'' and ''Taouist'' 1838, ''Taoistic'' 1856, ''Tao-ism'' 1858, ''Taoism'' 1903 , ''Daoism'' 1948, ''Dao'' and ''Daoist'' 1971.
Carr contrasts the English pronunciations of ''gung-ho'' and ''kung-fu'' to differentiate borrowings deriving from spoken and written Chinese. The ''OED'' records the first usage of ''gung-ho'' in 1942 and of ''kung-fu'' in 1966 . ''Gung-ho'' is more "correctly" pronounced because it was first imported from spoken rather than written Chinese. Nevertheless, many English speakers read the Wade-Giles ''kung-ho'' as . '''' is commonly mispronounced instead of owing to confusion over Wade-Giles romanization of unaspirated ''k'' vs. aspirated ''k''' .
Many Anglo-Chinese borrowings besides ''Taoism'' are mispronounced because of romanization. A commonly heard example is the ''Yijing'' "Book of Changes" which, owing to Wade-Giles "''I Ching''," is usually cacologized as taking ''yi'' 'change; easy' in false analogy with English ''I''. In most cases, Pinyin romanization more accurately represents Chinese pronunciations than Wade-Giles; English speakers would read the martial art "''Tai Ji Quan''" closer to ''tàijíquán'' 'great ultimate fist' than "''T'ai Chi Ch'üan''."
More generations of English speakers have learned about China through Wade-Giles than through Pinyin . The English word ''Taoism'' is unquestionably older and more familiar than ''Daoism''. However, in academia and international politics, there have been continuous trends towards adopting pinyin, which is widely used in the Western study of the Chinese language and official in the People's Republic of China. Hanyu Pinyin has become the international standard for Chinese romanization, used by the United Nations, the International Organization for Standardization , and similar associations.
While sinologists increasingly prefer the term ''Daoism'', traditionalists continue using the well-known ''Taoism''. Some scholars consciously adopt "''Daoism''" in order to distinguish the Chinese philosophy and religion from what "''Taoism''" embodied in the 19th- and 20th-century Western imaginations. Girardot, Miller and Liu explain, "earlier discussions of the Daoist tradition were often distorted and misleading - especially in terms of the special Western fascination with the 'classical' or 'philosophical' ''Daode jing'' and the denigration and neglect of the later sectarian traditions."
English dictionaries provide some insights into the ''Daoism''-''Taoism'' problem. For over a century, British and American lexicographers glossed the pronunciation of ''Taoism'' as , but more recently they corrected it to , and added ''Daoism'' entries.
Carr analyzes how English dictionaries gloss ''Taoism'''s pronunciation, comparing 12 published in Great Britain and 11 published in the United States .
Pronunciations are given in various dictionary respelling systems, rather than IPA, but for purposes of discussion, they are divisible into four types: , , , and . The first is strictly "correct," the second and third are partially so, depending upon descriptive/prescriptive policies, and the last is inaccurate. Since many, if not most, English speakers pronounce ''Taoism'' as , it can legitimately be listed as an alternate. Dictionaries are justified in glossing if they follow a convention of giving preferred pronunciation first, or as if they give common pronunciation first .
Within Carr's sample, most American dictionaries gloss , while most British ones gloss and have been slower to add the rectification. The respective first accurate glosses for ''Taoism'' were "''douizm; tou''-" and "Also Daoism and with pronunc. " .
As detailed above, proponents for both sides of the ''Daoism''-''Taoism'' controversy make valid arguments. Some prefer Wade-based ''Taoism'' because it is more familiar than ''Daoism'', and because the borrowing is a fully assimilated English word that presumably should be unaffected by foreign romanizations. However, many of these traditionalists will accept using pinyin for more recent Chinese borrowings. Others prefer pinyin-based ''Daoism'' because the international community largely accepts Hanyu Pinyin as the standard Chinese romanization, and because it is consistent with other English changes, viz. pinyin ''Beijing'' replaced Wade ''Pei-ching'' or Chinese Postal Map Romanization ''Peking''. In conclusion, three illustrative outcomes of ''Daoism'' vs. ''Taoism'' are given from publishing, library, and Wikipedia spheres.
First, publishing houses have profit concerns about changing romanizations of foreign books. There are more English translations titled Tao Te Ching than Dao De Jing, seeing as it is more familiar to native speakers. However, some academic publishers have abandoned Wade-Giles in favor of pinyin; Columbia University Press changed the titles of Burton Watson's translations from "Chuang Tzu" to "Zhuangzi" and from "Han Fei Tzu" to "Hanfeizi".
Second, libraries have independent concerns about revising legacy Wade-Giles catalogs to contemporary pinyin. After the Library of Congress converted to pinyin in 1997, librarian Jiajian Hu listed three reasons why they deemed Wade-Giles unsatisfactory and added four more.
*First, it had phonetically redundant syllables.
*Second, it failed to render the Chinese national standard pronunciation.
*Finally, it wasn't able to show the semantic distinctions between multiple readings of single characters. …
*The Pinyin system of romanization of Chinese is now generally recognized as the standard through the world. …
*Most users of America libraries today are familiar with the pinyin romanization of Chinese names and places. …
*The use of pinyin romanization by libraries also will facilitate the exchange of data with foreign libraries. …
*Pinyin has more access points than Wade-Giles for online retrieval.
First, some linguistic terminology and notations need to be introduced. Phonetic transcription is shown with the enclosed in square brackets , and phonemic transcription is enclosed within virgules or forward slashes / /. In articulatory phonetics, "" is an articulation that involves an audible release of breath. For example, the /t/ in ''tore'' is "aspirated" with a noticeable puff of breath, but the /t/ in ''store'' is "unaspirated." The IPA diacritic for aspiration is a superscript "h", , and normal unaspirated consonants are not explicitly marked. "" or "voicing" distinguishes whether a particular sound is either "voiced" or "unvoiced" . Examples of IPA phonation diacritics include voiceless , voiced , breathy voiced , and creaky voiced .
Phonology of and its English approximations
Disregarding tone, , in Mandarin, is pronounced . This pronunciation cannot be accurately reproduced in English by an untrained speaker. The argument between the proponents of ''Dao'' and ''Tao'' hinges on not which of the two is correct, but which of the two spellings read outloud will better approximate the original Chinese.
The initial Chinese sound, a represented by the IPA symbol , exists in English -- but never as an initial. You can find it instead in words such as "stop" or "pat". An initial ''t'', as in "tap", is in English pronounced as -- that is, an aspirated version of ? , its . The natural English pronunciation of the word spelled ''Tao'' is therefore . In standard , however, and are not allophonic, but represent two distinct . In fact, does not merely sound wrong, it sounds like a different word -- "peach", or "cover" .
The alternative English spelling, ''Dao'', results in another mispronunciation, . The initial consonant is , a . However, is not a phoneme in Mandarin, which has no voiced plosives, therefore the initial voicing of is not significant to the Chinese listener. What ''is'' significant is that, unlike the English , is ''not'' aspirated in word-initial position. Therefore the English-speaker's seems more similar to the desired Chinese than the alternative , even though both are technically equally incorrect, one because of voicing, the other because of aspiration. Only the aspiration error is phonemically important to the Chinese listener.
The linguist Michael Carr explains:
The provenance of the pronunciation with of ''Taoism'' is a gap in the English phonemic paradigm for the unvoiced unaspirated in ''dào'' 'way'. This Chinese phoneme is nearer to the pronunciation of English voiced unaspirated in ''Dow'' than the voiceless aspirated in ''Taos'', but it is neither. The Chinese aspirated vs. non-aspirated phonemic contrast is almost the opposite of the English voiced vs. unvoiced contrast. In certain positions, English non-aspirated consonants can occur as variants of aspirated ones. Stops after initials in English *e.g., ''spy'', ''sty'', ''sky'') are unvoiced unaspirated and close to the phoneme in 'way', but these are not highly voiced, and the English distinction can be analyzed as one of aspiration, with voicing redundant and predictable.
Romanizations of
The history of transcribing spoken Chinese is lengthy and inconsistent. Sinologist Paul Kratochvil describes how Westerners predictably misheard Chinese unvoiced consonants, such as the unvoiced unaspirated in 道 .
Since the great majority of people who first attempted to transcribe Chinese were not linguists , their endeavour was marred by a lack of systematic approach and many contemporary European misconceptions about language. Even more than two hundred years later, during the last century, when Western specialists in Chinese, who had by that time created the discipline known as sinology, designed the early forms of numerous transcriptions used today, the first mistakes of enthusiastic missionaries, envoys and business men were not fully eliminated. In fact their traces can be seen even today.
There are numerous rival systems for the Romanization of Chinese for Standard Mandarin pronunciation. Compare these transcriptions of Chinese 道 : Wade-Giles ''tao'' or ''tao''4 , Legge romanization ''t?o'', Latinxua Sin Wenz ''dau'', Yale Romanization ''dàu'', Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II ''dau'', Hanyu Pinyin ''dào'', Tongyong Pinyin ''daˋo'', Gwoyeu Romatzyh or National Romanization ''daw'', Zhuyin fuhao ㄉㄠ, and Cyrillic ''дао''.
Romanization systems use one of two arbitrary ways to represent the Chinese phonemic opposition between aspirated and unaspirated consonants. Take for example, Chinese unaspirated "way" and aspirated "peach". Some systems, like Wade-Giles ''tao'' 道 and ''t'ao'' 桃, introduce a special symbol for aspiration; others, like Pinyin ''dao'' 道 and ''tao'' 桃, use "d" and "t". In English and other languages, "d" and "t" indicate a voiced and unvoiced distinction, which is not phonemic in Chinese.
From a theoretical perspective, both ''tao'' and ''dao'' transliterations if pronounced according to English spelling conventions are equally close to, or far from, the Standard Mandarin pronunciation of 道 . However in practice, most English speakers think the Chinese pronunciation sounds more like an English initial than an English initial because the Chinese pronunciation is unaspirated. Therefore, some argue that ''Dao'' is in that sense more "accurate" than ''Tao''.
An inherent problem with the arcane Wade-Giles use of apostrophes to differentiate aspiration is that many English readers do not understand it, which has resulted in the frequent mispronunciation of ''Taoism'' as instead of . Alan Watts explains using Wade-Giles "in spite of its defects" but writes: "No uninitiated English-speaking person could guess how to pronounce it, and I have even thought, in a jocularly malicious state of mind, that Professors Wade and Giles invented it so as to erect a barrier between profane and illiterate people and true scholars."
The ''Taoism/Daoism'' loanword
In loanword terminology, English ''Taoism/Daoism'' is a "calque," "loan-rendering", or "hybrid" that blends a borrowed word with a native element, for example, '''') blends Chinese Pidgin English ''chop'' with English ''stick''. ''Taoism/Daoism'' is one of a few Chinese ''-ism'' borrowings, along with ''Confucianism'', ''Mohism'', and ''Maoism''.
According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' , the first recorded occurrences of the relevant words were ''Tao'' 1736, ''Tau'' 1747, ''Taouism'' and ''Taouist'' 1838, ''Taoistic'' 1856, ''Tao-ism'' 1858, ''Taoism'' 1903 , ''Daoism'' 1948, ''Dao'' and ''Daoist'' 1971.
Carr contrasts the English pronunciations of ''gung-ho'' and ''kung-fu'' to differentiate borrowings deriving from spoken and written Chinese. The ''OED'' records the first usage of ''gung-ho'' in 1942 and of ''kung-fu'' in 1966 . ''Gung-ho'' is more "correctly" pronounced because it was first imported from spoken rather than written Chinese. Nevertheless, many English speakers read the Wade-Giles ''kung-ho'' as . '''' is commonly mispronounced instead of owing to confusion over Wade-Giles romanization of unaspirated ''k'' vs. aspirated ''k''' .
Many Anglo-Chinese borrowings besides ''Taoism'' are mispronounced because of romanization. A commonly heard example is the ''Yijing'' "Book of Changes" which, owing to Wade-Giles "''I Ching''," is usually cacologized as taking ''yi'' 'change; easy' in false analogy with English ''I''. In most cases, Pinyin romanization more accurately represents Chinese pronunciations than Wade-Giles; English speakers would read the martial art "''Tai Ji Quan''" closer to ''tàijíquán'' 'great ultimate fist' than "''T'ai Chi Ch'üan''."
More generations of English speakers have learned about China through Wade-Giles than through Pinyin . The English word ''Taoism'' is unquestionably older and more familiar than ''Daoism''. However, in academia and international politics, there have been continuous trends towards adopting pinyin, which is widely used in the Western study of the Chinese language and official in the People's Republic of China. Hanyu Pinyin has become the international standard for Chinese romanization, used by the United Nations, the International Organization for Standardization , and similar associations.
While sinologists increasingly prefer the term ''Daoism'', traditionalists continue using the well-known ''Taoism''. Some scholars consciously adopt "''Daoism''" in order to distinguish the Chinese philosophy and religion from what "''Taoism''" embodied in the 19th- and 20th-century Western imaginations. Girardot, Miller and Liu explain, "earlier discussions of the Daoist tradition were often distorted and misleading - especially in terms of the special Western fascination with the 'classical' or 'philosophical' ''Daode jing'' and the denigration and neglect of the later sectarian traditions."
Lexicography of ''Taoism''
English dictionaries provide some insights into the ''Daoism''-''Taoism'' problem. For over a century, British and American lexicographers glossed the pronunciation of ''Taoism'' as , but more recently they corrected it to , and added ''Daoism'' entries.
Carr analyzes how English dictionaries gloss ''Taoism'''s pronunciation, comparing 12 published in Great Britain and 11 published in the United States .
Pronunciations are given in various dictionary respelling systems, rather than IPA, but for purposes of discussion, they are divisible into four types: , , , and . The first is strictly "correct," the second and third are partially so, depending upon descriptive/prescriptive policies, and the last is inaccurate. Since many, if not most, English speakers pronounce ''Taoism'' as , it can legitimately be listed as an alternate. Dictionaries are justified in glossing if they follow a convention of giving preferred pronunciation first, or as if they give common pronunciation first .
Within Carr's sample, most American dictionaries gloss , while most British ones gloss and have been slower to add the rectification. The respective first accurate glosses for ''Taoism'' were "''douizm; tou''-" and "Also Daoism and with pronunc. " .
Ramifications
As detailed above, proponents for both sides of the ''Daoism''-''Taoism'' controversy make valid arguments. Some prefer Wade-based ''Taoism'' because it is more familiar than ''Daoism'', and because the borrowing is a fully assimilated English word that presumably should be unaffected by foreign romanizations. However, many of these traditionalists will accept using pinyin for more recent Chinese borrowings. Others prefer pinyin-based ''Daoism'' because the international community largely accepts Hanyu Pinyin as the standard Chinese romanization, and because it is consistent with other English changes, viz. pinyin ''Beijing'' replaced Wade ''Pei-ching'' or Chinese Postal Map Romanization ''Peking''. In conclusion, three illustrative outcomes of ''Daoism'' vs. ''Taoism'' are given from publishing, library, and Wikipedia spheres.
First, publishing houses have profit concerns about changing romanizations of foreign books. There are more English translations titled Tao Te Ching than Dao De Jing, seeing as it is more familiar to native speakers. However, some academic publishers have abandoned Wade-Giles in favor of pinyin; Columbia University Press changed the titles of Burton Watson's translations from "Chuang Tzu" to "Zhuangzi" and from "Han Fei Tzu" to "Hanfeizi".
Second, libraries have independent concerns about revising legacy Wade-Giles catalogs to contemporary pinyin. After the Library of Congress converted to pinyin in 1997, librarian Jiajian Hu listed three reasons why they deemed Wade-Giles unsatisfactory and added four more.
*First, it had phonetically redundant syllables.
*Second, it failed to render the Chinese national standard pronunciation.
*Finally, it wasn't able to show the semantic distinctions between multiple readings of single characters. …
*The Pinyin system of romanization of Chinese is now generally recognized as the standard through the world. …
*Most users of America libraries today are familiar with the pinyin romanization of Chinese names and places. …
*The use of pinyin romanization by libraries also will facilitate the exchange of data with foreign libraries. …
*Pinyin has more access points than Wade-Giles for online retrieval.
Cihang Zhenren
Cihang Zhenren is a Daoist ''zhenren'' "Perfected Person" who is identified with the Buddhist bodhisattva Guan Yin. Cihang Zhenren supposedly originated as a Daoist '''' "transcendent; immortal" and became a bodhisattva because of his endless willingness and effort in helping those in need.
In some Daoist records, Cihang Zhenren was said to one of the twelve disciples of Yuanshi Tianzun. In some Daoist temples, under the statute of Cihang Zhenren, there usually is a golden lion with eight additional smaller heads, which is known as the Nine Headed Golden Lion. It is said that the Immortal Cihang Zhenren can appear in the human realm in 32 different human forms , some of which are male, others female.
There are three anniversaries of Cihang Zhenren that have been celebrated – The first is on the nineteenth day of the Flower Moon . This was the day Cihang Zhenren prayed for the dead to be liberated from hell and blessings for the living . The second is on the nineteenth day of the Lychee Moon . This was the day he subjugated Ningbo Xianzi and successfully gained . The third is on the nineteenth day of the Chrysanthemum Moon . This was the day Cihang Zhenren achieved immortality.
In some Daoist records, Cihang Zhenren was said to one of the twelve disciples of Yuanshi Tianzun. In some Daoist temples, under the statute of Cihang Zhenren, there usually is a golden lion with eight additional smaller heads, which is known as the Nine Headed Golden Lion. It is said that the Immortal Cihang Zhenren can appear in the human realm in 32 different human forms , some of which are male, others female.
There are three anniversaries of Cihang Zhenren that have been celebrated – The first is on the nineteenth day of the Flower Moon . This was the day Cihang Zhenren prayed for the dead to be liberated from hell and blessings for the living . The second is on the nineteenth day of the Lychee Moon . This was the day he subjugated Ningbo Xianzi and successfully gained . The third is on the nineteenth day of the Chrysanthemum Moon . This was the day Cihang Zhenren achieved immortality.
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