More than three thousand years have elapsed since the earliest phrases of the I Ching (pinyin Yijing, Book of Changes) were formulated about 1100 B.C.E.1 The basic books for all Taoists, Lao-tzu's Tao-te Ching (pinyin Laozt Daodejing, Classic for Attaining the Tao) and the Chuang-tzu (pinyin Zhuangzi) were composed in the fourth century B.C.E.2 The yin-yang five phase system (yinyang wwcing), explained in chapter 3, evolved during and after this period. Based on all of these sources, Taoists elaborated a plan of village festivals, healing, and burials from the second century onward. Like many streams feeding into a mighty river, alchemy, meditation, mountain ascetics and hermits, healing methods, physical exercises, martial arts, and breathing exercises, all became identified with Taoism during this lengthy period of time.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties (mid-fourteenth to early twentieth centuries) Taoism fell out of favor at court. Scholars considered all later developments to be aberrations from the original purity of Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu's works.3 Followers of the sixth to the fourth century B.C.E. texts were called Daojia (Tao-chia), "school Taoists." Later movements were named Daojiao (Tao-chiao), "ritual" or "festive" Taoism. Festive healing Taoism was called superstitious, a "parting of the way," thus indicating that Taoism had in fact two paths, a higher pure philosophy for the learned and a lower form of superstitious rites for the peasant.
Taoists do not recognize these distinctions. For the followers of Lao-tzu, the very use of distinction and thought-splitting is itself a form of illness. In chapter 71 of the Tao-te Ching the separation of knowledge and philosophy from reality is said to cause sickness. In the opening chapters of the Chuang-tzu the judging of "good and bad," "high and low," separates one from the Tao. The Taoist tradition finds wholeness essential for well-being. Only when philosophy, ritual, festival, and human living are in harmony can healing take place, and Taoists who follow this way are noted for their long lives.
SPECIAL TAOIST TERMS
There are a number of technical words used by Taoists when teaching and practicing the method of healing meditation. These concepts bear a special Taoist meaning. The first such term is ritual, a word that people of Western culture do not like to hear or talk about.4 For most it means an outmoded, stilted form of behavior reserved for old-fashioned church services, which are best avoided. Ritual does not have this connotation in the Taoist system. Rather, rituals are actions that derive from the animal or physical part of us. Rites are by nature repetitious, meant to be performed again and again on special occasions. Eating, bathing, all bodily functions are ritual actions. Christmas, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Valentine's Day, the Fourth of July, are all ritual occasions that elicit actions repeated annually that satisfy basic physical needs within us. The mating of birds, the making of a bed, cleaning a room, walking the dog at the beach, dancing a waltz or a tango, even disco dancing, are rituals. Without ritual, life would have no celebrations.
Healing, too, is a ritual. In the healing process certain acts are prescribed to heal certain forms of illness. These acts include not only taking the medicine but also observing the directions on the bottle. Some medicines are taken before, and some after, meals. Some are taken with water, others with food. Taoist healing prescribes quiet meditation, happy thoughts, and good eating and breathing habits as a part of healing ritual. The word ritual therefore does not have a negative connotation in the Taoist system.
The second term that must be understood before talking about Taoism is spirit. There are many Chinese words translated by the single English word spirit.5 These include the notion that the human soul continues to exist after death, and that unseen powers of nature operate in an invisible spiritual order.
Long ago the Chinese personified the forces of nature by giving them spiritual names and ascribing specific powers to them. These spiritual forces of nature ruled like the feudal lords of ancient China. The Taoist's ritual meditation "exorcises," that is, rids the mind of fear by expelling such "demons," whether seen to be ancestors or some unknown power in nature. Relieving religious fear is an essential part of healing.
It is not surprising to learn that in general the Taoist does not fear spirits.6 The Taoist learns how to conceptualize (Imagine) lists of spirits and exorcise them from his or her own consciousness, as well as from the mind of a sick person. The'God Pavilion classic (Huang-t'ing Ching), one of the basic meditations taught by the great fourth-century Taoist mystic Lady Wel Huacun (Wel Hua-ts'un), rids the consciousness of all spiritual images before one meditates on the transcendent Tao.7
Following the ideas of this fourth-century Taoist, most modern Taoists use very dramatic methods to drive the fear of spirits and demons out of the minds of those who are to be healed. Visualizing and then exorcising or "emptying out" the mind of all spiritual images, even if an image is good or if the spirit is thought to exist only in the mind, is very much a part of Taoist and also of Tibetan Tannic Buddhist practice. The similarity between Taoist and Tibetan Buddhist emptying prayer is described in chapter 5.
Another concept that must be understood before entering into the subject of healing is the definition of a Taoist. The term Taoist, daoshi, pronounced "daoshr" in Chinese, means a man or woman who has been ordained or set aside and specially trained to perform a specific role in society. Anyone can learn about Taoist healing, but only those who have been trained and initiated in the Taoist tradition are truly "Taoists,"
In order to be a recognized Taoist, one must fulfill three requirements: one must find and be accepted and trained by a licensed Taoist master (men and women are considered equal in the Taoist tradition); one must learn to meditate on the writings of Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu, and promise to obey the rules and learn to play the music, sing the songs, and dance the steps of Taoist ritual; and one must receive a Taoist "register" (lu) or list of spirits to be envisioned, talismans to summon them, and mantra to command them, that is, empty them from the heart and mind before meditating on the Tao.8 It is not necessary to be a Taoist to lean Taoist prayer and healing, but by the same token one should not boast of being a Taoist simply because one has learned something about healing,ritual,meditation, or other practices. Though many experts in China and elsewhere claim to be Taoist, and though they may be excellent teachers of breathing, meditation, healing, or qi (ch'i) exercise, only those men and women who have fulfilled the three conditions outlined above are really ordained Taoists. It is the sign of a true Taoist master to claim to know nothing, to remain hidden, to avoid praise and fame, and to take no monetary recompense for healing.
IDENTIFYING TAOISTS By RITUAL AND COLOR
Having defined what a Taoist is from within the Taoist tradition, we must now try to identify what is and what is not Taoist from the many practices found throughout China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and elsewhere in Asia. There are certain kinds of healing rites that are not really Taoist, though their practitioners may claim them to be. There are other practices, such as "sexual hygiene" (fangzhong), descriptions of which sell very well in American book markets, that are outside the Taoist tradition and forbidden to the true Taoist to practice or countenance.9
Throughout most of southeast China and Taiwan, Taoists are classified into two kinds, "Redhat" (hungtou) and "Blackhat" (wutou). The meaning of this color symbol differs from place to place in China. In most of southern Taiwan Redhat popular Taoists wrap a red cloth around their heads during ritual, and perform exorcisms and healing only for the living. Blackhat classical Taoists perform burial ritual for the dead, healing, and the Jiao festival of village renewal for the living.
In northern Taiwan, however, a far more complicated system exists. Throughout this entire area, Redhat Taoists use the same ritual vestments as Blackhats, a black hat with a gold crown, and perform more or less the same rites of renewal (Jiao) in the village temple. A momentous difference lies in the fact that the Blackhat Taoists actually "empty out" all the spirits from the temple and their own body, while the Redhats summon the spirits into the temple for a feast During the Redhat rituals the prayers of the village are simply
