Page 134 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

VIEWS OF HUMAN SOCIETY

Messianism and millenarianism

Messianic beliefs played a central role in medieval Taoism and formed, in dif-
ferent ways, the irreducible theological nucleus of every Taoist movement.
Millenarian expectations and visions of the end of the world, along with the
messianic hopes that usually accompany them, never ceased to be a source
of religious fanaticism in China, and acted as a major factor in the emergence
of marginal currents of Taoism. They are the roots of a long messianic and
millenarian tradition that has spanned the whole of Chinese history.
The origins of Chinese messianism can be traced to the Former Han dy-
nasty. The first attested movement arose in the third year BCE. Its followers
worshipped the goddess *Xiwang mu (Queen Mother of the West), transmit-
ted her edict with frenzied enthusiasm, and awaited the arrival of people with
vertical eyes. The movement spread throughout northern China, all the way
up to the imperial court (Loewe 1979, 98-101). In later times Xiwang mu did
not continue to play this charismatic role, but reappeared as various avatars
(e.g., Wusheng Laomu ~1:~1±J: or Unborn Venerable Mother) in subsequent
millenarian movements, until as late as the Eight Trigrams uprising of 1813
(Naquin 1976).
The Taoist messiah expected in medieval times, especially during the
intensive millenarian effervescence of the second to the seventh centuries,
was *Li Hong, that is, the deified Laozi or *Laojun. As the supreme divinity
of the Taoist pantheon, Laojun was venerated by the first large-scale Taoist
movements of the second century. According to the founding legend of the
*Tianshi dao theology, Laozi had appeared in the year 142 CE to inaugurate a
new moral order called the Way of the Orthodox Unity (*Zhengyi, the alter-
native appellation of the Tianshi dao organization), and to bestow the title
of Celestial Master (*tianshi) on *Zhang Daoling. This epiphany marks the
beginning of the Tianshi dao, whose mis ion wa , from generation to genera-
tion, to secure religious teaching for the people in order to save the world. The
messianic kingdom established by the Celestial Masters in Shu ~ (Sichuan)
lasted more than twenty years. In 215, its chief, *Zhang Lu, surrendered to
General Cao Cao ~1* (155- 220), the virtual founder of the Wei dynasty. The
Celestial Master organization was thus scattered throughout the whole state,
and eventually came to embody the spiritual power complementary to official
ideology. Adorned with the insignia of orthodoxy, the Taoist Church became